2010-05-16 – "Walking in the Light"

“Walking in the Light”
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Text: 1 John 5-2:6

Irish lore is full of stories of faeries, pixies, and the little people. They may sound cute but more often than not, they are difficult and devious, shy and hidden. Some only come out at night, into the darkness. The dark, however, is more often associated with the spirit-world, with ghouls and goblins and all manner of conniving, negative forces. There are stories of the night in Ireland that would curl the hair of young and old alike. Imaginations were filled with accounts of the Grim Reaper, the cry of the Banshee, and other terrors that helped instil a fear of darkness into young minds.

I remember one evening, as a child, walking from one relative’s house to another along a dark country road. It was very dark indeed and all sorts of ominous shapes and shadows seemed to appear before my eyes. My little, eight year old heart pounded as I ventured to the middle of the road, away from the hedge rows and trees from which I was sure the bogeyman would appear to challenge me. As I walked, the odd car would come by and I would move to the side of the road, thankful for the few seconds of light produced by the headlights. Half way down the road, I wondered why I had ever set out alone. It was scary stuff for a child.

But is it just children that fear the dark and the things of the dark. A couple of weeks ago, I was out on a Friday evening. I had an off-site wedding to perform the next day and remembered that I had left my suit jacket in my office. At the end of the evening, I thought that I would pop into the church and get it. I don’t know if you have been in this building when it is dark and everyone is gone for the day, but this is an interesting place. I had to walk through places that were pitch black. I had to stop and inch forward with my feet lest something be in my path. I had to walk through other places where the light was so low that I could just pick out where I was going. When I got to my office, I turned a light on, picked up my jacket, and looked at my watch. It was 11:59 p.m. and I realized that I was headed back down through the darkest parts of the building at midnight. You wouldn’t believe how those old stories from childhood flooded back into my mind, not to mention the few times I have encountered street people here, hidden behind some pillar or door. Here it was midnight, the witching hour, that time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective, and I have to walk back through a big, dark building that’s about the size of a city block. It’s a much better walk in the light of day.

Well, I was reminded that evening of the negative thoughts that surround the word, darkness: fear, dread, and danger. When we turn to the Bible, it is no less a negative term, carrying further, metaphoric associations such as: hatred, chaos, spiritual blindness, satanic influence, immorality, and a life lived far from God. And we can compare the word “darkness” to the word “light.” People who get lost in the wilderness overnight, for instance, often say that when the light of day comes, it brings with it feelings of safety and wellbeing. The Bible extends its associations to include: deliverance and salvation, enlightenment and wisdom, goodness, and justice, and life. Darkness and light are polar opposites such that Matthew can use the terms to set off the world as it had been from what it became with Christ. He says, “The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.” Something so significant was happening in Christ that it changed everything, like a light transforms darkness. The apostle John, in the first chapter of his first letter, goes further, saying, “God himself is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” Now, it is interesting that he goes on to say, “If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” What John is saying is that God is light, and if we truly know God, we will be people of the light, we will people who walk honourably and in goodness, in the positive ways that we would associate with light.

The biblical writings were not written in a vacuum. Every letter, every Gospel was penned to a certain people, who lived in a certain place, and had a certain situation that needed to be addressed. More often than not, we are not told exactly what the situation was, it is assumed by the writer, and we have to use our knowledge of the whole writing, other sources, and history to uncover what it may have been. It is a little like listening to one side of a telephone conversation and attempting to understand the whole of it and it is not always easy. But when we come to John’s letters, scholars have often linked the purpose of his writing with a type of Greek and Near Eastern thought given the name, Gnosticism. It is derived from the Greek word, gnosis, which means knowledge. While I don’t want to get into describing a whole system of Gnosticism for you, there is something within Gnosticism that may inform this passage for us today.

The Gnostics were dualists when it came to human nature. The Gnostic said that human beings are flesh and flesh and matter are evil. But within the human being, trapped, is a tiny spark of spirit, a spark of purity, a spark of the goodness of the divine. And these two things are in conflict with one another. They have barely anything to do with one another because the Gnostics were very “black and white” on this issue. Flesh and spirit were held apart. They were distinct and separate and not responsible to one another. And this dualism led to two tendencies within the wider Gnostic tradition. Some Gnostics became ardent ascetics and attempted to overcome the flesh in all things, to put down every fleshly desire within them. Others suggested that because human beings are made of matter and, therefore by definition, evil, they cannot really be accountable for what occurs in the flesh. This group became anti-nomian; that is, they lived “against law.” They did as they pleased, they lived lives of excess and immorality and debauchery. They lived on the dark side of humanity and said that it all did not matter as long as their spirit was in the right place with God, as long as they sought out the gnosis, the knowledge that would bring them salvation and unity with the divine.

It seems that something akin to this mindset had infiltrated John’s congregation when he wrote to them. In the first few verses, he sets out his credentials. He, himself, had walked with “the Light of the world.” He had walked with Jesus. He had seen Jesus’ marvellous acts. He had heard his teaching. And, “this is the message we have heard from him,” he says, “that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” What he is saying is that the God who has brought all things into being is all the things that we associate with light. The God of the Hebrew people and the sacred scriptures is a God of righteousness, purity, holiness. He is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness and life. He is saying that human beings and matter are not so far away and distinct from God and the Spirit that they cannot be influenced by the one who created them and called his creation “good.” And when a person comes to know God, if he/she truly has fellowship with him, he/she cannot but be influenced by the light of God. We will no longer walk in darkness. We cannot walk as we did in the past because light dispels darkness, and his light changes human beings.

Contact with anything influences and changes us. Social scientists often remind us that we are, to a significant extent, a product of our environments. They speak of the effects of television on young people. Studies have been done, for instance, on how violence in the media has negatively affected communities. Where individuals grow up, how they grow up, the things they encounter, all have their influences.

In my early ministry, I worked with youth at an Ontario Housing project on the west side of the city. How those young people grew up, how they live later in life, and the chances that life affords them, are significantly different, in a general sense, than the lives and possibilities of young people who grow up in other parts of the city that are better off. Those in better off areas, again very generally, are exposed to schools and opportunities that tend to lead on to higher things. Their upbringing is, perhaps, more in line with that of David Cameron. When David Cameron became the British prime-minister, this week, he became the 19th British prime-minister to have come through the hallowed halls of Eton College. When he named his front bench, 13 of his ministers are also graduates of Eton. Several Etonians were interviewed by the B.B.C. to try to uncover what it was that gave Etonians the edge and the skills and the drive to seek after and attain such posts. One spoke of how many children arrive at Eton with no pretensions whatsoever but, he went on, “By golly we did, by the time we left Eton, we had them … In part it was due to a relentless series of speakers visiting the school, telling pupils they were potential leaders of the future …” the school puts a premium on individualism: You're encouraged to pursue any dream you might have. Others spoke of how they were particularly well-prepared for a life in politics because so many school societies, sports clubs and other activities are run by the pupils themselves. The boys elect each other to positions of influence. So from a very early age, you become adept at being charming, buying votes, being smarmy." David Cameron and 20 others grew up in this environment and went on to become prime ministers: Eighteen of Britain, one of Northern Ireland, and one of Thailand. It would seem that we are products, to a large extent, of our environment and the things we come in contact with and live with are important in our formation and being.

And so I would put it to you, if these types of things form, or influence, or change us, how much more should an encounter with God influence our lives? That’s what John is saying to us, that we are not dualists when it comes to understanding human nature. Spirit and flesh are inextricably linked and if we truly come in contact with God, if the light of God truly intersects our lives, we will become people of the light. Just as Eton College will rub off on those who attend there, the light of God will rub off and illuminate lives and how we walk in the world.

I wonder if John’s thoughts should also say something to us in the church today. One of the things that I have noticed is that there are views within the church that have tended to let people of the hook in terms of how we live. It comes from all sectors, there are evangelicals who preach a doctrine of grace and faith so fastidiously that some have said, “That’s great, all I need to do is believe right things and I’m in with God.” There is within the Reformed Protestant tradition, there is this theological thought that human nature is so marked by total depravity, that we can’t do much about it so we’ll live as I want and trust in Christ.” And within the liberal church, we have given up the concepts of sin and judgment such that God becomes a nice old man or woman in the sky who loves us so much that nothing we do would cause him to separate himself from us. He/she is always forgiving and kind, so why bother with this whole business of a godly life.

But are those things true? Maybe we should hear the word of God again, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie.” You see, if we really come in contact with God, it changes us. The light dispels darkness.

I had a birthday this past weekend and had a great time, over a number of days people celebrated with me (it wasn’t even a significant one, but I enjoyed it). My children decided that they would take me out for dinner on Tuesday evening. We had a wonderful meal together down near the Beaches. Our schedules at work and university life do not allow us many meals together these days, even though we live in the same house, so it was wonderful to spend a couple of uninterrupted hours together. Before we left, my daughter said, “So, Dad, what would you like for your birthday?”

I thought for a moment and said, “First of all, I think I’ve just had it…. No, hang on a minute I have two more wishes. Number one is that it would be really great if over the next year you guys would keep your rooms really clean.”

They hemmed and hawed and went one. “Wish number two, and more important, I would really love it if you would not forget the church, how you were brought up, how you grew up. The regularity of church attendance does something. It will help centre you. It will help to ground you. It will keep you, if for a few moments each week you will draw together with other Christians, in contact with your Maker. It keeps you near the Light, a Light that will guide you throughout lives. Don’t forget about the church.”

There are people in the world and within the church today, like the Gnostics, who will teach you that it doesn’t matter how you live and what you do. That is not God’s truth, John says, “Yes, it does matter. The true light has come into the world and it cannot help but affect how we live. We need to do things in our lives to come into contact with that light on a regular basis.

God is light and in him is no darkness at all. John goes on and talks about how we should follow God, hear his words, follow his commandment and bring the Light of God into the dark places of the world. That is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word, the message that John heard and passed on to a congregation long ago, and passes on again to us. So, come in contact with the light and go out and be lights unto the world. Amen.