The Light of Love

 

Text: John 1:1-8

Focus: Advent 3 Love

Function: to help people wonder at the mystery of the incarnation.

1:¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

⁶There was a man sent from God whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

During this advent season, and all year long, we celebrate Jesus as the Light of the World.

I have to tell you that I did you a disservice a few weeks ago when I was speaking of mystery and the mystery of the light and I told you that understanding what is meant in scripture by Jesus being “The Light of the World” remains a mystery today.

I might have been wrong, or I might have overspoken.

It is part of the job of the Spirit of God to draw us into the scripture and into prayer so that we can draw closer to God. Through those mediums, we get to know the will and the character of God.

And so, since I made that statement, the Spirit of God has been nagging me to find out more about the what it might have meant to the first century Jewish reader by the phrase “light of the world.”

Jesus is the light of the World.

I didn’t know this, but I read that St. Francis of Assisi started the practice of placing candles in Christmas trees to demonstrate that the tree and along with it, all nature is part of creation and bears the light of God.

It is interesting to me that right there in the first few verses of the entire Bible light is mentioned. In Genesis 1 we read that God, on the first day, created light.

The earth already existed but was without form, so the first thing God did to give us a home was to create light.

The second day, God created the sky. The third day, God created vegetation. And it wasn’t until the 4^th day that God created the sun, moon and stars.

So the sun and moon coming after the creation of vegetation shows us that these verses are not literal, but highly symbolic.

That tells us something about the symbolism of the light.

Light as seen as the power of God. It is the manifestation of God.

The Jewish people were deep thinkers. And they saw the peculiar relationship, metaphorically, between God and light through the science of light.

I had to ponder this to get it:

You can’t see light, but because of light, you can see. And, you know that light exists, because you can see.

You can’t see God. But, you can sense the presence of God and you can also believe, that just like light, God permeates everything God touches because, God created it.

It is like, on the first day, God created a reminder that God exists. We worship the light, because it is God. We don’t however worship the sun because it was created after the light was created.

There is also a relationship between light and love.

Love is another thing you cannot see. But like light, and God, you can sense love.

The Jewish people also understood light to be the light of love.

The mechanism for that is the way that love shines a light on the darkness and dispels it.

And just like light is a metaphor for God, and God is light in that sense, also, more directly and better from a scriptural understanding is this: GOD is Love.

The Jewish people understood that love and light are similar, just like God and light are similar.

And the New Testament picks up that theme in 1 John 4:8 when the writer states “God is Love.” And right before that he says, that everyone who does not love does not know God.

Love is the constant theme throughout scripture.

So, just as God is love and God is light, Love is God and Love is light. All of these things are connected metaphorically in the both the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. And, in the Quran, if I am not mistaken.

Love is light and it brightens the darkness.

I think, or hope, every year, during this sermon on love that I can remind you that our Job as Christians is not to curse the darkness, but to shine a light so that others can see.

And that concept is not unique to Christianity. It actually is a Buddhist proverb.

The Spirit of God is still working across the face of the earth, as described in Genesis 1 leading and calling people to soften their hearts and love the other.

So how do we shine a light instead of cursing the darkness?

Acts of charity stem against the darkness.

We give gifts at Christmas because God gifted us with the light of the world in our presence. The gifts are acts of charity toward loved ones to facilitate, in a consumerist society, love for that person.

That is good and wholesome and giving those gifts is my favorite part of Christmas.

And we add to that other acts of charity. When we do acts of Charity, the Spirit of God is moving inside of us to love and care for the other. We are standing against the narrative of the world that is selfish and values self-promotion over the common good.

Acts of Charity remind us and the world that we are all human, all loved by the God, all favored creatures in the eyes of the divine and when we do them, we perpetuate the truth to the world about our faith that God is love.

So, let love be the light you shine.