Sardis - A Weird Welsh name?

Psalms 30, 32, 42 & 43
Haggai 2:1-9
Rev 3: 1-6
Matthew 24:1-14

Sardis - A Weird Welsh name?

Rev 3: 1-6

Freystrop, Sardis, Rosemarket. Sardis seemed to my seven year old mind to be the odd man out and therefore must be one of those weird Welsh names. Around the age of six I made the eight mile journey by bus to my Grandparent's house. My mother was working, I was alone. At Freystrop Cross one could turn off to Hook and Llangwm, definitely a Welsh name, hence since Sardis did not have what seemed to be a usually arrangement of letters it too must be Welsh.
The problem with Sardis was that the bus had to make a right turn through a very narrow angle. It achieved this by turning left, reversing into the road that was previously the straight ahead and then making a left turn out of that road. There seemed to be about three houses and of course a chapel- either Methodist or Baptist with grey stucco and brown paint. Hardly ever did anyone get on or off the bus. Almost always I was alone on the bus. Sardis with its odd name seemed a sleepy place.
It was a wake up call to me to discover years later that Sardis was one of the seven churches of the Book of Revelation. God knew their deeds and their good reputation. And that was where it stopped in goodness. Skin deep, no heart, all for show. They liked collecting the Brownie points as an end in itself. Their compulsion was not a love of God or compassion for the rest of humanity fired out of God's love for them.