Drift

Revelation 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, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:

“I know your works, your toil and your endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring and bearing up for the sake of my name and that you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember, then, from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2)

These words, written by a man named John on the island of Patmos, came to us in Ephesus, hand delivered via a messenger. How do I know? I know because I was the messenger. You see, I own a boat and was called into service by my church, the Ephesian church, to carry supplies to John, who had been exiled to Patmos. As a result, I got to know him quite well from my biweekly visits.

Patmos is not far from Ephesus, so the trip was an easy one for me, and I feel privileged to have been asked to make it. You should understand that members of our church collected food and other supplies, which were loaded onto my boat for the short trip. Often, I spent the night on Patmos, listening to John, who was at the time, quite elderly.

When he finished his letter, John handed it to me with instructions to take it to the mainland, beginning with Ephesus. There, it would need to be copied so that each church would own a reproduction. The original remained in Ephesus, where, I hope, it can still be found today. John did not keep a copy for himself, and I was impressed that he could so freely spare himself of such a momentous work.

John’s letter, which you can now read in its entirety in your Bible, was the culmination of his life as a follower of Christ. He died not long after its completion, and as a result, it was impossible to ask him for any interpretation. I believe God planned it that way, leaving us to allow the words of his letter to speak to each of us in the most personal and individual way.

By Jacopo Vignali

Giovanni Piccirillo (a cura di), La chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano

And what do those words speak to us in Ephesus? You may have your own thoughts, and I hope you do; but I will share mine with you later in this letter. And don’t think that my visits with John produced any insights that you might otherwise miss; because, you see, he never explained any of it to me, even though I repeatedly asked him.

The words are clearly words from Jesus Christ himself. John did describe for me his experience of the visit from Christ, and frankly, as he said, no human words can express its amazing nature. The appearance of Christ and his message were truly otherworldly, and our human language simply cannot do them justice.

First, some background: our church was established by the Apostle Paul over thirty years ago. Paul spent three years here, working hard at bringing the gospel message of Christ to a city filled with worshipers of the pagan goddess Artemis. Ephesus is a large and prosperous city, with a strong economy related to Artemis worship. You may remember how Paul got in trouble with local business people who profited from the temple worship of the goddess.

Yet in the face of opposition, our church grew, and still does, even as the hostility has not abated. The words of Christ about our endurance are certainly true. And it’s also true that we have very high standards and that we do not “tolerate evildoers.”

Jesus did not mean evildoers in the way you might think. After all, Ephesus has been filled with “evildoers” for as long as anyone can remember. But that’s in the general, largely pagan population. As a Roman colony, the soldiers stationed in Ephesus do what they can to enforce the imperial laws. Yet it’s never enough and lawlessness is common.

But what Jesus meant was evildoers who claim to be apostles of Christ. It seems that, in our world, we are plagued by those who were once condemned as “false prophets.” They arrive in Ephesus, seek out our small Christian community, and bring their message, invoking Jesus, Paul, Peter and others. But in reality, they are nothing more than pretenders and we strive to protect ourselves from them. For the most part, their message would have us to assimilate into the local society, to participate in pagan feasts and tolerate practices of the larger culture within our fellowship. In short, they seek to weaken our faith and corrupt it. If we follow them, we are eventually drawn to idol worship.

As a result, we’ve worked hard to protect ourselves from such false apostles. And perhaps our defensiveness has served to isolate us from the community around us, and harden us against anything that seems unorthodox.

Because perhaps we have, as the Risen Christ has told us, “abandoned the love” that we had at first.

I have to say that these words hit us very hard. They have caused quite a bit of reflection and self-examination inside our fellowship. We’ve asked ourselves what Christ actually meant. We’ve even asked ourselves “What is love?” “What does love look like?” “What is the love that Christ is calling us to?”

It may take some time for us to adequately answer these questions. But the words of Christ instruct us: “Remember, then, from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first.”

Honestly, those words have awakened us to test our memories. Works? What were the works of love that we “did at first”? We’d forgotten. Yes, we’d drifted so far in the direction of a strict adherence to orthodoxy that we’d slowly forgotten how to love. It happened and we didn’t even notice. We’d lost the idea that love does require works, that there really are works of love.

So, we went back to the teachings of Jesus and the Apostle Paul. I have to admit that, as a minority group in a very pluralistic and often hostile culture, loving our enemies, as Jesus commanded, is not easy. Our enemies include pagan worshipers of Artemis, Jews who believe we are making their lives difficult, and of course, our Roman occupiers. What works of love can we offer them?

And what about our own members who are tempted by the false apostles? How can we love them while at the same time calling them to stay faithful to the principles of our faith?

We’ve re-read Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth (we have a copy of it). Part of his letter outlines what he thinks about love, beginning with “Love is patient.”

Can we be patient with our members who are being lured away from our faith by the false apostles? Can we be patient with those in Ephesus who persecute us? The best guidance we can find comes from what you will call the Gospel of Matthew:

“Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’” (Matthew 25)

We can’t help noticing that Jesus, in these words, did not discriminate; that is, he did not say that these acts of love would apply only to certain people and not to others. They are for everyone.

Taking his words seriously is a challenge to us. Thanks to John’s letter, we feel convicted and encouraged to repent of our defensiveness and isolation, and to reverse the drift away from love. Yet at the same time, we know not to compromise the true faith that we’ve been given.

None of this is easy. My hope and prayer for you in your time is that you will not be faced with such a challenge and that your world will be more receptive to the faith that we hold so dear. And hopefully, you will find it easier to love indiscriminately, as Jesus calls us all to do, without exception. But you may have, like us, drifted away from loving your neighbors, whomever they may be. If you have, my prayer for you is that you will, like us, remember the words of Jesus.