Too Cold.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it’s cold outside. To be fair, it is winter, and winter is supposed to be cold. In the Northern Hemisphere our winter months are December, January, and February, so the cold has come on time this year. And yet… winter is different depending on where you live and what you are used to. Growing up in the Dallas area, we did not have weather quite like y’all do here and it’s only a sixty mile difference. Imagine being a whole world away and how different the weather might be.

The reason I am thinking about weather a whole world away is because of my prior trip to Israel and Palestine and my future trip abroad. We think of the regions of Israel and Palestine as being in a desert, which some of it is, but that does not accurately reflect what the weather there does. It gets cold in winter, but it is a lot less likely to be wet and cold. We have that humidity thing after all. We think of London as rainy, which it often is. Having also spent a few hot summer days in Phoenix, Arizona, I can assure you that it being a dry heat might make some things better, but it is still really way too hot when it gets up above 90 degrees. We associate climate with geographical areas for the very reason that there are trends there.

Most people, if asked, could tell you whether they prefer it to be hot or cold. Most people have clear preferences on these sorts of things. There’s no wishy-washy emotions to get involved with the weather- it does what it’s going to do whether you like it or not. There is no middle-school era note passed to the climate that asks “Do you like me?  Yes ˚ No (Please check one.) I do not need to anthropomorphize the climate, it does not care if we like it or not. But it does feel really great on those days when it’s 75 and sunny with only a couple of cute, little, fluffy clouds passing gently by on a breeze when it feels like the world is full of possibility and the whole universe is conspiring to give you a good day. Idyllic sort of days. It is easy to think that it is too hot in summer and too cold in winter especially when we think back to any of the days when the weather was nice.

Why does any of this matter? Because we aren’t supposed to be spiritually in temperate climates. Being lukewarm is not desirable. To be fair, nobody likes hot ice cream or cold soup either because those defy expectations, but when it comes to God we are supposed to be all in or not.

For those who understand binary computer languages (which, by the way, does not include me), programming results in things that are either true or false. There is no other result. That’s the hot or cold, no in between we see in Scripture. Which can sometimes make questions about faith, piety, and sin very uncomfortable. For instance, did you sin today? Did you hold any hatred in your heart? Did you think something unkind or uncharitable about another person? Did you tell a lie? Were you jealous of somebody?

Frankly, even if my answers to all of the above were no, I would still not want to answer them. There are many reasons we have moved away from public confession in the UMC, but one of them is that guilt is not the aim of a dawning awareness of sin. The goal is for repentance. That we would turn back to God fully and give all we possess to its original source- God.

There are places in the world were being a Christian is still punishable by death. There are missionaries who travel abroad who cannot say they are missionaries. There are people who choose not to be baptized because any such formal record could spell the end of their lives, their careers, their families. They cannot afford to be hot or cold to keep the faith under such dire circumstances. My own experience of faith has included times of trail, like most, but not to that degree. Which leaves me with additional questions about my faith and if I am doing it right.

Are you hot or cold for God? Would someone know you are Christian from the outside looking in? Or do you seem just like the person next to you? Please note, this has very little to do with physical appearance and wearing a cross or church shirt represents your church or your faith, but should not be the only way that someone can tell your faith. We are supposed to be on fire for God. To be the warmth and light in a dark and weary world. To shine like a city on the hill. People are supposed to know by our words an deeds that we are followers of Christ.

So, how would you describe your current spiritual climate? What do you need to do differently? How can this congregation help you on that journey?

“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. (Revelation 3:15-16 NRSVUE)