You make me sick

"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. – Revelation 3v15-16

I don’t drink it much any more, but when I lived in Alabama there was nothing like a huge glass of iced sweet tea on a hot summer day. I remember working in 100 degree heat (Fahrenheit of course J ) with sweat gushing from every pore in my body. The day wore on and finally I would come home from work, walk in the door, and get my favourite glass, fill it with ice, pour in the tea, and gulp it straight down. Cool, refreshing, marvellous!

Now that I live in Ireland I still love tea. There is nothing like a hot cuppa anytime of the year, especially on a cold, wet, windy winter (or summer) day. The tea steams and you warn your hands around the cup. Hot, comforting, marvellous

Ice cold tea is refreshing. A hot cuppa is comforting. But what about lukewarm sweet tea? Or, even worse, tepid hot tea? Every so often I forget that I have a cup of tea by my side. I finally grab it and take a big gulp. YUCK! All I want to do is find a place to spit it out! GROSS!!!

With that little bit of background we get a picture of what Jesus us saying here. The church was not cool and refreshing and it was not hot in its service. It was tepid, cool, nasty, yucky, and sickening. Lukewarm - what a rotten place to be.

Just like that nasty cup of tea that makes me want to spew it out this church made Jesus sick. Sadly, lukewarmness is the natural state. Ice tea tends to get warm, the ice melts and it gets diluted. A hot cuppa cools off, the milk forms a nasty film on the surface, and it just gets gross.

Isn’t is sad when a church or a Christian gets lukewarm? Worse than sad – it is sickening.