To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write. . .

- Revelation 2.1

John's revelation begins with the risen Christ and moves quickly to the embattled Body of Christ. Chapters two and three of the Revelation consist of letters to seven churches. Interpreters have long debated the symbolic meaning of these congregations. Are they a sort of eschatological doomsday clock that ticks off the seconds and Sundays that remain before the Lord's return? Could we synchronize our sanctification with Revelation's Rolex and blow the whistle on the Thief in the Night?

Whatever one's position on this issue, one thing is clear: These congregations may have symbolized The Church, but they existed as churches. However they may relate to the end times, they fought out their faith in real time. If they are symbolical, they are first geographical.

They are unique: Christ addresses each community in terms that resonate with its own culture, and addresses their unique struggles, weaknesses, and strengths. They are typical: The pattern of address, commendation, rebuke, promise and warning runs throughout the seven with minor variations. Indeed, since John includes their letters in his Letter, he invites them to read each other's mail (quite literally). We can't think this was for purposes of gossip or bragging rights, so they must have been enough alike that this kind of snooping would do them good.

But here's the interesting thing: John doesn't write to the churches; he writes to their pastors. The Greek pronouns in the seven letters are singular: you, not y'all. And all that stuff about removing candlesticks? It puts the burden squarely on the shepherd. To be fair, interpreters debate whether angel means, you know, an angel, as if each congregation has a celestial foreman, or should be translated as "messenger," referring to the pastor. John is clearly into angels; he's also into the book of Daniel: quotes it twenty or so times, depending on who's counting; and the book of Daniel at least hints at territorial seraphim (Dan 10.13). Still, the New Testament also uses the word in the terrestrial sense, and anyway, how do you address a letter to an angel? Probably it means "pastor."

This reminds us of the words of Herman Melville in Moby Dick when his narrator, Ishmael, ponders a pulpit shaped like a ship's bow: 

"What could be more full of meaning?—for the pulpit is ever this earth’s foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God’s quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds. Yes, the world ’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."

So when your pastor mounts to the pulpit on Sunday, be in prayer. The risen Christ says the hurricane is coming, and you need to hear the foul weather protocol.