As your prepare to head home, I send you forth with reflections from Revelation. The Lectionary has me reading from the opening chapters. As I read the letters to the seven churches in Asia, I am struck with the parallels to our community of faith.
Like the church in Ephesus, we know what it means to love. But we sometimes forget or ignore. We know that the grace of God means our actions are interpreted in the kindest of ways, but we fail to look upon the actions of others with the same attitude of forgiveness.
Like the church in Smyrna, we are rich beyond compare. So much has been given to us; so much has been shared with us. You have the abundance of care and concern, expressed each week in the form of a home-cooked meal; you have the luxury of the LCM Lounge where you can study and socialize and escape the cold and damp. But too often we look at what we don't have. The tribulation is all we see. Recall your wealth!
I encourage you to be like the church in Pergamum - hold to the faith and do not deny Christ! You know what it means to be a child of God; think and act accordingly.
I will continue to read of the remaining churches in the days to come. As I do, i will remember you, and pray that your living out of the faith will be as productive as was that of the seven churches in Revelation. Remember that from them emerged all that has come to be known as the Christian world. I am sure that even greater things will come from the community of which you are a part.
Do be careful over break. We look forward to being together again in January.
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