Day 25 - Saturday, March 21
Rung #18: ON SPIRITUAL LAZINESS & STAGNATION 
Scriptures:  Revelation 2:1-3:22; 2 Corinthians 9:8; 2 Peter 1: 5-7
To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: “The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.

Poetry:
On the Beach at Night
by Walt Whitman

On the beach at night, 
Stands a child with her father, 
Watching the east, the autumn sky. 

Up through the darkness, 
While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading, 
Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky, 
Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east, 
Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter, 
And nigh at hand, only a very little above, 
Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades. 

From the beach the child holding the hand of her father, 
Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all, 
Watching, silently weeps. 

Weep not, child, 
Weep not, my darling, 
With these kisses let me remove your tears, 
The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious, 
They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition, 
Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge, 
They are immortal, all those stars both silvery and golden shall shine out again, 
The great stars and the little ones shall shine out again, they endure, 
The vast immortal suns and the long-enduring pensive moons shall again shine. 

Then dearest child mournest thou only for Jupiter? 
Considerest thou alone the burial of the stars? 

Something there is, 
(With my lips soothing thee, adding I whisper, 
I give thee the first suggestion, the problem and indirection,) 
Something there is more immortal even than the stars, 
(Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,) 
Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter 
Longer than sun or any revolving satellite, 
Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.

DEFEATING VICES & ACQUIRING VIRTUES                                                          

In 1978, the high wire artist Karl Wallenda fell to his death during a show in San Juan, Puerto Rico. His wife said that, after decades of success by focusing on walking the high wire, Wallenda did something he had never done before. In the three months prior to his death, he became obsessed with not falling.

This focus on failure (known in leadership literature as “The Wallenda Factor”) is a form of forgetting, forgetting about what is most important and what is central in one’s work or even in one’s life.

Sin, while described in various ways, whether personal or corporate, is at its heart a form of forgetting. Sin emerges through forgetting about God and allowing our eyes to relocate their attention to potential fears and failures, and to attractions that glitter like gold. As Isaiah admonished the people of Israel,

You have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You fear continually all day long because of the fury of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor? (51:13)

In the first three chapters of the book of Revelation, John responds to the call of Jesus and writes letters to the seven churches in Asia. The church in Ephesus is lauded for its endurance and good works, and yet is chastised because “you have abandoned the love you had at first” (2:4). Even in the midst of doing good, the church had forgotten its first love. Perhaps good works had become the church’s first love.

In our personal lives, we can easily forget our first love through something called “sin management.” We become acutely aware of our sins and our potential for failure, and our focus on not falling causes us to forget about God, who first loved us (I John 4:19). 

In Hong Yu’s work, Ladder to Heaven, we see a variety of people ascending and descending the ladder, most of them either distracted or weighted down by possessions. A few have fallen, and even then some do not seem overly concerned about their fate. Only the three at the top of the ladder appear to be focused on the journey to the ultimate destination.

Yes, sin is real. It comes out of the magnetic attraction to things that are not God. Even virtues like faith, goodness, knowledge, and self control (2 Peter 1:5-7) can become distractions when they are acted out in the absence of our first love. Virtues can turn into idols that become ultimate values in and of themselves. They can turn into harnesses and safety nets that mitigate our fear of falling. True virtues are expressions of our first love rather than accomplishments that qualify us for that love.

We need not live in fear (“Do not fear” is a common admonition in scripture), because God, our first love, continuously pours out his grace upon us (2 Corinthians 9:8). When we remember the God who first loved us, we are assured that there is no fear in love (I John 4:18).

Prayer: 
Lord,
We are surrounded by the memories and voices of so many faithful ones who have gone before us, ones who, like us, have struggled through sin and brokenness on their way to faithfulness. Let us also put aside the weight and the sin that tries to wrap us like a robe, and turn our eyes to Jesus, who has broken the power of sin through his death and resurrection. May we always look up, where faithfulness is perfected in him.
Amen.
(Adapted from Hebrews 12:1-2):

Michael McNichols, DMin
Affiliate Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies  
Fuller Theological Seminary

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https://ccca.biola.edu/lent/2020/#day-feb-25