The Angel of the Church

Revelation 2: 1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14

Introduction; Listening to Jesus

Before reading and probing our texts from Revelation for their wisdom, let me set the stage for today's message.

You may remember from last Sunday that the sermon ended with questions that I promised I would answer today. How does a church listen to Jesus? How does Jesus tell a church its mission? Let me tell you a story of a man who learned how to listen to Jesus when it came to the mission of his life.

This is not an extraordinary story. Its power lies not in being unique but in being common to all who seek the mind of Christ. The Rev. Dr. Gary Davidson was a member of Mountview Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, where I served as pastor from 1990-1997. He was the director of the Ohio State Health Department laboratory in Columbus, work that he always understood as a calling, a ministry of healing. Gary was very good at both the medical and administrative parts of what he did. The prestige of his position, the opportunity to serve others, the money, everything was good.

Nothing was wrong in Dr. Davidson's life but intuitions and experiences and books and friends kept pointing out the possibility that there might be something more. Gary prayed often and began to sense that he was being steered towards Christian Ministry. Testing the waters, he enrolled part time in seminary, taking a few courses at a time at the Methodist Theological School of Ohio in Delaware. Then, one day, it seemed that the scales had tipped and he was leaning so strongly toward ministry that he had to set some things in motion that would lead him towards retirement from the health department.

In the meantime, things were changing at our church. A staff member left. We created an interim staffing plan. Once the plan was written, it was like the lights went on. I could read the writing on the wall. Even though I knew nothing about changes in Gary's status, I knew he was the person the church needed. We met at Gary's office. I told him about our plan and shared my conviction that he was the man. The words were hardly out of my mouth before Gary also felt the conviction that we would soon be doing ministry together. Dr. Gary Davidson was launched on the mission of the rest of his life. When I left Mountview, Gary also left to become the pastor of the Johnstown Baptist Church.

You may have noticed a number of words and phrases in the story I just told that describe the process of spiritual discernment, things we say when we are seeking to listen to the Spirit.

Intuitions and experiences and books and friends kept pointing
Prayed often
There might be something more
Being steered
Testing the waters
Had to set some things in motion
The lights went on
Also felt the conviction
The mission of the rest of his life

Individuals and churches have vocations, missions. They are given by God. God has many ways of leading us to fulfill or deepen or redirect our vocation or mission. And when we have lost partial, or complete, connection with the true purpose of our lives, God presses us towards what I call a, "Healing of Purpose"--so that we will not spiritually die but rather live abundantly for God. "Healing of Purpose" begins with love, love for self, love for church, love for God. You have all seen parents trying to force children to be what they were not, athletes when they were scholars, engineers when they were artists. Pastors have been known to try to force churches to be what they were not called by God to be. Lay people have tried to coerce a church into a mold suited to personal needs. Children and churches are called by God to a vocation and persons who love children and churches help to set them free to be God's people. We do not stuff children or churches into little boxes made of ticky-tacky.

The Angel Hears What the Jesus Speaks

With the stage set, I invite you to consider with me the, by far, most exciting revelation that has been given to me since I began to study the book of Revelation. Listen carefully as I read the opening words of seven verses from chapters two and three of the book of Revelation:

REV 2:1 "To the Angel of the church in Ephesus write:

REV 2:8 "To the Angel of the church in Smyrna write:

REV 2:12 "To the Angel of the church in Pergamum write:

REV 2:18 "To the Angel of the church in Thyatira write:

REV 3:1 "To the Angel of the church in Sardis write:

REV 3:7 "To the Angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

REV 3:14 "To the Angel of the church in Laodicea write:

Notice, please, what every verse has in common; everything, except the name of the church. John, in exile on the isle of Patmos, has been given a word of the Lord for each of the seven churches. The purpose of that word is to correct the deficiencies in each church so that there might be a "healing of purpose", a renewed commitment to its mission, a power in each church that might stand, against all enemies, on the side of God.

And, to whom in the church is each message addressed? To the official board? To the pastor? To the moderator? To the spiritual leaders? To the congregational meeting? To primary financial contributors? To the chair of a long range planning committee? Who should receive the instructions of Jesus when they are being sent to the First Baptist Church of Springfield? Who in the church has to hear or read the letter, understand the message, take appropriate corrective action, rededicate themselves to a mission, in order to do God's will? Who, having the power to make things happen, receives through John the very pointed instructions from Jesus on what is expected of the church?

In every case, it is the Angel of the church. Yes, that is what I said, the Angel of the church. No, as angelic as she is, I am not referring to Jocelyn Huffman. No, many of our members are saints but none that I know of are angels. Yes, I do understand that you have little or no idea what I am talking about. Please, those of you whose brains work with lightning efficiency, do not jump to a quick conclusion that you know what the Angel of the church is. So far, all that we know is that Jesus has sent a personal message to seven Angels of seven churches, apparently because Jesus knows that the Angels must hear the message if anything is going to change.

And we are compelled by this knowledge to ask, "Does the First Baptist Church of Springfield have an Angel?" And, if so, what message has Jesus sent, is sending or will send, to the Angel of our church? This all sounds pretty strange. What in the world is the Angel of the church?

Well, they are definitely not guardian Angels, entities of pure spiritual goodness who fly around protecting those they are called to serve. The Angels John addresses do not have identities separate from the churches they serve. The first thing we know about the Angels of churches is that churches and Angels live their lives concurrently. The Angel is alive when the church is alive. Birth a church on earth and the Angel is birthed in the spiritual realm.

The second thing we know about the Angels of churches is that the Angel must change if the church is to change. The church is healthy when the Angel is healthy. The church heals its purpose when the Angel is healed. We know it works this way because every word of instruction to churches in chapters two and three is addressed to the Angels. For example:

REV 2:14-15 "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans."

In every case, the "you" of these verses who is responsible for idolatry and sin is a single entity. The Greek pronoun for "you" is in every case a second person singular. It is the Angel who is guilty and it is the Angel that must repent. This is certainly not our usual way of understanding guardian Angels. Let me give you an illustration. Say that thirty years ago a pastor violated his calling and the trust of his church and family and had an affair with a church member. Everyone in the church lacked the courage to confront the pastor. This moral failure caused additional pain for the woman who was deeply wounded by her pastor's betrayal. But truth could not be told. And deep wounds took up residence in the spirit, the Angel, of the church. What do you think? How would those wounds impede the mission of the church? Thirty years later, what would have to happen for those wounds to come out of darkness into the light and be healed so the mission of the church could be healed?

The Angel Is…

So, what are these Angels? The Angel of a church comes into being in the spiritual realm at the exact moment that the church comes into being on the earth. I believe that the church on the earth is the church visible and the Angel is the church invisible. The Angel is the spirituality of the church, unseen but exercising enormous, even controlling, influence on the church's life. With the passage of time the Angels of churches collect into themselves all of the faithfulness and vision and kindness and courage that any person at any time has shared in the church. And, the Angel also collects all of the fear and the shortsightedness and the cruelty and the cowardice that have been shared by any person at any time. Nothing is forgotten. By way of the Angel, the church still is everything that it has ever been. If a wound in the body was never healed, it still bleeds in the Angel. If once upon a time a member set in motion an excitement about missions, that excitement still lives in the Angel and influences the church. The Angel is the corporate personality or spirit. The qualities of the Angel of the church are influenced just as much by the members and pastors of twenty years ago as by the members and pastors of today. First Baptist Church of Springfield is much, much more than what you can see. Send a message to only what you can see and most of what the church really is all about will not even hear your words. The collective personality, the collective history, the collective spirituality of the First Baptist Church of Springfield, the Angel of First Baptist Church of Springfield must also receive the message. And, according to Revelation, only Jesus can send that kind of a word from God. Jesus, and only Jesus, speaks to the spirit of the church. No amount of organizational development or psychological techniques can heal the purpose of the church. Something spiritual must happen if a church's mission is to be renewed. That is why a revelation was sent by way of John to the Angels of the churches at a critical moment when each church had to renew its commitment to its mission. That is why you will often hear me talking about listening for the word that the Spirit is speaking to the church.

The Angel as a Biblical tool for reflecting on the church

Unexpectedly, amazingly, we have found in the reality Revelation calls, "The Angel of the Church", a Biblical tool for reflecting on all that a church is-its identity or personality--and all that it is called to be-its vocation or mission. And we know, if we wish to be all that God calls us to be, we know, from our study of Revelation, what we must do.

We must get to know the Angel of our church. We must know as much as we can know about who we are. We must love the First Baptist Church of Springfield enough to tell and to hear told her story. In preparation for our planning meeting on January 24, I reread parts of our history. By knowing our history we come to know our Angel as a good, but demanding, friend who must to be consulted at every turn in the road. I, we all, get in all sorts of trouble if we forget to consider the collective spirit, history, personality of the church. For example, I am convinced that our Angel insists that we give continuing attention to the issue of racism in our city and our church. Some of the most intriguing stories in our history--one story I read dates back to 1850--concern this church's response to racial division. We have work to do. Race and class divide Springfield to this day and our mission includes being a light in this darkness.

(I wrote those words about a week ago and then went about my business as your pastor. Suddenly, unexpectedly, sadly, while out and about in our community, among Christians, I ran square into the darkness. Racism, ugly, demonic, only poorly disguised. Requiring a response. The good news was, I knew what to do. No ambiguity. No holding back. I knew as a Christian what to do and I knew what was required of me as your pastor by the Angel, the spirit, of our church. And so will you. When your time comes, when our time comes, we will know what to do.)

But, what if we don't like this mission? What if God gives the mission and the church says that is too difficult or frightening? What if the collective spirit of the congregation, the Angel, says that we want to do something easier? What then? Then the soul of the church is in peril. For example, imagine that God says, "First Baptist Church of Springfield, do a great mission project", or to use a Biblical image, "Build an ark". What if the church says, no--too risky or too expensive--then, the Angel of the church, in Revelation's terms, becomes a minion of satan. "The Angel of a church becomes demonic when the congregation turns its back on the mission set before it by God and makes some other goal its idol." What other goals are there that could become idols? Look at the seven churches of Asia. What are the idols? Luke-warm comfortableness, the culture's values, the safety of stuckness. A church commanded to do justice so as to change the world could settle for doing more acts of kindness that are good but not best, not what is required. A church commanded to break down barriers between the rich and the poor-to be one in Christ with the oppressed poor-might prefer to be a highly successful Christian club. Among the most popular idols of churches today are success and growth and political power. Just like we are free to be less than God calls us to be, so the church can settle for a fragment of the life God intends. But there is a terrible cost for such idolatry. (Walter Wink, Naming the Powers, p. 78)

CONCLUSION

Somewhere, encoded within the Angel, the church knows what it is called by God to do and to be. It's all there in the collective memory of the church, if we are willing to listen. There is only one way, in Revelation, for God's purpose to make its way into the consciousness of the church. A message must come from Jesus to the Angel--and--this is very important--it must come from Jesus to the Angel through a human intermediary. In the case of Revelation, that intermediary is John. He had been a pastor to these churches. He knew the people and he spoke their language. The word of the Lord that will enable First Baptist Church of Springfield to deepen its vocation, heal its purpose, discover its mission for this new millennium can be given to the church's Angel by your pastor, or any member, or any person who knows and loves the church and wants it to be and to become all God calls it to be. The word of Jesus to the Angel of the church can come through anyone who loves the church enough to surrender their personal agenda and seek a vision of God's plan and a promise of God's power to carry it out. If just once you hear a convincing word of the Lord that you are willing to share and willing to live in this church, others will pay attention, and suddenly, before your very eyes, the Angel of the church will be setting a course and taking risks that, only months before, were impossible in everyone's eyes but God's.

So be it. Amen