Grace Notes // Letters to the Churches
To the Church of Thyatira, “Step Up”
Written by Trinity Johnson
This Sunday, Pastor Holly guided us through the letter John wrote to the church in Thyatira. The message she delivered released the challenge Jesus embedded in this letter: step up. Jesus draws a clear line in the sand for his followers between the ways of the world and the ways of the Kingdom.
Fast backward to Thyatira and imagine yourself in their shoes: It is the year 100 AD, and you are an artisan--a potter to be exact. Thankfully, you live in Thyatira, a city known for trade, so there’s a decent amount of business. Your neighbors span the artisan spectrum with occupations ranging from tanners to weavers to robe-makers. For the most part, life is predictable: you create pottery, make money to support your family, and engage in the activities of the Potter’s guild. As a member of the Potter’s guild, you are expected to worship the potter’s god (likely Apollo, the sun God), give a monetary offering to him, sacrifice food to him, and perform sexual actions to worship him. These activities would not be a problem except for the fact that you are a follower of Jesus. Despite being the cultural expectation, the ways of the guilds are not compatible with the ways of the Kingdom, and you risk social ostracization when you do not engage in them.
Many believers in Thyatira held a tension that many of us are familiar with: they constantly straddled the line between the world and the Kingdom.
Our temptation as humans is to look the other way, to convince ourselves that ignorance is bliss. If I’m not aware of a line, there must not be one there to cross, right? In this letter, Jesus made the line abundantly clear--on this side is the way of Jesus and on the other is the way of the world.
Where in our lives are we straddling the line? On Sunday, Holly offered up an example of the Church straddling the line when choosing not to fight chronic injustices.
Believers and nonbelievers alike often ask the question: How could God allow so much pain and suffering in the world? I offer this response: “He’s asking us the same thing.” As the Church, the injustices of the world are on us. We have been allowing breakdowns in society to marginalize different communities for millennia thinking “Oh, someone else will fix that”.
And eventually, someone does.
What happens when the church does not step in? The world does--with a heart for fixing the problem but often without the values of the kingdom. In the vacancy left by the church, the world creates worldly solutions to Kingdom problems--an indictment on the church.
God has uniquely created each of us, as a potter shapes clay to create a pot. Every gift, every lesson learned, every burning in our heart has a divine purpose. Not only have we been divinely created, but also we have been gifted the authority of Jesus paired with the accountability of the Holy Spirit. We are part of God’s plan to right the wrongs of the world. And we have a role to play!
Let’s step up.
PROCESSING
Pray with Psalm 139. Be reminded of how intimately God knows you and ask Him to search your heart.
Where in my life do I hedge the line between the ways of the world and the ways of the kingdom?
What is one injustice in the world that makes my heart burn?
How can I further step into my authority (as a disciple of Jesus) to enact change?
SCRIPTURES
Psalm 139
John 14: 5-13
Amos 5:18-25