Proper 29, Saturday

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My house shall be a house of prayer ...

We end the Church Year with images of the New Jerusalem in our mind, and with the hope of Advent dawning in our hearts.

The lessons this morning have to do with the cleaning out that has to happen in order to make way for the glory of the New Jerusalem. Zechariah describes the plagues that will befall those nations that don't come into the city to worship, and his book ends on the note that "there shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day" (Zech. 14:21). Luke's gospel recounts Jesus' cleansing of the Temple in the days leading up to his Passion, his symbolic action of driving out the moneychangers to prepare the Temple for a new day (Luke 19:45). And the letter to the Philippians describes that day yet to come, when "at the Name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11).

Since the Middle Ages, our churches have been decorated with stained glass as a way to help us visualize the New Jerusalem, where "the foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel" (Rev. 21:19-20). One of the canticles we use in Morning Prayer describes how

Nations will stream to your light, *
     and kings to the brightness of your dawning.
Your gates will always be open; *
     by day or night they will never be shut.
...
The Lord will be your everlasting light, *
     and your God will be your glory. (BCP 87)

As we close out the old year, and welcome the new, let's keep before our eyes this vision of peace and unity in the new city of God. And then let's work in our own cities to make the vision come true.