16 May 2012

For all who are cold

The Revelation to John contains this charge against the church in Laodicea:

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.(Rev 3:15-16, NRSV)

In other words, there is a place for those who are cold. I know of no thorough discussion of what it might actually mean to be "cold." Or what it means that Christ wishes that the church in Laodicea were either hot or cold. At first glance, you might think that those who are cold will suffer a negative judgment. But the people who will be spit out (or, as some translations have it, vomited out) are not the cold, but the lukewarm.

What place is there in the church for those of us who are cold? What does it mean to be cold, in terms of spiritual life, in terms of the way the church is in the world?

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