Sunday’s readings combined the description of the heavenly city in Revelation with the promise of Christ and the Father making their dwelling with us:
Come and make of me your dwelling.
Take my ways; inhabit them.
Let my earth become your heaven:
Make me your Jerusalem.
I would be your holy city,
heart of stone made crystal bright:
all my frantic rush-hours stilling,
windows spilling over light.
You the silence at the center:
Here the temple, Lord, is you.
Fill my shadows with your splendor,
brighter far than sun or moon.
But this heart you gave: I've filled it,
left no corner for your berth.
Come, O carpenter, and build it;
make your heaven of my earth.
Not my handiwork—I know it—
ever could construct your throne,
nor the walls in their twelve courses.
You must build, who are the stone.
Come, and make in me your kingdom;
let my old things pass away.
Streets and alleys, change and bring them
all transformed into your day.
Folio 55r of the Bamberg Apocalypse depicts the angel showing John the New Jerusalem, with the Lamb of God at its center. By Auftraggeber: Otto III. oder Heinrich II. – Bamberger Apokalypse Folio 55 recto, Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, MS A. II. 42, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=618995
Kate Bluett 