“7 Churches: Brickbats and Bouquets”
“3. God’s Message to Pergamum: One Another One Another”
Revelation 2:12-17 and John 15:7-17
“Repent then. If not, I will come to you soon and make war against them with the sword of my mouth.” (Revelation 2:16)
Last Saturday morning, I did go to Evansville to the seminar on bullying. This was held at the wonderful facility of the First Presbyterian Church. There was ample room for gathering, for displays, and for the presentation itself in the sanctuary. However, this seminar wasn’t sponsored by the church itself, but by the Evansville Consolidated School District and by a grant that had been received.
The speaker was Michael Dorn, a fifty-something internationally known expert and speaker on bullying, but also on terrorism. He speaks to agents of the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the N.S.A., and the counterparts to these organizations around the world. He has spoken to the Massad, for example, the Israeli security force. His ability to be in demand to speak to all of these groups is his premise (and proof) that bullying and terrorism have the same root causes and the same solutions. Think that we sometimes even say of an out-of-control child, “He (or she) is a holy terror.” We use the word “terror” ourselves, when speaking of people who may be out of control.
Michael main presentation consisted of telling of an eight-year-old boy who was terrorized by teenaged boys in the woods behind their homes. These teens did unspeakable things to the boy, whose name was Steven. Of course, the teenagers told Steven not to say anything, and of course, as usual, out of fear, Steven didn’t.
But, as we know, the repression of trauma comes out in many other ways. Steven became a loner. He sat by himself at school lunches. He quit participating in class. Everyone thought it was just a result of puberty, so basically they clamped down on him. Steven’s family moved around a lot, also. Steven’s family tried to help Steven by putting him in different schools. Once, a teacher finally had Steven tested, and he tested out to have dyslexia. But this wasn’t the problem; this was a symptom. If we fast-forward to Steven’s senior year, it was so bad in the school where he was, that Steven carried a loaded .357 magnum revolver with him at all times. He didn’t trust anyone; he couldn’t turn to anyone; he feared for his life, both in reality and imagined.
Finally, Steven got the help he needed through one ROTC instructor, although another ROTC instructor totally ignored him. He also got help through a Scout Master, a teacher, and a few others. And, what Steven attributed his turn-around to was that these and others “One Anothered” him. These and others cared enough to give of their time, talent, and sometimes treasure, to demonstrate and prove out the Biblical principle, “Greater love has no one than this than to give up their life for a friend.”
Now, in the seminar, Michael wouldn’t attribute the principle of “one anothering” to this Bible verse from John 15:13, but the principle that he bases pretty much his entire teachings on is this verse. It is the premise that each one of us should care about and reach out to others, even at an ultimate cost to ourselves.
The entire quote that comes from John 15:12-17 we read this morning. Listen to it again, only with Steven’s story in mind. Jesus said,
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made know to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
Jesus said, “I am giving you this principle that you may “one another one another.” The principle consists of looking at someone in a positive way with hope, rather than in a negative way with disdain. Next, it involves being willing to come along side of that person to “befriend” that person, and show them that they are a special person, at least to you. Next, we are to picture a positive future, a future that will be a fruit-bearing future for that person. Throughout all of these steps, we let the person know that we will always be there for them, that there is nothing they can do that will cause us to quit “one anothering” them.
Gary Smalley and John Trent, in their book The Blessing, have broken this “one anothering” principle into five steps,[1] especially applicable to our children, but applicable to folks at any age:
One, give the person a meaningful touch. This can be a hug or a handshake, just so it is sincere to be meaningful.
Two, give the person a positive spoken message. Refuse to let yourself “label” someone as “
a bad person.” Think of him or her as a child of God who has only done some bad stuff.
a bad person.” Think of him or her as a child of God who has only done some bad stuff.
Three, give the person “high value.” Put a high price of worth-whileness on his or her life. After all, again, he or she is a child of God, and “God don’t make no junk.”
Four, picture a special future for the person. This can be that they can “be anything they want to be” is helpful, but we also need to do some directional pointing to help discern what “fruit” the person will bear.
Five, we can make the commitment to help the person fulfill their dream, help the person bear fruit, help the person be the person of God God intended for them to be.
All five of these steps go into “one anothering one another.”
Oh, by the way, that 8-year-old boy named Steven. Want to know what finally happened? His full name is Michael Steven Dorn, the internationally known expert on bullying and terrorism and some solutions to both, who now gives important lectures on the topics.
Again, though, all of these solutions come down to one thing: Care enough to be there, to “one another one another.”
This is what the letter to the church at Pergamum is all about. It is a letter to the PCC – the Pergamum Christian Church – to one another one another, especially those who are doing things that are outside the Christian faith, such as holding to teachings other than Biblical teachings that is causing Christians to sin, such as eating food that has been sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.
But listen to this comment from Rev. Dr. Earl Palmer:
…at the heart of interpersonal hurtfulness and broken relationships is a basic confusion of primary loyalty. When a person worships other than the true God, the result is that a confusion sets in; there is a breakdown of personal identity because the “no gods” we choose to worship other than the true God always robs us of our own identity first of all; then what follows is an inevitable hurtfulness toward the persons of our lives.[2]
Here’s where our “one anothering” comes in. In this letter to the PCC, God is recognizing that the membership is living in the midst of an evil place. Pergamum was 65 miles north of Smyrna, 105 miles north of Ephesus, and had been named the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It had become the center of emperor worship in the Roman World. There were temples to Zeus, Athena, Nikephoids, Dionysus and several to Asklepios.[3] The worship of gods other than the one true God caused the recognition in the letter that the congregation existed in the midst of where Satan’s throne is.
This reminds me of the words from Isaiah 6, where,
In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty…and said, “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Only in the PCC, God is telling the members that they are living in the midst of cultic, even Satanic, stuff in which some of their folks are participating, and they aren’t doing anything about it and they need to do something about it. The members of the PCC who are faithful and worshipping the one true God need to “one another” those who are not.
The Lord first writes bouquets to the God-worshipping PCC members: Even though you are living where Satan’s throne is, you are holding fast to my name, and you did not (and do not) deny my name even (in the face of persecution).
But, here is the brickbat), you aren’t one anothering those in your membership that either aren’t worshipping me or are worshipping gods other than me and/or are sinning in your midst.
And, here’s the kicker: “You, the faithful members of the Pergamum Christian Church, need to repent of this lack, of this sin of letting others of your membership sin. It is your Godly duty to one another one another.”
God concludes the letter by saying, “You don’t want me to come down there with my two-edged sword and make war on those you need to one another. Instead, to everyone who “one another’s one another,” I will give three gifts:
First, some hidden manna. When folks worship me, they will feed on my word and it will nourish them fully.
Second, a white stone. This gift will identify the person as being healed by and in my word.
Third, they will be given a new name, a new identity to fulfill the identity distorted by sin, and healthy food from God’s word who knows of the human need to be fed and healed and made whole.[4]
In simplest terms, the name change will be from “sinner” to “forgiven.” The manna will be God’s word and love through prayer, the understanding of Scripture and through the bread and cup of Holy Communion. We have the word of God to share with each other, with which to one another one another.
May God bless us as we have an ear to hear and a faith to do! Amen.
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