God Seekers (Matthew 2:1-12)

            ... For the scientists, and the rest of us;

... For the curious, people who ask “How does this work?”  “Why is it like that?”  “What does that mean?”  And, an invitation to all of us to be curious.  

This passage, Matthew 2, the wise men coming to find the newborn king of the Jews whom they knew came from God; this story from holy scripture is for a town like our and a church like ours, a town and a church that includes scientists, mathematicians, doctors and researchers.  

            The story is also for outsiders.  You get this sense that there’s an “in group,” and you’re not in it.  This story is for you.  The birth of Jesus happens in a Jewish world.  The story is told in a Jewish way, for the Jewish people.  Jesus was a Jewish man, prophesied by Jewish prophets to save the people of Israel. 

            Yet at the very beginning of his story, while he’s still a baby, these strange visitors come from the East.  They aren’t Jewish leaders.  The Jewish King, Herod, was caught off guard by their arrival.  He had not been watching for the Messiah’s birth and was unhappy when these Persian Magi showed up announcing it had happened.  His scholars, Jewish scribes who worked in the temple, knew the stories from Micah and Isaiah, but they were not ready to greet the Savior sent by God.  No these visitors weren’t Jewish at all.

            They weren’t Greek either.  The Greeks dominated the cultural scene from Jerusalem to Athens and even to Rome.  Greek, not Latin, was the lingua franca.  The Romans had their hands on the hammer.  If Greek culture was admired, Roman power was feared.  There were Jews, Greeks, and Romans in Jerusalem, uneasily co-existing when Jesus was born.  Yet, none of them recognized the monumental things that had happened.  It is these ancient wise men from the east, Persian star-gazers who came and asked, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?”  They came and reported, “We have observed his star at its rising.”  They saw the Light!  They declared “We have come to pay him homage” (2:2).  The story of Jesus’ birth is a Jewish story, yet non-Jews have a place in it too.  He’s a Savior for everyone.

            The late 20th and early 21st centuries have witnessed an unfortunate historical phenomenon: the disconnect between science and faith. Anxious conservative Christians are tempted to fear science if discoveries call into question some of their beliefs.  Rather than re-examine their beliefs in order to fortify their faith, and rather than trust that the God they believe in will stand up under scrutiny, they disregard scientific voices as “godless liberal speak.” Instead of learning from the marvelous advances in science, some Christians consciously or unconsciously engage in a cultural war, planting their flag in ignorant ground.

For their part, many scientists become so enamored with progress and the things humans can do, they forget their need for God altogether and assume the only things that are real are those things which can be observed and measured.  They live in the delusion that God has been left behind and religion is nothing more than childish superstition.  Without knowing it, they exhibit religious devotion to an atheistic worldview even as they decry the notion of religion.  Intentionally or unintentionally, they too engage in the cultural war, opposite the conservatives and fundamentalists.  And the ground in which the secularists plant their flag is just as ignorant.

In all likelihood, these sages from the East were interdisciplinary scholars.  Experts on the constellations, they spent countless hours studying the night sky.  They also knew  Jewish theology.  Jesus was born almost 600 years after the Jews had been taken into exile in Babylon.  The Old Testament reports that 1000’s of Jews returned to Israel after the Persians had defeated the Babylonians in the early 5th century BC.  Under Ezra and Nehemiah, they rebuilt the city of Jerusalem. 

However, not all Jews returned.  Some remained in Babylon and in Persia.  The scholars there, the wise men we meet in Matthew 2,  learned Jewish history and religion from these Jews who had stayed behind.  They became experts not only in astronomy but also in theology. They became scientist-theologians. And something inside them helped them see that God was at the heart of the Jewish people.  The wise men experienced the exact opposite dynamic we have seen in the religion v. science culture wars of the past 50-75 years.  In their pursuit of truth and knowledge, they found God.  Their scientific research led them to follow a star, a star that led them to Bethlehem where they got to see the newborn Jesus, the Christ, the King.  

What was that something inside them that enabled them to connect the star and Jewish theology and the truth that it was God they were following?  My faith tells me it was the Holy Spirit.  Adopting an attitude of humble learners and earnest seekers, these gentiles met God in Jesus and paid him homage.  The insiders, Herod and the temple scribes, those entrusted with the scriptures, were blind to God because they stopped wondering.  They stood on their own position as keepers of Israelite culture.  They stopped looking to God for new insight. They assumed history had anointed them the rightful bearers of God’s truth and in their assuming, they missed God’s arrival.

I began by asserting that this story in Matthew 2 is one for the scientists and the curious, people who ask how, why, and what does this mean.  I also said this a story for outsiders, the excluded.  In Jerusalem in 2BC, and in Bethlehem less than 10 miles south of Jerusalem, the outsiders weren’t just gentiles.  Poor Jews, the majority, had little access to the privileges and benefits Herod and his scribes afforded themselves. 

Joseph and Mary were Jewish peasants, ruled by Herod and bullied by Rome.  Why did the Savior come to a low class family like that and not a wealthier one?  The prophets tells us: Amos 5, where God says, “I despise your festivals ... take away from the noise of your songs; but let justice roll down like waters” (5:21, 23a, 24a).  And Isaiah 58, where God says, “Is this not the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself; ... to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless into your house” (58:5, 7)?  Herod wasn’t taking any homeless people into his house.

I believe God did not come to Herod because Herod did not recognize his need for God.  He had the need, but did not see it.  He was neither curious, nor humble.  Joseph and Mary, devout peasants were ready to receive the gift of God’s grace and, with courage, answer God’s call.  They were certainly Jewish and when the wise men visited them we see the incredible work of God come to life in the lives of very real and very different people.  Erudite, rich Persians scholars and a peasant Jewish carpenter’s family came together around the crib of the son of God.  They were united, God using the scientific curiosity of the Magi and the recognition of need in Joseph and Mary.  In both postures, God came to people, meeting them where they were. 

Herod adopted a posture that left him blind to what God was doing.  And his own arrogance put him in opposition.  He was, without knowing it in the worst possible place someone can be.  An arrogant, self-reliant insider, he was against God.

The wise men found God because they were looking for him.  Listen to Psalm 9:9 in the New Living Translation.  “The Lord is a shelter for the oppressed.  Those who know your name trust in you, for you O Lord, do not abandon those who search for you.”  Mary and Joseph received God because they knew they needed him and were ready to live by faith when God came to them.

To see God and not be blind to His presence, and to be for God and not against Him, requires a new way of seeing.  We are invited to live observantly and seek God in our everyday places.  That’s where we undergo transformation.  When the Holy Spirit begins to work in us, we need to humbly, prayerfully respond in faith.  The scientist, the curious, the outsider, the one on the margins, and any and everyone who recognizes his or her own need is welcomed by God and invited by God into the life of God. 

Constantly seeking God, will completely change how we see the world and live in it.  Think of the most normal, everyday places, experiences, and relationships in your life.  The most mundane, banal, unremarkable places and people: in those places, that’s where the quest for God begins. That’s where God is going to meet you and me and begin going to work in us, transforming us into His holiness.  

The commitment you and I are invited to make is the commitment to curiosity and humility.  Decide today you will spend your life seeking God, receiving God, and following - going wherever God leads and loving and helping everyone you meet along the way.  Step down that path and this account of the wise men comes to life in your life as God speaks to you when you meet him in the world, and then speaks to the world through as He speaks through you.

AMEN

What we see in the Light (John 8:12)

Sunday, April 15, 2018

            “I am the light of the world,” Jesus said.  The Light.  No more darkness or confusion; all is revealed.  The problem is, I don’t think a lot of people come to church looking for light, revelation, or God.

            Ask yourself why you come?  In our country and in our culture, we are free to choose whatever religion we prefer, or no religion at all if that’s to our liking.  Why do you follow the way of Jesus? 

            Maybe you don’t.  Maybe you attend church every Sunday, or many Sundays, or today at least, but the fact that you are here does not mean you’ve given your life to God and you live in service to the Lord Jesus.  Not only does our culture provide for freedom of religion, but our religion, Christianity, allows people to participate in worship even if they have not committed to faith in Christ.  We welcome seekers.  If you are not a Christian or are not sure if you are a Christian, we’re happy to see you.

            I know many here do claim to be Christian.  The question is why?  In Christianity, in the way of Jesus Christ, what are we looking for?  Over and over, in conversations I have with church goers, I find that Christians don’t have a Biblical view of what our faith is about. 

What I hear over and over is that people are Christians because they hope to go to Heaven when they die.  People want to know that the afterlife is secured.  And, of course!  I want that too.  And our faith does promise eternal life.  But if we read the New Testament, we don’t see very much about going to Heaven when we die.  It’s not the primary message; not the heart of what God promises; not the essence of what God expects of us. 

Many of us come to church looking for this one thing.  The Bible promises something else.  Keep your eyes on John 8:12 as I talk.  This section of John begins in chapter 7.  The Festival of Tabernacles was about to begin.  Jesus traveled from Galilee to Jerusalem to be there for the festival (7:10). 

This celebration hearkened back to Moses leading the Israelite slaves out of Egypt.[i]   In Jerusalem, on the opening night of the festival, in the area of the temple called the court of women where water was drawn, there were four golden candlesticks lit.  The wicks floated in golden bowls that sat atop pillars that were so high, the priest had to climb a ladder to light each one.  When these wicks burned “it is said that all Jerusalem reflected the light.”

The opening night of the Festival of the Tabernacles under the light of Jerusalem, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”  We hope to get to heaven when they die, and in Christ we are promised a blessed eternity as sons and daughters of God, but ‘going to heaven when we die’ is not a major focus of the New Testament.  Where does God wants us to be paying the closest attention? Into what is our Lord inviting us?

Under the light of Jerusalem, Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.”  The Feast of the Tabernacles was meant to draw the people into their story and to turn their hearts to God.  In his pronouncement, Jesus says, “God is here among you and here for you; for your blessing and your benefit.”

Let it sink in.  The things God did in Jesus and continues to do among us in the Holy Spirit; it is all for our good.  It might not always be what we want.  We think we have a vision of life, of what makes us happy, but God know what gives us joy.  God knows better than we do what is for our good.  The things Jesus did and continue, in the Spirit, to do, is for our good.  The life into which Jesus calls us is the best life we can live. 

In John 6:35 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.  Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”  In 7:37 he said, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” Now here in 8:12, we see his claim.  He is the light of the world. 

In the statements of Jesus in John, his identity is revealed.  We begin to see who Jesus is. Elsewhere in John he says, “I am the way,” and, “I am the gate.” 

By the light, we see.  There’s no nighttime fumbling and bumping in the house, knocking over the unseen glass of water on the bedside table, stepping barefoot on Legos and pushpins hiding in the hallway carpet.  All is seen.  All the uncertain alleyways of life are illuminated.

Taking Jesus to be the light, fixing our gaze on him and standing in his light, we are enlightened and thus our lives are exposed.  John 8:1-11, tells of an angry mob that drags a woman before Jesus caught in the act of adultery.  That’s a sin committed unclothed.  She’s cowed to the ground wearing only a bedsheet and her shame.  The crowd, stones in hand, condemning scriptures in their mouths, demand a verdict from Jesus.  He does not deny her sin.  He simply invited whomever in the mob is without sin to cast the first stone. 

In their hypocritical judgment they exposed her sin, but He is the light.  In Jesus’ wisdom, their sins are exposed.  They quietly depart, shame, a black cloud hovering over them.  Jesus did not shame anyone.  He just exposed what had been hidden.

In the next chapter, John 9, the disciples want to blame a man’s blindness on the sins of his parents.  The religious leaders want to kill Jesus.  He exposes the holes in the theology of his followers and the murderous intentions of the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  He is the light and all is exposed in the light, including all sins – yours, mine.  Light is wonderful until we realize there are things in our lives we want to keep hidden.  We cannot come to Jesus and keep things hidden.  We can hide things from friends in church, but not from him.  And we don’t truly come to him until our lives are exposed in His light. 

Jesus is the light of the world and in him we are enlightened and exposed.  What else?

We’ve heard the claims he makes, bread of life, giver of living water.  We are nourished by his light.  We have to have vitamin D for healthy bones and for numerous other health benefits.  The best source for vitamin D is sunlight similarly, he gives what we need and it is impossible to be healthy apart from him. 

And, the light guides us to right choices.  By his light we see the right pathways for our lives, and those paths we must avoid.  In his light, we walk the pathway of forgiveness.  Relationships are restored, grudges dropped, and reconciliation possible.  In his light, greed, jealousy, rage, and selfishness are avoided.  We see the way to go and the way not to go by walking in step with Jesus. 

He is the light who enlightens us, exposes all, nourishes our spirit and mind and soul, and guides our path.  As C.S. Lewis said,  “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”[ii]

The overall picture the Gospel of John paints of Jesus is of one who comes from outside of creation, from the divine realm.[iii]  The messianic language in John “tells of events that are outside the usual reach of human historical experience,” but that are “foundational for human relationship with [God].”[iv]  We cannot use empirical data to prove that Jesus is the light of the world.  All we have is the witness of scripture, the testimony of others who know God in Christ, and the words the Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts and minds.  But this is enough.  The Gospel of John speaks from direct observation, the writer an eye-witness to the life of Jesus. We feel the force of his testimony as the Spirit leads us to meet Jesus in the pages of his gospel.

Heaven, afterlife, blessing – that all comes later.  Right now, in the moment we open John, the light is turned on. We are knocked flat because in these pages, we come face to face with the living God.

Thus we see the solution to the original problem.  People come to church looking for the wrong thing – a passport to Heaven.  That’s not why we’re here.  If that’s why you’re hear, you’ll never understand what’s going in the Bible.  Heaven is real.  Heaven is important.  It’s not the story, nor is it the goal.  Heaven is an after affect.  The story is the relationship we have with God.  “By doing God’s deeds and speaking God’s words of love and life, Jesus reveals God, making it possible not only to know about God, but to know God, and so to have eternal life.”[v]

“I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).  Following Jesus - that’s the right reason to come to church, to attend worship, and live a Christian life.  Jesus has no use for admirers.  He is not impressed by believers.  Even the demons believe in God (James 2:19).  He is looking for followers.  Jesus calls us – every one of us – to be disciples. 

In John 8:32.  “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make your free.”

The disciple life is the only life worth living.  I promise.  Confess your sins before God.  Turn away from those sins and receive forgiveness.  Invite Jesus into your life and fully surrender to him.  Acknowledge him as the master of your marriage and your career.  Follow him in times leisure, as the Master of what you look at on TV, on your phone, and on your computer.  Fully, surrender to him the most important things in your life. 

We might have to give up, some relationships, and dreams. We keep others, but they are changed in the light of Christ.  Some things stay as they are, but we are changed as we pursue those dreams and live in those relationships because of who we have become in Christ.  Other things fall to second place.  Following our Lord becomes primary. 

I promise.  No other life compares.  I say it that way, as a promise, because I cannot prove it.  So, you need to test this yourself.  Turn to Jesus.  Seek Him.  And see what happens in your life when you do. 

AMEN

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[i] R.Brown (1983), The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John I-XII, Doubleday & Company (Garden City, NY), p.344.

[ii] A. McGrath (2009), A Fine-Tuned Universe: The Quest for God in Science and Technology, Westminister John Knox Press (Louisville), p21.  I have more frequently in McGrath’s writings and speeches (watched on Youtube) than in actually reading Lewis. 

[iii] D. Rensberger (2001), “The Messiah who has Come into the World,” in Jesus in the Johannine Tradition, Robert t. Fortna and Tom Thatcher, eds, Westminster John Knox Press (Louisville), p.17

[iv] Ibid, p.19.

[v] Ibid, p.22.

Turning off the Light

        It was 5AM.  I was the only one up and had not turned on any lights.  I appreciated how quiet the house was.  I looked out the kitchen window into the fading darkness of our backyard.         We used to see deer a lot, but lately, not so much.  I wondered if they had moved on, but my wife Candy said, no.  She is a gardener and her half-eaten tomatoes told her the deer are still coming by.   In the dim pre-dawn gray, there he was, a buck happily enjoying an early morning salad. I could hear Candy’s voice in my head.  “Did you scare them out of my garden?”  So I open the back door and they ran.

        What if I had turned on the kitchen light before looking out?  At 5AM, it is starting to get light outside, but it is still pretty hard to see.  Artificial indoor light would reflect off the windows and make it impossible to see.  If I had turned on the kitchen light, the world outside the window would appear as black as the dead of night, a starless night.       The light that made it possible for me to read while sitting at the kitchen table would have blinded me to what was happening outside.  How does a kitchen light bring both sight and blindness?

In our world, how do darkness and light exist alongside each other?  How do these two – darkness and light – both exist in our hearts?

The Gospel of John says that Jesus is “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (1:5).  First John 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true.”

        Darkness cannot overcome the light of God.  When God is present, darkness must flee and all that was hidden by the darkness is exposed by God’s holy light.  So how can we walk in darkness once we have heard the gospel?  If we have met God in Jesus, is it even possible for us to walk in the darkness after that?  First John says it is. 

        According to Raymond E. Brown, 1^st John is first century Christian essay written for members of a church that has gone through a split.  The author, the elder, is on one side in this split.  He accuses the other side of walking in darkness.  They knew Jesus’ story – the cross, the resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit.  They knew, still they chose darkness.  They claim follow Jesus, but the elder calls them liars.

        God is the light.  First John stresses the importance of men and women living in the Lord, walking in the light.  Yet, verse 6 holds that some have done the opposite and walked in darkness.  Even after being exposed to God’s purity, holiness, and perfect love, they chose darkness over light.  They were able to choose to turn the light off.

        How can one turn God off?  It is a matter of free will.  Many Christian theologians put it this way.  God gives us choices and honors the choices we make.  What makes us God’s imager bearers – those made in God’s image unlike any other animal – is our free will.  By our free will, we create.  God made the world and empowers us to live in the world He created.  God enables and expects us to make things of the world.  And we do.  We make things like cars, houses, and computers.  We are endowed with creativity by God.

        It is by our free will that we create and it is by free will that we choose to worship God.  Or, we have the option to not worship God.  I do not believe God determines choices.  God creates us with the ability to choose and some among us even after seeing God’s goodness choose to turn away and walk in darkness.

        The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament says light means potentiality while darkness means death.[i]  These terms appear throughout the New Testament.  The Gospel of John and 1^st John are unique in the way they present a duality of light and darkness.  The concepts of light and dark carry theological and spiritual meanings in John not found in other works. 

Reality is comprised of both and human beings are in one or the other; we walk in the darkness or the light.  We turn ourselves so that we are oriented toward God (the light) or toward that which is not of God (the darkness). 

The Holy Spirit will help us choose.  If someone you know is in a dark place or has a heart shadowed by heavy, deadly darkness, you can pray for him. We can go to God on behalf of those we love who have turned away from the Lord.  The Holy Spirit will respond to our pleas and reach out to those lost in darkness.  Even before we pray, God pursues the sheep that are lost (Luke 15).  However, a moment of choice always comes and the individual has to decide he wants God more than the darkness that has attracted him. 

        But, why are we attracted by darkness in the first place?  If God is so awesome, why would we ever choose to turn away from Him?  This question is as old as the world.  Eve and Adam walked with God in the Garden of Eden.  Yet, they chose to turn away from God’s gift of life ever since, humans have rejected God. 

        First John 2:15-17 helps me understand how they and anyone, myself included, can do indeed do this.  The elder says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world – the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches – comes not from the father but from the world” (v.15-16).  Darkness is not appealing because it is literally dark and foreboding and scary. 

We run away from dark, foreboding, scary things.  The other night I had a dream I was being attacked by a poisonous snake.  I was literally running with my legs in the bed.  I was so shaken when I woke, I could not return to sleep.  The darkness John talks about is much worse than a snake, but it does not appear worse.  It does not appear bad at all.

“Do not love … the things of the world; … the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches.”  But we do.  Several years ago, Richard Foster named the three great categories of temptations that draw us away from God – power, sex, and money.[ii]  Last Christmas I received Andy Crouch’s latest book Playing God.  In it he covers themes very similar to those discussed by Foster.  Counterfeit Gods (2009) by Timothy Keller also deals with this.  These books are written to show followers of Jesus how vulnerable we are.  We love the things of the world.

Jesus was with the disciples in a storm at sea (Mark 4:40).  They panicked.  As long as he was with them, they should have had no reason to fear.  He was bigger than any problem they would face.  They couldn’t trust him though.  They trusted dry land.  They believed the storm.  It sinks boats.  Trusting Jesus was harder.

We are the body of Christ.  We give our tithes and do our mission projects and in different ways announce to the world around us that Jesus is Lord and in him the Kingdom of God has come.  We trust him to meet our needs and carry the message we preach.  Would it be easier if we had more – maybe $500,000 per year?  Oh, Lord, what could we do with $1 million?

I don’t know if our deacons or treasurer ever has these thoughts.  I do.  Why?  One million dollars seems reals.  I take my eyes off of Jesus and set the world in my sights.  John 3:16 says God loved the world enough to send Jesus to provide salvation from the sin and death.  But we are not to love world so that we become like the world.  We are to help the world know of the salvation we have in Jesus. 

The duality of light and dark is a violent tug-of-war in the Gospel and in First John.  Imagine God on one side.  Imagine an undefinable darkness that smells of evil, that puts out an oppressive heat on the other side.  You and I are in the middle.  In this tug of war, God is not pulling us, nor will God allow the darkness to pull us.  Rather, God’s arms are open.  Jesus invites us to come to Him.  It is an invitation of pure love and an invitation to enter into pure, unfailing, unending love.

On the side, darkness puts on the disguise of happiness – happiness that is purchased.  But, if I get that raise, then I’ll be happy.  But, oh, I needed a few thousand more.  If God sent the tither who gave a $1 million gift to the church, we would suddenly discover we really need $5 million to be God’s church.  If the disguise of money fails to attract, darkness puts up another temptation– sex.  A man feels lonely, unsatisfied, unmanly.  Darkness comes in the form of sexual temptation.  We resist greed and sex, then darkness tempts us with power, or something else. 

The temptations keep coming.  Do we turn away from God?  What form is darkness taking in the struggle for your heart? 

Each one of us needs to do some work in interpretation.  We have to examine our own lives and see our vulnerabilities.  First John 2:15 is a general teaching – do not love the things in the world.  Your work and mine is to specify that teaching.  Money is a thing of the world.  It can be managed wisely and used in God’s service.  When acquiring money is a driving force in our lives, it becomes something we love and it drags us away from God.  For one person the temptation is money, for another sex, and so on.  Do not love the things of the world because, says 1^st John, “the world and its desire are passing away” (2:17a).  Each one of us needs to figure out what of the things of the world are dragging us away from God’s light.

Maybe it begins with disappointment.  Because the world is a fallen world, the goodness of God’s original creation now corrupted, there is pain.  Pain is a part of life and failure is something everyone faces.  The greatest danger of it is it may be the thing that draws us to the darkness.  In the Gospel and in 1^st John, the way of darkness is the way of death: permanent, separated-from-God-for-eternity death. 

But the light is always there. 

I have dealt with disappointments, but God always kept me in His grasp.

I did not get the first big job in ministry for which I applied.  There were weeks between that rejection and graduation from college that I did not know what was coming.  My dad had warned me of how difficult it would be to graduate without employment.[iii]  Before I had a job or knew what I would end up doing, I knew God was with me and I was in His light.  I was disappointed but, I was in the light.

Through the decade of my 20’s I failed in romance.  I was lonely.  Before I knew Candy and knew she would marry me, I knew God was with me and I was in His light.  The loneliness hurt.[iv]  At times I was sad, but always in the light.

I had big dreams for my first pastorate and many never came to fruition.  I thought I knew what the church should be and it did not become that.  There was disappointment and I did not know what God would do in my life as a pastor.  But, I knew God was with me and I was in His light. 

When we were adopting children, there were interruptions in the process, years of waiting, and times when it seemed it would never happen.  In the anxiety, we knew God was with us and we were in His light.  There were agonizing stretches, but the light continued to shine.

Each person has the option of stressing over successes that are really desires of the world. We can fall apart over our temptations that originate in the darkness.

There is another way.

We look to Jesus.  We give ourselves to him.  He rules in everything in our lives.  And that is when we live into an joy-filled God fellowship, the abundant life we are promised by Jesus.  As 1^st John says, “Walk in the light as he is in the light.”  We do, and we have “fellowship with one another” and the assurance of eternal life (1:7; 2:17b, 25).

AMEN

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[i] G. Bromiley (1985).  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume, Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, eds.  William B. Eerdmans (Grand Rapids, MI), p.1049.

[ii] Foster (1985). The Challenge of the Disciplined Life.

[iii] I do not mean to be crass and conflate any old job with the calling to ministry.  But, work is important.  A job, whether secular or religious is something all people need for income but also to be a means for the individual’s contribution to the good of society.  If your work has zero cultural or social or human value, is it work you should be doing?

[iv] This season included a realization upon my 30^th birthday that I could not accept that “singleness” was a happy condition, not for me anyway.  I was single.  And generally speaking, I was happy.  But not content.  I know many singles who like I did long to find love.  It never comes to them and the sadness becomes a part of their lives.  But, it is only a part.  Even in that state, the unmarried individual can be in light of God and have the joy of God.