Time to Wake Up

Monday, September 4, 2023

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Sardis.  This is the message from the one who has the sevenfold Spirit of God and the seven stars: “I know all the things you do, and that you have a reputation for being alive—but you are dead. Revelation 3:1 

In Great Britain, each year since 1974, an average of 85 churches closes their doors for the last time; they go out of business.  As a result, there is an abundance of church furnishings being sold to commercial enterprises.  Christening fonts are sold as bird baths.  Pews and screens are used as restaurant decorations, and stained-glass windows are now household ornaments. 

We shake our heads at 85 British churches closing; and then stare in amazement when we are told that more than double that number are closing each year in America.  We should not be surprised.  Nearly 90% of America's churches are either plateaued or declining in membership.  You cannot decline without somehow decaying, and, eventually deceasing!  Some would suggest that the Christian Church is dying for the lack of Christian living. 

Our text tells us that Christianity in the church and the individual Christian can die.  The programs and services can be staffed and performed, but without life.  The blower in the furnace is on, but the fire has long since been extinguished!  Someone has said that if the Holy Spirit left most churches today, she wouldn't be missed.  Let's look at a church that had that very problem.

A reputation for being alive suggests vitality and authority.  Sardis was built on the top of a  90^o cliff that was totally inaccessible from three sides.  There was only one gateway into the city; the residents felt safe.  They were prosperous, and lived in an impregnable fortress.  However, the city was conquered and destroyed twice in its history.  In BC 549 the Medes under Cyrus came right through the front gate while the guards slept.  The same thing happened in BC 218.  Antiochus the Great caught the guards napping, and waltzed right in the front door.  This ancient city had a reputation for being impregnable to military conquest, but it went to sleep, and the fall was great.  In the same way, Jesus speaks to the fellowship of Christians at Sardis – a group without financial hardship, or persecution – a church of successful people, and he says:  "Your reputation is that of being strong, impregnable -- you are badly mistaken!"

Jesus then cautions them to wake up:

Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God. 3 Go back to what you heard and believed at first; hold to it firmly. Repent and turn to me again. If you don’t wake up, I will come to you suddenly, as unexpected as a thief.  Revelation 3:2-3

If you have ever pulled guard duty in the Army, you know it requires considerable effort to keep the eyelids in function-mode for four long hours.  There's just something about someone saying, "Stay awake!" that just makes you want to immediately go to sleep.

The sense of these verses is that ministry which was ongoing and vital at Sardis had waned; it was fading fast, and would soon die altogether.  Jesus warns them to shake-out of the lethargy and turn around. 

For You Today 

The message of Jesus to Sardis rings as strongly today as it ever has in history. 

If you had a heart on-fire for God, it’s time to rekindle it; blow on those embers before it’s too late!  If you were an evangelistic soul-winner, get busy in the neighborhood knocking on doors.  Don't let the ministry die! 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library. 

Title Images:  Pixabay.com        Images without citation are in public domain.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©   

A Covid-broken Heart

 

Monday, February 21, 2022

O Lord, don’t rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your rage!  Your arrows have struck deep, and your blows are crushing me.  Because of your anger, my whole body is sick; my health is broken because of my sins.  My guilt overwhelms me—it is a burden too heavy to bear.  My wounds fester and stink because of my foolish sins.  I am bent over and racked with pain.  All day long I walk around filled with grief.  A raging fever burns within me, and my health is broken.  I am exhausted and completely crushed.  My groans come from an anguished heart.  You know what I long for, Lord; you hear my every sigh.  My heart beats wildly, my strength fails, and I am going blind.  My loved ones and friends stay away, fearing my disease.  Even my own family stands at a distance.  Meanwhile, my enemies lay traps to kill me.  Those who wish me harm make plans to ruin me.  All day long they plan their treachery.  But I am deaf to all their threats.  I am silent before them as one who cannot speak.  I choose to hear nothing, and I make no reply.  For I am waiting for you, O Lord.  You must answer for me, O Lord my God.  I prayed, “Don’t let my enemies gloat over me or rejoice at my downfall.”  I am on the verge of collapse, facing constant pain.  But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done.  I have many aggressive enemies; they hate me without reason.  They repay me evil for good and oppose me for pursuing good.  Do not abandon me, O Lord.  Do not stand at a distance, my God.  Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior.  Psalm 38:1-22

David’s self-diagnosed situational distress symptoms parallel takotsubo, commonly known as broken-heart syndrome.[1]  Assaulted by raging fever, exhaustion, and difficulty breathing, the heart, crushed and broken, groans in shock-induced cardiomyopathy; it’s a sad parallel to what modern-day pandemic grief is pushing on the world’s human family.

Our reality the past two years has developed a worldwide epidemic of languishing in lethargy and misery as a response to the ruin of COVID’s bio-physical symptoms.  It is the essence of King David’s spiritual malaise, his sins have “found him out,”[2] and his life has come to a grinding halt in an overwhelming sense of guilt/grief.  His heart can only stand in shock against the revelation of life’s fragile and tenuous nature.  What looms before him is the very-real possibility of slipping into the darkness; all else, kingdom, family, riches, and even the simple act of breathing, are superfluous compared to getting relief from the approaching darkness.  If it’s truly possible to “languish” in a panic-attack mode…this is it!

David’s reaction to the monster that stands ready to chew him (even the memory of him) to pieces, is confession.  As one who, in his youth, knew the presence of God well, David’s understanding of his guilt brought an outpouring of shame and inner urging to return to the place of forgiveness.  He longed to be clean.  Accepting responsibility for the calamity which now defined his character, David asked God to purge his guilt and shame, and come close.

Perhaps the pan-human response to the takotsubo broken-heart pandemia is a return to God the way David knew was right…confession…owning who we are, and what we’ve done in ignoring our Creator’s way.  That seems to be the only first step in the right direction.

For You Today

Each of us can only take the first step in our own journey.  I cannot take yours, nor can you take mine.  With God, repentance is a singular affair.  Like breathing, air in my lungs does no good in keeping your life afloat.  There are some things each of us needs to do to address that which breaks our Heavenly Father’s heart.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and other images:  Harvard Health Publishing  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

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[1] Harvard Health Publishing

[2] See Numbers 32:23

When It Was Dark

[i]

Jeremiah wrote a letter from Jerusalem to the elders, priests, prophets, and all the people who had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.

This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:  “Build homes, and plan to stay.  Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.  Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may have many grandchildren.  Multiply!  Do not dwindle away!  And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”  Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7

During last week’s prayer time in worship one of our members[1] asked that we pray for the strength to build the church back up.  I have not been able to get that thought out of my head since.  Then Jeremiah’s message showed up in today’s lectionary, and I took that as more than a coincidence; I feel certain it was a prompting from God’s Holy Spirit to lift up His plan for what we are to do to build the church back up. 

Today Jeremiah tells us exactly how to do what we must.  I believe strongly that the Old Testament gives us understanding of what Jesus came to do in us and through us.  That is, to build the Kingdom.  And, frankly, the building process doesn’t end when you’ve got a building in Bennett or Seagrove.  That building process will be complete when Jesus comes back for His bride.  Until that time, in good times of plenty, or in lean times when it is dark, our mission is unchanged; we must be working on building the Kingdom of God until He comes.

It’s no secret that we live in a dark time.  It is culturally-dark, with ungodliness proliferating, violence and anger ruling in every dark corner.  Sexual perversion is at a height most of never dreamed possible.  Dishonesty, lying, and a complete absence of integrity in government, business, and even churches.  And, on a close-to-home note, our United Methodist tribe is in a time of divisive, vitriolic upheaval that is almost certain to end in another General Conference that will make the shootout at the OK Corral look like a minor disagreement between kindergarten children.

Now, I am not about to give you a six-step surefire plan that will fix the United Methodist church, or grow this one.  I’m not going to announce a 30 day fast, or 40 days of planning and preparation for new programs.  I just want to point to what Jeremiah said to people who were going through darker times than we are. 

He told them to live! 

Jeremiah told God’s nation, Israel, demolished and demoralized by King Nebuchadnezzar’s storm troopers, to live.

He told them to live, despite the fact that their city, Jerusalem lay in ruins; the walls of the city had been torn down, temple desecrated, looted, and burned!

But Jeremiah did more than just say live;

He told them to live…and have hope!

Notice in the text the prophet told them to build, plant, marry, have plenty of children and grandchildren, and work for peace and prosperity where they were, exiles in Babylon, nearly a thousand miles from their Jerusalem homes! 

Jeremiah demonstrated his preaching by buying a piece of property in a dead city.  He bought a plot of land in Jerusalem while he was in jail (and “jail” would’ve been a fancy name…it was actually a hole in the ground with bars overhead).  Land was worthless in the conquered city, as was the currency of Israel.  But God had said Israel still had a future.  And when you believe God, you act that way.

For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Someday people will again own property here in this land and will buy and sell houses and vineyards and fields.’”  Jeremiah 32:15

Jeremiah’s preaching became Jeremiah’s practicing!  And that’s what we should begin to do…live with hope!  That means we must live like we say we believe…trusting God with our time, talent, and tithe. 

We live, not moping…but hoping…giving our best, serving like servants, even when it’s dark; we work like there really is a Kingdom in the building process!

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…Amen!

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[1] Linda Sorrell at Mt Zion UMC

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[i] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com.    All Scripture quoted is from The New Living Translation (unless otherwise stated)