Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

1 Kings 18:17-21 and Revelation 3:14-22

It’s that time of year again. As the weather outside moves slowly from Fall toward Winter, inevitably there are complaints about the temperature in the sanctuary. Some people show up in coats and complain that the temperature is too cold. Others show up in short sleeve shirts and complain that it is too hot. Inevitably, someone goes to the sound booth or ushers asking if we can set the thermostat up while a minute later someone else asks if we can turn it down.

Here is the irony. The thermostat in the sanctuary is set at exactly the same temperature as it was last month and the month before that. It is not the temperature of the sanctuary that is changing. The reason we feel hot or cold is that we feel the changes in the outside temperatures. Cold evenings and cooler mornings leave some of us feeling colder as we enter the sanctuary. Others come from the cool outside into the sanctuary and assume that someone has been turning the thermostat up. The problem is that our internal thermometers are off during changing seasons.

What is the difference between a thermometer and a thermostat?

Thermometers merely record the existing temperature. The weather reporters give us the highs and lows at the end of each day. They look at the thermometer and see what the temperature is. Thermometers adjust to the changing climate.

Thermostats, on the other hand, do more than merely record what the temperature is, they can change the temperature. If we set the thermostat at 75 degrees for the sanctuary, it notices when the temperature gets too cold and turns up the heat to bring it back up to the desired temperature. Likewise the thermostat notes when the sanctuary gets too hot during a full service and turns on the air conditioning. It refuses to accept the shifting climate. It imposes a temperature.

Are we thermometers or thermostats?

Most of us are familiar with the “frog in the kettle” idea. Supposedly, you put a frog in a boiling pot of water it will immediately jump out and save its life. However, you can place a frog in a cool kettle and slowly raise the temperature of the water until you boil the frog. Any time it could have jumped out of the kettle and saved itself. But since a frog is cold blooded, it lacks an internal thermostat and merely adjusts to the external temperature.

This week we wrap up our series on the seven letters of Jesus to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation. We have seen each week that Jesus compliments certain things going on in these churches and challenges other things. In most of these letters we’ve balanced Jesus compliments with criticisms. “You are doing well in this matter, but I have this against you….”

However, in his letter to the church at Laodicea, Jesus gives no compliment. This is a letter of criticism. Jesus immediately begins critiquing their failure to take a stand. “You are neither hot nor cold.” They have become nothing more than a thermometer recording and reflecting the prevailing temperature of their society. Jesus sounds his harshest words of warning to this church. Let’s see if there is something here for us.

Read Revelation 3:14-22.

A lady, new to San Diego, called 9-1-1 asking for the fire department. “I’ve got a fire in my house, please help!” The 9-1-1 operator remained calm as she responded, “Can you tell me where it is?” “Yes, it’s in the kitchen but I think it is spreading to the dining room.” “No, I mean, how do we get to it?” “You come in off the back porch.” “Lady, how do we get to your house?” There was a pause and then the lady said, “Doesn’t San Diego have fire trucks?”

Jesus wanted someone to set the Laodicean church on fire. “You are neither hot nor cold.” He was looking for a thermostat to relight the fires of passion for God.

What happened at Laodicea? The answer is simple but surprising. They were too successful. In their early energy and zeal for Christ they had grown and prospered. Then in their prosperity they became lackadaisical and compromised with the world. Instead of being a thermostat that holds to God’s commands and standards, they became a thermometer that merely reflected the prevailing views of their surroundings. They became nothing more than a thermometer.

Did you know we can fail from too much success?

James Collins’ recent book How The Mighty Fall explores the problems of large successful businesses that fail. How can they fail when they have a glorious history of success? These are corporations that once dominated their fields and were outstanding examples to others. But a generation later they collapsed. He records five steps of failure in leadership that leads to business collapse.

The first step catches us off guard as much as Jesus’ words to the church at Laodicea. The seeds of failure are planted in the midst of success. In the midst of prosperity and success we fail to see the beginning of problems. We assume that our ideas that worked for a while and brought us success will keep working forever. Lack of humility and assuming that we are entitled to continue being a leader blinds us to the first signs of problems mounting.

Interesting that a modern scholar who studies how corporations work would use the same images that we find in this letter of revelation. Our success blinds us. Jesus warned them that they were blind because they did not know they were in trouble. They thought they were still doing fine based on their success and prosperity of the past. “It worked before, nothing can stop us now.”

This hubris based on past success historically has brought down the great empires of Egypt, Rome, Britain and will eventually lead to our collapse as well. In the midst of prosperity, it is hard to notice the dangers on the horizon. We become contented frogs even while the temperature of the kettle continues to rise.

According to Jim Collins, later steps toward failure include denial that there is a problem and refusal to take the risks necessary to turn the ship around. By the time we identify problems, it is common for successful leaders to react with denial. “That can’t be right. Why it’s always worked for us in the past.” Entitlement and denial keep us from working the problem and trying to figure out what is going wrong. We refuse to listen to critics and become defensive.

If we go too far down the steps of failure we end with the final step of capitulation and despair. The leaders realize it is too late and lose all sense of hope. They give up and quit trying.

Jesus holds out hope to the church of Laodicea. “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” Jesus waits patiently at the door and keeps knocking. He wants to be part of their church again. He offers to help.

In St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, there is a famous old painting that has been tied to the words of Revelation 3:20. The artist, Holman Hunt, in 1853 wanted to portray the moment when he allowed Jesus to enter his life. You might have seen a print of this famous picture.

The painting is titled “Light of the World” and shows Jesus holding a lamp in the darkness as he raps politely at a door. Jesus is portrayed in a Renaissance image of robe and crown. The door itself, intriguingly, has no handle. Jesus has no way to open the door; it must be unlatched and opened from the inside. Often preachers over the years have pointed to the lack of a doorknob to make the point that we must open the door to Jesus from inside our souls.

I want to focus on something else in the picture. A careful study of the painting shows that the top of the door is overgrown with ivy. The path where Jesus stands is in the midst of a lush garden. The garden is ready for harvest, even going to seed in the midst of its abundance of fruit. It represents the success and prosperity of the industrial age. The artist was commenting on his and his generation’s success and prosperity that had given them so much but kept Jesus out. His paintings were highly regarded across the British Empire. He had done well in the art field.

There is, however, an interesting aspect to the painting. Since St. Paul’s Cathedral is in downtown London, over the years the painting had become grimy and dirty. Some years ago the cathedral authorities sent the painting out to be cleaned and restored. The restorers took it out of its frame and discovered a personal note the artist had penned into a corner of the painting. In humility the painter, Holman Hunt, had written, “Forgive me, Lord Jesus; that I kept you waiting so long.”

This successful artist, whose paintings had been circulated around the British colonies with great fanfare, saw his own need to humble himself before Jesus. Isn’t that what Jesus is asking of the Laodicean church? He asks them to answer the knock at the door. What might that look like for us to answer the knock at the door?

Years ago a woman in her seventies in Melbourne, Australia decided to follow Jesus. She tried to find a place in the local church where she could serve, but had trouble making a connection. She made an appointment with the local pastor to ask how she might serve. Nothing the pastor discussed seemed to connect for her. Finally, the pastor suggested she simply pray and ask the Lord what she might do with her gifts and talents. After weeks of prayer she had an idea. Some might even call it a vision.

She went to a store and bought a package of 3X5 cards. She then spent an entire day handwriting on the cards this simple invitation. “Are you lonely? If so, come to my home for tea at 4 o’clock.” She put her address at the bottom and then posted the cards around the campus of the nearby university. She returned to her home and made her afternoon pot of tea and sat waiting for a guest at four o’clock. Nobody came. She repeated her daily schedule, making her pot of tea and waiting for a knock on the door each day at four o’clock. One week turned into two weeks with no guests. Then, on the third week, she heard a knock at the door. It was a homesick young man from Indonesia.

She welcomed him to sit and visit. She listened and served tea. He talked about how much he missed his family. That afternoon when he left he told his roommate about this friendly lady who served tea at her house at 4 o’clock. Pretty soon his friends were joining him at her house at four o’clock. She served tea and listened.

For the last ten years of her life she served tea to students at her house at 4 o’clock. At her funeral eighty college students and recent graduates asked if they could serve as pall bearers. Many of them had become Christians as a result of her hospitality.

Last week we discovered that Jesus presented an open door and we asked ourselves what was the open door in each of our lives. This week we conclude the Revelation sermons with another door image. Jesus stands at the door and knocks. Will you open the door and let him into your life?