It was a big church.  There were plenty of programs, lots of points of entry for the seeker.  Huge staff, enthusiastic volunteers.  Advertisements on the local cable stations and in the papers.  The senior pastor was invited to speak all over the country.

It was, by all accounts, a super church.  Very busy. The doors never closed!

Thing is, it wasn’t.  Not doing the business it was supposed to have been doing.  Oh, they meant well, I’m sure.  They did, the modern Church of “Sardis.”  But they were not meeting the standards set by the Head of the Church.  That is, Christ.

Revelation 3: 1″To the angel of the church in Sardis write: “The One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says: I know your works; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. 2 Be alert and strengthen what remains, which is about to die, for I have not found your works complete before My God. 3 Remember therefore what you have received and heard; keep it, and repent. But if you are not alert, I will come like a thief, and you have no idea at what hour I will come against you.

How many Sardisian churches are busy, today?  How many are trying so hard to include their neighbor that they have left out the LORD?

Small churches can be much the same; please don’t think I’m harping on any particular kind of church.  I was just moved, today, to address the issue of the churches, so I will do so for the next few days.  There is one Church, and that is the body of Christ.  ONE CHURCH. ONE BODY.  Now, God tolerates our divisions, I’m guessing, because truly people mean to grow closer to the Lord through various avenues.  As long as they come by The Way, The Truth and The Life, then what foot gear they have on that Way isn’t all that important. Sincerity of belief, true obedience to the Lord, loving one’s fellow man, all of these aspects of a life of love for God can be found in a Catholic, an Episcopalian, a Baptist, a Lutheran, a Pentacostal, an Independent Church of Christ -er.  All across the spectrum of Christianity, faith can be found.

The problem lies when people get this twisted notion of THE CHURCH.  Again, I believe the Lord tolerates our differences; he does not, I’m pretty sure, appreciate them.  Man has – as Man always has – twisted what is right and good about establishing an organization of worship and so on.  Even the disciples, who walked with our Lord, erred in choosing a new apostle to take Judas Iscariot’s spot.  They cast lots.  Did God honor them for trying? I believe he did, but God had already chosen a man to be that “replacement,” if you will.  He had chosen Paul, to whom he would reveal himself when it was time.

But back to the churches.  The Lord wanted to have his people gather to equip the saints to move on. Move out. We establish, often, many ways of bringing people IN to the Body, and that’s good as far as intent…

But how many churches today, large and small, focus on these programs and forget their real purpose?  These Sardisian congregations are warned, in this final book of the Bible. Warned to get their focus where it ought to be.

I believe, too, that this applies to the individual, but that’s another post for another day.

Jesus goes on to say:

4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not defiled their clothes, and they will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy. 5 In the same way, the victor will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father and before His angels.

So, there is hope. :)  Individuals who seek purity of purpose in their relationship with the Lord are not forgotten.  They will even walk with the Lord, dressed in white, because – did you see this? – they are worthy.

Wow.  Gives me goosebumps – really! – to think of it.  That the Lord God would consider someone WORTHY of walking with him.  That is not an adjective used lightly!

But the church that is unworthy… The Lord says he will “come against” them.  How? I don’t know.  But I’m fairly certain that it won’t be a pleasant church social experience.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Christians adapt.  The churches of early years adapted so that the locals didn’t lose out on their parties and good times just to be a follower of Christ.  That’s why Christmas, the Christ Mass, is celebrated as Jesus’ birthday in midwinter instead of in spring (when shepherds would have been in the fields, watching their flocks by night).  It is celebrated during the time of the old festivals, like the Roman Saturnalia.  Feast! Party! But…Praise God, too!  It was, scholars say, an effort to be culturally sensitive.

For Easter, we have this day.  A day that used to be called Resurrection Sunday.  Easter is taken from the pre-Germanic word eostre (the direction from which the sun rises).  It is celebrated on the first Sunday (the day of Christ’s resurrection) after the Vernal Equinox.  (Often, this falls at about the time of Passover.)

Today, Christians also adapt culturally in many respects. Not every culture in the world has to learn the “original languages” of the Bible in order to learn about God — we try to translate God’s message for many nations and many languages.  There is no set of “righteous music” that anyone has to memorize or learn or prove expert in to be a Christian. People that have tried to impose “proper hymns” on other cultures have sometimes found them to be erroneous in culture context.

The message of Easter, though, is global.  Life after death. The love of God. The hope of eternity.  This Friday is “Good Friday.”  Did Jesus actually die on a Friday? I have heard excellent discussions that support and deny this.  He died.  When he could have saved himself, he died.  As was prophesied, his bones were pulled out of their joints. Not one bone was broken in his death, he was executed with criminals, and buried in a borrowed tomb.  All of this and more was prophesied about the coming Deliverer of Israel. And it came true.

After Jesus died, the curtain in the temple that separated the Holiest of Holies from the next chamber was ripped in half.  Not by a man, but by God, who needed no more “special access” ceremonies to gain his presence; his Son had become the bridge between Man and his Creator.

This upcoming weekend, my family is celebrating.  Not celebrating a torturous death of the only perfect man to have walked on Earth, but celebrating his victory over death. Because, on the Sunday after he was killed, Jesus appeared, alive, to many.  No, it wasn’t a mass delusion, but rather the miraculous reappearance of a man who was seen by hoardes to have been dead.  He walked, talked, ate, showed the wounds that he had suffered, and most of all, reassured his friends that he was alive and that they had to tell the world.

And they did.  All but John son of Zebedee suffered deaths that were sometimes torturous because they told others about Jesus.  For a joke, or for profit, people will perpetuate a lie. To preserve their reputation or their government. But to be tortured and die for a lie that one is telling is not in the nature of mankind.  But these people did.  And for centuries, people have believed their message of one perfect life given in sacrifice so that all of mankind can live forever with their Creator.

So if we celebrate a day that may or may not be named for a pagan goddess, if we color eggs, if we give chocolate bunnies to our children…if we do these things on a certain day, we have to make sure we share the reason we celebrate.

It’s not about the munchies, it’s about the Man.