What are we to make of the letters to the churches at Sardis and at Philadelphia which were read for our second lesson this evening? There are in all seven letters, which we have been reading at evensong over a period of four weeks. Written towards the end of the first century, the letters were addressed to seven churches beginning to face sporadic persecution under the Roman empire. The content of these letters, whose purpose is to encourage each of the churches to hold fast to their faith and their commitment to service, revolves around just three major themes. First there is a sharp determination to defend truth and sound teaching. Next there is a concern for total commitment to loving service, and finally the writer seeks to encourage in all the churches an attitude of patient endurance in the face of any persecution that may come their way. Our circumstances may be rather different, but I want to explore the continuing relevance of these three great themes to the life of the church to-day.
Looking back to 100 AD, the ambient culture which was beginning to expose these churches to persecution was the growing emphasis on the emperor as a focus of power to be worshipped as a god. The concern for truth and sound teaching which permeates the letters seems to have been related, at least in those addressed to Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira, to a difference of view about whether or not members of the Christian community could take part in the pagan rituals associated with the cult of the emperor. In different circumstances Paul had been able to tolerate the consumption of food offered to idols, but John seems to have regarded any such participation as totally unacceptable, symbolising acceptance of the cult itself.
The insistence on truth which we find in the Johannine writings is something which I find wholly admirable. Absolute truth is one of the characteristic marks of the godhead, and we are promised that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth. Indeed, if the Holy Spirit were not the spirit of truth, it is difficult to see how he could be the Spirit of God. What is less admirable in the Johannine writings, at least to my mind, is the fierce exclusion of those who do not share the author’s own perception of truth and untruth. Such dogmatism is dangerous, first because it assumes that we can be absolutely certain that we have found the truth. Yet experience tells us that the work of the Holy Spirit in leading us into all truth is an ongoing process of progressive revelation, which is far from complete even two thousand years later. A second reason why we should resist the fierce exclusion of those with whom we disagree is that such exclusion, and the denigration of the other which so often goes with it, is in deep conflict with the other great Johannine perception that God is Love. Love does not slam the door on the other. Love is perpetually ready to hold the door open. Was it perhaps the dogmatic divisiveness of Johannine order that eventually undermined the Johannine branches of the early church? Leaving aside such speculations, it seems to me that the lesson we have to draw for ourselves is to be forever rigorous in our pursuit of truth, and robust in its defence, but never to the point of cutting off from our fellowship those with whom we disagree. This must be particularly the case when it comes to secondary matters of order and discipline, which flow from our primary perceptions of the truth. Whether the issue at stake is the eating of food offered to idols or the access of women and homosexuals to positions of leadership within the church, we should never allow our disagreements to separate us from one another in the Church which is the one body of Christ.
The second theme running through the seven letters is the author’s concern that the churches should be beacons of total commitment to loving service. The church at Sardis is pronounced dead on the evidence of its works, whereas the church at Thyatira is praised because its last works of love and faith and service are even greater than at first; the church at Philadelphia is urged to go through the open door; whilst the church at Ephesus is urged to rediscover the love which at first inspired their service. It is not enough to be concerned for truth, important as that is – we must also reach out to others in acts of service inspired by love. And if that’s not happening, there is something seriously wrong.
The third and final strand of John’s letters is the emphasis on the need for patient endurance in the face of persecution. The church at Philadelphia is commended for its patient endurance, as are those at Ephesus and at Thyatira. Here in Hampstead we may feel that persecution is not something we have to worry about. But we do live at a time when it can no longer be taken for granted that those who exercise authority in our society will respect or even understand the truth about God which animates our lives as a church and as individuals. For example: the representation of the Church of England in the House of Lords has been reduced. As a church we are required to demonstrate public benefit in order to maintain the tax privileges of a charity. The role in our hospitals of Christian chaplains employed by the National Health Service, is coming under attack from those who regard spiritual care as an optional extra, to be provided only for those who have expressed a wish to receive it, and then from the resources of their own community. None of these things is disastrous in itself, but we can all see which way the wind is blowing. The church’s position at the heart of our society and its institutions is being increasingly challenged by those who honestly believe that we should have no more influence than any other voluntary association.
As a Christian community we will have to live with whatever status our society is prepared to grant to us. The message of these letters is that we must do so with patient endurance, remaining faithful to the truth as we see it, and fearless in its defence. Moreover no power on earth should prevent us from expressing our faith through acts of loving service to one another and the to communities we serve. If such a programme gets us into trouble with those who exercise authority in a world which no longer understands what animates us, that is a price we may be called upon to pay, facing the consequences with patient endurance.
It is in these circumstances that the seven letters need to be set within the context of the whole book of Revelation. The messages themselves are expressed in plain language, but they form the preface to a series of apocalyptic visions, which invite the seven churches to see their situation from the perspective of heaven – as God sees it – and from the perspective of the final destiny of all that God has made. Strange as we may find some of the language of apocalyptic literature – the call of the seven trumpets, the breaking of the seven seals, the monsters and the dragons and the horsemen – the message is fundamentally clear. The seer of the book of Revelation has glimpsed that world which lies beyond anything we can see and touch, that world encompassing heaven and earth where God reigns supreme, that world where the victory of Jesus the Lamb of God is now and for ever being celebrated around the throne of God. The prevailing culture within which we live no longer believes that is so. Still less is it understood that the nature of God’s ultimate authority has been revealed in and through the victory of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who stripped himself of all power for love’s sake, and was crucified for our salvation before he could he could be raised in glory at the right hand of God in Heaven. But we know. The book of Revelation liberated its readers from the dominant world-view of their time, focussed on the might of Roman power. The same book has the power to liberate us from the obsessions with power and money, success and celebrity that dominate the political, social and economic realities of our time. The big picture of Revelation, the overarching Christian worldview, resting as it does on the triumph of one who loved us so much that he was prepared to die for us, that is what gives us the courage to stand firm, in all the communities to which we belong, in our defence of the truth of that great victory. The confidence and the hope which we draw from the deep well of Revelation enables us to witness to that truth, not so much in what we say, as in how we act in accordance with the truth as we know it, how we give ourselves in loving service to our neighbour and our community, how we endure patiently the consequences of being regarded as strange for behaving in such a way.
That is the message that comes down to us across the ages from one who describes himself as ‘John, your brother, who share(s) with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance’(Rev1.9). Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches (Rev 3.13).