The Revelation of Jesus Christ – Worship and Witness in a Winner-Takes-All World (3)
September 25, 2022Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Cultural critic Wendell Berry pointed out that “A crowd whose discontent has risen no higher than the level of slogans is only a crowd. But a crowd that understands the reasons for its discontent and knows the remedies is a vital community, and it will have to be reckoned with.… How superficial and foolish we would be to think that we could correct what is wrong merely by tinkering with the institutional machinery. The changes that are required are fundamental changes in the way we are living.” (World-Ending Fire, 51)
I suggest that this is applicable to the church. There are plenty of church critics today filled with all sorts of slogans about why the church is failing. But they are often just a noisy crowd. To borrow Berry’s language: a church that understands the reasons for its discontent and knows the remedies is a vital community, and it will have to be reckoned with…. How foolish that church would be if it though that it could correct what is wrong by merely tinkering with the way we do church. The changes that are required are fundamental changes in the way we are living.
The book of Revelation, written as it was to a church world that was largely unhealthy, when understood properly, identifies the problems and prescribes the remedies required to make the fundamental changes necessary in the way we are living.
Join us in worship as we begin to explore the messages to the 7 churches and, in particular, the message to the church in Ephesus (2:1-7).