my kind of preacher

“Revelation 19 [teaches us that] the new world is a city. The new world is urban. The universe starts in a garden, but it reaches its full flower in a city…

“We get to the very end of the book of Revelation and…we see God building a city… and do you know where God’s going to live in that city? Downtown. Read Revelation. God lives right in the middle and we all live around, he does not live in the suburbs and commute in to work. Why?

“Imagine all the great things that happen in cities that just don’t happen in small towns or out in the country. Imagine: it’s in cities where different kinds of people living in very close quarters enrich each other and interact with each other and cooperate with each other and learn from each other. And it’s only in cities where all of our talents when they come together, as a magnifying glass focuses the rays of the sun, so the city brings all of our talents together, and they stimulate each other, and they collaborate with each other, and the city creates an explosion of human creativity. The city creates an explosion of human achievement. It’s the city where our talents are brought together and the best is brought out of us. That’s why the city’s so exhausting and we have to get out every so often. The city brings that out of us.”

     —Timothy Keller, December 11, 1994