We remember this last letter to the seven churches for the imagery of Jesus standing at a door and knocking, and we know this metaphor describes how Jesus pleads to be allowed into the life of every individual. At the same time, we should not limit this imagery and this passage as applying only to individual relationships with Jesus, but consider how it applies to churches. It is easy to overlook that John sent the book of Revelation to seven actual churches in these seven cities. Every corporate body of believers would benefit from considering the messages directed to these seven churches, particularly the disturbing image of Jesus knocking on the door of a church, asking to be let in.

The start of this specific letter labels the Laodicean church as "lukewarm", referring to the nearby hot spring water that was tepid by the time the waters reached the town. I think the intention of the term "lukewarm" was not that the intensity of the church had been "chilled" by external enemies or internal fighting, as mentioned in some of the other six letters. Instead, the church's heat energy wafted away unnoticed, as the church carried on their normal activities.

We have many ways in modern churches that we might allow God's heat to escape as we devote ourselves to what seems right and neglect what we are called to be:

• When we want to leave worship "feeling good", we may have placed ourselves as the focus of the worship experience rather than God. Experiencing God in worship is intended to make us stronger followers, not happier participants.
• When we are "fascinated" by scripture passages, we may have substituted an intellectual exercise for the literal soul-searching God's Word challenges us to do.
• We may become so eager to create a "warm and friendly" church environment for our visitors and members that we substitute social interaction for spiritual involvement.
• We may become so enthused over important causes—and this applies equally to "conservative" and "liberal" causes—that we crowd out the Kingdom of God. We might think Jesus was harsh in Matthew 26:11 when He said "For you always have the poor with you: but you don't always have Me," but we need this reminder that we must continually set aside our passions so we can follow our First Love.
• When we start thinking so much about "marketing" ourselves to the community and how to "effective organize" our church, borrowing wise techniques from the corporate world, we may be relying on ourselves instead of choosing to depend on God.

Jesus summarized the Word in two commands to love God and love others. We can devote ourselves in the most honorable ways to loving others, but if we overlook devoting ourselves to God, Jesus stands outside our church, knocking, hoping to be heard.

Fortunately, this passage prescribes the cure for lukewarm churches. Jesus told the Laodicean church that they thought they were rich—doing good work and growing the Kingdom—but they actually were wretchedly poor. The astonishing economic instruction is to "buy from Me gold". Give Jesus pitiful beggar's rags as payment for royal robes. Spend our pennies to purchase incredible wealth from Jesus. Obviously Jesus doesn't need our "rags" and "pennies", but we as individuals and we as churches have to give up everything that separates us from Him, especially when we are defensive about the inherent "good" of our activities.

This is not a New Testament idea. In Genesis chapter 22, Abraham obediently followed God's command to sacrifice his miraculously born son, Isaac, to God. Everyone who reads this passage is horrified at the thought that God would instruct Abraham to murder his boy. Abraham himself was devastated at the command, but he had learned over the decades that his primary allegiance had to be to God. We at churches have to trust God just as Abraham did, either for God to stop the sacrifice before the miracle is ended, or to have a better plan to replace what we give up. So, we need to measure what we think we do well against what God calls us to do:

• Worship always must be about God rather than how we feel.
• Scripture must challenge the soul first, then the mind, the heart, and the body.
• We must welcome visitors and members to experience God, with our churches as no more than the "clay jars" to carry God to others.
• Our first cause must always be to love God and love others, and no other great work or passion that we undertake must ever overshadow those two commandments.
• We must choose to be dependent on God in all decisions and all activities, because it is too easy and too natural to depend on ourselves instead.

That last point leads us to what at first appears to be a contradiction in the metaphors used for the letter to the Laodiceans. The last images correctly reveals Jesus as the King of Kings, so how is it that a great king is left to forlornly knock at a door? How does it happen that Jesus would move from the reason a church exists to an outsider asking to be let in?

It happens very quietly.

Jesus is unlike every other successful leader the world has ever known. Earthly rulers enforce their commands, but Jesus taught that God sends the rain on both the just and the unjust. Successful leaders convey their plans with strong persuasion and coerce the cooperation of their opposition, but Jesus does not chase us when we walk away. There is nothing more than a pang in our individual consciences that we are adept at ignoring when we pull away from Jesus, and we find this is even easier when we work in a group with others.

Many scripture scholars have noted that because we are called to be "living sacrifices" to God, it is simple for us to step off the sacrificial altar and walk away. It is up to us, as individuals and as churches, to notice that we have wandered off and return, over and over again, to offer ourselves as sacrifices to God.