Transferred

Colossians 1:1-14
As a child living in Memphis, Tennessee, I never had the need to ride public transportation. But my mother thought getting around town by various means was an important skill to develop, so on at least one occasion we took a city bus from near our home in midtown to the downtown area. It was only a six-mile ride, but it afforded me an opportunity to see how the transit system worked and that even as a child, it was nothing for me to be afraid of. Our reading from Colossians today creates an impression for me of a trip of far greater significance, one that should be taken very seriously because of its far-reaching consequences.

Imagine yourself riding on a great cosmic bus, one that is taking you and everyone you know—perhaps all of creation—toward a dark and evil place. Whether you know it or not, this is not the direction you should be going. You, and everyone else, need to get off of this bus so you can board another one that will take you in the right direction. What you need is a transfer, a ticket that allows you to change from one bus to another so that you may reach the correct destination. The author of Colossians knew nothing about busses, of course, but he did know about the need for God’s people to travel in the right direction; he also knew that God had done what was necessary to achieve that very goal. “He has rescued us from the power of darkness,” we read, “and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14). In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has provided us with a means to change directions, to arrive at the proper location, safe from the “power of darkness,” ensconced in the coming kingdom. Before we had even realized how dangerous our trip was God had already taken steps to save us from it.

This in no way implies that the struggles of life are behind us or that we will not face difficult decisions. Musician Tom Cochrane makes that clear with is song “Life Is a Highway.”

Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend and sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your head to the wind

As God’s people we still must learn to “endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father…” (vv. 11-12). The good news is that we are engaged in a winning effort, not because of who we are, but because of who God is and what God is doing for us. The cosmic journey continues toward God’s coming kingdom.

Prayer: Lord, guide us in our journey of life, that we may live in faithful obedience to you and in service to one another. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

No Darkness At All

1 John 1:1-10
I have to admit, when it comes time to sleep nothing beats a dark room. It is also easier to watch a movie if the screen is the only source of light in the theater. Astronomers work best when they are well removed from the ambient glow of population centers. For those who still remember pre-digital photography, a darkroom is necessary for developing pictures. These are all reasons why we should approach one of the metaphors used in 1 John 5 with care. “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Does this mean that in the presence of God there is no shade to be found? Is there no relief from the constant, penetrating glare of light? Or does this verse really point to something else?

The dichotomy between light and dark is one of the most common in scripture rising, in large part, from the Bible’s pre-industrial setting. Darkness––especially nighttime––caused fear because it was so all-pervasive. Candles or lanterns or torches were of some help in pushing back the gloom, but there was finally nothing to be done but to wait for the sunrise to illuminate the world. So darkness was perceived as evil while light was considered good. To this extent, the metaphor is apt. “God is goodness and in God there is no evil at all,” we might say. But there is a flaw in this reasoning as well. According to Genesis 1 God did create light on the first day, overcoming the darkness of chaos. But God also created evening and morning and called them both good. Night was understood as a necessary contrast to day, allowing for rest and for rejuvenation throughout creation. To this extent, the metaphor is problematic because darkness is a natural part of the created order.

But what if we take 1 John 1:5 more or less literally? What if we assume that God really is light as opposed to darkness? What does that tell us? It tells us that just as light is the source of growth, and daytime is the setting for so much of human accomplishment, God, too, is a source of growth and home to what humanity can and does achieve. And in God there is no ambiguity, natural or otherwise, no grey areas, no blurred edges, no overlapping. God is what God is: light as opposed to the absence of light; energy as opposed to a lack of energy; as central to our existence as the sun is to our being.

God is light the way that God is love, or that God is three-in-one. When we try to approximate God with words, there will always be limitations. But then we step into the glow of inspiration, the illumination of knowledge, and we begin to better understand who God really is: light without any darkness at all.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be illumined by your word and by your will, that we may dwell in the light by which we bless all people. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Back to the Beginning…Almost

Jeremiah 4:9-10, 19-28
The prophet Jeremiah offers a horrifying vision of what God might do in response to the ongoing faithlessness of the people. “I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and lo, there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end” (Jeremiah 4:23-27). Notice the various elements of creation that are mentioned. The earth is “void” and the heavens have “no light.” There is no human presence and even the birds have vanished. There are no plants for “the fruitful land was a desert.” In so many ways this is a mirror image of the creation story of Genesis 1, for here is a virtual undoing of the acts of God at the beginning of time. All that is left is a barren, empty, deserted wasteland, very like the void over which the spirit of God passed before saying, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).

Yet even in the midst of this vision, this threat of total destruction, there is hope, for God has not forgotten the various covenants, the promises made to Noah, and Abraham, and through Moses: “I will not make a full end,” says the Lord to Jeremiah. Indeed, there is a reminder of God’s grace even in the face of human stubbornness and disregard for the divine will. The utter bleakness of Jeremiah’s vision does not overcome the hope that God holds out, that within a restored creation the kingdom will come in its fullness. In the story of Pandora’s box, the girl, Pandora, releases all that is dreadful and evil into the world. But along with the woe there is also the last thing out of the box which is hope. Here, in Jeremiah, we find a veriation of that story rooted in God’s relationship with God’s people, a story that contains both the judgment of a just God, and the grace of a merciful Redeemer.

God’s anger burns hot, but God will not bring an end to creation, says Jeremiah. Indeed, with the arrival of Jesus Christ and his ministry some centuries later, God reaffirmed the divine commitment to humanity. In the end as in the beginning, we are blessed by the care of a loving God.

Prayer: God of all creation, look beyond the darkness of the world and lift up your light on the goodness that you have established here, that all may know your love and repent of their sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Is That Really Necessary?

Ephesians 4:17-32

“Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy” (Ephesians 4:28). When I read this verse I always chuckle to myself. This may be the most obvious admonition to be found in all of scripture. Did the author of Ephesians really need to tell us that stealing is wrong? Not if we’ve been paying attention to the rest of the Bible. But then we arrive at the next verse, “Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear” (v. 29), and I begin to get antsy.

Theft is wrong–and obviously so–but what we say about and to one another often falls into a grey area; or so we’d like to think. Politicians call it “pointing out distinctions” between themselves and their opponents. Groups and organizations based on hate or racism offer their viewpoints in crass terms called “protected speech.” A joke told at a party, a comment made to a coworker, a bit of gossip shared at a potluck supper all pass as “polite conversation.” Few of us would ever endorse theft, but depriving others of their dignity is just as bad and robbing a community of its cohesion is no better. The problem is that while I can see what it means to steal I don’t always choose to see what harm I’m doing by what I say. The author of Ephesians offers me no room to wiggle. Theft and the use of language lie side by side and challenge me to take my actions seriously.

I feel confident that I will not steal today, but what words will I use and what language will I convey? Evil is evil, but perhaps the subtle wrongs are the ones to be feared most for they are the ones we have the most trouble avoiding.

Prayer: Lord, help us to live lives of faith and truth today and always. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Worse Than at First

Matthew 12:43-50 The gospel reading for today shares some troubling words from Jesus. “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but it finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So will it be also with this evil generation” (Matthew 12:43-45). My first thought when reading this passage was of something that comic Rodney Dangerfield used to say: “You think I look bad now, you should have seen me yesterday!” But Jesus’ words are far more serious than a standup gag.

The truth is that evil is an ongoing problem for humanity. Whatever it’s cause, sin is something that we can’t outgrow or outrun. If we believe that we have cleanses ourselves of evil, or have “learned not to sin,” we are probably even more vulnerable than we were before, open to all the inclinations that serve to lead us astray. Jesus’ concern is for those who will ignore his words or who will fall into bad habits once they believe themselves to be “healed.” In this regard Jesus’ words are similar to the parable of the sower which Matthew relates in a later chapter. There the seeds that fall on rocky soil or among thorns experience short-lived growth before they are consumed by their surroundings (13:5-7).

Jesus’ invitation to us is to hear the good news and by God’s grace to abide in it so that we may experience the hope and the joy that come from discipleship. There is no inoculation against sinfulness, but there is a recognition of the challenges we face and our constant need for God’s forgiveness. There is also the grace which carries us forward toward the coming reign of God. Jesus’ words are good news because they remind us to be alert and to trust, not in ourselves, but in the love of God.

Prayer: Lord help us to trust in you and not in ourselves or in the world, for from you alone come the grace and forgiveness that we need. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

More Than One Light?

John 3:16-21
According to Genesis 1 God created light on the first day and God saw that the light was good (Genesis 1:3-4). I have to think that in a pre-technological world light was almost always considered a good thing. It provided safety, the ability to work, warmth and much more. But we who live in a modern world know that light, like everything else that God created, can be perverted and made evil. One glance at Los Vegas at night is enough to know that not all light leads to God or to God’s will. That’s one of the factors that makes our reading from John 3 so challenging.

“For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light,” Jesus says, “so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God” (John 3:20-21). The light in this case, of course, is the light of God and God’s will for humanity. But what about all the other lights? As Simon and Garfunkel so famously sang, “And the people bowed and prayed/to the neon god they made…”. Truth is, some light in our world attracts evil like a candle attracts moths. Evil may even covet light, like the glare of publicity or notoriety or fame. This type of light has done little to help Charlie Sheen or many others like him.

So part of the struggle for us is not only living in the light, but determining which light we should live in: the light of God or the light of human sin and ambition. Left to our own choices we would probably all too often stray toward the sinful glare of the neon sign. But this is where Jesus comes back into the story for us. John has already told us that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (1:5). By the same token the human glare of sin cannot overcome the light of the world created by God and found in God.

So when making choices in life it is important not only to listen to God, but also to reject the evil that confronts us regularly. May God bless us in this effort.

Prayer: Lord, you have created a good world full of joy and peace; help us to live as you intend us to do and to turn away from false prophets and the glare of sin. In Jesus’ name. Amen.