So Much To Think About

Front Porches
Jane Jacobs who, in her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, argued that it was the mark of healthy urban life to have “eyes on the street.” Porches were crucial half-way places between the insides of the homes and the street, where residents of the homes could watch the street and where people from the street could fraternize with residents. Blocks in which no one sat out on porches to talk to passers-by and to watch what was happening were desolate and often dangerous. Blocks with lots of porch-sitters were friendly. If you were on a porch and saw someone you knew, you could call them up onto the steps or the porch and talk and even offer them a glass of lemonade or sweet tea on a hot day before they went on their way. Porches were the key to a vibrant neighborhood. 
Timothy Keller

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“I Will Spit You Out of My Mouth”: The Real Lukewarm Christians

Posted on 4.05.2023

When I was growing up, Revelation 3.15-16 was a frequently used text for hellfire and brimstone sermons:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

This text was used to challenge our spiritual commitment. “Lukewarm” Christians weren’t invested, weren’t 100% bought in. “Lukewarm” Christians weren’t rebels or hostile to God, they weren’t cold, but they were slackers. They skipped church. They didn’t give. Etc. Etc. Consequently, Revelation 3.15-16 would be regularly pulled out to whip these lazy, uncommitted Christians into shape. 

And yet, that’s not what Revelation 3.15-16 is talking about. Whenever this text was preached, no one ever read past Verse 16. Because if you do, the vision of the “lukewarm” Christian becomes clear, and it’s not the vision I grew up hearing about. I was told the issue was a lack of spiritual effort, that I needed to try harder. But according to the text, a lack of effort is not what make a believer “lukewarm”:

“I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.”

What makes a “lukewarm” Christian isn’t a lack of effort or investment. What makes a “lukewarm” Christians is a lack of humility. The issue isn’t laziness. The issue is a failure to recognize and embrace our need and dependency. The issue is saying “I need nothing.”

What makes you a “hot” Christian, therefore, isn’t more work, strain, and effort. What makes you “hot” is recognizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. What makes you “hot” is the realization that you need medicine for your eyes and for someone to cover your shame. The Christians who step into this neediness, as broken people in need of grace, are the ones who are truly “on fire” for the Lord. By contrast, those who stand before the Lord declaring “I need nothing,” as prideful and self-righteous, will be the ones he will spit out of his mouth.
Richard Beck

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Questions we need to be asking 

How do you convict a person of sin if they strongly believe that morality is socially constructed and that we get to define for ourselves what is right or wrong?
How do you motivate a person to care about the Christian message if they believe that there is no afterlife at all and that the only happiness that can be grasped is material, this-world pleasure and comfort?
How do you speak to someone about salvation if they do not believe in a personal God, but only in a spiritual life force permeating everything?
How do you respond to the listeners who are alarmed that you are not allowing people to express and define themselves and that therefore your message is spiritually abusive and exploitative?
Timothy Keller

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Nashville

Scripture would call me to lament. I don’t do it well. Lament seems far too passive, but it doesn’t need to be. Lament recognizes powerlessness, but it also marshalls what few reserves we actually have. The paradox of lament is that only God can repair the savage brokenness of our society. And God has given us his Spirit to be the change we want to see. I am simultaneously powerless and empowered when I declare, “The world is a broken place.”

Scot McKnight

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At the Table

At the Table we are bound to the past, the Exodus generation. At the Table we have communion with Jesus in the struggle for faith. At the Table we are escorted into the very presence of God. The book of Revelation ends with that promise. We are seated at the Wedding Supper of the Lamb, our tears are washed away by the God who hears our cries, and God makes his home with us.

What “happens” at the Table is a microcosm of the entire Story of God. Those who feast at this Table share with those in the past, share in the present, and share in the future.

We are in God’s Time at the table.

Bobby Valentine

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Old graveyards

If you ever tour an old graveyard, one of the things that might surprise you is the number of children who are buried next to their parents. We’ve come a long way in protecting our children. We protect them from disease and unclean water, but we can’t protect them from everything.
(unknown)

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Patriotism 

you probably saw the Wall Street Journal/NORC poll that came out this week. It found that the share of Americans who say patriotism is very important to them has dropped to 38 percent from 70 percent since 1998. The share who say religion is very important has dropped to 39 percent from 62 percent. The share who say community involvement is very important has dropped to 27 percent from 47 percent. The share who say having children is very important has dropped to 30 percent from 59 percent.

These trends are partly driven by you, young adults under 30. Only 23 percent of you said that patriotism is very important or that having children is very important.

David Brooks

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Church Attendance

During the pandemic, a shift happened among Americans in general and particularly among Americans with evangelical beliefs in reference to attending church, according to the State of Theology study. In early 2020, 58% of Americans said worshiping alone or with one’s family is a valid replacement for regularly attending church. By 2022, that number jumped to 66%. Among Americans with evangelical beliefs, the percentage increased from 39% in 2020 to 54% in 2022.

Julie Roys Report

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Telling the Truth

My belief is that when you’re telling the truth, you’re close to God. If you say to God, “I am exhausted and depressed beyond words, and I don’t like You at all right now, and I recoil from most people who believe in You,” that might be the most honest thing you’ve ever said. If you told me you had said to God, “It is all hopeless, and I don’t have a clue if You exist, but I could use a hand,” it would almost bring tears to my eyes, tears of pride in you, for the courage it takes to get real—really real. It would make me want to sit next to you at the dinner table.  

So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light.

Anne Lamott

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