A story that ends with the transformation of the cosmos doesn't mean anything unless it begins in our hearts and the ways that we learn to love our neighbor well. Okay. Well, now let's go to the seven letters. Remember, Revelation is the same story told three times. Christ is victorious.

Christ is victorious in our hearts and the ways that we live with our neighbors. Christ is victorious in the world, which changes our politics and our economics and the ways that we live collectively. And Christ is victorious in the cosmos, and that which destroys hate and sin and death and brokenness and all of it has reached its end, Christ has overcome. But that story has to begin somewhere, and it has to begin in our relationships with each other. This is really important for John.

A story that ends with the transformation of the cosmos doesn't mean anything unless it begins in our hearts and the ways that we learn to love our neighbor well. And so the first section, these first four chapters, these seven letters, they read very much like epistles, advice to local churches about how to live well, but they are still very much part of an apocalyptic imagination. And I want to show you how that intersects, both the localization of how these seven letters find a purchase in specific communities and the way that that calls to a larger experience of what it means to be human that we can tap into some two thousand years later. So let's look specifically at one of the letters. I'm gonna go to chapter four here, the last letter, the one to Laodicea.

And I use this one because I think it's got one of the lines that's the most iconic. It says this, I know all the things that you do that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other. But since you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. We probably all heard that line at some point.

We may have even heard terrible sermons suggesting that God would rather you back away, never come to church again, be cold than be lukewarm. You've got to be on fire for God. That is not at all what this passage is saying. It says this: You say, I am rich and I have everything that I need. I do not want for a thing.

You don't realize though that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Poor and blind and naked. These are important. Keeps going. I advise you to buy gold from me, gold that has been purified by fire, then you will be rich.

I also advise you to buy white garments from me so that you will not be shamed by your nakedness, and to buy ointment for your eyes so that you will be able to see. All of these are very specific references to the economy of Laodicea. Laodicea are not persecuted. They're doing quite well. And the reason they're doing well is because of three particular drivers in their economy.

First, an ophthalmology school. You might be surprised to hear about ophthalmology schools in the ancient world, but they were there, obviously not as advanced as today. But there was a particular Phrygian powder that was cultivated and used here in Laodicea to treat certain eye infections, and there was a school that taught people how to do this. Second, there was a clothing economy that was built around a particular wool that came from a particular sheep that was cultivated in the Laodicean area, and that created a whole economy for black wool that was exported to other cities. And finally, there was a really robust banking sector in Laodicean, largely driven by the, travel that would come to the city, both for the ophthalmology school and for the wool.

And because of that, there was trade, there was a lot of banking that happened, and there was a lot of people that worked in that sector. So think about the story. Laodicea is doing well. They think they're rich because they have lots of gold in banking. They have fine, black clothing that they purchase and distribute, and they have an ophthalmology school that looks after people's eyes.

God critiques them and says, actually, here's my suggestion. You buy gold from me, not your banking sector. You buy white garments that symbolize purity from me, not the garments you get, you know, because they're black and they're well sought after and they're luxurious and they're popular, and that you buy salve from me to soothe your eyes so that you can see the world clearly, not rely on the Phrygian powder in the ophthalmology school that brings you a lot of money. This is a critique that is very specifically tailored to the city of Laodicea. They think they're self sufficient, but they're not.

And that brings us back to where it all starts, hot and cold and lukewarm. You see, Laodicea thinks of themselves as self sufficient, but the truth is the city was not. They were dependent on two sources of water, one from Hierapolis, the other from Colossi. Laodicea itself did not have any good fresh water. Now Colossi, unfortunately, was largely destroyed by an earthquake in around the seventies, but water still continued to flow towards them.

It was cold, freshwater springs that came up in the mountains of Colossi, and they would filter down, into through the Turkish heat, to, the city of Laosia. Now it was still clean water, still good to use, but it was not nearly as refreshing and clear as it came when it came out of Colossi. Second water source was Hierapolis, and Hierapolis was famous for these hot water mineral springs. People would actually go to Hierapolis to sit in these springs if they had wounds or infections, and the mineral water would help to cleanse that. Then they didn't understand all the science behind that, but it worked.

And that water would bubble out all warm, and it would also trickle down and make its way to Laodicea. Now, pretty dirty water at that point and full of minerals, not too good to drink, but it could be used for other things, for washing, for different things. It could also be boiled as well. But you end up with these two sources of water on the North and South Of Laodicea. One, cold, refreshing water that's coming from another study and being generously gifted to Laodicea.

The other, hot springs that have a medicinal property to them, and they, the same way, are being used and gifted to people in need, but they're trickling down and making their way to Laodiceum. Laodicea is just where it all collects. Lukewarm and kind of gross. Some of it fresh, some of it dirty, but all of it lukewarm pooling up, gathering towards Laodicea. And the critique here is don't be the kind of community that just passively allows gift and blessing and wealth to come to you and accumulate.

Be the kind of community that blesses those around you, that gives away. You can be cold, refreshing springs of water for those who need it. You can be healing hot springs that soothe those who are in pain and and need medical help. But just don't be the kind of community that passively accepts your wealth and your gift and your blessing and never gives back to anyone else because that is lukewarm and it's honestly kind of gross. And you can see here how this story is very tailored to a specific city and community in a very specific time and place in Laodicea.

But in the nature of apocalyptic literature, it has shifted the world just enough, hasn't named the economy of Laodicea. It's tweaked it. It's come at it on the slant or on the slide to help them see themselves in a new way. And that means the story of Laodicea becomes one that any of us can see ourselves in. We can recognize the ways that our economies are built to collect wealth to those who already have it and to steal away from those who are generous with what they have.

If we could construct new economies and cities and communities that we're constantly giving and taking and giving and receiving, then we could have more equitable communities around us. That is where the apocalyptic genre is so powerful. It speaks into specific moments using images and language that is tailored to the moment, but it shifts it, twists it, it scales it up just enough that all of us for thousands of years can see ourselves spoken to hear in these images and stories. And that is only going to increase as we come back for the second and the third telling of the story, because as each successive telling happens, the images are going to scale that much more. We're going to go to thorn rooms and apocalyptic riders in the next section.

We're going to scale up to dragons and beasts and the end of the cosmos when we get to the third section. But at every moment, we are using language drawn from the moment to speak to the human condition, and this is why Revelation is for all of us.