Revelation 3:1-6
Luke 10:1-12, 17-20

I love our Gospel reading of the morning - Saint Luke's wonderful account of Jesus sending the seventy to preach and teach, bear witness to the power and truth of the Gospel, to walk the talk, to tangibilitate the Good News.  Then the marvelous verse when they return and tell Jesus of the mighty works they have done in His name.

Jesus says, "I saw Satan fall from the heavens like lightning."  What a marvelous picture - a powerful image - an unforgettable metaphor.  Reminding us that mighty and wonderful things can happen whenever Jesus shows up and people respond with faith and in faithfulness.

Let us pray:

O God, in your mercy be patient with us.  Show us these days of Lent what it means to become masters of ourselves that we might become the servants of others.  Take our minds and think through them.  Take our lips and speak through them.  Take our hands and serve through them.  Take our hearts and love through them.  And to you be honor, power, glory and majesty forever, worlds without end.  Amen.

One of our United Church of Christ pastors tells of being in seminary and going to hear Father Divine preach in Harlem.  After all these years one word still stands out -- tangibilitate.  Father Divine said, "In life there are too many people who simply talk a good game. They don't know how to tangibilitate their faith."

How to make tangible or visible to others what we say we believe.  Today we might say, "It is not enough to talk the talk -- you are to walk the walk."  Tangibilitate.  Getting down to particulars.

"God so loved the world God gave God's only Son."  That is getting down to particulars - making the Gospel tangible.  A bit of verse says it well:
 

 I soon can learn to do it, if you let me see it done.
 I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run.
 The lectures you deliver may be wise and true
 But I'd rather get my lesson by observing what you do.
 For I may misunderstand you and the high advice you give,
 But there's no misunderstanding how you act and how you live!

The powerful witness you and I can bear when we tangibilitate our faith!

Wasn't that an arresting passage which Jason read from the book of Revelation?  Did you really hear it?  Were you listening carefully?  "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'I know your works.  You have a name of being alive, but you are dead.  Wake up and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death.  For I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God.  Remember then what you received and heard, obey it and repent.  if you do not wake up I will come like a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come to you. . . .Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.'"  (Rev. 3:1-6)

Wow!  Isn't that some passage -- written at a time when the early church was experiencing terrible persecution, the future so uncertain, so much at stake.  In the book of Revelation each church has an angel.  Old South Church in Boston has an angel.  It is Jesus Christ speaking to the angel of the church in Sardis.  "I know your works; you have the name of being alive but you are dead."

This is serious business.  This isn't some disgruntled parishioner on the phone, sending an e-mail.  This is the voice of Jesus Christ saying: "Your church is dead!"

As Fred Carrock has commented: "There it is in the obituary notices:  'The church in Sardis died last night. Galilean Funeral Home has charge of arrangements.  Friends and relatives may call Wednesday 2-4; 7-9.  memorial contributions to the Ecclesiastical Society for the Preservation of Pastors and Church Officers.'"  It is very sad to watch a church die. What do you suppose happened?  Could they have forgotten to tangibilitate their faith -- witness to the Good News of the Gospel, walk the walk each day as God's people?  What do you suppose happened?

I can remember when I was in seminary, so many strong churches in the Greater Boston area.  Now one in Newton is a synagogue, another sold to a Korean congregation, others closed, some continuing to struggle.  They make wonderful restaurants, churches do.  Cute names: The Deacon's Bench, the Friar's, with a tempting menu of fried foods.  Or boutiques.  Churches make handsome boutiques, especially if there are stained glass windows.  The upscale crowd enjoys the stained glass.  It gives a pleasant ambience.  Over here where the lines are, that's where the pulpit was, and over there - you see where the handmade jewelry is - that's where the baptismal font was.  [Church on Main Street of Osterville.]  It is sad to see a church die.

What did the church in Sardis die of?  Did anyone see the coroner's report?  The book of Revelation seems to say that the church in Sardis died from forgetfulness.  It died because it didn't remember.  You don't suppose it died because it forgot to tangibilitate the Gospel, forgot to bear a strong courageous witness, forgot to speak the truth in love?

I wonder what they forgot?  Again with Fred Craddock: "You don't suppose they forgot the story?  Do you think they forgot about Adam and Eve, or the great Flood and God hanging the rainbow in the sky as a sign of promise, or Abraham with his son on that wild and windy mountain, or Joseph and his colorful coat, or Moses leading the people from slavery in Egypt, bringing the Ten Commandments down from the mountain top?  No, how could they ever forget that?

"Do you suppose they forgot about those disciples struggling to be faithful, seeing Satan fall like lightning from heaven, or Jesus dying on the cross, or the empty grave, or Paul and Peter being crucified in Rome, of the old, old story of Jesus and his glory, or Jesus and his love?  No, how could they ever forget that?  You don't suppose they forgot what it means to be a church?  Is that what they forgot?"

It can happen.  In the first church I served, a lovely church in the foothills to the White Mountains in New Hampshire, after we got there Della and I with our little family, and got unpacked, I discovered at the heart of the church folks were trying to decide if they wanted to be a church, or whether they wanted to continue as some sort of an ecclesiastical club?

It surfaced in an interesting way, as these things usually do.  The church was in a college town.  I asked the church leaders: "What is the plan for reaching out to college students?  What about our ministry?"  Well, not only wasn't there any plan, there was no interest.  Some said, "They come if they want.  Maybe half a dozen a Sunday, sometimes a few more when it's Parents' Weekend.  Besides, some of them have problems.  They sit in our favorite pew and, of course, they don't contribute much."

But there were some folks in the church, worthy folks as Revelation would say, and we began a little ministry with college students.  And then I began to hear on the church grapevine: "Guess our new pastor's forgotten who pays his salary. We hired him to be our pastor and not waste his time with those college students.  Guess the next time he's on campus he had better pass the hat."  You know -- words of love and affirmation which make a person glad he'd gone into parish ministry.

But mighty and wonderful things can happen when Jesus shows up and people respond in faith and in faithfulness.  God's spirit worked a miracle and students came, until one Sunday in the Spring (it may have been Palm Sunday) the church was full, people standing along the back, and afterwards folks said: "Wasn't that wonderful!  Seems like the whole town was here."  We still had a long way to go, but I knew it was their way of saying, "We've remembered and we have decided to be a church."

What did the church in Sardis forget?  You don't suppose they forgot their own personal experience?  No, how could they have forgotten that?  How could you ever forget the time when you were down and out and God's love lifted you?  The hour when there seemed to be no way ahead and God showed you a way.  You would never forget that, would you?  The friendship of church people, the word of encouragement, the helping hand, the way the light falls softly into this sanctuary and the Spirit moves and God comes to hold and uphold.  You would never forget that, would you?

What did the church in Sardis forget?  We really don't know.  Now, wait a minute.  It may not be dead.  It just stirred.  It moved.  It may only be sleeping.  Listen again to Jesus:  "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'I know your works. . .you are dead. Awake and strengthen what remains.'"  Maybe the church wasn't dead.  Maybe it only looked as if it were dead; it was really asleep.

There's a story they tell on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia:  A comedian tells it about Herb and Agnes.  They had been married for years, they were weary of each other, lots of stress in the marriage.  One day Agnes died.  There was no coroner, so the menfolk came and carried her down from the upstairs bedroom.  As they got to the parlor, Iver McKinnon from Middle River didn't look where he was going and he slammed the edge of the stretcher into the door frame. Agnes sat right up on the stretcher.  She wasn't dead, only in a deep sleep.

A couple of years later she died.  The scene was repeated.  When they got to the parlor door her husband Herb cried out: "Mind your step fellas.  This is where the awful accident happened last time."

The church in Sardis wasn't dead.  it only looked and acted as if it were dead.  it was really asleep.  It needed to be shaken awake - jolted awake!  "Awake," the voice of Jesus says, "I am the resurrection and the life.  Strengthen what remains."  For mighty and wonderful things can happen whenever Jesus shows up and people respond with faith and faithfulness, when people choose to tangibilitate their faith, choose to speak the truth in love, walk the walk, bear courageous witness to their faith.

When people choose to live and act as the Body of Christ in the world, God is with them to strengthen and sustain.  Mighty and wonderful things can happen.  "I saw Satan fall like lightning from the heavens."  The decision is yours.  What kind of a church will stand here in Copley Square at 645 Boylston Street?

You as God's people in this place have been called into a covenant relationship with God.  A holy partnership.  God calls and you must choose.  God is a promise maker and a promise keeper.  Whenever people remember and respond faithfully to the promises of God, mighty and wonderful things can happen.

There is a story of a beloved old man and a pair of troublemakers.  The old man was a grandfather figure to all the children in the neighborhood.  He would regale them with countless stories and tender memories.  The children flocked to him.  Two of the local teenagers despised him.  They were jealous.  He was too nice, too kind, too gentle.  They wanted to make him look foolish.  One said, "Let's catch a sparrow. We will go to him and ask him to guess what I have in my hand.  When he identifies it as a bird I will ask him if it is alive or dead?  If he says it is dead, I will release it and let it fly away, and if he says it is alive I will crush it and drop it at his feet."

They caught a bird and went and found the old man sitting on his porch surrounded by children.  The old man did guess correctly - "You have a bird."  The devious one chuckled.  "Is it alive or dead?"  The old man thought carefully.  He knew their style.  He looked at the expectant faces of the children around him and finally he answered, "It is as you wish it."

Jesus Christ says to the angel of the church of Sardis: "Wake up, wake up!"

I saw Satan fall from the heavens like lightning.

In the spirit of Jesus Christ let all the people say, "Amen and Amen."
 

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