Sixth Sunday of Easter (Easter 6)

Being prepared for the New Jerusalem

Reading
Revelation 21.10, 22 to 22.5

The Go-Betweens were a great Brisbane band, and their name will grace the Go Between Bridge over the Brisbane River when it’s opened this year. And ‘Streets of Your Town’ is their song about Brisbane. I love the catchy chorus:

Round and round, up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town.

Have you ever caught the other lyrics though?

Don’t the sun look good today?
But the rain is on its way
Watch the butcher shine his knives
And this town is full of battered wives.

So it’s perhaps with a sense of relief that we’re taken straight back to the chorus with its great hook:

Round and round, up and down
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town
Everyday I play it my way
Through the streets of your town.

Where is ‘your town’? Where do you live? As Brisbanites, we’re justifiably pleased with the climate and its live-ability. But what about its underside? The battered wives the Go-Betweens speak of? What about the homeless kids? The alcoholics and the drug addicted? The mentally ill? The disabled?

Where is our town? What is our town? Is it a sun-drenched—sometimes rain-drenched—sub-tropical paradise? Or is it a place with a hidden story, a story of pain and tears?

Or is it both at the same time?

Sometimes, we live in sunny Brisbane and sometimes we live in a sad Brisbane. I think Brisbanites tend to look more at the sunny side of life here. But then we run the risk of not seeing the people in need that Jesus brings across our paths.

Where do you live? Where did the people of the New Testament live?