Still Shining

 

Text: John 9:1-7, Ephesians 5:8-14

Focus: Jesus as the Light

Function: to help people see the responsibility to carry on the light

John 9:¹As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. ²His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” ³Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. ⁴We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. ⁵As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” ⁶When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, ⁷saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see.

Ephesians 5:⁸for once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Walk as children of light, ⁹for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. ¹⁰Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. ¹¹Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness; rather, expose them. ¹²For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly, ¹³but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, ¹⁴for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Sleeper, awake!
    Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

Good morning Painter Creek. When we are doing Kairos, we sing a chorus called Shine, Jesus, Shine. It is fast paced and as all our songs do, it reiterates the theme that we too, like Jesus are the light of the world.

Remember the scriptural symbolism surrounding the concept that God is light. In the highly symbolic account of the 7 days of creation, God creates light and separates it from the darkness on the first day and God creates the sun, our source of light, on the 4th day.

So the light that Jesus is talking about here is spiritual. The Bible does not indicate specifically what it is, but we agree that it indeed symbolic. By looking at our Ephesians passage, we see a direct correlation between the light and goodness. I wonder if when God creates light on that first day if it isn’t a metaphor for God creating good. Or more specifically, God separates light from darkness so God makes a distinction between good and evil.

Some theologians speculate that this light is the glory of the Christ who makes creation possible. It sort of gets shot down by the belief that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are co eternal and we see the Word of God, Jesus as an active agent in creation according to John 1.

But the concept that this light emanates from God, or that God creates light from God’s own self shows what our passages of scripture indicate that God is the source of Spiritual light and goodness.

Last week we read 37 verses for out text. This week, we were to have along text as well describing the story of the man who was born blind. But I decided instead to focus on us being the light of the world, the hope for the world.

I find Jesus’s answer to the question “who sinned?” important.

The question reminds me of the book of Job in the Old Testament. Job’s three friends were absolutely convinced that Job must has sinned to have such calamity come upon him when the truth is, sometimes bad things happen to good people.

At the core of the question by the disciples is the concern about the fairness of God. Who sinned? Job tells us that it is not necessarily sin that brings calamity and that we shouldn’t attribute our problems to that all the time.

Apparently they did not get the message.

They seem to have the idea that God is a God of revenge instead of restoration.

So, Jesus tells us that sin is not the problem here with this man. God wants to show to the world that God is in the world restoring the world to health and peace.

The lengthy story in John 9 goes on to show how the Jewish leaders questioned the healed man and his parents to see if a miracle happened.

And although a miracle happens, the scripture tells us that they refused to see what was obvious in front of them. I believe it was because they were to proud to admit they were wrong and change their minds and follow the Christ.

We get a warning to ourselves about priorities when we read why they didn’t want to follow Christ from Luke 16:¹³No slave can serve two masters, for a slave will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. ¹⁵So he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts, for what is prized by humans is an abomination in the sight of God.

The love of money and the fear of the lack of it can lead us away from God.

So Jesus answers the question about is God a God of retribution and who is God paying back with a positive statement about how He is the light of the world. And then he admonishes his disciples to do the same work as him.

When we go to the Ephesians passage, we get an idea of how this symbolism plays out in the world we live in.

I mentioned how light/darkness can possibly be the difference between good and evil. It is almost as if God, on the first day, created a choice for us between light and darkness and between good and evil.

We read this throughout the Old Testament that God has placed before us the choice to follow God and live or to die by disobeying God.

He isn’t, I believe, talking about judgment for failing God but about suffering the consequences if we do not obey.

For example, in Genesis we read that God gave us the earth to manage and to care for because it is God’s creation and therefore it is divine.

And yet, we have not cared for our planet and we are now suffering the effects of global warming. God does not hate us, but God does want us to take God seriously and obey. God wants us to follow the light.

In the Ephesians passage it says talks about how the “fruit of the light” is found in all the is good and right and true.

That leads me back to the idea that the creation of light is the separation of good and evil, light and darkness since walking in the light has a distinct quality about it. It focuses on what is good and right and true.

Truth. It rejects the lie and calls it out by shining its light on what is good and true and right.

I wish I had that ability. I find myself too often cursing the darkness instead of shining the light.

Jesus is the light of the world.

And Jesus is still shining in the world, through us, the Church.

And we are Christ’s body in here on earth. Jesus told us to light our lights and do not keep them hidden. We are called to bless the world with what is right. Sometimes that means like Jesus we have to speak out against injustice. Most often, it is a call to be a blessing.

Shine the light and be a blessing. That is what we can do for Christ.