Revelation 3:1-6
Matthew 23:31-39
"I'm a good person, so I don't need the Church." So says the "fool" (Psalm 14:1).
This
will have been the fourth revision or downright re-write of a sermon I have
been struggling to prepare. I often think
I have my own good ideas about a sermon topic, and there is so much going on in
the world that it would be impossible not to have some kind of idea about how
The Lord speaks to us today. Whether it
is a strong message of hope for the future through the delighted laughter of
children who have found some new thing or a message of judgment through the anguished
cries of other children confronted once again with an empty plate, The Lord
speaks to us - the Church. The Bible is
not written for those who do not care about its content.
The
challenges we face today seem overwhelming ... that is, of course, if we are fully
engaged with the world we live in. If we
isolate ourselves from that world and try to pretend our own little corner of
the world is doing just fine, then everything will seem just fine. Our
lives, however (that is, the people of the Church), are not defined strictly by
what we merely acknowledge - as in a
Creed. Our lives are defined by what we
choose to engage in - and HOW we will
engage.
If
we choose to engage only in what is pleasing to self ... well, that pretty much
says it all. It is this lie which
convinces us "everybody's fine".
"I'm fine, you're fine, and therefore everyone else must be
fine. And if they are not fine, they
have only themselves to blame. Not my
fault; not my problem." It is the
greatest lie perpetuated by the people of the Church that makes American
Christianity so "easy" - and laughable - because our faith has been
reduced to little more than personal comfort, personal security, personal
happiness, personal salvation. And if we
can take one extra step, we can convince ourselves of the greatest lie of all:
"Well, I'm a good person."
How
"good" can we be if we know there is hunger right in our own
community, and we do not lift a finger to help?
Like
the Holy Spirit, however, it is not enough to simply acknowledge this reality
of Divine Presence. We must engage. So I must admit that in the past few weeks I
have been running on my own fumes in trying to put things together and have not
fully engaged in meaningful prayer time; the kind of prayer time that will give
me real fuel to "move", much more than mere fumes that allow me to
putter in idle.
Would
it make a difference? I spend plenty of
time in study of the Scriptures, though it can easily be said there is always a
need for more time in the Word. Yet if
more time is given to the study of The Word and nothing comes from that time
but more knowledge or the satisfaction of having spent some time with friends
or having covered yet another chapter, what has been accomplished if we do not
"move"; if we do not take the Word to heart? If we look up a passage just to prove a point
or if we avoid passages that make us uncomfortable, what is it we truly seek?
It
has occurred to me this past week that high school and college literature
teachers spend substantial time in the study of what they will offer to their
classes, but they do not need the help of the Holy Spirit to find deeper
meaning in Shakespeare. Yet at the end
of each class session, good teachers wonder if all the work and time they put
into preparing for the class made one bit of difference to their students. More often than not, they will come to the same
conclusion many preachers do; that only the students who care will get anything
out of the effort. If they are not
"seeking" anything, they will not "find" anything (Matthew 7:7).
Neither
will we.
Everything
we do and everything we are is predicated on what Jesus calls "the first
and great commandment". Evidence of
our embrace of and belief in the "first" is fulfilled in the
"second commandment which is like the first". We are to love The Lord and our neighbor as ourselves. But if this love is expressed only in mere
words as nothing more than a memorized Bible passage, then we are the church in
Sardis (Rev 3:1-6): "You
have a name of being alive, but you are dead." A church which does not embrace the
reality of Divine commandments and the fruit produced by our faithfulness cannot
even claim the status of the "lukewarm" church in
Laodicea! We cannot be spat out of the mouth of The Lord
because we are already dead.
"Wake
up", The Lord says, "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 what you have received and
heard; obey it and repent."
"I
have not found your works perfect in the sight of My God." "Unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of
heaven." "Therefore you shall
be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."
There
can be no more stinging indictment than the reality of Messiah's direct words
NOT to unbelievers who won't act right - but to believers who claim to act right! To believers who claim to have been saved but give nothing back to The Lord (love
the Lord your God) or to neighbor (love your neighbor as yourself)! "You are already dead", says
The Lord.
Even
though the indictment has been served, the sentence has yet to be carried out. It is a little too shallow to say the
sentence was finally and completely carried out at the Cross because this is
the Resurrected Christ speaking through the Revelation! This is the POST- Resurrection Church that is
being addressed.
The
Eternal Light is pulling out all the stops to break through the darkness which
has overwhelmed us; actually the darkness we have embraced! "Obey Me". "Repent". Or perhaps the most grief-stricken statement I think our Lord has ever made: "How
often I have desired to gather [you] together as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings, and YOU WERE NOT WILLING!"
Because we have convinced ourselves we are "good
people", "saved people", and that "everybody's fine".
Someone
once said if compromise could be portrayed by color, the color would be
gray. Dear friends, in The Lord there is
no compromise. If we try to convince
ourselves we are "good people" strictly by our own or by our culture's
constantly shifting standards, we are only trying to keep The Lord at a safe
distance and yet within easy reach "just in case" things go badly. The only one who is convinced we are
"good" is ourselves. Maybe
some other fool can be fooled by our empty words, but The Lord is no one's
fool.
Rather
than simply give up on us and hand us over to the judgment we seem to be begging for, He continually reaches out
through the written Word and the Church through the few "who have not soiled their
clothes, who are walking with The Lord"!
He has not closed the door just yet, but we cannot ignore His
ominous warning that if we do not awaken from our spiritual slumber, we will
not see Him coming.
We
must not run to the altar only to save
ourselves. Rather we must run to the
altar to offer ourselves so we may "be
about our Father's business" as the boy Jesus was when His parents
found Him in the Temple. That business
is mercy, justice, and love.
"Everybody is NOT fine", so it is time for us to get
"about our Father's business".
"If
you conquer, you will be clothed ... 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 His
angels. If anyone has an ear, listen to
what the Spirit is saying to the Church!"
All
honor and glory to the Most High God.
Amen.
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