Patrick Comerford
The celebrations of Epiphany-tide continue today (13 January 2023), and tomorrow is the Second Sunday of Epiphany (14 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 remembers Hilary (367), Bishop of Poitiers, Teacher of the Faith; Kentigern or Mungo (603), Missionary Bishop in Strathclyde and Cumbria; and George Fox (1691), founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers).
Before this days begins, however, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection. My reflections each morning during the seven days of this week have included:
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 Light of the World’ by Holman Hunt, inspired by words in the Letter to Laodicea: ‘Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me’ (Revelation 3: 20)The Churches of the Book of Revelation: 7, Laodicea:
Laodicea is seventh among 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 seventh letter in these two chapters is addressed to the Church in Laodicea (Revelation 3: 14-22), which is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, and is called on to be earnest and repent (3: 19).
In the letter from Patmos, the Church in Laodicea is reprimanded: ‘I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth’ (Revelation 3: 15-16).
This seventh and last letter is addressed to the Church in Laodicea, a proud and wealthy city near Colossae. Laodicea on the Lycus (Λαοδίκεια πρός τοῦ Λύκου), once known as Diospolis (the City of Zeus) and as Rhoas, is about 160 km east of Ephesus.
This ancient metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana was built on the River Lycus, 10 km south of Hierapolis, near the present village of Eskihisar in Asia Minor, by Antiochus II Theos ca 261-253 BCE in honour of his wife Laodice.
As I walked barefooted from Hierapolis, with its hot water pools, down through the white calcified terraces of Pamukkale with their pools of bright blue water, the water became noticeably cooler underfoot during the descent. Finally, when I reached the bottom of the terraces, there was a café named Laodicea that innocently proclaimed: ‘Hot and Cold Foods Served Here.’
During that walk through the white terraces of Pamukkale back in 2005, I also thought of George Fox, who is remembered in the Church Calendar today (13 January), and he trudged bare-footed and ragged through the snow-covered Market Square in Lichfield in 1651, denouncing the city as he cried out, ‘Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield.’
At first, Laodicea had little importance, and in 188 BCE it passed to the Kingdom of Pergamum. Under Roman rule, Laodicea prospered because of its advantageous position on a trade route and became an important and flourishing commercial city that minted its own coins and with its prosperity built on banking, money transactions and an extensive trade in black wool.
It was also known as a centre for the arts, science and literature, and had a famed medical school. It was also a centre for the worship of Zeus, Aesculapius, Apollo and the imperial cult.
Antiochus the Great transported 2,000 Jewish families to Phrygia from Babylon, and so at the time the Book of Revelation was written Laodicea had a large Jewish community, which sent large donations each year to the Temple in Jerusalem.
Perhaps because of this large Jewish community, Laodicea became an early seat of Christianity with its own bishop. Laodicea is mentioned in passing in the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, and the Church in Laodicea may have been founded by the Epaphras of Colossae, who shared the care of it with Nymphas, in whose house the Church assembled.
Paul asks the Colossians to communicate to the Church of Laodicea the letter he sends them, and to read publicly a letter that should come to them from Laodicea – perhaps one he had written himself or was about to write, to the Laodiceans. In addition, some Greek manuscripts end I Timothy with the phrase: ‘Written at Laodicea, Metropolis of Phrygia Pacatiana.’
The first three named bishops associated with Laodicea are identified with people named in the New Testament: Archippus (Colossians 4: 17); Nymphas, identified with a man named Nymphas or, according to the best manuscripts, a woman named Nympha (see Colossians 4: 15); and Diotrephes (III John 9).
The Church in Laodicea survived its rebukes in this letter, and a famous Church council met there in the year 363.
The surviving archaeological ruins in Laodicea attest to its former greatness. They include the city’s stadium, gymnasium, and theatres, along with the remains of an aqueduct.
Verse 14: The ‘Amen’ is Christ himself.
Verses 15-16: No other Church is rebuked as sternly and as harshly as the Church in Laodicea. The church is as unpalatable as the local water which has come from the hot springs in Hierapolis (Pamukkale), and has been cooled and polluted as it drips down through the encrusted, calcified terraces on the hillsides above Laodicea. This lukewarm water is now so polluted and so poisoned, it is better to spit it out.
Verse 17: Although this is a rich, proud, boastful city, the people spiritually are quite the opposite.
Verse 18: Those who have grown rich through banking and money-changing do not know the true value of real, refined, golden faith. They need to replace their black wool garments which are a sign of their prosperous trading with the white robes of baptism and true worship.
These people are also spiritually blind, and need fresh spiritual insight. Laodicea was famous at the time for the eye medicine produced locally from powdered Phrygian stone. There is a touch of irony here as the city that is famous for its eye medicine is home to Christians who are blind to their own condition.
Verse 20: Christ stands at the door, knocking. This image has inspired Holman Hunt’s painting, ‘The Light of the World.’ If we open door to Christ, then we can sit with him at the banquet, at the Eucharist.
Verse 21: Although no other church among the seven is rebuked as harshly as the Church in Laodicea, nevertheless Christ says that those who are victorious will sit with him on the Throne of God.
As with all seven churches, the church in Laodicea 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: 22).
Mark 2: 13-17 (NRSVA):
13 Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. 14 As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.
15 And as he sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax-collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples – for there were many who followed him. 16 When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax-collectors, they said to his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax-collectors and sinners?’ 17 When Jesus heard this, he said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’
Today’s Prayers (Saturday 13 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), has been: ‘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 (13 January 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Let us reflect today that all human life belongs to God. We have been created in the image of God, crowned with dignity and honour.
The Collect:
Everlasting God,
whose servant Hilary
steadfastly confessed your Son Jesus Christ
to be both human and divine:
grant us his gentle courtesy
to bring to all the message of redemption
in the incarnate Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of truth,
whose Wisdom set her table
and invited us to eat the bread and drink the wine of the kingdom:
help us to lay aside all foolishness
and to live and walk in the way of insight,
that we may come with Hilary to the eternal feast of heaven;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect on the Eve of Epiphany 2:
Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
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.
Yesterday’s reflection (Philadelphia)
Continued tomorrow (Saint Timothy)
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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