To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. – Revelation 3:1

Today's Scripture Reading (May 30, 2021): Revelation 3

On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by a police officer named Derek Chauvin. At Chauvin's murder trial, maybe one of the best arguments made by the defense was that Officer Chauvin committed the act even though he knew he was being filmed. He knew that bystanders were filming the whole event on their phones.  Chauvin also knew that the police cams worn by all of the officers on the scene were dutifully recording the events. All of those cameras prompted this conclusion from Chauvin's defense attorney. Derek Chauvin did not know that he was doing anything wrong because you don't commit an immoral act on camera. If we are going to commit a crime, we don't do it in the light of day where everyone can see us. Crimes are done in secret.

Maybe. But an alternate explanation for what happened in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, is that Derek Chauvin knew that what he was doing was wrong; he just didn't care because Chauvin believed he was above the law. And that is a dangerous thing to believe. And it took a jury to prove to Derek Chauvin that both his actions and his belief system were misguided. There is no good reason for George Floyd to be dead for the crime of trying to pass a phony twenty-dollar bill.

Sardis was a prosperous city. William Barclay, in "Letters to the Seven Churches," makes this observation;

"It is of interest to note that the first coinage ever to be minted in Asia Minor was minted in Sardis in the days of Croesus. These roughly formed electrum staters were the beginning of money in the modern sense of the term. Sardis was the place where modern money was born."

Because Sardis was rich and a place where money seemed, at least for some, to come easily, it had a reputation for being a lively place. But it was also a place that had lost its moral compass. Again, turning to William Barclay, he says;

"The great characteristic of Sardis was that, even on pagan lips, Sardis was a name of contempt. Its people were notoriously loose-living, notoriously pleasure-and luxury loving. Sardis was a city of the decadence."

Sardis was a place where even the church was filled with activity; meetings were happening, people were coming to be part of the church, but somewhere along the way, they had lost their purpose. Their purpose was not about Christ; it was about being busy. And as a result, the church had died. They weren't going anywhere. They had stopped resisting what was wrong in the culture, agreeing instead to go with the flow. They thought they were doing what was right, but the reality was that they were just spinning their wheels, going nowhere. The Holy Spirit no longer convicted the church in the city of sin. And, as a result, the people really didn't know that what they were doing was wrong, making Sardis a dangerous place.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Revelation 4