Background Passages: Revelation 2:1-7; Matthew 22:27-28, John 13:37; and I Corinthians 13:1-3
As we come out from under the dark cloud of the pandemic, it’s nice to see people returning to more normal activities. Most businesses, it appears, seem to be regaining their footing.
While most churches are also returning to more normal operations, the pandemic made it much easier for some to drift away from regular church attendance and giving. While that trend seems to be present in our church to a lesser degree than others, it is a nationwide trend impacting almost every church to some extent.
The movie O Brother, Where Art Thou, billed as a remake of Homer’s The Odyssey and released in 2000, follows the exploits of three escaped prisoners through the Depression Era south. At one point in the movie, Delmer and Pete stumble across an outdoor revival and on impulse they jump into the river and are baptized, taking some consolation that they are now saved. Everett knows them well and scoffs at their decision. God may forgive, he says, but the state never will.
Later, while stopping their car at a crossroad, the three men pick up a hitchhiker. Tommy is a young African American man who just sold his soul to the devil in exchange for playing the guitar well.
Everett, the leader of the fugitives, laughs at the coincidence. When told of Tommy’s choice to sell his soul to Satan he says, “Ain’t it a small world, spiritually speaking. Pete and Delmer have just been baptized and saved. I guess I’m the only one who remains unaffiliated.”
It was a funny line in the movie, but in light of the modern decline of the church, it loses some of its humor.
Today, it appears many are choosing to remain unaffiliated. As the millennial generation moves into adulthood, a significant portion of them believe they can find God outside of any connection with a local congregation. The Pew Research Center found that between 2007 and 2014, the percentage of people claiming to be Christian dropped from 78.4 percent to 70.6 percent. The reason they cite for walking away is that those faith traditions no longer serve them
Just this week, I heard that two churches in our community were seriously considering closing their doors. That news, coupled with a sermon I heard this week, focused my thoughts on this unsettling trend.
To talk about the decline of the “church,” however, sanitizes the problem. We can point fingers at the institution, but the church is its people. We can’t hide behind a cloak of brick and mortar. When churches fail, it is because the people have walked away…because we have lost our way.
A sermon I heard this week was drawn from Revelation 2. Now, I have never spent a great deal of time in Revelation. I grew up when the “Left Behind” series was popular. I found it, like most books and movies, “loosely based on Scripture.”
So much of Revelation is difficult to understand and often misused. But one section of John’s culminating book hits home in perfect relevance to today’s church and its people.
Chapters 2 and 3 are red letter pages of Revelation…a message attributed to Jesus, written to seven churches in Asia Minor…Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. I recall a sermon series by my former pastor. He identified in these passages and Jesus’ descriptions of these churches, a word of praise, an identified problem and a God-given promise. The only exception was the letter to the church in Smyrna who seemed to be doing everything right at the time.
I’m going to spend some time in my upcoming blogs, with the exception of Easter weekend, focused on each of these churches, each of these congregations.
It’s important, I think, to note that these churches were real churches and real people. They were not metaphors or parables. They were early churches, most if not all, established by Paul during one of his missionary journeys. John wrote these letters within the letter to these seven churches as a status update or report card.
That doesn’t keep the letters from serving a secondary purpose like so many of scripture’s stories do. His descriptions of these seven churches identify the traits of churches and believers throughout history and into today. The letters serve as effective reminders to those of us called to be Christ followers.
Let’s talk about the church in Ephesus.
John wrote Revelation and the imbedded note to the church at Ephesus while exiled on the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel and irritating Rome. The messenger who carried John’s letter to these churches would have arrived at Ephesus from Patmos first simply as a matter of geography.
Ephesus, the largest and most important city in the region, held considerable wealth and political power. Located on major trade routes, it was diverse in both ethnicity and culture…a cosmopolitan center akin to Los Angeles, New York or Houston. Its religious culture was equally diverse.
Paul founded the church in Ephesus and spent three years preaching and teaching in the city. The congregation, pastored by Timothy, had Apollos as its teacher and Aquila and Priscilla as two of its servant leaders. The Apostle John may have also spent time in ministry among the church in this city.
When you hear those names associated with it, the church had a marvelous history and legacy of faith, unparalleled in many ways by any other church except the one in Jerusalem. It’s message and ministry clearly demonstrated and dynamic…their work seen and praised by Jesus.
“I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know you cannot tolerate wicked men and you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and you found them to be false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.” (Revelation 2:1-3)
I wish we could all hear those words of praise from Jesus. If Jesus could speak to my church or yours…to hear him say, “I see what you’re doing and it is a good thing. You work so hard on my behalf. Despite every obstacle thrown at you by the world around you, you stay strong. You know right from wrong and when others who are false teachers try to lure you away, you study God’s work, seeking truth. You never follow errant teaching because you are grounded in my word. I know it has been tough on you, but you endure and keep enduring. I have never seen you grow tired of the work I sent you to do.”
Such words of high praise. And, I suspect, there have been times in the life of your church and your congregation…times in your own life…where Jesus would have gladly shared those words.
Wouldn’t it be great if every day was lived in such a way that we could hear those words of praise from our savior.
As the pastor read the letter from John offering Jesus’ praise for their good work, I can see them beaming in the pews. Jesus’ next words were undoubtedly met with stunned silence.
“Yet, I hold this against you.” (Revelation 2:4a)
You see, we can go about doing such good things and still miss the mark. What could they have done wrong?
“You have forgotten your first love.” (Revelation 2:4b)
Perhaps a better translation is this, “You have abandoned the love you had at first.”
Love. The godly motivation for all they were doing should have been love and it wasn’t. Their hands were busy. Their feet scurried from one place to another to feed the hungry and care for the sick. The minor irritations and outright persecution that came with their work fazed them not. In the midst of their busyness, they lost the one essential element that points to Jesus. They forgot to love those they cared for. they forgot to love each other. They forgot to love Jesus.
Lehman Strauss wrote, “Love is the first essential in Christian character, and when it commences to decline, the soul begins to drift.” The church at Ephesus had broad shoulders, a sound mind and a pure intentions…doing everything the right way…but their heart ran on empty. Their soul adrift in the wind.
They forgot the greatest commandments in scripture…
“Love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:27-28)
They forgot that God calls us, his people, to connect with one another on a personal level as examples to the world around them…
“By this shall all men know that you are my disciples…that you love one another.” (John 13:35)
In one of his most poetic chapters, Paul tells the church in Corinth…
“And now I will show you the most excellent way. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all the mysteries and all knowledge and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gained nothing.” (I Corinthians 13:1-3)
The church in Ephesus had become a great social service, but its influence waned because they carried out their ministry dulled by obligation and not compelled by love. They saw each other as laborers together, not as brothers and sisters in Christ. They forgot the joy of their salvation in Jesus Christ and did not allow his love to shine through them.
There is the struggle in which I find myself all too often. Doing the work out of duty rather than love. When a congregation gets stuck in the muck of duty without love, that’s world sees the church only as relevant as the physical help it provides in the moment. They are not captured by God’s love demonstrated through his people.
The warning of Jesus echoes through the empty sanctuaries across our community and the world.
“Remember the height from which you have fallen. Repent and do the things you did at first. For if you do not repent, I will come and remove your lamp stand from it’s place.” (Revelation 2:5)
I suspect those churches across our country who are closing their doors or struggling to keep their footing are all doing good things. Could it be that they’ve simply abandoned the love they had at first?
It doesn’t have to stay that way, however. Jesus called the church at Ephesus to recall how they felt at the moment of grace when they realized for the first time that God loved them so much that he sent his son to die in their place. Literally, he said, to “Keep on remembering…” the euphoria of that moment when you knew you were loved by God. He doesn’t want us to forget that feeling because it will dictate how we act and relate toward God and toward others.
Because we tend to forget that experience over time, God calls his people, his church…he calls us…to repent and do the things we did at first. He wants us simply to love God. To love each other. To reach out to a world that struggles to do right. To love them so much that they find the answers they need in a fellowship of believers who care.
Jesus said in verse 7, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear…” Listen to his promise.
“To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:8)
That which was taboo from the beginning of creation is freely offered to the one who conquers…the one who loves. And, that’s a promise.
I certainly don’t have all the answers to the issues faced by today’s church. We see church attendance declining. So many good people seem to take a degree of pride in being like Everett and “remaining unaffiliated” with any church.
I suspect the fault is shared. They have forgotten the love they experienced when God first wrapped his arms around them and we who remain affiliated have forgotten to love them back into those same arms.
I suspect it was a good reminder to the people in the church at Ephesus. I know it’s something I needed to hear.