The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year A, April 3, 2011, Church of the Resurrection Franklin

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Jo. 9:5).

If you go out tonight and look up into the sky you’ll see starlight that’s been travelling for years to arrive at the planet Earth. That’s how far away the stars are, that it takes years for the light to travel here so that we can see it. Some of that light has been travelling for thousands of years, so when we look into the night we’re looking into the distant past. Now light moves pretty quickly (just turn on a switch), so looking up, you also get a sense of the great void, of the dark silent space between suns and planets and where we are. There’s order and beauty in the universe but also something else. If there’s light there’s also darkness, and a cloudless spring night can reveal them both.

Darkness and light are the great theme of John’s Gospel, from the opening verses of the prologue to this bit of the ninth chapter. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jo. 1:5), says the Gospel writer in the first chapter, about the Word of God who is the true Light, Jesus Christ himself. So Jesus goes on to call himself “the light of the world”: that’s the eighth chapter, where Jesus is in conflict with the religious leaders of the People. Jesus says, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (Jo. 8:12). He returns to the theme in our Gospel today, where the conflict between light and darkness is intensifying. “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” And when we come to the moment of Jesus’ betrayal and arrest, the Gospel writer notes laconically but significantly that “it was night” (Jo. 13:30): it was night, the moment of final conflict and ultimate triumph at the Cross.

If there is order and beauty in the universe there is also that “something else”, a darkness that the Gospel story of death and Resurrection reveals. Jesus is the light that came into the world, coming a great distance across a vast gulf. The incarnation of God’s Son, “God from God, Light from Light” (in the words of the Creed), took thousands of years to come to pass, which isn’t surprising if we keep in mind the cosmic scale that God deals in. The Great Architect of the Universe has a vast territory in which to work, but he has to start somewhere at a particular time and place. Jesus is also the light that shines in the darkness, in the emptiness of human sin and enmity toward God, in the waste places of human hostility and disobedience that are exemplified in the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. But the question is not “What’s wrong with them?”, as if we could project that darkness onto others, but rather “What’s wrong with us?”, to own it for ourselves.

We’re in need of redemption, and that’s what the Christian faith is all about. The Christian story is not about people who do the right thing (because that’s hopeless) but about people who’ve been saved from the power of the wrong thing. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” These last few weeks of Lent and Holy Week bring us close to the center of the human problem, to the darkness of the human heart, where light needs to shine. And the Good News is that God has made that Light shine, to illuminate both you and me. As Paul says in our second reading, “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light” (Eph. 5:8). The light of Christ burns brightly; again as Paul says, “Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph. 5:14).

This is the new life that God has shared with us in the light of Jesus’ Resurrection. It’s the new life we receive as we come to the altar rail today to receive Christ’s Body and Blood, the token of his costly sacrifice for us and the token of the new life that he has won for us. It’s the new life we share in Christ’s Body the Church, exemplified for us today in the folk who are re-affirming their baptismal faith and becoming confirmed members of the Church. They are witnessing to us, and encouraging us, by their willingness to stand up and be counted.

So tonight go outside, into the clear spring night, and peer into the deep sinful past of the universe, into the great darkness that surrounds our planet, and see the light that shines in the darkness and will not be overcome. And in the dawn of a new day, you will see that Christ has shined on you and on me, transforming our darkness into light.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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