… the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. . . . As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the form of men, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. (Ezekiel 1:1…4-6)
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven… (Revelation 8:1)
Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.(Revelation 11:19)
A few passages in Scripture give us a glimpse into the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ uses parables to tell us what the Kingdom is ‘like but He speaks in metaphors and similes not giving a graphic picture. In a few passages the biblical authors describe what was shown to them when they were permitted to peer into the Kingdom.
St John Chrysostom tells us that the Scriptures are our best way of looking into the Kingdom. It is that they graphically describe what the Kingdom looks like, but that by orienting our hearts, souls, and minds, they allow us to gain a perspective into the Kingdom. One has to have the eyes of the heart trained to see what God is revealing. Chrysostom writes with the above biblical quotes in mind:
It is the Kingdom of heaven we are entering, after all; we are going to places where lightning flashes. Inside, it is all silence and mysteries beyond telling. Pay precise attention, however: the reading out of the Scriptures is the opening of the heavens. It is a theology of the Word with implications, of course, also for our age’s liturgies: public reading of the lectionary is the congregation’s key to heaven. (THE OLD TESTAMENT IN EASTERN ORTHODOX TRADITION, p 199)
For Chrysostom it is not our private reading of Scripture which opens the Kingdom to us, but when as community we listen together to the Scriptures proclaimed to us in our liturgies. Within the context of the communal gathering at any liturgy (Divine Liturgy, Vespers, Matins), we are given opportunity to look all around the church nave and see the symbols, icons, vestments, architecture which are helping to open our eyes, ears, hearts and minds to the Kingdom which God is revealing to us. It is not simply the words of Scripture or the Liturgy, but more all we encounter in the nave that touches all of our senses which help lift us up to the kingdom. Scripture proclaimed and explicated in the community within the confines of the nave of the church opens the eyes of our hearts to the Kingdom of God.
Fraternized 