It was stunning and memorable. Over a several week period, the wall sculpture was built, piece by piece. It was modern but the images were recognizable. Each week, a few more pieces were added. When completed, the sculpture covered the entire front wall of the chapel.
In the early 1980s, I served as a chaplain at the Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh. There was special funding for a liturgical arts program. Built on the premise that art and music were healing and that the hospital’s mission was to care for the whole person, the chapel regularly hosted artistic displays, concerts, and recitals. These events were broadcast to patient’s rooms through a closed-circuit TV station as part of spiritual care.
The sculpture reflected a theme: building the city of God. Over the time during which the sculpture was built and while it was displayed in the chapel, at each service, a song was sung. The call was an invitation for people of faith to build the city of God. We prayed to be empowered to build the city of God. The sculpture of the city to be built was brightly colored with glitter and reflective surfaces. The image depicted in the sculpture was the city of Pittsburgh with the three rivers and the downtown skyline.
The sculpture was meant to draw people to consider an essential element of the teaching of Jesus: that the realm of God is among us. It is our call, our challenge, and our mission to make the realm of God tangible on earth in our daily lives and interactions with others. “Some overly pious folks perceived the sculpture as blasphemous, contending that that the city of God is a heavenly place. But the sculpture challenged us to consider a deeper theological reality. The teachings of Jesus in the gospels speak of God’s realm as being within us and among us here and now. God’s presence is in our cities, towns, and communities. However, it’s a presence we rarely honor or reverence.
Cities in the United States are burning. In the midst of a health pandemic, unprecedented unemployment, and following years when officers of the law have killed citizens openly and have not been held accountable, the United States has exploded. In my lifetime, the United States has gone from being the land of opportunity to a failed state. This most recent stage of the country’s descent has been swift.
But the way out? As a person of faith, I believe that an essential change must occur in terms of how people perceive and interact with each other. As a nation, we have devolved so far that we cannot recognize the humanity of those who simply hold opinions and views different from our own. We have no respect for each other as citizens but see each other as enemies. For decades, our children have not been safe in our schools and citizens are not safe on the street. Part of this diabolical mix is that racism has been weaponized through police action by white people dialing 9-1-1 to report that they feel threatened. Time and again, people of African descent who are doing nothing more than living their lives have been labeled a threat.
When our theologies cause us to understand salvation as only about the afterlife and the realm of God as only being somewhere in a great beyond, then the world can go to hell and other people can be treated with contempt. But the teachings of Jesus call us to a different standard: the realm of God is within you and within me. Salvation is about living in new ways here and now. Each person, no matter their race, nationality, gender, orientation, or political view, is deserving of respect and fair treatment. And Jesus went further: he taught that it is the weakest and most vulnerable in society who are the most valuable.
Can we build the city of God? Will we dedicate ourselves to doing what we can to treat others with justice and fairness? Are we willing to put our political ideologies aside and make sure that those most vulnerable in the world can live with dignity? To embrace the teachings of Jesus requires more than reforming social programs and laws. Embracing the teachings of Jesus requires that we live in entirely new ways.
Yes, the city of God must be built, here, now, by you and me!
Photo by Luan Oosthuizen from pexels.com