Only A Door

Revelation 3:7-13

⁷ ‘Here is the message of HaKadosh, the True One, the one who has the key of David, who, if he opens something, no one else can shut it, and if he closes something, no one else can open it.

⁸ “I know what you are doing.

Look, I have put in front of you an open door, and no one can shut it.

(Source of quote in bold: Isaiah 22:22 Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) ²² I will place the key of David’s house on his shoulder; no one will shut what he opens; no one will open what he shuts.)

There are only two places in the Bible in which the Key of David is mentioned, and here they are. I did a small amount of research on the internet, and found that there is no consensus on what the phrase “key of David” means.

I did find a Messianic Jewish site (http://www.yeshivahanateev.org/) that had some very interesting etymological insights. Their interpretation turns on the meaning of the word ‘shoulder’. (“Shoulder” is ‘she-kem in Hebrew: ‘the place of burdens like a yoke’.) They (I was unable to find out the name of the person who wrote the article) drew the conclusion that the key of David filled the metaphorical role of ‘a yoke’, since it was laid on the ‘place of burdens like a yoke’. They went on drawing references from the Bible to support the understanding that the yoke of the key of David is obedience to the Torah: the Way, or the will, of God. I have to say that I like that very much. I won’t go so far as to follow all the Levitical regulations, but I do believe that obedience is at the core of what it means to follow the Way of Christ. This brought to mind some other quotes: “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” and “obedient even to death..”

Obedience is a tricky thing. So tricky that C.S. Lewis, in the book “That Hideous Strength,” has his character Ransom sharply rebuke another character, Jane, for getting all swoony over the seductive attraction of the idea of abject obedience. Ransom says to her, “Stop that!”

So, I thought I would build off of something I wrote the other day in an email to my prioress in the Lindisfarne Community. I was talking about freedom and the qualities of heart and mind that develop out of the practice of following the Way, and the ways in which I recognize those qualities in other people. Here is an excerpt from that email:

“My whole value system seems to be organized around the source of those qualities that I listed on the side of "things I look for." I know how to recognize many of those qualities when I see them in other people and when I do, I feel a strong sense of affinity with the person who demonstrates them. Lately I feel that I'm getting closer to understanding the underlying source that causes those qualities to manifest in people. I hesitate to call it God or Grace or the Holy Spirit, but I do know that I was reminded several times, as I wrote the list, of the "gifts" and "fruits" lists in the Bible which are identified as having the Holy Spirit as their source. I went to look up the source of the "gifts" passage and ended up reading the whole of Galatians 5. The very first line says, "What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom!"  In fact, here's the whole passage: "What the Messiah has freed us for is freedom! Therefore, stand firm, and don’t let yourselves be tied up again to a yoke of slavery.  Mark my words — I, Sha’ul, tell you that if you undergo b’rit-milah (the covenant of circumcision) the Messiah will be of no advantage to you at all! Again, I warn you: any man who undergoes b’rit-milah is obligated to observe the entire Torah!  You who are trying to be declared righteous by God through legalism have severed yourselves from the Messiah! You have fallen away from God’s grace!  For it is by the power of the Spirit, who works in us because we trust and are faithful, that we confidently expect our hope of attaining righteousness to be fulfilled.  When we are united with the Messiah Yeshua, neither being circumcised nor being uncircumcised matters; what matters is trusting faithfulness expressing itself through love." The other phrase that struck me was the last one: "trusting faithfulness expressing itself through love." I realized that there were two images in my mind arising from that phrase, and they were disturbingly different. One (the nasty one) produced an image of a starry-eyed and fawningly abject attitude that is as far from free as you can get; but the other felt incredibly right: an image of a steadfast and calm confidence and a sort of affinity-in-courage which acknowledges and loves the kinship between peers.”

Today, I made the connection that the ‘nasty image’ brought to my mind by the phrase “trusting faithfulness” is probably very similar to what caused Ransom to say, “Stop that!” to Jane. It makes sense that the kind of obedience that the Bible is talking about can only arise out of true freedom. Slaves obey, but they are not free to choose to obey. I’ve come to believe that obedience is meaningless without freedom; and that freedom must include a fully conscious choice to enter into, and remain present to, every consequence that freedom entails. That brings me back to the ‘arresting phrase’ from the lectionary today:

“Look, I have put in front of you an open door, and no one can shut it.”

I was moved to include here a quote from the Mishkan T’filah: A Reform Siddur—

Either you will

go through this door

or you will not go through.

If you go through

there is always the risk

of remembering your name.

Things look at you doubly

and you must look back

and let them happen.

If you do not go through

it is possible

to live worthily

to maintain your attitudes

to hold your position

to die bravely

but much will blind you,

much will evade you,

at what cost who knows?

The door itself

makes no promises.

It is only a door.