Embrace Life

 

Text: John 1:1-12 (MSG)

Focus: New years

Function: to help us embrace Christ as the source of life.

^1-2 The Word was first,
    the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.

^3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

^6-8 There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

^9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
    Every person entering Life
    he brings into Light.

Good morning everyone and happy New Year! It is a blessing to be back together with everyone this morning. I’ll be glad when health and healing brings us all back together. We pray for our ill and rest in God’s love for them.

Jesus, according to out text is the light of the world.

I have been intrigued by the Jewish understanding of light after I realized that the 7 days of creation are symbolic since God created light on the first day and the Sun on the third.

The Jews understood light to be the power and the Spirit of God moving.

The Bible is always fresh and new to us. I discovered something after reading the bible through approximately 53 times and preparing probably 1600 sermons that I never noticed before.

Jesus the Light, is also the life. The light is life.

Embracing the light means that we are embracing life.

I call that embracing hope. Because we are choosing to live and to thrive.

I believe that God created us to thrive and thriving through the power of the Holy Spirit manifests God’s loving kingdom here.

So, let us follow up with another scripture about how we thrive: Matthew 5:14-15: ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Because of computer issues, I am lucky that I waited to write my sermon until after my morning devotions:

Fr. Richard Rohr this morning:

“I believe the gospel itself... ...is primarily communicated by richly symbolic human lives that operate as prime attractors and exemplars: through actions visibly done in love; by a nonviolent, humble, simple, liberated lifestyle; by a happy identification with poor and excluded people; by obvious happiness itself; and by concrete and visible people who “give others reasons for spiritual joy”—as Francis said when he rubbed two sticks together to play an imaginary violin and as Pope Francis did when he washed the feet of prisoners, women, and Muslims. When such people then speak or act, their words burn, and their actions convict!  

Surely this is what Jesus meant when he told us to be “a light on a lampstand” ‘’’

This thriving means we shine our lights, our lights of love, because that is what Jesus inside of us wants to do. But it is light. And it has an effect. It transforms darkness. And that, I believe is how Jesus wants us to transform this world into a loving place.