Council Community Church

Pastor's Corner

HAS SOMEBODY GOT A LIGHT?

7-21-06

    "Have you finished cleaning up your room?"  "Uh-huh."  "You're sure?"  "Yeah!"  So goes the interchange between parent and sons at our house.  A quick glance into the darkened room seems to confirm the story - no apparent piles of dirty clothes waiting to strike; no wheeled vehicles in the middle of the floor to send unsuspecting parents (like me!) crashing through the wall.  However, if the light is turned on another sort of room emerges from the murky shadows.  Amazingly, 157 pounds of legos seem to have found their way underneath a bed (go figure!), last night's PJ's are wadded-up on a bookshelf, and a pile of nameless terror lurks in the closet.  But it would all remain hidden and undealt-with if nobody turned the light on.

    In Matthew 5:14 Jesus tells us: "You[all] ARE the light of the world."  Certainly this refers to the fact that light illuminates, but it also means that light exposes.  The apostle Paul wrote: "For you[all] were once darkness, but now you ARE light in the Lord.  Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.  Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  But everything EXPOSED by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." (Ephesians 5:8-14a; emphasis mine)

    How do we expose darkness?  Paul didn't seem to think that we had to work at exposing; simply living a life that pleases God ("living as children of light") inevitably exposes the darkness as it contrasts with it.  When the light is turned on in my boys' bedrooms it automatically and naturally reveals what was obscured by the lack of light.  Paul instructed the Ephesians to be more concerned with living like who they truly were: children of light; finding out what pleases God AND avoiding an ungodly life.  In the same way, we should be less concerned with exposing the ungodliness and sin of this darkened world than we are with submitting to Christ's rule in our own lives and living an "enlightened" life as the Holy Spirit empowers us.  That kind of life will naturally and inevitably expose the darkness and dark activities around us.

    But don't be surprised when folks who are "exposed" by God's light shining through you seem less than appreciative.  "This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed" (John 3:19-20).  You will be accused of "abandoning the community" when you choose a Bibically-based alternative to public school.  You will be ridiculed when you refuse to go along with a crooked business deal.  You will be character-assassinated for daring to suggest that an "alternative lifestyle" is actually a grievous warping of God's perfect plan.  You will be told to mind your own business when you encourage a friend to confess her anger and selfishness to her spouse and ask for forgiveness.

    None of us want to be exposed in our sin.  That explains why people so frequently begin to isolate themselves from their Christian family and friends when they are struggling deeply with issues of darkness in their life.  We feel that if we aren't around any lights, then the darkness will at least continue to hide our secret.  We avoid the reality that God knows all about it, and instead of dealing with it, we run away.  Sometimes people in this condition are extremely pointed in their desire to avoid being reminded of anything regarding God (they get nasty, OK!?).

    None of this should surprise or discourage us, because shadows are to be expected in a dark world that opposes God, and all of us had our beginning in that gloom ("For you were once darkness..." Eph. 5:8).  But even this resistance points to the reality of Jesus' light.  Petra, in their song "Road To Zion" observed:  

          "Sometimes a shadow, dark and cold, lays like a mist across the road.

            But be encouraged by the sight; where there's a shadow there's a light."

    It should be encouraging, too, to know that shadow/darkness are being made visible because God's light is shining, and often that shining is being accomplished through common folk like you and me.  If there is gross or habitual injustice, abuse, or other sin we should actively expose and oppose it.  But mostly Christians should focus upon humbly and graciously BEING the light that our Lord Jesus has made us to be.  That kind of life and character naturally and automatically exposes darkness around it.  Shine on!