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The Lesson of Laodicea - March 20, 2008

The Lesson of Laodicea

Maundy Thursday

Revelation 3:14-22

March 20, 2008

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

A moment ago the choir sang, "Stay with us, Lord Jesus, stay with us.  It soon is evening.  Stay with us Lord, it soon is evening and night is falling."

But then, as though to answer, Jesus writes a letter to the last of the seven churches of Revelation and says, "you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of My mouth."

But our choir still echoes, "Stay with us, Lord Jesus, stay with us.  It soon is evening.  Stay with us Lord, it soon is evening and night is falling."

And Jesus said, You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.'

But, "Stay with us, Lord Jesus - night is falling."

So Jesus answers, "Here I AM!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me.  To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."

Isn't this interesting?  The anthem begs Jesus to stay with us.  But JESUS is the One who is begging us to stay with HIM!  It's kind of like that poem called "Footprints".

One night I dreamed of walking along the shores of different lands.
I could tell that You were with me by the footprints in the sand.
As I gazed upon the heavens, I saw pages of my life.
It was then I realized that You remained there by my side.
When the clods began to gather and the rains came falling down,
I looked to only find one set of footprints on the ground.
I said, "Lord, why did You leave me in the troubled times of life?
I believed that You would always walk beside me day and night."  (Then I heard:)
'My precious child, I'd never leave you.
I have carved you on the hollow of My hand.
It's then I carried you in My arms,
When you see one set of footprints in the sand."

In His letter to Laodicea, Jesus told them that their problem was that many of them said in their hearts, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thin.'  But then when things hit the fan in life, THEN we wonder where GOD is.  "Why did HE let this happen to ME?"  "Where IS God when you really need Him?"  "Stay with us, Lord Jesus - night is falling."

But here's the question:  when you feel apart from God...............who moved?  It was not God who moved but you.

There are people in this congregation who are at worship virtually every Sunday.  When someone needs to see these people for some reason or other, I can usually say, "Well, I'm pretty sure he'll be in church this Sunday."

But many of the people in THIS congregation only worship here sporadically.  Only when something else does not get in the way.  Or if they do not have a specific job to do in church on that particular Sunday.  That is why we advertise the same thing for a least three to four consecutive weeks - and then listen to people complain that nobody told THEM!  When people tell me that they hope to talk to a particular person on Sunday I almost always have to warn them that the odds are that THAT person will probably not be in church.

This is why 90% of the giving in this church is by 10% of the people, this is why we now print fewer bulletins each Sunday, why there were only eighteen children in all of Sunday School a couple weeks ago. why the Altar Guild is having to reduce the number of Communion servings at each service, why I am thinking that maybe we should cut back to one service - because our worship attendance increasingly looks like thinning hair each week, and why some people think it is the church's job to get people out of bed and motivated to worship...which makes about as much sense as saying that I am supposed to get person A to fall in love with person B.

There ARE wonderfully faithful people in this congregation.  But Jesus spoke to the collective church as a whole in Laodicea.  As a church, He said, it was, at best, lukewarm.  Now that may not bother you - after all, most of us are here because we LIKE it here.  But consider this:  Jesus said that, "because you ARE lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of My mouth."

This church IS red-hot - when it comes to coffee hour, clothing sales and Lucia smorgasbords (although even THAT may be going away considering how hard it is to get people to step up to the plate).  But when it comes to faithful worship, Sunday School, participation, Bible Study and financial support, this congregation is lukewarm at best.  DOES the choir anthem really speak for you when it pleads, "Stay with us, Lord Jesus, stay with us"?  Or was that just a moving performance of entertainment tonight?

To the lukewarm congregation, JESUS is the ONE who is pleading for US to return.  He has a warning and an invitation.  The warning is that He WILL spit us out if we remain lukewarm - no matter how long our coffee hours are, no matter how convenient our worship times are, no matter how attractive our nursery is, no matter how many ways we come up with to beg for money.

The invitation though is just as real:  "I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me.  To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."  I truly believe that this congregation is hanging in the balance of just a few degrees.  The Lesson of Laodicea is that lukewarm is just as deadly as it is comfortable.