L is for Laodicea
This is the sermon I preached on August 5 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Revelation 3:15-16. Today's reading from Revelation leaves out a lot, such as which church Jesus is talking to. It is the church of Laodicea, which in that time meant not one group of believers that gathered, but all of them in the area. A letter such as this would go to one church, then the next, and so on until all the churches had an opportunity to read it. In Revelation, Jesus has messages for seven churches. Only one of the seven, the church in Philadelphia, has no negative remarks made to it. The others are all a mix, except for Laodicea. Jesus addresses the last of the churches, and there is nothing positive to be said about them. Jesus' words to his church in Laodicea sound harsh, and they are. But we need a bit of explanation about the matter of being lukewarm, not hot or cold. We tend to think of these words in terms of one’s enthusiasm for Christ and the gospel. However,...