The Letter To Pergamum
Sermon
Paradise Restored
Sermons From Revelation For Lent And Easter
You remember the famous story of Balaam and his talking ass? Well, it's actually a story within a story within an epic. It's over in the Old Testament book of Numbers, starting in chapter 22. The nation of Israel is approaching the Promised Land. By the power of God, Moses has led the nation to conquer and dispossess several peoples, and the Israelites are poised to enter Moab and Midian.
You know how in a war movie, one minute you might be seeing the whole battle and the troop movements and you're thinking in vast terms of the sweep of history, when suddenly the focus centers on some little thing that's happening off to the side of the main battle? And maybe it's several scenes of comic relief and you get to wondering why are we seeing this, when the main action is raging on the battlefield?
Well, something like that happens in Numbers 22. We've been seeing Moses and the Israelites progress ever closer to the end of the forty years in the wilderness, making friends here, absorbing other tribes there, fighting and killing whole nations on the way. Suddenly we're off to the side in a little intrigue with the king of Moab named Balak. He's afraid of Israel, and he sees the power of their God and he hopes to enlist some divine power against them. So he sends for a Babylonian prophet named Balaam.
So we're talking about two Gentiles, two people outside of Israel's tabernacle: Balak, a king, and Balaam, a prophet. Balak asks Balaam to curse Israel so he can defeat them. Balaam has a word from God: Israel is blessed and that's all there is to it. So he puts Balak off. Balak offers Balaam a house filled with silver and gold. So while Balaam is coming to Balak, riding on his donkey, we have this small story within the story within the epic.
The angel of the Lord blocks the donkey three times. Balaam beats the donkey three times. On the third time, the Lord gives the donkey speech, and the donkey says, "Hey, I've been your donkey a long time and I've never done this and you've never done that. Don't you think you ought to find out why I can't go forward?"
Just then Balaam is allowed to see the angel and Balaam worships God and the angel says to go with Balak's men but only speak what God says to speak.
Well, he gives four oracles and all say that Israel will prosper and Moab will suffer. There's an argument involving Balak's refusal to pay for his prophecy because it didn't say what he wanted it to say. Balaam is allowed to go home. Balak gives up and there is no battle at that time.
Later we read that Balaam is killed after the battle with the Midianites as part of the reparations. Later references to Balaam blame him for advocating the sexual corruption of the nation with Moabite women, who lead the people to eat food which had been sacrificed to idols. So he has a reputation as a kind of Judas -- leading the righteous people astray.
Balaam is also given as an example of a foreigner who testifies to the power of God. I think this is truer to his story. But because his prophecy prevents outright battle and allows the intermingling of the two cultures, he gets the blame for the corruption. And it's this blame that John of Patmos assesses against the church at Pergamum, 1,400 or so years later.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to be the light of the world, a city set on a hill, a lampstand that is not hidden under a bushel. Here in Revelation, the Lord Christ stands among the lampstands and he holds the angels of the churches in his hand.
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Ephesus, the loveless church
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Smyrna, the persecuted church
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Pergamum, the compromising church
*
Thyatira, the corrupting church
*
Sardis, the dead church
*
Philadelphia, the faithful church
*
Laodicea, the lukewarm church
In the first letter, the Lord calls the church at Ephesus to task for being the fruit of shallow soil; they began with much love and great and good works, but they have lost their zeal. About the only thing in their favor is that they are pure. They test everyone and find out the false apostles and teachers.
The second letter to the Smyrna church is short and glowing in praise for the small church that bravely faces death.
But the church at Pergamum he criticizes for accepting the morality and practices of the culture around them. It's no accident that he mentions Balak and Balaam, which to Jews instantly calls up the impure mixing of the nation, adultery, and idol worship.
Even in Rome the temples were built with two fronts. You brought in your meat for sacrificing through the temple door, and the priest inspected the meat to be sure it was of the finest quality, and then took some of it to burn on the altar. The rest went out the back door, where there was a storefront, and that meat was sold to raise money for the temple.
Now the question for Christians was: Could you eat meat that had been part of pagan worship? For some, it was a tempest in a teapot: idols are not real, so the worship is not real, of no consequence. But for others, bending at all was to accept that idol worship was real. And to buy the meat was to support the temple worship. It was a big question, and Paul addresses it in 1 Corinthians. The answer he gives is: If what you do causes the weaker brethren to stumble, don't do it. Even if you know it is not evil, avoid the appearance of evil, because others may not be so discerning in their vision. The strong need to set examples for the weak.
John goes further. He is at great pains to point out that non-believers, even enemies of God, look just like true believers. All that glitters is not gold. And what sounds like truth may not be the truth. This is why gossip and rumors can be very dangerous, he tells the church at Smyrna. To Pergamum the Lord says, "I will make war on you with my two-edged sword."
Revelation deals with the broad sweep of the end of time, and never mentions the name of individuals, except here. Antipas, a faithful one, a witness, was martyred at Pergamum. Probably because he stood out as different from the culture around him. He was probably made an example to frighten and intimidate the Christians and keep them from standing for their beliefs. Apparently, it worked.
A sword divides; it cuts; it kills. The sword of the Word of God divides us from the rest of the world. We can't blend in; we have to be different. That's what it means to be the salt of the earth, a city set on a hill. The sword of the Word of God kills our old self and cuts us off from our earthly desires. The war rages on about us, but we are a scene apart, a story within a story within an epic, and what we do, who we are, makes us different from the world, still a part of it, but different from it.
A church tends to have a personality. Ephesus has endurance. Smyrna has faith and courage in the face of persecution. Pergamum has compromised itself with the society around it. You can't tell the Christians at Pergamum from the pagans. They need to break their habit and get out of their rut.
For John of Patmos, the victory of the Lord at the end of time is sure and certain, and there is comfort for the believers, and an uncounted multitude will be saved. He warns Ephesus that for some, the lampstand will be removed. They could lose their church. They could lose their salvation. For Smyrna he has the promise of a crown of life for the faithful. For Pergamum he promises the hidden manna and the new name on the white stone.
Lots of people say they are Christian, believers in Christ. But what they believe doesn't make a difference in their lives. They want to blend in, to live in the same kind of houses, drive the same car, dress the same way and be like the rest of the world. But Christians are not called to be like the rest of the world. You know the old question, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Part of the evidence is to be different from the rest of the world.
For this Lent, we have a vision of the Lord of the Church who knows our suffering because he has given his blood for us, and it is in his name that we have patient endurance, test all who come among us, constantly renew our enthusiasm in faith, even to being different from the world around us.
Lord, help us to be different in a guile-less righteousness that says no to everything that makes it more difficult to say yes to you.
You know how in a war movie, one minute you might be seeing the whole battle and the troop movements and you're thinking in vast terms of the sweep of history, when suddenly the focus centers on some little thing that's happening off to the side of the main battle? And maybe it's several scenes of comic relief and you get to wondering why are we seeing this, when the main action is raging on the battlefield?
Well, something like that happens in Numbers 22. We've been seeing Moses and the Israelites progress ever closer to the end of the forty years in the wilderness, making friends here, absorbing other tribes there, fighting and killing whole nations on the way. Suddenly we're off to the side in a little intrigue with the king of Moab named Balak. He's afraid of Israel, and he sees the power of their God and he hopes to enlist some divine power against them. So he sends for a Babylonian prophet named Balaam.
So we're talking about two Gentiles, two people outside of Israel's tabernacle: Balak, a king, and Balaam, a prophet. Balak asks Balaam to curse Israel so he can defeat them. Balaam has a word from God: Israel is blessed and that's all there is to it. So he puts Balak off. Balak offers Balaam a house filled with silver and gold. So while Balaam is coming to Balak, riding on his donkey, we have this small story within the story within the epic.
The angel of the Lord blocks the donkey three times. Balaam beats the donkey three times. On the third time, the Lord gives the donkey speech, and the donkey says, "Hey, I've been your donkey a long time and I've never done this and you've never done that. Don't you think you ought to find out why I can't go forward?"
Just then Balaam is allowed to see the angel and Balaam worships God and the angel says to go with Balak's men but only speak what God says to speak.
Well, he gives four oracles and all say that Israel will prosper and Moab will suffer. There's an argument involving Balak's refusal to pay for his prophecy because it didn't say what he wanted it to say. Balaam is allowed to go home. Balak gives up and there is no battle at that time.
Later we read that Balaam is killed after the battle with the Midianites as part of the reparations. Later references to Balaam blame him for advocating the sexual corruption of the nation with Moabite women, who lead the people to eat food which had been sacrificed to idols. So he has a reputation as a kind of Judas -- leading the righteous people astray.
Balaam is also given as an example of a foreigner who testifies to the power of God. I think this is truer to his story. But because his prophecy prevents outright battle and allows the intermingling of the two cultures, he gets the blame for the corruption. And it's this blame that John of Patmos assesses against the church at Pergamum, 1,400 or so years later.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to be the light of the world, a city set on a hill, a lampstand that is not hidden under a bushel. Here in Revelation, the Lord Christ stands among the lampstands and he holds the angels of the churches in his hand.
*
Ephesus, the loveless church
*
Smyrna, the persecuted church
*
Pergamum, the compromising church
*
Thyatira, the corrupting church
*
Sardis, the dead church
*
Philadelphia, the faithful church
*
Laodicea, the lukewarm church
In the first letter, the Lord calls the church at Ephesus to task for being the fruit of shallow soil; they began with much love and great and good works, but they have lost their zeal. About the only thing in their favor is that they are pure. They test everyone and find out the false apostles and teachers.
The second letter to the Smyrna church is short and glowing in praise for the small church that bravely faces death.
But the church at Pergamum he criticizes for accepting the morality and practices of the culture around them. It's no accident that he mentions Balak and Balaam, which to Jews instantly calls up the impure mixing of the nation, adultery, and idol worship.
Even in Rome the temples were built with two fronts. You brought in your meat for sacrificing through the temple door, and the priest inspected the meat to be sure it was of the finest quality, and then took some of it to burn on the altar. The rest went out the back door, where there was a storefront, and that meat was sold to raise money for the temple.
Now the question for Christians was: Could you eat meat that had been part of pagan worship? For some, it was a tempest in a teapot: idols are not real, so the worship is not real, of no consequence. But for others, bending at all was to accept that idol worship was real. And to buy the meat was to support the temple worship. It was a big question, and Paul addresses it in 1 Corinthians. The answer he gives is: If what you do causes the weaker brethren to stumble, don't do it. Even if you know it is not evil, avoid the appearance of evil, because others may not be so discerning in their vision. The strong need to set examples for the weak.
John goes further. He is at great pains to point out that non-believers, even enemies of God, look just like true believers. All that glitters is not gold. And what sounds like truth may not be the truth. This is why gossip and rumors can be very dangerous, he tells the church at Smyrna. To Pergamum the Lord says, "I will make war on you with my two-edged sword."
Revelation deals with the broad sweep of the end of time, and never mentions the name of individuals, except here. Antipas, a faithful one, a witness, was martyred at Pergamum. Probably because he stood out as different from the culture around him. He was probably made an example to frighten and intimidate the Christians and keep them from standing for their beliefs. Apparently, it worked.
A sword divides; it cuts; it kills. The sword of the Word of God divides us from the rest of the world. We can't blend in; we have to be different. That's what it means to be the salt of the earth, a city set on a hill. The sword of the Word of God kills our old self and cuts us off from our earthly desires. The war rages on about us, but we are a scene apart, a story within a story within an epic, and what we do, who we are, makes us different from the world, still a part of it, but different from it.
A church tends to have a personality. Ephesus has endurance. Smyrna has faith and courage in the face of persecution. Pergamum has compromised itself with the society around it. You can't tell the Christians at Pergamum from the pagans. They need to break their habit and get out of their rut.
For John of Patmos, the victory of the Lord at the end of time is sure and certain, and there is comfort for the believers, and an uncounted multitude will be saved. He warns Ephesus that for some, the lampstand will be removed. They could lose their church. They could lose their salvation. For Smyrna he has the promise of a crown of life for the faithful. For Pergamum he promises the hidden manna and the new name on the white stone.
Lots of people say they are Christian, believers in Christ. But what they believe doesn't make a difference in their lives. They want to blend in, to live in the same kind of houses, drive the same car, dress the same way and be like the rest of the world. But Christians are not called to be like the rest of the world. You know the old question, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" Part of the evidence is to be different from the rest of the world.
For this Lent, we have a vision of the Lord of the Church who knows our suffering because he has given his blood for us, and it is in his name that we have patient endurance, test all who come among us, constantly renew our enthusiasm in faith, even to being different from the world around us.
Lord, help us to be different in a guile-less righteousness that says no to everything that makes it more difficult to say yes to you.
