Hogging the Covers

The first church that John addresses is the church of Ephesus. According to Google, it was a prominent first-century Christian congregation in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey). It was known for its doctrinal soundness and endurance against false teachers. Situated in a prosperous, cosmopolitan city that was a center for worshipping the goddess Artemis, the church faced intense pressure from paganism, materialism, and sexual immorality. The church of Ephesus was influential in combating false doctrines, particularly those of the Nicolaitans. It represents a “working church” that risked becoming spiritually stagnant through cold orthodoxy.

John’s letter begins like this:

2 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands.

Oh, they’re golden lampstands. The previous verses didn’t mention that. Gold is the best of metals, as far as the scriptures are concerned, even though it is basically worthless except as a luxury item. It’s too soft and too heavy for most practical uses. It’s only redeeming quality is that it never tarnishes, corrodes, or rusts. That’s why it is used for the electrical connections in vehicle air bags.

Perhaps this verse is telling us that our church, our lampstand, which is our connection to the Law, will not be hindered by corruption? Gold is a conductor of electricity, though not as good as copper, but unlike copper it doesn’t corrode. It’s more reliable, and requires no maintenance to keep a good connection. In other words, if we speak to God, we can rest assured that no one else will be on the line. The answers we get will come from Him, not some impersonator.

Stars are energy, aren’t they? They radiate visible light. Angels are represented by stars in the scriptures. They’re messengers. So having a good connection through which the messages of God can flow is important. Isn’t it? I think so. That’s what the Seven Churches can do for us. They can keep the lines of communication open. Think of them as fiber optic cables. More importantly, they are reminders of where we started, and where we don’t want to be. Our journey of revelation might twist and turn, but it is not a circular path that leads us back to where we started.

2 I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance.

Thanks. We’re doing our best. Aren’t we? In the Church of Ephesus we are always happy to pat ourselves on the back.

I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false.

That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? Thanks for recognizing the good work we’re doing. We know how to weed out the fakes and the phonies. We won’t let any malcontents or miscreants in our church.

3 You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

It’s our pleasure. We love proving just how unworthy everyone else is.

4 Yet I hold this against you:

Uh oh…

You have forsaken the love you had at first.

What do you mean? We love you! We love our church! We work really hard to protect it against all the sinners, because there’s nothing we hate more than… Oh. That’s what you mean. Our love isn’t so much lost, as reserved. We hold it back, and dish it out only to people who dress like us, and look like us, and share our beliefs.

We’ve changed. We weren’t always like this. Once, for a moment, we loved the whole world, but now we’re stingy with that comfortable blanket of love. We’re hogging the covers.

Jesus said of the Jews in his time, that they had lost the love, which is vital to the proper implementation of the law. The people do not exist for the Law, the Law exists for the people. The most important law is: Love God with all our hearts. The second most important law is: Love our neighbor as ourself. The wording of that is important. “as ourself.” Not more than ourself, or less than ourself. If we obey the law, we should expect no less from our neighbor.

God’s laws help us work well with each other. They provide a guide for getting along with our neighbors. Laws are vital to a well-functioning society, since we cannot read each other’s minds. They help us all stay on the same page. Notice that the first part of getting along with our neighbors is loving God. We should always seek Him first.

The illegal immigrant debate offers a perfect opportunity for us to examine what it means to love our neighbor as ourself. Ask yourself, would I go into a foreign country and ignore their laws? If the answer is no, then you are loving your neighbors, the residents of that foreign country, as yourself. Then ask, do I try to obey the laws of the country I love? If that answer is yes, then why would you encourage others to break those laws?

There is precedent for legal immigration in the Old Testament. The Israelites were very protective of their society. Modern Jews still follow their example. To become one of them, you have to convert to their religion. But conversion doesn’t guarantee you all of the rights that other Israelites have. There are restrictions on what types of offices you can hold, or how many generations your family has to wait to be eligible for those positions.

These restrictions were handed down from God, to protect Israelite society and their way of life from those who might wish to overthrow it from the inside. This should be a lesson for all of us. Loving our neighbor does not mean letting them walk all over us. We wouldn’t walk all over them, and we should expect them to treat us with the same respect.

In the same vein, we are all criminals who fall short, so don’t be too hard on them. Implementation of the law should always be leavened with a healthy scoop of mercy. Note that amnesty is not mercy. Mercy requires forgiveness. Forgiveness requires that we set aside the other person’s crime. We push it to the back of our mind, so that it does not block our view. When we grant amnesty we set aside the law, not the crime. It tells the criminal that we don’t really care about our laws that much, and it tells the legal entrants that they wasted their time. In trying to love one neighbor, we insult another. The only real course of action is to require the law breaker to go and stand in line, just like everyone else.

Jesus told us to remember that we were strangers in a strange land. That only means that we should be hospitable to newcomers. If we cast away our laws for them, we are loving them too much, and forgetting that they are not our only neighbors.

Recall too, that in the Old Testament, if (by neglect) someone’s bull got out and harmed someone else, or destroyed their property, the bull’s owner was held responsible. For us in the modern world, this means that if we knowingly leave weaknesses in our laws for others to exploit, we make ourselves accessories to their crimes.

5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.

Fortunately, for those in the Church of Ephesus, it’s easy to fix what’s broken. We only have to turn around. Remind ourself what it felt like when we first became a believer. Remember when we were picked up off the floor? Remember how full of love we were? Let’s go back to that moment and try again.

The memory of that indescribable moment is like a bank account that we can draw on, whenever we find ourself running low on love. Just stop, remember, insert our card, punch in our pin, and refill our spiritual wallet. There is no daily withdrawal limit. We can take as much as we need.

If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Not the décor! Wait, are you grounding us from the telephone? We’ll change! We promise!

Having our lampstand removed isolates us from all of those messages of love. We don’t want the silent treatment. We need a place for our fire to sit, and we need sparks to keep it lit. That’s what this threat implies. The light in our hearts will go out. That’s what it feels like when we lose the love. We’ll be left with a lump of coal, and no way to light it.

6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

At least we’re doing something right. It’s just too bad that Jesus didn’t specifically say what it is that the Nicolaitans did, that he didn’t like. Maybe he thought we would always remember? We have an idea, but no one can say for sure.

We think the Nicolaitans were Gnostics who believed that the Supreme God didn’t actually create anything, and He’s so far removed from our lives as to not be involved in them.

It’s a compelling idea for those who feel like they’re alone, and think this is all just a crazy accident, but that’s not us. We’re sons of man. The fire in our hearts shines out on the world, allowing us to see God’s hand in every aspect of our lives. Our fires are still lit. The lines of communication are still open. The love is still there. To find it, we only need to turn around.

7 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.

Communication is essential in any good relationship. Having an ear to hear means paying heed. We must be watchful for signs that our relationship is going off the rails. If you have ever relied on a fireplace for warmth, you know that they need forethought and regular attention. Wood has to be gathered when it’s warm outside, in sufficient quantity to last the whole winter, and the chimney needs occasional sweeping to remain free of soot and debris. Similarly, we must lovingly tend to our internal fire. We can’t light it, but we can help keep it lit. This is a partnership, after all. Team work makes the dream work.

The reward for our hard work is eternal life, in paradise. Not in some future Heaven, but now. Heaven is inside us. It is the warm feeling that we carry with us. It’s the house we live in all the days of our lives. Home is where the heart is.

My father used to say that home was where he hung his hat. There is more wisdom in that phrase than I think even he realized. If the fire inside us is lit, it doesn’t matter where we are, we are always home. When people ask me if I’m having fun, I like to say that I bring the fun with me. That’s what it means to eat of the Tree of Life. Life itself feeds our spirits. It’s not something we have to wait for. We can have our reward now.

As true sons of man, we see God’s hand in everything. The proof of His existence is all around us. It is undeniable. That great question that so many people struggle with is answered for us, allowing us to focus on other questions. His presence is a great comfort to us. It makes our faces shine, knowing that He has our back. We don’t have to wait until we’re dead to see Him. He is omnipresent, and always with us. He will never leave us.

Jesus said that from the beginning, it has always been one man and one woman. Us and him. It was Moses who gave the people the option to divorce, only after they hounded him for it. God is more persistent than Moses. We might get the silent treatment, but never a writ of divorce.

1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us that it is God’s desire that all men are saved. (Men, meaning mankind.) God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. We are foolish to think that He will not get what He wants, and He wants us. He knows everything, even what it takes to win all of our hearts. He knows this, because He is everywhere, even in all of our hearts, and He is all powerful. No one can stand against Him, not even the most hard-headed, cold-hearted of humans. He’ll get us, because Time works for Him, not us. He literally has all the Time in the world on His side.

Now some, like those in the Church of Ephesus, believe that it is entirely up to us, but that would put salvation in our hands. That is contrary to the scriptures, which tell us that Jesus died to save us. He didn’t ask for our permission or our consent. He just did it. He asked us out. He popped the question. Sure, it’s up to us to say yes or no, but he’s making us an offer we can’t, and won’t refuse. It’s a done deal, and like Revelation tells us, we can’t close the doors that he opens. That thought alone, should be a comfort to us. It is for us, the congregants of the Church of Ephesus, who know that God is real and that we are saved.

The problem for us is, that we do not see that salvation as a blanket that covers the whole world. We think everyone else needs to earn their salvation, even when we got ours for free. We are gatekeeping Heaven. We are hogging the covers, and pushing the rest of humanity out of the bed, onto the cold floor. We are deciding who is worthy, and who is not, even as we are told that all of our righteousness is but a dirty rag before the Lord.

None of us deserve to be loved by Jesus. We’re not the trophy spouse, he is, and yet, if we look in the mirror we’ll see that he is there, behind us, wanting all of us, not just some of us.

If this is you, if you see yourself in this church, you know what you have to do. Turn around. Remember that you aren’t any more worthy than anyone else. Jesus is the Doorman, not you. Stop trying to dictate who can, or can’t go in.

Recognize that you are plagued with jealousy, and know that jealousy is cured by kindness and understanding. It’s jealousy in the sense that we want our spouse all to ourself. We will only share him with people we think are of the same mind as we are.

Jealousy (envy) is born from insufficiency. We want what someone else has. We can’t get enough of him, and perhaps we’re afraid there won’t be enough? That’s not true. There’s plenty.

The truth is, most jealous people don’t think that they are enough. They worry that their spouse will see in someone else, all the things that they lack. The last thing we want is for Jesus to say, “I never knew you.” The problem is, how do we get him to know us? The answer: we show him what he wants to see. He wants us to be obedient to God’s will, and God’s will is that everyone should be saved. We should want that, too, with all of our hearts.

For some of us, our jealousy is born from the apparent lack we see in others – apparent, meaning it appears that they lack something we have. They aren’t good enough. We put ourselves on a pedestal. We think we won the race, while they are still in the starting gate. Understanding helps correct our vision. It allows us to put them, and ourselves in the proper place. It brings us back down to earth, and puts our feet on the ground, where they belong.

Only by changing our perspective, and realizing that we are all in this together, can we find the love we lost. If we turn around, we will see that it’s not a race, or a competition, it’s a meal. The feast we think is waiting for us in some future Heaven, is actually already on the table. It’s all you can eat, but it’s not a buffet where we have to run to get the last chicken wing, or stand there, plate in hand, hoping a fresh pan of rice is on its way. This is dinner for two. We aren’t the first, or the last, or one in a million. We’re one, made of billions, and victory lies in teamwork, not just solo effort. Jesus wants all of us, not part of us, and in good time – God’s time, we will all see him, and stand naked before him.

He isn’t ashamed of our bodies, even the ones we buried in the desert. He’s got a criminal record too. He isn’t being overly demanding. In fact, he’s not demanding, at all. He’s simply offering us some constructive criticism. He’s assuring us that we would be better off with him, than without him. He wants to be the Clyde to our Bonnie. He’s breaking us out of jail, and sneaking us into Heaven, so that we can steal it’s treasures for ourselves. He wants us on his team. This is Ocean’s Infinity.

Good team members know themselves, and their teammates. They are aware of their own shortcomings, and the weaknesses of their mates. They play to their strengths. They aren’t afraid to give up the ball, if it means scoring a point. Good teammates don’t showboat. They don’t try to do it all on their own, and they don’t undermine their buddies. They communicate. They share the load, not equally, but equitably. They keep in mind that others might not be playing at their level, and recall that there was a time when they couldn’t get off the floor without help.

It’s important to recognize that rock bottom isn’t the same for everyone. If we all followed the same arc, if our lives were all identical, we would miss out on so much life – and we like life. We want all the life we can get, don’t we? After all, we need something to talk about during our intimate dinner for two. Awkward stories are still better than awkward silences.

People like to say, “Happy wife, happy life”, but I think a better phrase is, “Happy spouse, happy house.” That’s the real victory. When both spouses respect each other, and do their part as much as they’re able, then every moment, even the bad ones, are dessert plucked from the Tree of Life. Only, this dinner for two is Dutch treat, meaning we have to pay our fair share. We have to do our part. This is a team up, after all.

Finally, notice that these letters are addressed to the angels of the churches, not the congregants. This is a subtle reminder that Jesus commands the messengers of God. He controls what we hear, and what we don’t. Our veil is in his hands.