God as Matrix
Text:
Revelation
Aldersgate
John’s Revelation offers an image of the holy city, named
The
glory of God, living in this holy city, is so bright that it replaces the sun
and the moon, imagine the combined light of our two
great natural sources. People from all
over the world will walk by the light of this city. And the gates, which had been used to keep
people out, will be open to all, day and night.
In fact, the light of God’s glory is so bright and constant that there
will be no night. No, these verses are
not talking about
In addition to God’s glory, we also hear words about a
river that is filled with the water of life, water that is bright as crystal
and flows out of God and the lamb.
Straddling this river is the tree of life whose leaves offer healing to
all people. What a remarkable
vision! In one sense it is beyond our
wildest dreams and yet it offers hope for a future world that will not have the
darkness of the one in which we live.
During a critical time in my life several years ago, when
overwhelming circumstances caused me to reflect on my vision of heaven, this
image of the river of life provided comfort and opportunity for growth. Much like Billy Joel’s song “
But the first verse of today’s passage from the
Revelation promises that the heavenly city will come down out of heaven from
God and somehow approach or merge with this earth. Our tendency as human beings today is to
separate the physical and spiritual aspects of our lives. The dramatic difference between that heavenly
city and our earthly lives makes it difficult for us to believe that the two
might somehow meet.
Spiritual practices within various religions, including
some sects of Christianity, encourage people to escape from their physical
bodies to experience a spiritual union with God, or nirvana, as some seekers
write. Yet, for Christians, God has come
into human life through the incarnation of God in Jesus, the Christ. This incarnation of God in human life weaves
together the physical and spiritual.
Hildegard of Bingen, tenth
century mystic and church leader, who exchanged letters with popes, describes
Mary, the mother of Jesus, with the Latin word materia. Some translations of Hildegard’s work replace
this Latin word with matrix. Now this is
not the Matrix made popular by the movie with that name, where human beings are
enslaved in a network that keeps them blind and ignorant to reality. No, this is a matrix that cares for, holds,
nurtures, and supports the infant and child of the mother of God.
Today
is Mother’s Day. What is it that we
acknowledge on this day?
·
the ways in
which our mothers have provided for us
·
the things tangible and intangible that they
have given
·
the reality that
we would not be who we are without them
Would everyone who has or
had a mother please stand? That means
that everyone should be standing. We all
have mothers.
Mothers
are a matrix of support. Yes, sometimes
for a variety of reasons or circumstances one’s mother is not able to give all
that is needed. But God as matrix is
able to meet and heal those places where one has been wounded.
Years
ago my relationship with my own mother was not all that good. I did not feel close to her and I was quite
jealous of my sisters who had a much closer relationship, or so I thought. As a young mother, I had developed a certain
idea of what it meant to be a good mother and my mother had not cut the grade
when I was younger.
But
after letting myself be mothered by some mature women in one of my
congregations, I was able to let go of all that previous hurt. I realized that I could never go back and get
the kind of mother that I thought I needed when I was five. But, I could rejoice in the friendship that
my mother was offering to me now as an adult woman. And when I let go of the past, I found that I
could take hold of the present and miraculously my relationship with my mother
did a 180-degree turn. God filled in the
matrix and offered the care I needed.
Because
I’ve worked with fabric as a seamstress and costume designer for many years it
was very easy for me to also translate Hildegard’s materia
to my word “material.” My computer must
think like me; because it does not recognize Latin, it keeps trying to do the
same thing, replace the Latin word with material. The fabric that I work with is also a matrix
of fibers that are woven together.
A
weaving class, that I’ve been taking this spring, is a natural extension of my
life-long engagement with fabric. One of
the things that I have learned is how to calculate the quantity of yarn needed
to weave a scarf or towel or just a piece of cloth. In making this determination, one has to
allow for “take up” and “draw in.” These
two phrases represent the spaces that are between the threads in a piece of
fabric. No matter how delicate the threads there is always some space between them both in the
warp, the vertical threads, and in the weft, the horizontal threads.
When
I first noticed this empty space in fabric, I began to think about the
emptiness as being heaven or the home of God.
You know, heaven is supposed to be just spiritual so you can’t really
see it, right? It must be empty.
Later,
however, I came to see that the empty space in the matrix of life is really
more like my life. I came to believe
that heaven and earth were woven together, just as the yarns in a piece of
fabric are woven together. But the
reality is that the threads in a piece of fabric are better compared to God who
holds me and my life together. It is God
who is the matrix and holds our lives in love, care, and support.
This
weaving together of heaven and earth happens for us through the various mission
and outreach ministries of our church.
When we behave as the body of Christ, reaching out in his name to the
homeless, the lonely, the hungry, the thirsty, and those in prison, then we
become part of God’s matrix. Since my
first year at Aldersgate, I’ve been happy and
grateful to this congregation to be able to offer this matrix of care to those
in need through our member care group who provide rides, meals, and
companionship to those in need and by way of our Outreach Committee who gives
us opportunities for local and global missions.
But
during my recent surgery and recovery, I became a recipient of this matrix of
care. I felt supported and held by God,
even though I knew the women who volunteered to cook for my family. That care and support helped me to return to
my pastoral responsibilities earlier in this week. And God’s matrix expanded as I delivered
personal items to women at the
The
message of John’s Revelation is that in a situation of tremendous pressure God
will step in and turn things around.
John’s image of the new Jerusalem is contrasted
in the Revelation with ancient
John
calls us to put our trust in God and the new
Jerusalem, rather than the empire that depends upon wealth and commerce. This image of a new
Jerusalem is a vision of the future, but also of the present. “One of the key theological questions arising
from this passage is what does it mean to worship God outside the temple? The life and ministry of Jesus provides
orientation, as most of it took place outside the temple as well. God in Jesus is present in places where [we]
fail to look.”
Quite
frankly our religious sensibilities might be scandalized by the suggestion that
women living in a shelter, veterans who are homeless, and others living on the
margins of society because they do not meet the norms of society are more than
people in need of healing. These are
also people and places where God is present.
God’s face can be seen in unexpected places and our role is to help
others see that face. Heaven and earth
are much closer than we think. I think
it is Jesus who keeps reminding us that the