Lenten Midweek 2, 2025

Text: Revelation 2:12-17

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Dear Church, 

This letter is from the one with the sharp, two-edged sword.  This sword comes from my mouth.  The sword is my word.

Like a surgeon’s scalpel, my words cut into you, into your very heart.

The goal is not to kill, but to bring life and healing.

The goal is to cut out those cancerous thoughts, words, and actions that would do you harm and bring you to destruction.

Dear Church,

Like those in Pergamum, you dwell where Satan’s throne is.

In Pergamum there were temples to dozens of false gods.  These shrines are not harmless cultural centers, but they are demonic.

False religions lead their followers to Hell.

You live in an age of tolerance.  You live where Satan has deceived and confused most of your neighbors, and even your own friends and family. 

In Pergamum sexual liberty was embraced, as in the days of Balaam.  There at Beth Peor the sons of Israel committed adultery with the daughters of Moab, and twenty-four thousand died in a plague.

Likewise today, even those in the church have forsaken my Word for the lies of Satan.

You cannot treat divorce as though it’s not a big deal.

You cannot affirm that sleeping together, living together apart from marriage is good and right, even if it’s members of your own family.

You cannot mix pornography with your prayers.

You cannot go to a pride parade on Saturday and come to my house on Sunday.

Dear Church, 

Repent!  If you will not have me as you Lord, you will have me as your enemy, and I will fight against you.

I know that repentance is hard.

I know that it’s easier to make excuses and point out the faults of others.

I know it’s hard to admit that you are wrong.

Look at my servant, Peter.  

He was there at my baptism.  He saw the dove and heard the very voice of God.  He distributed the five loaves and carried a basket picking up the leftovers.  He walked on water.  He was there when the sea went from tempest to calm at my words.  He saw me transfigured on the mount alongside Moses and Elijah.

And yet three times Peter denied me.  Only when he had to look me in the eye and remember my words did Peter realize what He had done and repented.

Remember my words to you.  No matter how often you deny me, no matter how many times you fail me, you are always welcome back, so long as you are truly sorrowful and repent.

Dear Church, 

If you conquer, if you resist the urge to satisfy the desires of your flesh, if you repent and return when you fail, I will feed you with the bread of heaven.

Centuries ago, manna fell from heaven to sustain the Israelites during their sojourn in the wilderness.  It was their daily bread.

After I fed over 5,000 people from five loaves of bread, I said to them, “Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

I am the bread from heaven that is for you. I give you my body to eat in the bread of the eucharist.  It will sustain you as you journey through the wilderness of this age towards the glory of the age to come.

I will also give you a white stone with a new name.

White is for purity, for holiness.  You have been made pure and holy in Holy Baptism, your robe washed white in my blood.

A new name is a new identity, a new you.

And that new name is my name.  Your name is now Christian.

Dear Christian,

Repent, and I will make you pure and new.
Love, Jesus 

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