Revelation 2:1-11
In a vision, St. John has been given messages for the seven churches of his day. Each message begins with an acknowledgment of their good qualities. The church at Ephesus is recognized for its hard work and perseverance--it has not grown weary of well-doing. It has been a discerning church. It has not allowed the wicked to infiltrate and distort its message. There is much to commend. How then can John caution them about how far they have fallen? Aren't they on the right track? No! They have become side tracked on a "good" but not the "best" track. Their focus has become good deeds and keeping their doctrine and leaders pure. What's wrong with this? Aren't these things important? Yes they are, but not the most important thing. The most important thing is keeping their first love, Jesus Christ, the center of everything.
When we enter the latter third of our lives, something starts to happen. We recognize our vulnerability and almost immediately we move toward self-protection. We look at our finances to see if we have enought to retire and still have our needs (and wants) met. All of a sudden stock reports and financial pages become vital. We talk with others and the topic of conversations is what they are doing to provide for themselves. We get to know our bank's financial advisor. We begin to be more careful in our spending. We become a little less generous because we don't know what lies ahead.
We become much more aware of our bodily concerns. We increase our visits to the various doctors for preventative health care. We have our bodies poked, prodded, stuck and scanned. We diet and exercise. We make sure we have our antioxidants. We swallow our multivitamins for the over-fifty crew and take our blood pressures at least once a day. We listen to every doctor who makes an appearance on the daily talk shows for clues that might increase our quality and length of life. We make sure that we have medical insurance that will cover our knee and hip replacements. We have long-term care in place.
We think of our time and how we want to spend it. We make our "bucket lists"--all the places we want to explore or revisit, things we want to do, and people we want to visit before we die. And we knock the items off the list one by one.
So, aren't all these things good? What's wrong with doing any of them? Nothing! Like the church at Ephesus we are to be commended. We are to be good stewards of our money, caretakers of our body, and enjoyers of the world that God created and lovers of the people he has placed in our lives. BUT of we are not careful we subtly replace our first love with these other loves--self-preservation, family, travel and leisure activities, or money. Jesus is to be our first love and if he is not, John tells us we are to repent, go back to the beginning and remember what it was like when we first heard the gospel. How does it feel to know that your sins are forgiven? Do you remember that you are deeply loved by God? Do you know how wonderful it is to spend time in his presence? Can you hardly wait to be with him?
In the midst of many good things, don't forsake your first love!
