Completing the Journey
Revelation 3
1 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Whenever we fix something in the house, or make changes to something, it becomes a longer process than we first imagined. There is a good feeling when it is finally finished, but finishing can sometimes take a while. Those last pieces to finish something up. Touch ups to some of the paint. Trim for floors, stairs or windows. Or it might seem that the project gets like the home in the movie, “The Money Pit.” Every time one thing gets started, another thing also needs to be redone.
In 2 Timothy 4 Paul speaks of finishing the race. Many have speculated that Paul was martyred not long after that letter was written. Finishing the race, being seen as his life was about to be over and he was finishing the things he had been given in life.
As an individual, Paul was completing his final tasks. John gives us words from Jesus to the church in Revelation that show the church’s work as incomplete. Each person will come to an end of life, but the church should continue to the end of time. The work of the church always continues. We never get to a point where we have everything done. We always have more to do. We continue to serve as the church, following Jesus, being like Jesus.
We could wonder about the church in Sardis. Have they found themselves to be at a point where they felt they had done enough? Had they reached as many people with the gospel as they were able? Was the church the largest it could be? Was their faith as deep as they could go?
Without knowing how this was given to the church of Sardis, or how it was received, I believe we can ask those questions of ourselves. Knowing that we have never been the church long enough, we can always reach more people with the gospel of Jesus, we can always connect more people in faith, we can always grow deeper in our faith.
I find we often go the letter which comes later in this chapter of Revelation, the letter to Laodicea, and see the issue of hot and cold. The church being spewed out his mouth. But I find this might be more to the point of the church today. We can act like we have done all we are able. This is as far as we need to take it. My faith is good enough. The church is big enough. The gospel has gone far enough (at least in our neighbourhoods). This is as good as it gets.
The other way we try to go is backward. Back to the days when we thought the church was good enough, big enough, faith was deep enough. Those “Good Old Days” when things were as good as they have ever been. We simply need to get back to them.
The words of Jesus to Sardis, and to us, are that it is always a work in progress. The church is becoming the church. While we are the church already, we are moving toward the place where we are meant to be. Always moving a step closer to who and what Jesus has called us to be.
We can ask ourselves questions this week as we respond to the message of worship from this past week.
- What will I do to grow deeper in faith? (This week, and in the coming year)
- How will I take part in bringing this congregation to a place where we are closer to what Jesus calls us to be and do?
- Where, or with whom, will I share the gospel message of hope today, this week, and beyond?
We may have a great reputation in the larger community. We are being shown to be alive and active in this place. And we are being invited to continue that deep into the future, till the day Christ comes to us and welcomes us with those words: “Well done, good and faithful servants.” Looking to the day when the church and her mission are complete.