Bust.  Not the kind that they liken to you and display in Canton.  The kind that you wear as a label, affixed to you when you didn’t live up to expectation in the NFL. 

This past week the Green Bay Packers cut CB Ahmad Carroll.  Commentators on the radio reported that the move demonstrates the Packers finally admit the former first round pick was a bust.  The season began with the Detroit Lions parting ways with troubled number one pick WR Charles Rogers, thereby declaring he was a bust.  Indeed, a long list of names has become synonymous with bust over the years – Ryan Leaf at the head of the class.

As advertised.  That’s what the NFL expects.  They were advertised as being the best at their position.  Produce in keeping with the press about you.  If not, you’re a bust.

In a letter to the church at Sardis, Jesus spoke harsh words: “You have a reputation that you are alive, but you are dead.”  In other words, people speak highly of you, but the reality is, it’s all a farce.  Then Jesus gives this admonition: “Wake up!  Strengthen what remains.”  That is good advice for Charles Rogers and Ahmad Carroll today.  But it’s better advice for you and me.

As followers of Christ – as the church – we too can fall into that subtle rut of bearing the name ‘Christian’ in title only.  We can be of good form, but void of substance.  We can polish our lives up to look pretty good on the outside but have galvanized our hearts to the truth.  Wake up Christian.  Strengthen what remains – your affection for the gospel and more particularly, the Lord of the gospel.

Today’s text Revelation 3:1-6