Introspection: And Life Ground to a Halt

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And Life Ground to a Halt

I will populate you with human beings...  The cities will be inhabited, the ruins rebuilt...  I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before.

Ezekiel 36:10-11 (CEB)

It's down to this

I've got to make this life make sense

Can anyone tell what I've done?

I miss the life

I miss the colors of the world

Can anyone tell where I am?

From "Away from the Sun" by 3 Doors Down

Elijah had been trudging through the wilderness alone for forty days when he finally reached Mount Horeb.  There, he took refuge in a cave and rested for the night.  God told Elijah to leave the cave and to stand on the mountain, because God would soon be passing by.  Elijah emerged from the cave and waited for God.  First, there was a powerful wind.  Next, there was an earthquake.  After that, there was a wildfire.  It turns out that God was present, not in the wind, the earthquake, or the wildfire, but rather in the stillness and silence that followed.¹

In the silence, Elijah heard the voice of God; in the stillness, he realized that God was indeed at work; and, in the solitude, he learned that he was not alone in his struggles.

On the day before Ash Wednesday, when I reflected on the story of Elijah's experience at the Mountain of God, I noticed the Lenten themes of silence, stillness, and solitude.  During the season of Lent, many Christians fast from something in order to grow closer to God.  Silence is a fast from distractions; stillness is a fast from busyness; and solitude is a fast from performing for others.  I began to consider that maybe, during Lent, I should seek ways to somehow practice these things, but I was not sure how I would do so.

For the first few weeks of Lent, my Lenten project for the year kept me busy and distracted; over time, however, silence, stillness, and solitude seemed to close in on me.

A lot has changed in the last couple of weeks.  For me, it feels almost as if life suddenly ground to a halt.  I didn't spend very much time at home previously, but now I spend very little time away from home.  Everywhere I would normally go is now closed, and everything I would normally do has been cancelled.  I've been working from home, which is something I never particularly wanted to do.  Instead of going to church on Sundays, I've been streaming church services online.  Picking up a takeout order or visiting a restaurant drive-thru is now what passes for an excursion.  I've been taking walks, not at the park or the college campus where I walked previously, but around my own neighborhood.²

This is my life amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sudden changes in life have brought with them some anxiety.  I always experience pollen allergies this time of year, but, because of the pandemic, symptoms I would normally ignore put me on edge.  I also find myself falling into a scarcity mindset.  I'm afraid of running out of things, especially since I'm becoming increasingly nervous about leaving the house.  I'm not afraid of catching the virus, since I'm probably healthy enough to survive it.  I'm more afraid of unknowingly passing it along to someone more vulnerable than I.

My focus for the year is cultivating courage, but I don't really know what that means right now.  I had hoped to practice courage by doing things I had been hesitant to do, but some of those things are not possible at the moment.  I feel that lately I've been acting less from a place of courage and more from a place of necessity.  I'm not sure that I need very much courage to simply do what has to be done.

Right now, I'm trying to carry on with my life as much as possible.  I'm not pitying myself.  I know that this pandemic is affecting everyone, and I realize that, right now, many people are struggling a lot more than I.  I know that some people are suffering in ways I cannot even imagine.  I don't feel that I'm missing out on anything during this time of seclusion, since there is very little out there to miss at the moment.  I'm really just trying to process these sudden, radical changes in my life.  Some people say that this will be a time of learning and growing.  If there is some great spiritual truth to be learned in this season, I don't yet know what that is.


Notes:

1. 1 Kings 19:1-18
2. Before you ask, yes, I'm keeping a good safe distance between others and myself.

The photograph featured above was taken by Pixabay user Pandorah.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.  For use on this blog, the image has been cropped.

Lenten Reflection: Like a Thief

The following is the sixth in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Like a Thief

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Sardis

And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars:

I know your works; you have a name of being alive, but you are dead.  Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death, for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.  Remember then what you received and heard; obey it, and repent.  If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.  Yet you have still a few persons in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes; they will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.  If you conquer, you will be clothed like them in white robes, and I will not blot your name out of the book of life; I will confess your name before my Father and before his angels.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Revelation 3:1-6 (NRSV)

A court is in session

A verdict is in

No appeal on the docket today

Just my own sin

From "My Own Prison" by Creed

Christ tells the Christians in Sardis that, though they have a reputation for vitality, they are actually spiritually dead.  Their works, in God's eyes, leave something to be desired.  He points out that a few worthy souls in Sardis "have not soiled their clothes," suggesting that the rest have become so lazy and complacent, it is as if they won't even bother to change and wash their clothes, in a spiritual sense.¹  Apparently, the Christians in Sardis have been resting on their laurels for a while.  Christ orders them to wake up and to strengthen what has nearly wasted away within them.

As I started studying this letter, pondering what I might write about it, the letter started to hit a little close to home for me.  I suspect that a lot of people think that I'm more spiritual than I really am.  Some people claim that they are "spiritual but not religious," but I think that I am often more religious than spiritual.  Sometimes I feel utterly unworthy of doing the things I do in the Church.  I know that there are a number of things in my life that are not as they should be.  For example, more than once I have completely lost my religion over printer problems just hours before leading Sunday school.  In my own defense, I have to point out that printers are of the devil.

Last year, I started experiencing a sense of dread shortly before preaching.  One Saturday night, when I had a preaching gig the next day, I began to think that maybe I hadn't been as prayerful as I should have been, and I wondered if God had been involved in my sermon preparation at all.  Maybe I had been relying too much on my knowledge of Scripture and my writing ability and not opening myself enough to the leading of God.  Whether I was right or wrong, my dread was a wake-up call.

Christ warns the church in Sardis, "If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you."  Paul uses a very similar analogy in one of his letters to the Thessalonians.  He writes that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."²  I do not think that Christ wants to intentionally catch anyone off guard.  The thief analogy is really less about Christ's intentions and more about our attentiveness. 

Paul continues, "But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness."³  The day is a time of awareness and alertness, and the night is a time of obliviousness and obscurity.  A thief is only a problem if the homeowner is asleep when the thief decides to visit; however, if the homeowner remains vigilant, then she can stop the thief from robbing her blind.

Generally speaking, we are caught off guard when we simply aren't paying attention, and life has a lot of ways of catching us off guard.

Maybe the Christians in Sardis didn't even realize how spiritually dead they were.  Perhaps part of "waking up" is becoming more self-aware and paying closer attention to what is going on within us.  I don't think we always know what we are capable of doing until we have already done it.  On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, churches around the world read the fifty-first Psalm, a prayer of confession by a supposedly godly individual who, I suspect, was shocked by his own actions.

One night, as King David sat on his rooftop, he spotted a woman bathing.  He lusted after her, sent his men to bring her to him, and then had his way with her.  When he learned that he had impregnated her, he had her husband killed in order to cover his tracks.  His friend Nathan, a prophet of God, forced him to confront what he had done.⁴  In Scripture, David is described as a man after God's own heart.⁵  He wrote poem after poem about his unyielding devotion to God.  I do not think he ever expected to someday find himself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in a moment of weakness, with a lot of power to abuse.  Perhaps it could be said that David's sinfulness struck like a proverbial "thief in the night."

Christ says that those "who have not soiled their clothes" will walk with Him, as if they were in a victory parade.⁶  Those who conquer their laziness and complacency - thereby washing their clothes, spiritually speaking - will be invited to walk with them.

One ancient prophet writes, "Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near."⁷  If we want to know what God expects of us, we need to be regularly seeking God's guidance.  Otherwise, we might someday discover that, like the church in Sardis, we are further from God's will than we realize.  This season of repentance and introspection we call Lent is a good time for us to look at what is going on within ourselves and grow in self-awareness.

---

Questions for reflection:

• Has life ever caught you off guard when you weren't paying attention?
• How can we grow in self-awareness?

Notes:

1. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 30
2. 1 Thessalonians 5:2 (NRSV)
3. 1 Thessalonians 5:4-5 (NRSV)
4. 2 Samuel 11:1-12:14
5. 1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22
6. Wright, p. 31
7. Isaiah 55:6 (NRSV)

My "shadow selfie" was taken by me in 2014.

Lenten Reflection: That Woman Jezebel

The following is the fifth in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

That Woman Jezebel

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Thyatira

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These are the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze:

I know your works - your love, faith, service, and patient endurance.  I know that your last works are greater than the first.  But I have this against you: you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols.  I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her fornication.  Beware, I am throwing her on a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I am throwing into great distress, unless they repent of her doings; and I will strike her children dead.  And all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve.  But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call "the deep things of Satan," to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden; only hold fast to what you have until I come.  To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,

I will give authority over the nations;

to rule them with an iron rod,

as when clay pots are shattered -

even as I also received authority from my Father.  To the one who conquers I will also give the morning star.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.

Revelation 2:18-28 (NRSV)

Ruin my life, the plans I have made

Ruin desires for my own selfish gain

Destroy the idols that have taken Your place

Till it's You alone I live for

You alone I live for

From "Ruin Me" by Jack Johnson

Christ acknowledges the love, faithfulness, service, and spiritual growth of the Christians in Thyatira, yet He calls them out for tolerating someone He identifies as "Jezebel."  This false prophet, He alleges, is influencing believers to do things they should not be doing.  Using some very harsh language, Christ promises judgment for this person and for anyone who follows her teachings.

Like Balaam, who is mentioned in the letter to Pergamum, Jezebel is a figure in the Old Testament.  She was not a good person, to say the least.

Jezebel was the princess of Sidon.  When she married Ahab, the king of Israel, he started worshiping Ba'al, one of the gods of her people, even building a temple to the deity in the capital city.¹  Jezebel had many of the prophets who remained faithful to God put to death, and she forced many more into hiding.²  At one point, Ahab started coveting a vineyard that belonged to one of his subjects.  The owner refused to sell the vineyard because the sale of property was forbidden by God, so Jezebel arranged to have him executed under false charges of blasphemy and sedition so that Ahab could take possession of the vineyard.³

The person identified as Jezebel in the letter to Thyatira is, according to Christ, instructing people in the church "to practice fornication and to eat food sacrificed to idols," as are the people He compares to Balaam in the previous letter.  Note that, throughout the Bible, unfaithfulness to God is compared to marital unfaithfulness.  Also note that, in the ancient Roman world, meat sold in the marketplace came from animals slaughtered in sacrifices to Roman gods, making the consumption of meat problematic to early Christians.

In this letter, Christ is identified as "the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze."  Such imagery would have appealed to people in Thyatira, since the city was the home to a number of trade guilds, one of which was made up of bronze and copper smelters.⁴  According to William Barclay, "Abstention from guild membership was equivalent to commercial suicide."⁵  Participation in these trade guilds meant partaking in communal meals.  These meals were likely held in temples to Roman deities, and, at these meals, meat was served that had likely been offered to Roman gods.⁶  Obviously, the Christians in Thyatira faced a dilemma.

For a short time, while I was a teenager, I had a part-time job at the company where my mother worked at the time.  At first, I stuffed fliers into envelopes for mailing, but later on I stuffed catalogs into boxes.  One day, I wore a Christian-themed baseball cap to work.  Christian-themed apparel often features a brand logo or something else from pop culture that is tweaked slightly so that it says something about Jesus.  At that time, the Y2K computer bug had been in the news frequently, so my hat read, "Y2K: Say yes to the King."

That day, one of my mother's coworkers read my hat as he walked by, and asked me, "Who's the King?"

"Jesus!" I replied.

"There you go!" he said affirmingly.

In many parts of the world, Christians face real persecution, but, in my neck of the woods, referring to Jesus as "King" or "Lord" is not at all controversial.  I live in a region of the United States known as the Bible Belt, where Christianity is simply part of the culture.  Calling Jesus "King" is not at all out of the ordinary.  The early Christians, on the other hand, confessed that "Jesus Christ is Lord" in a culture where they were expected to declare that "Caesar is lord."  There can be only one Lord, so, when one says that Jesus is Lord, one is also saying that Caesar is not lord, and there were serious consequences for defying Caesar.

Balaam and Jezebel are used symbolically in these letters because they were both people from the Hebrew Scriptures who enticed the people of God into doing things that God did not want God's people to do.⁷  M. Eugene Boring suggests that "the 'Nicolatians,' 'Balaam,' and 'Jezebel' promoted the 'progressive' doctrine of accommodation to the culture around them."⁸  He writes,
The Nicolatians and related groups taught that Christians should attend the cultural festivals, buy and eat the sacrificial meat sold in the marketplace, and participate in the cultural lifestyle.  For Israel's prophets and for John, such accommodations to pagan ways was a betrayal of the faith, equivalent to idolatry and fornication, to which John may not have been alluding only figuratively.⁹

Christianity might be part of the culture here in the United States of America, but American Christians are still tempted to worship and serve false American gods.  Many Christians in America like to claim that they live in a Christian nation, but, personally, I beg to differ.  I say this, not because the United States Constitution forbids the establishment of a national religion, but because the USA is a capitalist nation, meaning that the Almighty Dollar is lord.  I suspect that even most of us professing Christians in America base most of our decisions not on what Christ is calling us to do but on what is most financially advantageous.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters.  Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth."¹⁰  As a friend of mine once said, Jesus does not leave us any wiggle room in this regard.  What Jesus says about wealth could also be said about power, fame, or anything else one might pursue in life.  There can be only one lord of a person's life.

For American Christians, faithfulness to Christ means not simply saying that He is Lord, which is tolerated and even expected, but actually living as if He is our Lord, which is truly countercultural.  Christ identifies Himself as "the one who searches minds and hearts."  Perhaps, during this Lenten season, we who profess to be Christians should examine our motivations, so that we may see if Christ really is the Lord of our lives.

---

Questions for reflection:

• What kind of "gods" does the culture around you try to seduce you into serving?
• What does it mean to actually live as if Jesus is Lord?
• What might it cost you to live in this way?

Notes:

1. 1 Kings 16:29-33
2. 1 Kings 18:4
3. 1 Kings 21:1-16
4. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 25
5. William Barclay.  The Revelation of John, Volume 1, Revised Edition.  1976, The Westminster Press.  p. 107
6. ibid.
7. M. Eugene Boring.  Revelation (Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching).  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 31
8. ibid.
9. ibid.
10. Matthew 6:24 (CEB)

The Almightier was drawn by Carl Hassmann and was featured in Puck magazine in 1907.  It has been released to the public domain.

Lenten Reflection: The Sword of My Mouth

The following is the fourth in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Sword of My Mouth

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Pergamum

And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword:

I know where you are living, where Satan's throne is.  Yet you are holding fast to my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan lives.  But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and practice fornication.  So you also have some who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.  Repent then.  If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  To everyone who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Revelation 2:12-17 (NRSV)

When all around me starts to fall

And when my faith it seems so small

Even in my darkest hour

I will believe

Even if the sun begins to fall

Even when I feel nothing at all

Even if I'm all alone

I will believe

From "Believe" by Mainstay

Christ acknowledges that many of the Christians in Pergamum have remained faithful to Him, even though they live "where Satan's throne is."  N.T. Wright notes that Pergamum was both "a major centre of the imperial cult of Rome and it's emperors" and "the seat of the Roman governor of the whole region."  People who lived in such a city would naturally feel a lot of pressure to participate in Roman civic religion, in which the Roman gods and Roman emperors were worshiped.¹  Christ highlights a faithful witness named Antipas, whose execution has surely caused believers to become anxious about standing out in Roman society.

Christ goes on to note that there are some Christians in Pergamum who have followed the teachings of the Nicolatians, whom he compares to Balaam.  In the Book of Numbers, we read that Balak, the king of Moab, commissioned the prophet Balaam to curse the Israelites.  As a prophet, Balaam could only speak the words that God gave him, so he ended up blessing the Israelites instead.²  Because Balaam could not curse the Israelites, Balak resorted to using the women of his country to seduce Israelite men into worshiping their false god Ba'al.³  Balaam is later revealed as the one who gave Balak this idea.⁴

Similarly, some of the Christians in Pergamum have apparently been "seduced" into compromising their faith.  In this letter, perhaps Balaam represents, among other things, falsehood, specifically the false teaching that one can faithfully follow Christ while also serving the "gods" of the surrounding culture.

Christ tells the people who have started following this false teaching to repent and warns them that, if they fail to do so, He will come to them and "make war against them with the sword of [His] mouth."  In this letter, Christ is identified as "him who has the sharp two-edged sword."  Remember that, when John describes his vision of Christ at the beginning of the Book of Revelation, he says that "from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword."⁵  Toward the end of the book, Christ is depicted riding into battle on a white horse, and, once again, there is a sword in His mouth.⁶

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a day when people "shall beat their swords into plowshares" and when "nation shall not lift up sword against nation."⁷  Christians believe that this is what the world will be like when Christ returns to reign, yet, numerous times in Revelation, Christ is depicted with a sword.  It is worth noting that the sword is always in His mouth and never in His hand.  The sword then must be a metaphor.  In the message to the Hebrews, the writer states, "Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."⁸

The war Christ is threatening to wage is a war against the lies that people have started to believe, and His weapon of choice is the truth He speaks.  Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and, when He walked the earth, He was a teacher and a healer.  He was also a prophet, and the job of a prophet is to speak the truth, thereby combating the falsehoods that harm people.

In the Gospel, Jesus says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."⁹  Since enemies tend not to be people we love, maybe Jesus is telling us not to have enemies at all.  Jesus follows His own teaching on the Cross, where He prays for the very people who have just crucified Him, saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."¹⁰  Basically, Jesus is saying that His killers are acting out of ignorance.

If we follow in Christ's footsteps, then we must never view other people as our enemies.  Mahatma Gandhi, a prophet of his own day, once said, "Your enemies are just victims of misinformation as you have been.  Don't kill, hate, or abandon them.  Bring them truth in love relentlessly.  And in the process, your own soul will be ennobled and enlarged."¹¹

Paul writes, in his letter to the Ephesians, that "our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."  He goes on to state that, for this spiritual battle, we need spiritual armaments, which he calls "the whole armor of God."  These armaments consist of "the belt of truth," "the breastplate or righteousness," shoes that prepare us "to proclaim the gospel of peace," "the shield of faith," and "the helmet of salvation."  Paul tells us to take as our weapon a prophetic word from God, which he calls "the sword of the Spirit."¹²

As followers of Christ, we are indeed engaged in a battle against evil, but our battle is not against evildoers but against the lies that drive their behavior.  With the sword of truth, such lies can be vanquished and those held captive by the lies can be liberated.

---

Questions for reflection:

• If people are not our enemies, then who or what is our enemy?
• What kind of falsehoods in our world must we battle with the truth?

Notes:

1. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  pp. 20-21
2. Numbers 22-24
3. Numbers 25:1-5
4. Numbers 31:16
5. Revelation 1:16 (NRSV)
6. Revelation 19:11-16
7. Isaiah 2:4 (NRSV)
8. Hebrews 4:12 (NRSV)
9. Luke 6:27-28 (NRSV)
10. Luke 23:34 (NRSV)
11. Mahatma Gandhi as quoted by Mel White in his contribution to A Man's Journey to Simple Abundance.  2000, Simple Abundance Inc.  p. 202
12. Ephesians 6:12-17 (NRSV)

The photograph featured above has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Lenten Reflection: Even Though You Are Rich

The following is the third in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Even Though You Are Rich

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Smyrna

And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life:

I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich.  I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.  Do not fear what you are about to suffer.  Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction.  Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.

Revelation 2:8-11 (NRSV)

Cure your children's warring madness

Bend our pride to your control

Shame our wanton, selfish gladness

Rich in things and poor in soul

From "God of Grace and God of Glory" by Harry Emerson Fosdick

Christ, in His letter to the Christians in Smyrna, acknowledges their poverty, and He recognizes that they have been the subject of slander by a group He calls a "synagogue of Satan."  Before I continue, I want to acknowledge that some of the language in this letter has probably been used in antisemitic ways in the past.  Remember that many of the early Christians were also Jews.  This letter reflects, in N.T. Wright's words, "a struggle within Judaism, not against Judaism."¹

Note that one meaning of the Hebrew word satan is "accuser."  At the beginning of the Book of Job, when the heavenly beings present themselves to God, someone identified as Satan arrives and lobs accusations against the titular character.²  Wright suggests that there was a religious group in Smyrna that similarly lobbed accusations against the Christians in Smyrna.  He writes, "Perhaps it was accusations like that, with social and political consequences, that had given Smyrna's Christians a taste of poverty in an otherwise rich city."³

Though Christ acknowledges the poverty of the Christians in Smyrna, He tells them that they are actually rich.  He warns them that they will soon face persecution, but He promises a crown of life to those who remain faithful in the midst of it.

The letter to the Church in Smyrna is a letter about courage and perseverance.  That said, I think it is also an invitation to rethink what it means to be rich.

When I was a child, one of my favorite television shows was Fraggle Rock.  Truth be told, I'm still rather fond of it.  The show was created by renowned puppeteer Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets.  Fraggles were essentially Muppets who lived in underground caves.

On one early episode,⁴ two of the Fraggles - Gobo and Red - find a treasure map that leads to the Ancient Treasure of the Fraggles.  At first, they believe that the treasure is one million diamonds, and they are initially hesitant to tell anyone about the map, because they know that, if they tell more Fraggles, they will have to divide the treasure with them.  Eventually, they realize that they will need help finding the treasure, as it is hidden in a dangerous place, so they tell their three best friends and agree to split the treasure five ways.

During the night, the Fraggles find the treasure and bring it back to their home.  Gobo says to his friends, "In a minute, we may all be rich," and he proceeds to open the treasure chest.  Inside the chest, the Fraggles see a sparkling gold cylinder.  The cylinder starts turning, and the chest starts playing music.  The treasure chest is actually a music box, and the Ancient Treasure of the Fraggles is actually a song.  The Fraggles realize that they have to share this treasure with everyone, so they take the music box to the Great Hall.  The other Fraggles in Fraggle Rock awaken, gather in the Great Hall, and begin singing along to the music box.

Gobo and Red look around them at all the Fraggles who have gathered around the treasure they found, and Red says, "You're right, Gobo.  We are rich."

Gobo and Red thought that the treasure they were seeking would be something they would not want to share, but the treasure they found turned out to be something they could not keep to themselves.  Furthermore, they started to realize that they were rich even before they found the treasure.

Jesus begins His sermon on the mount with an announcement of blessing upon the people He calls "poor in spirit," saying that the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them.⁵  Later on, in the same sermon, He encourages us not to collect "treasures on earth," which don't last forever, but to instead collect "treasures in heaven," which cannot be taken from us.⁶  Some people believe that Jesus is saying that the good things we do in this life will be transformed into literal riches in the next.  I believe that Jesus might be saying something else.  Jesus teaches us to pray that God's kingdom comes to the earth and that God's will is done on earth as in heaven.⁷  One way we can prepare for God's will to be done on earth as in heaven is to start treasuring in our hearts what is valued in heaven.

Paul writes to one church about having "treasure in clay jars."⁸  The treasure of which he speaks is the message of hope we call the Gospel, and the clay jars are the ordinary, imperfect, lackluster lives through which we embody and share the Gospel message.  In other letters, Paul writes about the spiritual gifts that enable us to work together as the Body of Christ,⁹ which are simultaneously gifts God gives to us and gifts God gives through us.  These are treasures we are not meant to keep to ourselves.

Personally, I tend to feel poor when I compare my life to the lives of others, but, when I consider that I have gifts to share with people, I realize that I am indeed rich.

Having a lot of money and possessions does not make us wealthy, and not having a lot of money and possessions does not make us poor.  During this Lenten season, may we reconsider what it means to be rich, and may we learn to treasure what is truly important.  May we never forget, amid life's struggles, how richly God has blessed us.

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Questions for reflection:

• What does it really mean to be rich?
• In what ways do you think of yourself as poor?
• Why might Christ call you rich?

Notes:

1. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 16
2. Job 1:6-11
3. Wright, p. 17
4. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0778237/?ref_=ttep_ep9
5. Matthew 5:3
6. Matthew 6:19-20
7. Matthew 6:10
8. 2 Corinthians 4:7
9. Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:4-10, 27-30

The photograph featured above has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.

Lenten Reflection: The Love You Had at First

The following is the second in a series of reflections on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation.

For more reflections on these letters, check out the hub page for the series.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Love You Had at First

A Reflection on the Letter to the Church in Ephesus

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.  I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false.  I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.  Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.  If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.  Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.

Revelation 2:1-7 (NRSV)

But when I stop and see you here

I remember who all this was for

From "From Now On" by Pasek and Paul

The Christians in Ephesus have a number of good qualities going for them.  Christ, in His letter to them, commends them for enduring hardship and persecution, for not putting up with wrongdoers, and for not entertaining false teachings.  That said, He still has one major grievance against them: they have lost the love they once had.  Scholar William Barclay suggests that maybe, for the Ephesians, love for neighbor has taken a backseat to doctrinal purity.¹

Christ instructs the Ephesians to remember the love they once had and to reclaim it by doing the things they did previously, and He warns them that, if they fail to do so, He will remove their lampstand.

I cannot read the letter to the church in Ephesus without thinking about Bethel United Methodist Church, which I attended for most of my life.  As I've noted in the past, I have conflicting feelings about this church.  I'm grateful that Bethel provided me a safe place to worship God after escaping the world of Christian fundamentalism, and I'm grateful that it gave me the space to cultivate my spiritual gifts.  That said, I'm also somewhat bitter that Bethel was not the vibrant church it should have been.  Though I grew up attending this church, I knew virtually nothing about my Methodist tradition until I joined a campus ministry in college, and I found myself turning to other churches for what my own church could not provide.

Bethel Methodist Church was planted by a handful of members of a large downtown church in 1895 to serve the residents of a mill village.  Bethel was a thriving congregation in its heyday, peaking at over four hundred members in the late 1950s.  Around ten years later, the mill village was demolished, and the membership of the church began to decline as the community around it changed.²

The founding of Bethel Methodist Church was an act of love - love for the God who would be worshiped in the church and love for the people who would be worshiping God there.  The founders left behind their own thriving congregation to start a new church for the sake of a particular community.  Over time, as that community changed, the people of Bethel lost the love for their neighbors that their founders had.  I would go so far as to say that there was actually a fear of the surrounding community.  In Bethel's last few years, efforts were made to reach out to the people who lived around the church.  A partnership with a local homelessness ministry was even attempted, but problems within the congregation caused the partnership to fail.

Bethel lost the love it had at first, following the destructive path of the church in Ephesus, so it's light went out.  The church closed its doors just a few years ago.

I wish I'd had the courage to say these things when they might have actually made a difference.

For followers of christ, love is priority one.  Jesus teaches that the two most important commandments in Scripture are to love God with all one's heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself.³  Paul eloquently writes to one church,
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.⁴
Simply put, no matter what we do, if we do not do it out of love, it is all for naught.

A church must not forget why it exists.  As forementioned, Christ warns the Ephesians that, if they do not reclaim the love they once had, He will remove their lampstand.  Remember that the seven lampstands represent the seven churches.  Perhaps it could be said that a church that has lost its love has lost its light and its reason to exist.

According to N.T. Wright,
"Love", in the early Christian sense, is something you do, giving hospitality and practical help to those in need, particularly to other Christians who are poor, sick or hungry.  That was the chief mark of the early church.  No other non-ethnic group had ever behaved like this.  "Love" of this kind, reflecting (they would have said) God's own self-giving love for them, was both the best expression of, and the best advertisement for, faith in this God.⁵

Christ promises that those who conquer their lovelessness will be given the opportunity to enjoy the fruit of the tree of life.  At the end of the Book of Revelation, John is shown a vision of the Kingdom of God fully realized on the earth.  He sees the river of life that flows from the throne of God, and, on either side of the river, he sees the tree of life.  This tree produces twelve kinds of fruit throughout the year, and it's leaves are used for healing.⁶  No matter how far we have strayed from the path we're called to follow, abundant life and healing are available to us if we will only seek them.  Christ says, "Let the one who is thirsty come!  Let the one who wishes receive life-giving water as a gift."⁷

In this life, it is all too easy for us to forget why we do what we do.  We must not lose our love, because love is what matters most, but, if we have lost our love, it is not to late to reclaim it.  Love gives our lives meaning, and it heals our hearts.  It is by loving our neighbors that we show the world that we worship a God who is love itself.

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Questions for reflection:

• Think about the things you do at work, at home, or at church.  Have you ever lost sight of why you do what you do?
• How are the things you do acts of love, or how could they be acts of love?
• If we've lost the love we once had, how might we find it again?

Notes:

1. William Barclay.  The Revelation of John, Volume 1, Revised Edition.  1976, The Westminster Press.  p. 64
2. https://web.archive.org/web/20141209031619/http://scmillhills.com/mills/american-spinning/churches/
3. Mark 12:28-31
4. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
5. N.T. Wright.  Revelation for Everyone.  2011, Westminster John Knox Press.  p. 13
6. Revelation 22:1-2
7. Revelation 22:17

The photograph featured above has been released to the public domain.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.