Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (11 January 2023). The week began with the First Sunday of Epiphany (7 January 2024).
Christmas is a season that lasts for 40 days that continues from Christmas Day (25 December) to Candlemas or the Feast of the Presentation (2 February).
Today, the Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship also remembers Mary Slessor (1915), Missionary in West Africa. Before today begins, I am taking some time for reading, reflection and prayer.
My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week include:
1, A reflection on one of the seven churches named in Revelation 2-3 as one of the recipients of letters from Saint John on Patmos;
2, the Gospel reading of the day;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
The Churches of the Book of Revelation: 5, Sardis:
Sardis is one of the seven churches in Asia Minor to receive a letter from Saint John as he describes his revelation on Patmos: Ephesus (Revelation 2: 1-7), Smyrna (Revelation 2: 8-11), Pergamum (Revelation 2: 12-17), Thyatira (Revelation 2: 18-29), Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), Philadelphia (Revelation 3: 7-13) and Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22).
The fifth letter in these chapters is addressed to the Church in Sardis (Revelation 3: 1-6), which is admonished for being spiritually dead, despite its reputation, and it is told to wake up and repent (3: 2-3).
Sardis, or Sardes (Σάρδεις) is modern Sartmustafa in the Manisa province of Turkey.
Sardis stood in the middle of the Hermus Valley, about 4 km south of the Hermus. Today, the village of Sart is close to the main road from Izmir to Ankara, about 72 km from Izmir (Smyrna). It was an important city because of its military strength, its place on an important highway leading from the interior to the Aegean coast, and its position commanding the wide and fertile plain of the Hermus.
The earliest reference to Sardis is by Aeschylus in The Persians (472 BCE). In the Persian era, it was captured from the fabulously wealthy and greedy King Croesus by Cyrus the Great, whose consequent wealth is referred to in Isaiah 45: 3.
Sardis then became the end station for the Persian Royal Road which began in Persepolis. During the Ionian Revolt, the Athenians burnt the city, and Sardis finally surrendered to Alexander the Great in 334 BCE.
At the time the Book of Revelation was written, Sardis was a city known for its luxury and licentiousness. It was a centre of the imperial cult and had a great temple dedicated to Artemis, built along similar lines to the temple in Ephesus.
The remains at Sardis include the bath-gymnasium complex, the synagogue and Byzantine shops. The recent discovery of the large synagogue in Sardis has reversed previous assumptions about Judaism in the later Roman Empire, and provides evidence for the continued vitality of Jewish communities in Asia Minor into the third or fourth century at a time when many scholars previously assumed that Christianity had eclipsed Judaism.
The name Sardis may have been the origin of the word Sephardic, which describes many Jewish communities of Oriental and Mediterranean origin. A place named ‘Sepharad’ is mentioned in the Book of Obadiah, where the prophet refers to the exiles from Jerusalem in Sepharad. There is no scholarly consensus om to the geographical location of the original Sepharad: some scholars suggest locations in Mesopotamia, Sardis in Asia Minor, or Sparta in Greece. However, from late Roman times, some Jews assumed Sepharad referred to Spain, so that by the Middle Ages Sepharad was the normal term used by Jews to refer to Spain.
Sardis remained one of the great cities of western Asia Minor until the later Byzantine period. By the 19th century, Sardis was in ruins.
Verses 1 and 2: The Church in Sardis is addressed by Christ as the one who has the seven spirits and the seven stars of God. The letter implies that the people of Sardis were notoriously soft and faint-hearted. They appear to be alive but may as well be dead, appear to be awake but are asleep. The church exists only in name and not in deed.
Verse 3: The image of being the unsuspecting and unprepared victim of a cunning thief is particularly apt for Sardis: the city was twice captured, first by Cyrus and then Antiochus III because no guard was posted above the steep slopes. The Church in Sardis is now in danger of finding out that it is what has been stole.
Verse 4: Yet, there is a faithful remnant within the Church, who have not soiled their clothes.
Verse 5: White robes are the robes of baptism and the robes of pure worship. The Letter says that Christ will grant to those who are pure in this world a white robe and walk with Christ. The white robes or garments point to the resurrected body. The book of life is the register of God containing the names of the redeemed (see Exodus 32: 32; Psalm 69: 28; Daniel 12: 1; Malachi 3: 16).
As with all seven churches, the church in Sardis is called on to hear the message: ‘Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches’ (Revelation 3: 6).
Mark 1: 40-45 (NRSVA):
40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
Today’s Prayers (Thursday 11 January 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is: ‘Whom Shall I Send’ – Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Davidson Solanki, USPG Regional Manager, Asia and the Middle East.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (11 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Help us remember Lord, in all that we do, that we are all your children. We are all equal.
The Collect:
Eternal Father,
who at the baptism of Jesus
revealed him to be your Son,
anointing him with the Holy Spirit:
grant to us, who are born again by water and the Spirit,
that we may be faithful to our calling as your adopted children;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Lord of all time and eternity,
you opened the heavens and revealed yourself as Father
in the baptism of Jesus your beloved Son:
by the power of your Spirit
complete the heavenly work of our rebirth
through the waters of the new creation;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Heavenly Father,
at the Jordan you revealed Jesus as your Son:
may we recognize him as our Lord
and know ourselves to be your beloved children;
through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Yesterday’s reflection (Thyatria)
Continued tomorrow (Philadelphia)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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