A Promise of Mercy

 September 18 2022

Genesis 6:5-22, 8:6-12,9:8-17

         On Thursday, September 8, the world learned of the death of Queen Elizabeth II. She was such an amazing historical figure, her reign spanned so many decades and her influence was really profound. On the day of her passing, one of the images that flooded social media was that of a rainbow arching over the royal palace which was interpreted by many as being a sign from heaven. Such news just makes me even more amazed at this phenomenon that people everywhere are so enchanted with rainbows. I mean, we have a song which speaks of our longing to know just what is there somewhere over the rainbow, and we laugh at the Irish hope that at the end of the rainbow there is a pot of gold and when our beloved pets are no longer with us people say that they have crossed the rainbow bridge. So, yes, the rainbow is still a symbol which captures our imaginations.

         Of course for us who know the Bible stories, the rainbow is forever connected with the story of Noah and the ark and the animals and the great flood. Much like the rainbow, Noah’s ark is perhaps one of the most well known stories that even people who have no Biblical literacy still seem to have a familiarity with. Most often the story of Noah’s ark is used in cartoons to explain that the reason there are no unicorns is that either they got their days mixed up, oops, or the two unicorns on the ark turned out to have the names Bob and Larry, oops again!So, there is a vague understanding about Noah and the ark which permeates our culture. Of course there is as well, an exhibit of a life size replica of Noah’s ark in Kentucky which ironically has recently sustained flood damage. 

         So, yes, we know the story of Noah, his ark and the flood and the animals and of course, the rainbow at the end which is like the perfect ending to the story. Yet, the problem with the way most of us view this story is that we either want to see it as a historical event or just another good story that has a happy ending, at least for Noah, his family and the animals but either of these ways of understanding this story is, I’m afraid, to miss the point. You see, as we have discussed the story of Noah, the ark, the animals, the great flood and the rainbow did you catch what part of the story has been forgotten? It is God who gets so often left behind when we tell the story of Noah, which is really to miss the whole point of the story. I mean we get so enamored with Noah and his fine craftsmanship in building this ark out of gopher wood, whatever that is and we can imagine the animals entering the ark two by two and the door to the ark slamming shut as the rain falls. It is wonderful drama but we cannot forget that this is a story which is first and foremost a tragedy. If we don’t understand the tragic events which were the whole reason behind the necessity of the ark then we will be people who haven’t really learned anything that God is trying to communicate to us about himself, who he is and who we must be in relationship to him.

         As it turns out, the story of Noah is a great starting point for us as the church to begin again to work our way through the Biblical narrative to discover the reality that Jesus is here in what we call the Old Testament. You see, Jesus himself tells us in the fifth chapter of the gospel of John, “You search the Scriptures because you think  that in them you have eternal life; and it is these scriptures that bear witness to me.” You see, if the people of Israel would have been searching for the Messiah in their own scriptures perhaps they would have recognized him when at last he came. As we hear these scriptures once again, we should be asking ourselves just where is Jesus? As it turns out, this story of Noah is a great place to begin our search for Jesus within the scriptures because as we heard in our reading for today from the book of Genesis, there as the rainbow stretched across the sky, God is heard to do something that we have not heard previously which is that he makes a promise to not just Noah but to every living creature for all future generations, which therefore includes us as well. When we hear of God making a promise, we must also hear the words of Paul from the first chapter of Second Corinthians where Paul tells us that all the promises of God find their Yes in Jesus  Christ. So, we have to ask then just what is it about this promise that God has made to Noah and to us that finds its certainty in Jesus? This is the question that we must keep in mind as we try and figure out what this story of Noah, the ark, the great flood and the rainbow are all about.

         To figure out the answer to our question we have to understand just why this great flood was the only apparent option to what was going on in the world at the time of Noah. We read in the sixth chapter of Genesis that “the Lord saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth, every intention of the thoughts of their hearts was evil continually.’ What the Lord saw then was humanity totally consumed by evil and wickedness so much so that this was all they could think about every waking moment of the day. Now, to get a better grasp of what was going on we have to define just what is meant when the scriptures speak of evil and wickedness and if we search the whole of scripture we find that evil and wickedness always are determined by the treatment who were poor and powerless. In the eighty-second Psalm we read of what God comes against which is when partiality is shown to the wicked, and when the powerless are unable to find justice for their cause. God desires that justice be given to the weak and to the fatherless and that the rights of the afflicted and the destitute be upheld. The psalm goes on to state that God expects that people will be ready to step in and rescue the weak and the needy. If this is the good that God expects then when we are told in the sixth chapter of Genesis that the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, then what this tells us is that the weak, those who lacked power, those who were children and those who had no fathers these had become no more than targets for those seeking their next prey. The judges chose in favor to the highest bidder and no one was willing to stick out their neck and do anything when they saw the hurting and suffering people be trampled underfoot.

         When we read of this horrific picture that is being described for us in the sixth chapter of Genesis, we have to wonder how did this situation of humanity spiral so incredibly out of control? I believe that this account begs us to ask just such a question because we still live in an age when there is much evil and wickedness and we have to wonder just what conditions cause such inhumane behavior to flourish. If we look at the previous chapters of Genesis we find an interesting statement about a man named Lamech, a descendant of Cain.  In the fourth chapter of Genesis we hear Lamech tell his wives, “I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. If Cain’s revenge is seven fold, then Lamech’s revenge is seventy-seven fold.” Can you hear the appalling lack of mercy in this sentiment of Lamech? His is a swift and brutal justice which served only his interests. The wrath of Lamech wasn’t just for the person who crossed him but was kept alive for generations, seventy-seven times until at last his anger was exhausted. It is this Lamech whose dynasty ruled the earth. These rulers, were like the kings of their time who thought of themselves as descending from the heavens, demanding worship from the lesser beings that they lorded over. In this way, the subtle message that was pronounced by them was that the gods who they represented were gods who approved of fast and brutal judgment against all who would even dare to come against these so called sons of the gods and this wrath would be maintained for generations. Are you beginning to see how these rulers set the tone for the rest of the people that lived under such a regime? What this system of brutal vengeance spoke volumes about is that it was every person for themselves. The whole idea of community was blown apart and fractured. Thus we are not surprised when we are told that these unjust rulers took as many wives as they wanted creating a harem to boost their egos. No longer was taking a wife about creating a unified life as a family. The bottom line we are told at the beginning of the sixth chapter of Genesis is that these kings were to be thought of as mighty men out to make a name for themselves. Can you hear the self-absorbed pompous attitude that such a statement makes? So, if this is how the rulers of such a world were, so arrogant  and self-made is it any wonder that their whole way of life eventually infected every person who came under their power? What was left was a world where every person then was looking out for number one, the whole idea of we’re all in this together got tossed out like yesterdays garbage. All that was now treasured was what was in it for me, how can I get mine. This is the fruit of a vengeful attitude seeking the end of ones enemies and any one associated with them. As is often attributed to Ghandi, the whole idea of an eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind. The truth of this is clearly seen in this account of the world under the dynasty of Lamech. The whole world had become blind, for as Jesus tells us in the sixth chapter of Matthew, “if your eye is evil your whole body will be full of darkness.”  This is how it was for the people who lived in the world at the time of Noah, they were those who were perishing in their own darkness.

         The good news is that this evil and wickedness had not gone unnoticed by God for we are told in the sixth chapter of Genesis, that the “Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and God knew that the intentions of their hearts was continually evil”.  This is a very important statement because as we live in a world where there is so much rampant evil, where wickedness abounds we need to know without the shadow of a doubt that all of it does not go unnoticed by our God. God sees the injustice that is done to the weak and to the fatherless. When the rights of the afflicted and the destitute are violated, rest assured that God is fully aware that this has happened. When no one lifts a finger to help those who are in need, God knows those who refuse to come to their aid. God not only sees the injustices that are done but the evil of the world we are told grieves God in his heart. Here in this small fragment of scripture we read of how in the hearts of people their thoughts were only evil and in response, the heart of God was wounded. It is this divine grief which cannot be left behind when we hear next of the judgment of God, where God decided to blot out from the face of the earth all life because he was sorry that he had made humanity. Judgment cannot be thought of as happening on a whim by a God who doesn’t care; no, judgment must be thought of as being a last resort done by a God who is suffering at the hands of his creation.

         Yet, all was not lost because we are told “but Noah found favor in the eyes of God.” Why did Noah catch the sight of God? The answer is, we are told, that Noah walked with God. In other words, Noah lived in the ways that God desired his people to live. Noah, we are told, had three sons, which means that unlike the kings who ruled at that time, Noah believed in family and by extension, community. This is where mercy begins with this understanding that the community is of greater importance than the individual. Thus God knew that Noah was walking in step with how God had created us to be yet this declaration that Noah was righteous was not just a gift it was very much a responsibility. Noah, because of his righteousness, is called by God to bring restoration to his creation. Yet, not only did Noah find favor in God’s eyes, we also find that Noah was also willing to be obedient to what God had called him to do. It was not enough that Noah had a past which proved that he was a man after God’s own heart he now had to listen to God, doing this new thing that God was calling him to do. While we love the images we have of the ark and all of the animals being loaded aboard, what is most important to remember is that, as we are told at the end of the sixth chapter, Noah did all that God commanded him to do. This is what the hope of a renewed creation is built upon.

         And the rains came. Actually the water that flooded over all the earth came not only from the heavens but we are also told in the seventh chapter of Genesis, that the fountains of the great deep burst forth as well. What this tells us is that God had collapsed the boundaries that he had originally put in place when he created the earth. The order that God had set in place was an order built on everything being held in its proper place through an act of God. Now, God withdrew that order allowing his creation to dissolve back into chaos. As the order of creation led to higher and higher orders of life culminating in the creation of humanity so now the chaos of humanity caused the rest of creation to be erased back into utter nothingness. The loss of humanity was simply what was the inevitable conclusion in a world without mercy. If swift and brutal vengeance was the rule, the result of such anger was that the humanity created by God would be annihilated. Humanity ended up being replaced by beasts who only were a shell of the image bearers of God. No, what needs to be held on to as we hear of the rising waters is that the people who walked with God had been saved from the judgment of God because he had found favor with them. There, out of the chaotic waters of death, would come life through the gracious provision of God. Creation would happen once again. Just as the Spirit hovered over the nothingness at creation so the Spirit came, this time as a wind over the chaos of the flood, the nothingness that welcomed Noah. Through the Spirit, the waters subsided we are told, the chaos receded as it was replaced once again by order. After a series of seven days, once again speaking of creation being birthed anew at last, the dry ground was separated from the waters. At last life returned to the face of the earth. Then we learn of another important aspect of who Noah was because there upon the fresh new earth, Noah built an altar and worshipped God. Noah knew that only God was worthy of his adoration, love, and obedience. This was truly a man with whom God could begin anew with. 

         We are told at the end of the eighth chapter that it was the worship of Noah, his offering up life upon the altar, following in the footsteps of Able and not his brother Cain, this was the act that brought about a new act of God. It is here that God first makes a promise. Never again, promises God, never again would the ground be cursed on account of humanity. Here we must pause and understand just what God has done. God has reached out and offered a gift to the very source of his grief and pain, the humanity which even after the flood was still bent toward evil.  Here is God’s commitment to humanity which flies in the face of his indignation and hatred of sin which he knows still infects the very heart of humanity. God makes a promise to never again flood the earth and destroy all life. No, now every life would know that it is being kept alive through the promise of God no matter just how evil a person may be. The sign of this covenant God tells Noah, is the bow in the cloud which arches across the sky, this is a reminder of God’s promise of mercy. The rainbow, as we well know, happens just as the rain is letting up and as the sun peers through the clouds there is a bright array of color shining across the sky. As we ponder on the rainbow, this sun following up the rain, we must think of Jesus, in the fifth chapter of Matthew, who says that our Heavenly Father makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and he sends the rain upon the just and the unjust. The sun and the rain which intersect there at the rainbow speaks to us of the promise of our Father’s love for us. Jesus, on the cross, is the Yes to this promise of God, for there he the righteous Judge took upon himself our judgment so that we might receive mercy. This way of mercy, you see is the way of the righteous, the way looked upon with favor by God, the way of those rescued from death through the ark of the resurrection.  As we look upon the rainbow may we remember God’s promise of mercy and make a promise ourselves to be merciful to all and in this way overcome the evil of our world. Amen!

 

What Is Jesus Saying To Us

 September 11 2022

Revelation 1:4-8

         It goes without saying that you really don’t know how things are going to turn out when you begin any new venture. Along these lines, I can’t help but think of when the State of Ohio was celebrating its bicentennial in 2003 and in the spirit of it all they called on every county to designate a barn to be painted with the bicentennial logo. So, being the adventurous people that we are, our family decided that it would be fun for us to go and have a family picture taken in front of each county barn. That sounds easy enough, doesn’t it? We had no idea that it would take three years and put over two thousand miles on the mini-van to visit all eighty-eight barns. So, yes we had no idea how things would turn out when we began our odyssey; if we had we might have thought twice about even beginning such a crazy adventure! Yet, we for our family, this trip was one of our favorite memories.

         In a very similar way, when I begin a message series I never know what to expect. As I planned out the year and decided what I would preach on during the summer, I found I was left with a seven week gap at the end with which to fill and having seen where other pastors had preached on the seven letters to the churches from the book of Revelation, I thought it seemed like a match made in heaven. I even found a book to use as a resource called “The Sermons to the Seven Churches of Revelation “ by Jeffrey A.D. Weima. Now, I have a confession to make in that what I had hoped would happen is that I would take what he had written and then go off of that and have a simple, easy way to end up with a series of seven messages. What happened though, is that much like our family’s barn trip, things did not go as planned because there were unknown surprises lurking there at the beginning that I would not know about until I got into the middle of the series.

         You see, what I discovered is that good hearted people who write commentaries can, none the less, have, for lack of a better word, a blind spot when it comes to understanding scripture. Where this became apparent is when the commentary is writing about the church at Smyrna, and we hear the risen Christ tell this church that he knows of their tribulation and their poverty. Now, the author had five different ideas as to what this poverty was about yet what was baffling, for me, was that he never once thought that maybe, just maybe, that this mention of poverty had something to do with the teachings of Jesus. I mean, the risen and exalted Christ is the one and the same person as Jesus who walked this earth and chose disciples and taught them core teachings they needed to know in order to be known as being his followers. Anyone even remotely familiar with Jesus knows that he taught more about money, poverty and wealth than any other subject so why wouldn’t you at least throw the teachings of Jesus out there as a possibility that this is what was meant when we read that the living Christ knew about the poverty found in the church at Smyrna. I mean, Smyrna was one of the two churches out of seven in which there was no need of them to repent, so the poverty that Christ found there was not a problem but rather a sign that they had indeed been faithful to his teachings. This is, I discovered, the blind spot that was afflicting the guide I was counting on to lead me through these addresses to the seven churches of the book of Revelation. So, I went and got other commentaries and no one even remotely thought to look at the teachings of Jesus to explain what was going on in these seven churches found in the second and third chapters of Revelation. This seemed rather strange since wouldn’t you expect these churches to be followers of the teachings of Jesus, because as Jesus himself taught as found in the sixth chapter of Luke, only by living according to his teachings can we have a life built upon a rock, safe against the coming flood.

         All I could conclude is that what these commentaries were doing is taking our modern sensibilities about what it means to be the church and using our experience to understand the issues and the problems found in these early churches. In other words, it becomes clear that there must be more than a few churches which may not know or may not follow what Jesus teaches us, the very core teachings that were first given to his disciples. If you want to say I had a revelation out of the book of Revelation you would be correct and it pretty much left me dumbfounded. You see, if what is the issue at the rest of the churches that the living Christ called to repentance was indeed that they had not been following his core teachings then I would think that we as his church should lean in and listen to what he has to say. You see, it was not enough that they did not bear with those who were evil, and endured patiently and did not grow weary; it wasn’t enough that they held fast to the name of Jesus and that they would not deny their faith;  it wasn’t enough that they worked hard, and were known as a church where love, faith, service, and patient endurance were to be found; no, even though these sound like what a church should be striving for they were not enough. All the churches with these attributes were found to have come up short of what the living Christ expects from those known as being his church. Five out of the seven churches that the risen Christ addresses were found to be pretty good but pretty good just was not good enough. If nothing else, this should make us all who call ourselves the church of Christ, to pause and figure out just why this is so. If all we do is to take our experience as a church and use it to try and understand these early churches we will have gained absolutely nothing. We must, like these early churches had experienced, allow the living Christ to speak to us and confront us because when the flood comes it is a little late to worry whether our foundations are secure enough to weather the storm.

         The real problem which these commentaries pointed out to me is that the teachings of Jesus are ignored mostly because they are extremely difficult to put into practice. It is much easier to make everything about spiritual matters, to talk much about just hanging in there until we go to heaven instead of understanding that Jesus spoke about the real, physical world, where people are hungry and people do weep and hurt. Jesus, in his very self, proved that what God is up to is bringing heaven down to earth; this is the real crux of the matter. Can we so easily forget that the prayer Jesus himself taught states that our Father’s will be done here on earth just as that will is done in heaven? While this means that what Jesus teaches us is difficult this does not mean that it is by no means impossible, for God is with us and with God all things are possible. This also is what we can learn from these addresses to the seven churches because the risen Christ did not just dismiss the wrongdoing that he found but he instead called those churches that had strayed to, “Repent”. This call further tells us that what is necessary to follow the teachings of Jesus is repentance, a transforming of our minds and our thoughts, when these words of Jesus confront us. The way of the world is done without much thought; all of us just do what we do as we have always done it. Then Jesus comes along and what he teaches goes against everything that we thought was the right way to be about in our world. So, to follow the teachings of Jesus requires us to be intentional, to stop and think and consider just what is the way of Jesus. We have to stop and consider just what is at stake in all that we say and do because as we also learn from these addresses that the living Christ makes to the seven churches, what we do now has eternal consequences. Yes, we may be a church which is a light in the lamp stand but that light can be removed if we refuse to go out into the world and bring the Father glory through our good works. Or, if we do not seek to care for the hungry in our midst, the risen Christ may come and war against us. Or the living Christ may throw us into great tribulation or he might come upon us suddenly like a thief in the night. The living Christ stands outside the church and knocks, pleading and hoping that the church might once again let him into their lives. You see, while these words of the living Christ seem harsh they are, in all reality, a means of his grace calling his church to salvation before salvation is no longer possible. 

         The seriousness of what is being taught to us in these seven addresses should make us long to understand just what is it about these teachings of Jesus that is vital for us to know. We have to remember that these addresses serve to enlighten the teachings of Jesus which lay in the background of the living Christ’s addresses to his churches.  When we learn that the living Christ is coming to the church at Pergamum to war against them with the sword of his mouth because they had failed to care for the hungry in their midst, this tells us that what was at stake is the very reputation of God himself. We know that the phrase, “the sword of his mouth”, comes from the eleventh chapter of Isaiah where God promises us that one day a king will come who will judge with righteousness the poor and decide with equity for the meek. The living Christ is that king and if we acknowledge that he is our king then we must make certain that everyone is cared for equally, that all enjoy having enough to live. In this way we communicate something to the world namely that the God who promised a king who would rule fairly for all, has made good on his promise therefore the world can know that God is faithful. And we know that what concerns God is that all of us understand that we are all equals in his eyes and therefore we can know ourselves as one humanity brought together by his love for us.

This understanding that we are one humanity then helps us understand that those who weep are blessed because they will laugh. Our common experience as people is that we all have experienced hurt and pain. Ours is a broken world and therefore we should begin our dealings with each other with compassion and mercy. As we lift the burdens of each other we find comfort and joy that together we are better people. This is what the church at Thyatira forgot when they followed the false teaching that told them that as followers of Jesus we should enjoy the benefits of the coming life today, segregating ourselves from those who are suffering and hurting. 

In these two teachings of Jesus, then we learn that treating others with equality and righteousness witnesses to the world that our God is faithful in bringing about a new world order where his anointed king has come and under his rule we at last can come together as one people under the reign of Christ. Here as people who serve Christ, the evil of the world where the hungry go unfed and the stranger goes without a friendly face are at last reversed because our God is a God whose rule is the rule of love. So, bound together by this love, we weep together and together we share life and in doing so get a taste of heavenly joy. This then is the good works that we are to do which is the light to the world, the good works which bring glory to God. These are the good works that the church at Ephesus were refusing to do because of their fear of persecution.

So, as we bring glory and honor to God through living in a manner which witnesses to the new rule brought about through the coming of Jesus Christ, we then are to know that our Heavenly Father honors those who serve him. Even if people hate us, exclude us, revile us and spurn our name as being evil because we have united ourselves with the cause of our king Jesus, we can still say, we are blessed because our Father in heaven holds safe our life. So, we no longer have to get caught up in this world’s concern about whether our life is respectable because our life is respected by God. This is what the church at Sardis needed to know and be confronted by otherwise they would get so caught up trying to be somebody to everybody that they would forget that they were to be busy instead serving and caring to those in need, witnessing to the world the truth about God and who we are as his people.

I think its important that we grasp these three main teachings of Jesus first before we wrap our heads around why he also teaches us that it is the poor who are blessed and it is the rich who are told that they are on thin ice. You see, the future God is bringing about is only for those willing to live out that future now. Only those willing to go all in living in the kingdom of God, willing to witness to the new reign of our king Jesus, the one who judges with righteousness for the poor and with equity for the meek, willing to make certain that all are cared for as God desires, only these is the future glory to be given to. If people do not believe that such a future is here and is coming, and they live their life taking what God has given to them and use that to build their own future, then that’s the only future they will ever know. 

As we see these addresses to the seven churches in light of what Jesus taught about poverty and wealth, about caring for others and why separating ourselves from the hurting and suffering people, do you begin to see just why I am profoundly affected by what we find here in these few chapters of the Bible. I don’t think that it would do to simply ignore these teachings of Jesus just because they appear to be too difficult. No, even if we are unsure where we can begin to follow what Jesus tells us we should at least allow his teachings to confront us in how we live life. These teachings should wake us up, because as the living Christ tells us, the night is far gone and the day is already here. 

Well, not only did the commentaries all fail to at least consider the teachings of Jesus but they also refused to acknowledge that we are priests to God. Even though the Bible tells us that those who wear white robes are considered the priesthood, any time being clothed in white robes comes up in these addresses, none of those who are writing about them seem to even consider that the living Christ considers those within his churches are in fact part of the priesthood. Again, we in our modern understanding just struggle with this concept that we are priests, those who stand between God and the world, communicating to the world that our God is a God who is faithful, a God of overwhelming steadfast love and we in turn take the part of the world given to us by God and we return it back to him. We take, our abundance, which is given to us by God and we give it back to him through the love we show to others. We give the hearts he has made within us and use them to treasure his word. We take our lives and offer them up as we carry our cross day by day. You see, we have been saved from our sins for a reason, a reason we must not forget. As priests it just figures that we need to live holy lives because as we learn at the end of the twelfth chapter of Hebrews we are to strive for holiness without which no one will see the Lord. This holy life flows out of these teachings that the living Christ speaks of to the churches in Revelation and is found again from the sixth chapter of the gospel of Luke. Here is how Jesus speaks of the holy life we as his priests are to be about: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other one also. From the one who takes away your coat do not withhold your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you and from the one who takes your goods, do not demand them back. As you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.” This is the life for which we have been saved. This is the teachings that the living Christ confronts us through the Holy Spirit to make our own. I hope we will repent, allowing our minds to be transformed by the living Christ who loves us. Amen!

No Need for Compromise

 September 4 2022

Revelation 3:14-22

         I have heard it said that if you want God to teach you to be patient he most likely will do so by putting you in situations where your patience is tested, kind of like a long line at the grocery store where the cashier is in training. So much for getting in and out quickly! As I stood in the line which did not seem to move, the man ahead of me spotted some made up salads in a cooler across the room. He darted across the room and picked up a couple containers and then as he came back to the line he saw that I had saved his spot. He seemed surprised and smiled and then asked, “Did you save my spot? I said that I had and he jumped right back in to the same spot he had been in. He thanked me and then for some reason I blurted out something to him to the affect that I had done what I had done because this is the kind of world that I wanted to live in, which, I think, caught him more off guard than letting him back in line. Well, after that we ended up chit-chatting as we waited for the line to progress something that doesn’t seem to happen much anymore.

         You see, the kind of world that I want to live in is a world where grace abounds, where life is more about how much you can give instead of how much you can get, a world that’s more about us and less about me. This is the world that Jesus insists is the world we should desire to live in, in fact, it is the world which he came to make possible. Jesus came offering grace, this notion that gifts are given simply because that is who we are supposed to be, givers and the worthiness of those who receive the gift is not even to be considered. This means that all are equal, all are worthy, all are those who have been given grace and therefore all are those who are to be treated by us as people worthy of our grace. Grace understands that we are all unworthy of the gift, this gift of God where he invites us to share life with us solely because God would have it no other way. As God has so done for us this wondrous act of giving then we too are to give the gift of sharing life with those around us even if it would be easier to not have some people be part of our life. This means that our life has to be one of extending mercy and forgiveness and love to everyone even people that are ahead of you in line at the grocery store because this is the world we are supposed to want to live in because it is the world that Jesus tells us is coming and is already here. Jesus tells us that we are to be people who seek to watch out for the poor, to make sure we understand that those who are unseen and forgotten by many are yet still as equal as everyone else. We are to live knowing that Jesus is the judge who sides for those who do not have enough and this means that we should be righteous in how we care for them. We are to live at the point where the world suffers, to unite ourselves with those who weep, to comfort and strengthen the hurting. We are to live only to seek the honor and respect of our Heavenly Father which is ours when we serve him as his priests, carrying our cross day by day. So, is this the world you want to live in? I hope it is because this is the world that Jesus says is coming and is already here if we but live it out in the here and now.

         I want us to think about the world we want to live in so that we might ask ourselves just how strongly do we believe that this is the world that is going to be here when the dust settles? Are you convinced that a world where grace prevails is the world that will be here when at last it is all said and done? You see, if we are persuaded that this is the life that is going to be victorious in the end then shouldn’t we be living like people who know the power of grace? You see this is what is meant when we say that we are saved by faith in grace, that what will be saved in the end are those who believe and who live as people for whom grace is the only way of life worth living. Now, as strange as it may seem at first, I believe that this faith in grace, this is what is the core issue with the church at Laodicea.

         The church at Laodicea is probably one of the more well known churches that the living Christ addresses because let’s face it, it has two remarkable pictures of the living Christ, the first is the picture of him spewing lukewarm water out of his mouth and the second, much better suited to be painted is the living Christ standing at the door, knocking, hoping that someone on the other side will open the door and let him in. Where we must begin is with this pretty strange image of the living Christ which begins this address to the church at Laodicea. We hear the living Christ tell them, “ I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you would be either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”  To say that this is a really weird piece of scripture is an understatement! What helps us to make sense of what is going on here is discovering that the Hebrew word for lukewarm water is mayim poshrim. This word is closely related to the Hebrew word for compromise which is peshara. We have to put our thinking caps on to figure out the connection between lukewarm water and compromise but the answer is that a compromise is when two parties try and reach a mutual agreement. The Hebrew people who spoke in concrete images saw that a compromise was like two streams of water flowing together much like when one fills the sink. We don’t want the water to be scalding or frigid but rather it should be some compromise of the two. Once we begin to wrap our heads around this way of thinking about compromise, what the living Christ is telling us begins to make sense. What he is saying is that he absolutely will have nothing to do with a church which is compromised. The living Christ in graphic terms, makes it clear that the church at Laodicea with their compromised beliefs is enough to make him sick to his stomach. So, we are left wondering just how have they compromised what they believed in? The answer is found in something the church at Laodicea said about themselves, that they were “rich, they had prospered and had plenty, they were a people in need of nothing.” This is identical language as what we find in the twelfth chapter of the book of Hosea, where the nation of Ephraim confidently boasted saying, “Ah but I am rich; I have found wealth for myself.” This is pretty much the very same notion that the church at Laodicea had but we need to read further as to what is said about Ephraim in this verse that they also boasted that in “all their labors no one could find in them iniquity or sin.” This too appears to be the feeling of the church at Laodicea because they too could not see anything wrong with storing up a few treasures here on earth even though they were a church under the watch of the living Christ. To those reading this who know the teachings of Jesus the problem is crystal clear. I mean listen again to what Jesus says in the sixth chapter of Luke, “Woe to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.” Now, you would think that a church which followed the teachings of Jesus would have, upon remembering these warnings, pumped the brakes on their desire to be rich but apparently it didn’t have any effect on them. Even so, we also might wonder just what the big deal is with the whole being rich, having a way of life full of plenty. The answer is as we find in the sixteenth chapter of Luke is that as Jesus teaches us, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Is is becoming clear as to why compromise just isn’t an option for those who serve God? We have to decide just which voice we are going to listen to, the voice of God or the voice of riches. The reason it all matters is that the voice of God is calling into existence a world governed by grace, a world that is about how much we can give not how much we can get, a world where we are called to suffer with the suffering, to share with those in need, to seek the respect and honor of God alone. In other words, the world governed by grace is just polar opposite of a world that is governed by just how much you can get, a world where people in their pleasure isolate themselves from the pain and suffering all around them, a world where what matters is what everyone but God thinks of your success. 

         When we understand just why it is that the living Christ violently rejected any ideas of compromise that the church at Laodicea had, we still are left wondering just why they thought being rich was such a good idea in the first place. The answer I believe, is found in the description of the living Christ, that this address to the church at Laodicea was the “words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.” The God who is the Amen is a title for God which is only found in the sixty-fifth chapter of the book of Isaiah, where we read  that the one who blesses himself in the land shall bless themselves by the God of Amen and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of Amen. The meaning of the word “amen” that is implied here is faith, certainty and steadfastness. In other words, when Jesus teaches us that blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, we have a God who will make this a certain reality. When Jesus teaches us that blessed are the hungry for they shall be satisfied, God will be faithful to make this happen. When we are taught that blessed are those who weep now for they shall laugh we can know that God will be true to his promise. When we are told that blessed are we when people hate us, when they exclude us and revile us and spurn our name as evil on account that we are in a covenant relationship with the Son of Man, we can rejoice in that day, and leap for joy for behold our reward is great in heaven. We must know that this is a true statement that we can take to the bank. 

         Yet not only is the living Christ the faithful and true witness, the God of Amen, we are also told that he is the beginning of God’s creation. This is a strange statement, isn’t it, and we have to wonder just what is meant by this? The answer, I believe is that Jesus as the Son of God is the perfection, the glory to which God’s creation has always aspired to be and with his coming, now is. The risen and ascended Jesus, truly man, part of the creation, is now in perfect communion with his Heavenly Father and this is what gives us the faith that one day this is where at last all of creation will be, earth and heaven in perfect communion.

         All of this points to the problem the church at Laodicea had which was that they weren’t fully certain that this world where grace prevails was really going to be victorious in the end. They just didn’t have the faith to fully give their all to this glorious vision of Jesus that one day the poor would be treated with righteousness, and the hungry would be satisfied and the weeping people would at last laugh. Really Jesus, is such a world going to be what’s here after the smoke clears? Or is this vision of yours just some pipe dream too far disconnected from reality? You see, the only reason that this church at Laodicea would have thought storing up riches on earth was a good idea even though they had been warned that it is in fact a very wrong way to go, is that they simply did not have full confidence that the way of Jesus was going to succeed. You see, the truth is, the storing up treasures on earth is nothing more than unbelief that God can bring about a new and better world. What the church at Laodicea was in essence doing is hedging their bets, that just in case the whole way of Jesus didn’t work out, they had stashed a little worldly wealth under the mattress so as to not be disappointed. Such a mindset left them believing that they had need of nothing but, oh, how far from the truth they had strayed! They may have thought that worldly wealth could provide them all that they needed but what they were lacking so desperately was faith. They needed to know God as being the Amen, the certainty, the guarantee that a world blessed by grace is definitely happening. What a contrast to laying up treasures on earth for as Jesus teaches us in the sixth chapter of Matthews gospel, these are all susceptible to being destroyed by moth or rust or perhaps, thieves could end up stealing them; there is just nothing certain about the treasures we store up here on earth.

         It is their refusal to know God as the certain one, the steadfast God who is the firm ground of our faith, this is why the church at Laodicea was described by the living Christ as being wretched, miserable and afflicted, people who above all were just plain pitiful. This is the sad and deplorable condition of those who refused to believe that God will finish what he started! Little did this church of Laodicea know, but instead of being those who were rich and in need of nothing they were in all actuality people who the living Christ stated were poor, blind and naked. Ouch! The living Christ, using the language that those who trusted in riches would understand, told this church that they should go on a shopping spree and purchase from him what they stood terribly in need of. Just as the world of worldly treasures operates on exchanging of one treasure for another, so too the living Christ is in effect telling these poor pitiful people to come to him the faithful one and exchange their unbelief for true faith. The first item the living Christ offers them is gold refined by fire. This statement echoes words from the book of Malachi who states that when the Lord returns that he will “purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver and they will bring offerings of righteousness to the Lord.” The living Christ is telling this church at Laodicea that they need him to purify their hearts. Through his own faithfulness, Jesus could remove the doubt and uncertainty that defiled their heart. You see, only by loving him with their whole heart could they once again serve him. Then the living Christ tells them that they should purchase from him white garments to cover their nakedness. These white garments were the priestly robes, their true profession they were called by God to fulfill. To be priests to God is the very reason why Jesus had shed his blood to set them free from sin all so that they might serve him in this way. Only as they served God through acts of mercy to others could they no longer be naked, exposed to the judgment of the God who knew when they had refused to extend mercy.They deserved judgment because they had kept back riches that could help those in need in spite of knowing that Jesus had been merciful to them by dying in their place upon the cross. Lastly, the living Christ tells the church to buy salve to heal their eyes of the blindness that afflicted them. This points us back to a teaching of Jesus found in the sixth chapter of Matthew where we hear Jesus say to us that the eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, if you can see those in need and extend mercy, then your body is full of light. If you have an evil eye, an eye which refuses to see the needs that are right in front of you, then your whole body is full of darkness. So, when the heart is purified through the faithfulness of Jesus, and at last we once again take up our calling as priests to God, offering mercy to all, then our eyes are good, able to see all those who stand in need of the mercy God expects us to give. We who fail to believe that God can and will bring about a world governed by grace must come to Christ and repent of our unbelief and receive from him the gift of faith. If we find faith once again in what Christ is bringing forth then he promises us that he is standing at our door, knocking ready to come in and eat with us. As we sit with him at his table we can be certain that we one day will sit with him on the throne! To God be the glory! Amen!

Releasing the Blessing

 August 28 2022

Revelation 3:7-13

         How do we define success? I would say that this question of just how we can be successful in our world today is one that a lot of people are trying to figure out. As we observe successful people in the news and on social media we can definitely conclude that success is about power. This power might be financial or, in these times, power might also be determined by how much influence one has upon the masses who are eagerly wondering just what the next big thing really is. Success then can also be understood as having enough clout that when you speak others will lean in and listen to what you have to say. The crowds will find that the words you put out their on your Twitter feed speak to them with authority. The pinnacle of success, then, is when a person becomes so well known that they no longer are said to have a name but rather, they have a brand, an identity that people instantly recognize and associate with the person who created that certain look. So, its not a stretch to understand that in todays economy success is about power, the power of influence, which happens when the crowds accept the authority of what one has to say, and out of such influence what they have to say is associated with who the person is, so that it can be said that they have a brand identity. 

         Now, the whole point of defining just how success is defined these days is that in doing so it is surprising how very different, you might say polar opposite, today’s definition of success is to how Jesus defines the successful church. The living Christ in speaking to the church at Philadelphia, one of two churches out of the seven that he addresses that is not given any warning to repent, tells them that he knows that they are a church that has little power, a church who has kept the word of Christ, and they have not denied his name. You see, to the living Christ, success for his churches is found not in lusting after worldly power but in finding strength in living life in communion. Success for the churches is not getting others to lean in and listen to the words that they the churches were speaking but were instead found in taking the words that Christ had spoke to them and treasuring them in their hearts. No, success for the churches of the living Christ is not about having a name, or a brand identity but rather, success is boldly proclaiming that we as the followers of Christ are not ashamed of the name of Christ and we gladly bear his identity out in to the world. 

         You see, when we understand that John has used the teachings of Jesus that are found in the sixth chapter of Luke as a framework to build his letter around then it becomes clear why he has laid out the order of his churches as he has. The church at Smyrna, the other church which the living Christ commended for their faith under severe tribulation, in their poverty this church corresponds to Luke 6:20,  where Jesus states, “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God.” They had no need of the Roman king to decree that they should not be persecuted as their Jewish neighbors had done but instead it was in their trials and their imprisonment that they would find the true king of all present and powerful with them.

         The next church after the church at Smyrna that the living Christ addresses is the church at Pergamum. This church had not kept the word of the living Christ. His word, as found in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah, is that the king who is coming in the line of David, the long awaited Messiah, he is the one who will judge with righteousness the poor and he will decide with equity for the meek. This means that when the Messiah comes the poverty stricken and the lowly are at last going to have someone in their corner who will see that they no longer end up with the short end of the stick. Everyone will at last be equal when this king arrives on the scene. No more will the rich take too much so that those who cant fend for themselves end up with too little. This is why in the sixth chapter of Luke, we hear Jesus say, “Blessed are the hungry for they shall be satisfied.” Here in the community who lives under the authority of the living Christ, it is expected that those who are hungry will find food and those who are thirsty will find something to drink. The church at Pergamum though decided that rather than share what they had with the poor among them decided instead to send them over to the idol shrines to find something to eat. In this way, members of this church were lured into idol worship and sexual immorality. Through the churches failure to care for the poor in their midst they had caused these poor to be lured into sin this is why the church at Pergamum needed to repent,

         So, the church at Pergamum did not keep the word of the living Christ, they did not guard this promise that the living Christ had made to protect the poor and thus they were hurting the very reputation of their king. The church at Thyatira was no better. They had within their church one that the living Christ labeled as being Jezebel, one who was much like the most evil queen that Israel had ever known. She was teaching the false doctrine that if power and pleasure are ours in the age to come then why shouldn’t we enjoy those promises now, here in this age. In doing so, they ended up just feeding their lusts and desires, worshiping their new found power instead of understanding that in this age the church is to share in the sufferings of others not search for a way to isolate themselves from the hurting and powerless people of this world. This is the truth of what Jesus further teaches us in the sixth chapter of Luke, that “Blessed are those who weep for they shall laugh.” Those who weep are blessed because their in their hardship they find that all of us are suffering and there is much power when we go through trials together, bearing up one another’s burdens.

         And then there was the church at Sardis, the sad little church which was all too concerned with what will the neighbors think. They were concerned about their reputation, their name, what the rest of the world thought of them because they longed to be respectable to those that watched them. Yet in doing so, they brought shame upon the name of Jesus. When they focused so much on their reputation, the receiving of the honor and glory of people they forgot that they were to be about serving their Heavenly Father, day by day carrying their cross just as Jesus had commanded that they do. A life of service and sacrifice is a life which our Heavenly Father respects and honors. It is the honor of God, this is what should which concern us as we go about our daily business. This is why in Luke 6:22 that Jesus tells his disciples, “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold, your reward is great in heaven…!’ There in heaven our Heavenly Father is pleased because we trust him with our very life. With our life secure in our Father’s hands then, we are to be busy serving God because the old age is passing away, the new age is dawning upon us as we speak. Therefore, we need to glorify the name of Jesus now with all that we say and do because the name of Jesus is the name which will be glorified and honored forever in the age to come.

         With all of these previous churches in mind, we now come to the church at Philadelphia.  Here is a church the living Christ knows, has little strength, unlike some at the church at Thyatira, who sought power just like Jezebel. Here is a church which keeps the word of the Lord unlike the church at Pergamum who did not live witnessing to the fact that the poor and meek are under the watch of our faithful king just as scripture tells us that they are. Here is a church who did not deny the name of Jesus unlike the church at Sardis which was concerned about its own name and reputation. Now, in every other address to the previous churches, the living Christ is described in various ways, ways which point back to the vision that John had that one Sunday morning. But then we come to the church at Philadelphia where we are told that the words that we hear are from the holy one, the true one, the one who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one will open. None of this description of the living Christ is to be found in the first chapter of the book of Revelation. I don’t know about you, but I find this rather odd. I mean, John has what seems to be a carefully crafted work here, one with an apparent sense of order and then all of a sudden it seems like he has gone off the rails. Yet, maybe what John is doing is through this description pointing us to something in the first chapter which may not be apparently associated with the living Christ. The image of the Son of Man found in the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel is foundational for John’s vision of the living Christ and when we look at this passage we find at the end of this chapter a promise that the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness under the whole heaven shall be given to the people, the holy ones of the Most High. I think that this points us back to the first chapter of Revelation where we are told that Christ loves us and and he has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to God. So, the kingdom of God is perhaps, another identity of the living Christ. Christ is holy and those who are part of this kingdom are holy as well. The next description that Christ is the true one, has to be understood not in the manner of a true or false statement but rather that here in the living Christ is a new reality, a reality that we know to be true because we experience this reality in the living Christ. This new reality is once again the kingdom of God and this kingdom is made up of those Christ has redeemed by his blood and made priests to serve him. They too are true because they too are the new reality which is proven to be not a figment of our imagination but a true way of life because this life is lived out by us who are priests to God. This emphasis on the kingdom being made up of priests with Christ being our high priest is found in the strange statement that Christ is the key of David, the one who opens and no one can shut, the one who shuts and no one can open. This description comes from the twenty-second chapter of Isaiah, where Isaiah records the story of a man named Eliakim who was given authority to be the one who held the key to the throne room of the house of David. He was the one given the enormous privilege to grant or deny access to the audience of the king. This image is the one the living Christ states is now his, that he is the one who grants or denies access to the Almighty King. As Jesus teaches in the sixth chapter of Luke, it is he alone who can bless the poor with the gift of the kingdom of God. It is Jesus who states that the only ones who may enter are those who share their food with the hungry and the hungry who find satisfaction at their table. Those who enter are those who weep with those who weep, rejoicing together in the love which binds them together. Those who enter into the kingdom are those willing to be shamed by the world because they are unashamed of being united with the Son of Man. These are the ones for whom the doors to the court of the king swing wide to receive them. Yet, the opposite is also true. For those who seek to store up their treasures here on earth in order that they might build for themselves some other future than the future God is bringing about then the doors slam shut. For those who fill their faces without any concern for those who cannot do so, the doors are locked tight. To those who separate themselves from the hurting and suffering people by isolating themselves in their indulgences, the doors stand unmoved. For those who desire only that the world exalts them they will find that they we will be on the outside looking in. This is the authority of the Messiah, the king in the line of David, who will judge with righteousness for the poor and seek equity for the meek. The door that has been opened is the very door to heaven. This is the meaning of this strange word, “blessing” which has its roots in the Hebrew word for “kneel”. When God blesses us, he is understood to be kneeling before us, coming to us and giving us a gift, the gift of himself. It is as if God has opened up heaven and reached into the depths of our existence to give us his very self.

         I believe that we must rightly understand this idea of blessing in order to make sense of this rather odd report where the living Christ tells us that he is going to make the synagogue of Satan come and bow down at the feet of those in the church at Philadelphia and they will then at last, understand that the living Christ, loves them. This is not the first time that we have encountered this so called synagogue of Satan because they were first heard of in the address to the church at Smyrna. As we learned, these were those who thought they were children of Abraham but as Jesus teaches us in the eighth chapter of John, they were in fact children of the devil. The reason that Jesus had said this about the Pharisees that he was addressing is that they believed the lie that they could create any future they desired and God would bless their efforts. How very different this was from their father Abraham who placed his faith in the future that God held out would be his if he would just believe. So, when this synagogue of Satan found out that the future they desire is in no way going to be blessed by God they were angry and they took their anger out on those united to God, the church at Smyrna.

         So, once again we are hearing about the synagogue of Satan but this time we are told the living Christ is going to make them come and bow down before the church at Philadelphia and they will know that the living Christ loves them. This last phrase, that the living Christ loved them is identical to what we read in the first chapter of the book of Revelation where it speaks of the one who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God. Perhaps what this synagogue realized is that here were those who were truly living out life under the rule of God. These Jews would have known that when the new age arrived that the Messiah would bring about an era of justice and righteousness, one where evil and wickedness were at last done away with. Here in this church at Philadelphia, this hoped for future was there before them as a present and true reality. This present kingdom is what this king Jesus had brought about through his great love for them and all people. Through the shedding of his blood, Jesus made a way for those who placed their faith in God to live in that future right here in the present through the power of his presence. You see, what happened is that when this church at Philadelphia accepted and embraced the fact that they were a church of little strength, when they guarded and treasured the word of the living Christ and when they did not deny the name of Jesus, then they found themselves blessed by the presence and power of God who is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who convicts people of their sins and brings those who slander the church to come and bow at their feet. We are blessed by the Spirit  because Jesus, justified as righteous through his resurrection, has ascended to the Father in heaven and from the right hand of the Father Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to us. The Holy Spirit then is the witness to us that what Jesus has done upon the cross is truly the will of the Father, the offering to us of mercy to save us from judgment. So, now because we no longer have to fear judgment we have faith and we believe, we believe and therefore we can now live in the glorious future God holds out to us. As we live out this future of justice and righteousness those who come into our presence will experience the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives declared by Jesus to be holy and true. This is what it means for us to be priests to God, those who bear the name, the very reputation of God, written large upon our lives. For this wondrous privilege we stand with arms upraised, the very columns of the Temple of God, singing the praises of our king forever! Amen!