Sermon for September 5th

“This is the message that we have heard from Jesus and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” Light comforts and light exposes. Light blinds and light leads. Darkness comforts and hides. Darkness blinds and confuses. Are you walking in the light or hiding in the darkness? Are you being led by the light or confused in the darkness.

According to the book of 1st John, “If we say that we have fellowship with Jesus Christ 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 sin.” Light exposes. That why my family was so happy this summer when we finally got shades at the parsonage. At nighttime, when it was dark outside, turning on the lights inside exposed to the outside world a little too much sometimes. In the book of first John, we hear that, “If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When we get close to Jesus, he shows us how far from him we truly are in our hearts, in our actions and in our lives. He exposes us as sinners in need of a Savior.

Have you ever seen or gone to the Macy’s counter where they sell all that make-up? Have you ever seen the huge magnifying glass mirrors they have there and the brighter than bright light on the counter. These are the tools of the trade, to come close to your face and let the light expose your minutest skin defects and make you feel that the only way you can face the world is to buy a fifty dollar zit cream the size of a thimble. When your problems are exposed, we are all driven to hide or to stand up and face the light.

While I was attending the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music getting my Masters in Double Bass Performance, I spent a lot of time practicing. Kristy was working as a music teacher in some inner city schools there and would be gone all day, but I would be gone all day and all night. She would ask for me to come home and I’d tell her that I had to keep practicing or I had to go to work or I had to do something else. She could only make me come home when she’d get so frustrated and upset that she would cry. Then I’d feel bad and come. She called me a workaholic, but I didn’t feel the label stuck because I didn’t WANT to work so much, I felt like I HAD to do it for US.

Then, one night, I remember going to bed early (since I had to get up and work early the next day). Sometime soon after, I woke up with the realization that she was right. I was a workaholic and I had missed out on so much time with her that I could never have back. Ever. My sin was exposed to me though I know that I had been exposed to her and the rest of my family much earlier. When I realized what I was like, it was like I could look back at everything I had done up to that point and a light was shown on all of it. I could suddenly see what she had always seen before. When God’s light convicts you of your sin, you suddenly see things that you were blind to before. You start seeing yourself as God sees you. When you become a Christian and start walking in the light of God, you can’t be ignorant and arrogant of what you are like anymore. You are exposed and forced you to either confess your sin or live your life in the full knowledge of your hardheartedness.

But God’s light does more than simply reveal sin, it also leads you in the right paths. “If we say that we have fellowship with God 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. By this we may be sure that we are in Jesus; whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.” Becoming a Christian is more than simply realizing your sin and confessing your need for a Savior; it is about following a new way that is opposed to sin and following your Savior. We have to walk the walk and follow Jesus.

I know that a lot of you now have some type of GPS navigational system in your cars, a Garmin or something. And when you type in your destination, the idea is that you are to follow those directions. If you get off course, some voice will start calling out to you, “you’re going the direction” or “recalculating” or something. You don’t type in a destination if you aren’t going to follow the directions.

As a Christian, we are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. He is the light that shows us the path to take, but just seeing the pathway to our destination isn’t enough, we have to follow that path. When I graduated from seminary, I had to make a choice about what path to take regarding how I would be ordained. I was still a member of the ELCA at that time and the ELCA had made an agreement with the Episcopal church that every pastor MUST be ordained by a bishop. I believed that this undermined the authority of the Bible. I believed that God’s Word was effective whether I was ordained by a bishop or not. I didn’t want to do something that I believed would undermine peoples’ trust in God’s Word as their source of hope and power and have them put it in a human being instead. However, I knew that, to follow this pathway, would mean possibly getting in a lot of trouble. You see, I saw the right way lit up for me, but I also saw very clearly the impending danger. Just seeing the right direction doesn’t make it any easier to follow. I finally took the way that the light led me, I also did get into a lot of trouble. Thankfully, following God’s leading and walking in the light has led me to LCMC and to this church. There are many times in my life when I see the right thing to do and don’t do it; but, by God’s grace, I took the right path at least that once and that has made all the difference.

The book of first John continues, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” To live a life as a Christian we must walk in the light: that means following Jesus and walking according to God’s commandments “so that we may not sin”, but it also means seeing our sin, confessing it and trusting that Jesus saves us from that sin.

But how can you do both? The text says to follow the light, “So that you may not sin.” How is that possible? To not sin would be to deny what the text says later on, “if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” How can we believe both things at the same time? Are we supposed to “not sin” or confess that we cannot “not sin”?

How can we do both? Well, for once, my seminary training is really helpful. You see, in the language this letter was first written in, it wouldn’t have been so confusing. 1st John was written in Greek, like the rest of the New Testament. And in the Greek language there are different verb tenses than we have, namely, there is a way to show that an action repeats. Perhaps a better way to translate this verse, to get the point across, is to say it this way, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin, and sin and keep on sinning.” Once again, “So that you may not sin, and sin and keep on sinning.”

God knows that we fall short of the glory of God. If we say that we don’t we make him a liar the text says. But walking in the light means that if we do something wrong, when our sin is exposed by God’s light, we need to stop doing it and follow the light in a new direction. We can’t just doing that sin over and over and over again without attempting to change our behavior. Maybe we’ll fail, but when God’s light exposes us again, we must seek to follow God’s light in a new direction. If we continue doing something that we know is wrong without attempting to stop, we are NOT walking in the light and we are NOT living the Christian life.

But it’s hard to walk the walk isn’t it. For instance, the vast majority of couples that are getting married are living together. This is true for both Christian and non-Christian couples. And while having the same address is certainly no sin, what’s happening in the bedrooms at those addresses is according to God’s word. He commands that sexual intimacy be placed within a marriage and not outside it: this includes prohibiting both adultery and pre-marital sex. But the thing is, most couples know this! They know that God doesn’t like it and yet, even once the light exposes this as sin, well, nothing really changes. And, as I said before, it’s not about addresses, it’s about the behavior. We all have really awesome Christian friends or family members that either have done this or are doing it. I am sure some of you here are involved in this as well.

What can you do about it? Well, if you want to walk in the light you must do more than simply confess that what you are doing is wrong, you are called to change your behavior and follow Jesus, walk in his footsteps and in his light. There is nothing that can separate you from God’s love, you are forgiven completely—this is just one of many sins that we struggle with in this room—but repenting means to turn around and try to follow in the right direction.

We also must be wary of becoming legalistic and prideful of people who are trying to follow God’s will but continue to struggle. Many churches check people’s addresses before allowing them to be married as if that would stop all bad behavior. If you are struggling with this in your relationship, you are welcome here. We’re all struggling with something. And yes, you are welcome to be married here as are your children and friends in the same predicament. We cannot tie up heavy burdens on people so hard to bear without being willing to lift a finger to help. As Christians, we are called not only to shine Christ’s light to expose sin, but also to help people walk in God’s pathways.

All of us struggle to be the kind of Christians we want to be. We are embarrassed by our sins when they are exposed and we are constantly refusing to follow where Christ leads. The good news is that even as we are hiding out in our darkness and even when we choose the dark path rather than the lighted way, our darkness will never overcome God’s light. Just as the smallest sliver of light can fill up an entire room, Jesus love, compassion and forgiveness is enough to fill your life with hope. There is no sin dark enough that his forgiveness will not destroy and there is not direction you can walk where God will not follow you. Amen.

Sermon for March 2nd

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” What does light do in the world? On the one hand, it brightens up dark places like streetlights do as you walk around at night, it can produce heat, and it makes things shiny and beautiful. But light is also known for other things. It is these other effects of light that we might not always think about in conjunction with Jesus Christ.

If you are lost on a desert island and a spotlight was scanning the shore looking for survivors, you would jump up and down so that the light would fall upon you and you might be saved. On the other hand, if you were a criminal hiding from justice, if you saw a spotlight, you might hide behind the nearest trash can so that the light would not shine on you. Light is beautiful only if you do not want to be exposed. If you do not want others to see what you are doing or what you have done. “As long as I am in the world,” Jesus says, “I am the light of the world.” That sounds great, but what if Jesus has come to the world only to expose you.

All of us have our sins. Some are big and some are little, but they all separate us from God and from each other. Some people are better at hiding their sins than others. Some of you, I am sure, are pretty pathetic at hiding your sins. For instance, maybe you get angry easily, you like to shout a lot and swear like a sailor. Everybody in town knows that you’ve got a short fuse and that probably just makes you even madder. You know what it feels like to live your life in the spotlight of others’ criticism. Jesus’ light shines on your sin and just reminds you of what you already knew . . . you are a sinner through and through.

Some of you are much better practiced at hiding yours sins. Very few people in your life may know about your really bad behavior. Maybe only your spouse or your children realize that you even have a problem. Because if anyone else knew, you would be seen in a very different light. There was a woman, I was told about, who was beaten by her husband throughout most of their marriage, only to spend her old age taking care of him because he was too weak do anything. They had both hidden the abuse to protect their marriage in the eyes of society. Now she was also hiding years of pent up anger as she gave her former abuser sponge baths each week. Jesus’ light shines on these sins and it is scary. It is easy to be scared that someone else might find out . . . you are a sinner and you want to keep it a secret.

Finally, there are sins that are so hidden, so deep that you try to forget about them yourself. Maybe it is a temptation that you wish you didn’t have, or a temptation that went too far once upon a time. Back in college maybe, or during the war, or way back when. Perhaps you believe that you don’t even have any sins, well at least nothing back enough to mention. When Jesus’ light shines upon you perhaps you wish you were blind. Or perhaps you pretend to be because it is easier to deal with that way. Jesus’ light exposes you. It offends you. It scares you.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” These words are not only a promise, but they sound dangerous. They are not only a joy, they are a terror. To those of you who already realize you are stumbling around in the dark depths of your sin, it can feel like a relief. Jesus notices you! There is a glimmer of hope! A light full of promise that destroys the despair of a tortured soul. To some of you the light is as hot as a fiery furnace that threatens to engulf you if you don’t run away fast enough. The light is so intense you want to turn you face away before it blinds you.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus proclaims. Jesus came to end suffering. To bring heaven to earth. To make the blind to see right? That seems to be what the gospel story is about today. Jesus said that the blind man he and his disciples ran across was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. Then, Jesus heals the man’s blindness. And just like that, God’s works are revealed? Well, yes. But that’s only part of the story. If that was all, then the story should have ended right there at verse 12. Instead, the story doesn’t end until verse 41. Something else is happening in this text that it is easy not to see right away.

The blind man gets healed twice. Twice. Not just once but twice. The first time he gets healed quite quickly, right? Jesus puts some mixture of mud and spit on the blind man’s eyes, the guy takes a bath and voila, he can see again! Yeah Jesus! But that’s only half of the story. The most surprising miracle doesn’t happen until Jesus meets up with him again at verse 35.

“Jesus heard that the Pharisees had driven the man who had been blind out of the synagogue and, when Jesus found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ The man answered, ‘And who is he sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” I would like to propose to you that this man who was healed of his blindness is still blind. I mean, he can see trees just fine, and flowers, and his feet and the clouds in the sky, but he can’t see everything can he. He still can’t see Jesus for who he truly is. He can see just fine, but he is still blind to what is happening. He is spiritually blind. He has no faith.

“Jesus found him, he said, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ The man answered, ‘And who is he sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, ‘You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, ‘Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him.” And right there is where the blind man was healed of his blindness for a second time.

Jesus said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” He also said this, “I came into the world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” I want you to consider that there is a very good reason why the story today did not end at verse 12. The story did not end with the blind man being healed once. The question is, why?

Why is the blind man healed a second time? Because, even with his sight restored, the blind man would have gone blind again. Whether it was through natural causes like retinal degeneration, a freak accident, or at death when he was placed six feet under the ground. Jesus came into the world to be the light of the world, to destroy sin and the suffering it causes, but he didn’t just do it once, he did it for all time. That’s why he didn’t just heal the sick, but he became sick himself, to the point of death on a cross, to save the world from sickness and death.

If the story ended with the blind man being healed once, then those of you who have anger management problems might learn to be nicer to people, but you would still have all your other sins to deal with. If the story ended with the blind man being healed once, then those of you who have been hiding your sins would be exposed, but who would be there to heal your reputation. If the story ended with the blind man being healed once, then those of you terrified by the depth of your sinful condition would never know the glory of a forgiving and loving God.

I have no idea what amazing works of healing God will work in your life. I hope to be around here a long time so that I can see a lot of them. Think about the many diseases and injuries and aches and pains that you suffer with daily. Think about the many diseases and injuries and aches and pains that your friends and family suffer with in their lives. No doubt, many of these sufferings will be healed through the gifts of doctors and nurses, chiropractors and osteopaths; mothers and fathers. Some people won’t be healed at all. Some people will be healed miraculously. But everyone who is healed will eventually die. “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” And, “The wages of sin is death.”

That is why the blind the man is healed twice in the story today, and God’s work of faith is revealed in him. For those of you who have spent your life hiding your sins, Jesus has exposed you. And with your sins out in the open for all to see, Jesus Christ the light of the world, declares, your sins, which are many, are forgiven once and for all. You have been healed, in the sight of God, for all time. And for those of you who can’t find a way to hide your sins, Jesus has exposed you as well. And with your sins out in the open, for all to see, Jesus Christ, the light of the world, declares, your sins, which are many are forgiven once and for all. You have been healed, in the sight of God, for all time.

And, just in case you were wondering. Whenever, you find yourself suffering from hurts or diseases or aches or pains look to Jesus Christ. For he alone has the power and the compassion to heal you once, twice and again and again. Whenever your mistakes and sins have you in the pit of despair look to Jesus. For he alone has the power and the love to forgive you once, twice, and again and again to give you eternal life forever.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Jesus said. So, for as long as you live in this world, with sin, suffering and death, you may look to the light of Jesus for forgiveness, healing and salvation. Jesus has come to expose your darkness, to expose your blindness and to create for you a new life of light and salvation. Amen.