We are in the season of Lent, the
time between Ash Wednesday when we are reminded of our mortality to Easter when
we celebrate Jesus’ victory over death with his Resurrection. Lent is a season to reexamine ourselves and
to be intentional about going deeper in our relationship with God. This Lenten season, each Sunday we are
looking at the I AM sayings of Jesus in the gospel of John. The first week we looked at the original I AM
statement of God in God’s communication with Moses at the burning Bush. We
discovered the promise of God to “be there as God will be there.” God is infinitely with us. Then, Last week we looked at Jesus as being
the Bread of Life, the source of our satisfaction. This week we look at what it means for Jesus
to be the light of the world.
The way we are guided from point a
to point b has evolved tremendously just in the last 25 years or so. As a social worker I spent a lot of time in
my car going from point A to point B.
When I first started out we had two or three ways of finding our way to
our next destination. The first thing
you would do as a social worker is purchase a map of the county where you would
be working. It was a necessary staple in
your briefcase. If you couldn’t find
your destination on that map, there was a big 911 map in our office that we
shared. We would have to go to the map,
look up the coordinates and then write down the directions as we deciphered
them to be from the map we were looking at.
If you weren’t looking at it right you could really find yourself in a
predicament, turning right where you were supposed to turn left and so forth. You could call the Sherrif’s department and
they would give you directions. Or, you
called call the people you were going to see and you would typically get
directions like this. “Well you go down
to the old hotspot and turn, you will pass where that big oak tree used to be
and then go on down to George’s branch (assuming you know what George’s branch
is because it isn’t the name of a road or a branch, it is a nickname that was
developed 50 years ago for a certain area of the county.) As a social worker going out into the filed
Mapquest was the best invention ever. I
could type in my starting point and my destination and print out step by step
directions to where I was going. Next
came the invention of GPS-Geographic Positioning System. This was created by three men because we all
know that men will not stop to ask for directions. With this gadget you could type in your
destination and a voice would give you step by step directions while displaying
the map in front of you with the exact position of your car at that point in
time. The only problem with those is you
had to keep purchasing updates as roads changed. Now, now all you need is your phone and
broadband service (and a good signal of course)
and your phone will speak your directions through blue tooth capabilities. Well Rob Fuqay in his book The God We Can Know, which this worship
series is based on, suggest we have an even better GPS system than that. He calls it God’s Positioning System. What we discover is that by understanding
that Jesus is the Light of the World, We discover God’s guidance in our lives.
Before we jump straight to what it
means that Jesus is the light of the world, I want to give you a bit of the
backstory in order to put Jesus’ teaching in the proper context. The first part of John chapter 7 tells us
that Jesus is at the festival of booths.
The festival of booths was one of the pilgrimages Jewish people took
(and still take today) to the central temple in Jerusalem. This particular festival was to commemorate
the time the Israelites spent on their journey through the wilderness on the
way to the promised land of Canaan. The
festival of booths comes from the Hebrew word sukkot, meaning booths. During this pilgrimage Jewish people are to
build these booths or temporary shelters.
During the festival they both eat and sleep in these booths to remember
the time in the wilderness when their shelters had to be temporary and easily
moveable as they continued moving along the way to Caanan.
It’s important to note here that light
was a very important feature in the wilderness story. God provided light for the children of Israel
to guide their way through the wilderness.
In fact light has been a very important feature of the Biblical story
from the beginning. Rob states that the
whole biblical story is one of moving from darkness to light.
I have been reading a series of books by
a new author I have discovered, Vanessa Davis Griggs. This series called Blessed Trinity is based
on a fictional character by the name of George Landris. In the story George Landris is a well known
pastor at a fast growing church in Birmingham Alabama. The series follows not only his story but the
story of many of his parishoners as they face the strongholds of life such as
addiction, relationship troubles, trauma, and matters of life and death. In one of the first books his wife Johnny Mae
asks him where evil comes from. He doesn’t
immediately answer her, the reader has to wait until the end of the book to get
his take on the age old question of the origin of evil. What he proposes is that evil is
darkness. Darkness existed before the
creation of the world. The Bible begins
in Genesis with “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of
the deep….” Pastor Landris might be onto
something. But, what is the first thing
that God created. God said “let their be
light and there was light.” (Genesis
1:2-3) In its description of the new
heaven and earth the book of Revelation states “There will be no more night;
they need no light of lamp or son for the Lord God will be their light.” “The Bible constantly affirms that when God
comes on the scene, there is light.” (Fuquay, 40-41)
So too in the wilderness, light was an
important feature. There were two ways
the Israelites knew when it was time to move and what direction to go in. There was a pillar of cloud by night and fire
by night. They would know it was time to
move when they saw either of these move and they would follow it. Each place they stopped along the way was
temporary, it was not their final destination.
In the darkness of night, God, in a pillar of fire, would direct the
way. They never stayed in the
darkness. They were moving toward the
promised land of Caanan where they would no longer need the pillars, or the
manna and the quail or the temporary shelters.
When they arrive in the promised land, it may even be tempting to forget
their need for God. Doesn’t that happen
to us sometimes. It is really easy to
remember our need for God when we are absent from any source of light. When we are mired in the darkness we remember
that God is the only reliable, constant source of light that we have. Perhaps it is for this reason that God
instructed Moses to have the Israelites have this festival to commemorate their
time in the wilderness, to remind them of their need for God's guidance. They
were and are being reminded that life is not about a destination. Life is a journey. Our true destination should be to be with
God. That is an other worldly
destination.
Rob states that when you find yourself in
an unwanted place, you can know that place is not a destination it is just a
stopping point on the journey. He goes
onto say that some would say that hell is the ultimate stopping point and eternal
unwanted destination. In the Old
Testament the word for hell is sheol. It
means “place of darkness,” it keeps stopping places from becoming staying
places. In a really dark place you don’t
see a future. But when you know that life
is a journey, it keeps stopping places from becoming staying places. (Fuquay 42-43) So, the Festival of Booths reminds the Jews
that life is journey and God is the Guide.
The
first night of the festival was called the Night of Grand Illumination. Rob describes this night in this way:
The night of
Grand Illumination, the opening of the Festival of Tabernacles, was a huge
celebration. People would sing and dance
until morning light. In that Context Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”
No
longer are pillars needed, Jesus in the only guide we need. Jesus is the one that breaks into the
darkness and lights the way. I know my
share of dark places. I know what it’s
like to be in the pits of depression not able to eat, sleep or even leave the
house. Unable to gain weight and wasting
away. I know what it’s like to
anticipate new life only to be delivered the news that life will not survive
outside of the room and to sit and hold a lifeless newborn for hours before
handing them over to the funeral home to be placed in a small box. I know what it’s like to think a relationship
is going to last a lifetime and to have that relationship yanked out from under
you, causing you to fall. I know what it’s
like to pour all your energy, time and effort into a job and have it taken
away. I know what it is like to take
care of a loved one as you watch their mind drift further and further away from
reality. This is what I also know. I know that it was the light of Jesus that moved
me away from those places and brought new life.
It was the light of Jesus that overcame the darkness of those
moments. It was the light of Jesus that
let me know these places on the journey were just stopping points. Oh, it is very tempting to stay in those dark
places, to feel like you are in hell, in the eternal dark place where there is
no future. Praise God we serve a God who
promises a way out of the darkness always.
We expect a quick fix. We expect
the light to be so bright that it illuminates the entire way of the
journey. We would like a crystal
ball. Look in the ball and let me see
the final destination. That kind of
light might happen once in a very great while but more often then not our faith
in Christ must be more like what Rob calls a flashlight kind of faith. You see a flash light puts off enough light
to illuminate the way for the next steps you are to take but generally a flash
light will not show your final destination at the start of your journey. We don’t have to know the final outcome of a
journey we just have to discern what our next step is. “When we trust Christ as our source of light,
he gives directions one step at a time.” (Fuquay pg. 46) Really this makes our
decisions easier because all we need to discern is our next step, we don’t have
to know the outcome. We just have to put
our faith in Christ to show us the right next step and it is Christ, not us,
who determines what the destination is.
It may be a destination we would have never imagined.
Where do you find yourself in
darkness, wondering how everything is going to turn out? What is the next step you need to take to
find your way out of that darkness? Your
next step may be that you are going to get out of the bed tomorrow morning and
put on clothes. Your next step may be to
make a phone call or write a letter to a person with whom you have an estranged
relationship. Your next step might be to
go take the liquor bottle out of its hiding place and pour it down the
drain. Your next step might be to unplug
from technology for an hour a day. Your
next step might be to put in an application to a new job. Friends you don’t have to stay in the
darkness. Jesus is there to light the
way. But, just like the Israelites had
to put a toe in the water of the Jordon river before the waters would part
allowing them passage into the promise land, we have to take that first step
toward the light.
How do we know what that next step
is? One way that Rob suggests is a
practice of contemplative prayer. He
suggests getting up about 20 minutes earlier than usual, go to a place that is
quiet where you can be alone and light a candle. Quiet yourself before God for a few minutes
and then thank God for being present with you, as symbolized by that
light. Then give thanks for blessings in
your life. This practice builds
confidence that no matter what the challenge you face, there are still
blessings to celebrate. Now, make your
request known. State your challenge and
what you need. After that ask, “Dear
Lord, how can I honor you in this situation?
Pause. Be still. See what comes
to you. Don’t process the thoughts. Don’t contend with you you will carry out any
idea that comes or what that idea might require. Just let the thoughts come. Write them down. Keep a pad and pencil nearby.
Do this over several days and see
what repeating themes or actions emerge.
Once you sense some direction, ask God to show you the next step. Don’t make seeing the end of the path the
goal, just knowing the next step. Then,
take that step.
Take out a piece of paper now. This piece of paper is for your eyes
only. Write down the dark place you currently
find yourself in. If you have already
discerned what your next step away from the darkness needs to be, write that
down. Perhaps you have no idea and your
next step is to spend time in this contemplative practice discerning your next
step. If that is the case write that
down. Now at the bottom of the page
write in all capital, big letters “I am the Light of the World.” When you are at home I want you to place this
piece of paper in a place where you are sure to see it daily to remind you that
Jesus will overcome the darkness of your life and to remind you to take the
next step. In the name of the Father,
The Son, and the Holy Spirit-Our source of light, our way out of the darkness,
our guide. Amen.
