Lent 4                                                     Eph.                                                            “Light/Darkness”

I want to draw your attention to one particular verse in our lessons for today.  It is a verse that I kept being drawn to no matter what else I thought I wanted to preach on.  That verse is, Eph. 5:8, “Once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.”  It is really easy to slip past what that verse says. 

You would expect the verse to read, “Once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are in the light,” but it doesn’t .  I checked the Greek to be sure.  It says, “Once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.”  In other words, in being baptized we are not just made acceptable to God through Jesus, we take on Jesus’ light.  We become Christ, or at least reflect Him the way a mirror reflects the image of the one standing before it. 

There is tremendous beauty in that word picture.   Soon after I let myself dwell on that verse the saints who have been Christ for me started coming to mind.  There was my junior choir director who was the first person who gave me reason to feel good about myself.  There was the fellow Walther Leaguer who encouraged me to step out of the darkness of my teenage shyness and take a leadership role in the youth group.  There was my spiritual director, Fran, who accepted me just as I was and walked with me through various spiritual darknesses to the light of my calling as a pastor.  There is a friend and counselor, Tiffany, who has taught me more about grace than all the theology books I’ve ever read.  Her light never waivers even when I frustrate us both over various issues that keep coming up. 

That led me to think of the many Chris-lights I’ve encountered here, in this family of God.  I struggled with whether to name each person, because inevitably someone would be left out, and I’d rather not give full recognition than hurt someone because I simply forgot.  But know this.  Every hand squeeze, every hug, every word of support and affirmation, every gentle correction, every laugh at a silly comment, every moment (maybe hour) spent listening to pain spewed out, every enthused response to an idea, every little face waiting for a word from pastor (and maybe a treat) at children’s time, every welcome and every act of solidarity, every helping hand and even every little hand shoveling snow at the parsonage is surrounded with that light of Christ that takes away the darkness that can seep back into life. 

And when I think of the lights of this congregation I must also see the brightness of those who give of themselves to its ministry: those who accept leadership roles, those who produce music and especially our director who puts up with a hodge podge of voices and never knows what she’ll have to work with from one week to the next, those who put in hours preparing lessons so our children (and adults) can learn about Jesus in fun ways, those who cook (including the men who skip the sermon on Easter to make us breakfast) and those who clean and fix what’s broken, those who see their role as disciples in visiting others and those many many others who are so behind the scenes we hardly know of their work.   

All who do what is good and right and true are lights that shine brighter with each act of love.  And that’s what it’s all about in reality.  Those who are in the Lord receive His love and become so filled with it that it not only lights up their lives, it lights up other people’s lives as well. 

This Letter to the Ephesians was written to a people who had been in the darkness of sin and unbelief.  Then the love of Christ came into their lives and they became light.  The writer of the Letter is telling them how to use this new light.  He’s guiding them in how to live this new life.  Chapter 5 begins with the prime directive, “Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us.” 

When we give love, grace, forgiveness, support, encouragement, caring correction, acceptance, and our gifts of life to others, whether personally or as part of an organized group we imitate God, we live in love and we give as Christ gave himself.  From that others are warmed and drawn closer to God. 

There is another part though to this lesson and to our designation as light.  The darkness is always there trying to draw us back into it.  God gave us freedom of will and we get to decide moment by moment whether we will remain in the Lord or pull away and resume life in the dark.  We didn’t do a thing to be taken into the Lord.  It was all a gift of grace in Christ.  But, we can at any time allow the darkness to overcome us and cause us to do all kinds of acts that come from the darkness of sin, the darkness of alienation from God..   

The verses surrounding those I’ve highlighted about being light speak of  the darkness as sin, particularly sin related to fleshly cravings.  But, the darkness that often threatens us can also be painful experiences or wounds that were never healed that cause us to lash out and hurt others.  The darkness can come from a sense of shame or low self worth or powerlessness that leads us to try and control others in order to make us feel stronger, more powerful, of greater value.  The darkness may be what seems like a black hole of deprivation and emptiness that sucks in every good we can get our hands on and leaves us still feeling starved. 

Whatever the source of the darkness, it is likely to make us act in ways that are not pleasing to God.  And the writer of Ephesians tells us to use the light we were given in Christ to resist the darkness.  We may not be able to vanquish the darkness, but we can resist the inner need to hurt others, insist on our way, take power that doesn’t belong to us, grab for what is not ours, and other acts that we may try to justify, but which God calls sin. 

And here is an interesting phrase, “but instead expose them.”  I don’t think this means that we are to have public trials like they did in the early days of this country when someone might be accused of some sin and have to wear a scarlet letter or be shackled in the public square.  I don’t even think that we necessarily need to publicly confess our specific sins. 

Exposing the darkness that has been at work in us though does mean facing both what we have done and what lies behind it.  It means admitting to God that we have fallen short of the mark and allowed His light to be dimmed within us.  We do this, not to increase our shame, but so that healing can take place.  Exposing, facing and admitting to our sins can be very hard and take years to accomplish because we tend to build a wall of shame around them.  This wall of shame can become so huge and so horrible that we feel we dare not look at it.  But, the life that begins to beat within us when we do makes it all worth while.  As each little bit of shame is revealed we hear Jesus say, “It’s okay.  I took your shame upon me as I hung on the cross.  You are forgiven.”  And with each bit of that shame that is exposed and healed, the light grows brighter and we become more Christ. 

So, I thank God for Mrs. Hucke, Bob, Fran, Diana, Natalie, Dorothy, Ida, Sylvia, Mary, Mike, Caryn, Betty, Drew, Steph, Art and Joanne,Jake, Pat, Tiffany, Joyce, Audrey, Bill and Wylda and all those who in the Lord are light of various kinds.  God calls each of us His beloved and would fill us with Himself so that we can shine brightly.  He waits for us moment by moment to choose.  Light or Darkness, which would we rather be?  Amen.