I have always considered this applies to my church. The Reformed have toe or three flaws: we tend to intellectualize; we tend to distrust emotions, and we manage to acquire wealth. One of the signs people consider to see if you are of the elect — incorrectly, as the passage indicates — is that you are prosperous, have a good reputation: ignoring the need to see if you have managed your wife well and if the kids are sane.

Fervency and emotional involvement within the church are not optional. We are not following Buddha, disavowing and denying all desire. We are of Christ. Our desires should be for his kingdom.

Revelation 3:14-22

¹⁴“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God’s creation:

¹⁵“I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. ¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷For you say, ‘I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.’ You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. ¹⁸Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich; and white robes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen; and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ¹⁹I reprove and discipline those whom I love. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. ²⁰Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me. ²¹To the one who conquers I will give a place with me on my throne, just as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²²Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.”

You cannot blame this on the reformers. Calvin was a shy man, careful in his judgment, but passionate in his beliefs, And he was the tame one: consider Farel or Zwingli. Or, for that matter, Mennon — the Anabaptists were radical, passionately so, and the opponent Luther could be intemperate (if you want to put it politely). But they were men.

They did not speak or write thinking of political correctness or trying to avoid offending others. At times they were very offensive. The priests and theologians who defended the Catholic church — and in the next generation spearheaded the Counter-reformation — were just as blunt. You can accuse the men of those generations of many things, but cynical lukewarmness — was not one of them.

However, in these decaying times, you can see preachers treading oh so carefully, so they do not offend those sitting in the pews. As if we are but children, needing myths of the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus and Unicorns.

As if we cannot handle hard sayings. Our Lord did not and does not have that flaw. As a church, we are weak and cowardly. We have become unattractive. But we are not the owners of the church: christ is, and Christ has a habit of correcting his church, using discipline whenever needed. I would not say that he has caused us to feel the pain and shame of an epidemic of divorce and the subversion of the committees within the institution by the Marxist shock troops of feminism and homosexualism, but he has allowed it, for he is angry with us, and if we continue on this path we will be spat out, to become just another historical aberration, one with the Cathars, the Shakers or a living fossil like the Quakers and Amish.

In this season of Advent, we are supposed to be examining ourselves, despite the sales, the parties, and the shopping. We need to avoid the leaven of the Pharisees, understand that salvation does not come from scholarship but from Christ, and develop a bit of hatred of evil, disgust with cynicism, and fervor for righteousness. For Church history, along with the history of Israel, gives us clear warnings, and in this passage Jesus is speaking plain.