Materials
Gospel
of John,
#1
This
Little Light That Isn't Mine
John 1:6-9
by R. Todd Bouldin
Today I begin a new sermon series that will take us on a journey
with Jesus in the Gospel of John through the Easter story and beyond.
Two years ago, when I last preached a Gospel, we primarily focused
our attention on the first half of John, or what biblical scholars
call “The Book of Signs.” For several reasons, I want
to return to the Gospel of John for these weeks, giving attention
to the second half of the book known as “The Book of Glory.”
The Gospel of John is an invitation to its readers to believe in Jesus
Christ because He is the ultimate expression of God’s presence
in the world, and that by believing in Him, we might find “life
in His name.” (John 20:31). So this sermon series will be an
invitation to receive life in a world of boredom and deadness. If
we are to receive this Life, we must first realize that heaven and
earth have met in Jesus Christ, and now your life is a testimony to
that Presence. You have a mission. You are witnesses to the Light.
Prayer
The first five verses of John are as profound as the first verse of
Genesis. “In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God,
and the Word was God. All things came into being through Him, and
without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being
through Him was life, and the life was the Light of all people. The
Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”
These verses remind us that, just as God created light where there
was darkness at creation’s first dawn, He has again swept the
world with His light in the coming of Jesus Christ. God is in Jesus
Christ, and Jesus Christ is God. As two authors write in the recent
book The Shape of Things To Come, the remarkable truth of these verses
is “not so much that Jesus is Godlike, but that God is Christlike.”
“God is Christlike, and in Him there is no unChristlikeness
at all.” In verse 14, John says the most shocking statement
of the New Testament if we can hear it again, and put aside our familiarity
which deadens its shock upon us, “And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us . . . .” If it appears that God has abandoned
His world, this is the Truth which reminds us that it is not so. If
it appears that heaven and earth are separated by a vast chasm, this
verse claims that this is not the case either. In Jesus Christ, God
has taken up residence in His world. There is God Presence everywhere,
so much so that even what appear to be miracles are actually “signs”
of God Presence John says. John does not use the word “miracle”
to describe the works of Jesus such as causing the blind to see, turning
dull water to the best wine, or raising the dead to life. These are
not miracles as if God is somehow removed from the world and occasionally
asserts Himself to cause extraordinary events. No, these are “signs”
of God’s presence, and where God is present, the extraordinary
is ordinary.
This means that we are no longer on our own to struggle with diseases
that are sucking the life out of us. We are no longer left to jobs
that are flattening our souls or wearying our conscience. Our families
no longer have to hang on by a thread. The world is no longer on its
own to confront threats of violence, and racism, hunger and desperation.
People struggling to understand their lives and their purpose are
not left to confusion and to construct their own answers. Rather,
in Jesus Christ, light has come. God Presence pervades the world.
You are not alone, and the most extraordinary things can happen when
God is around in Jesus Christ. The darkness cannot overcome His light.
Immediately after introducing Jesus Christ, the very next line begins,
“There was a man sent from God named John.” I will be
honest with you that I’ve always been frustrated that John interrupted
the beautiful and profound verses in verses 1 through 5 and that begin
again in verse 14 with this paragraph about John. Couldn’t John
have waited until after verse 14 to tell us about John? Perhaps if
literary quality is all that matters, perhaps he could have. But I
believe John wants us to see ourselves in the text immediately so
he introduces us, right in the middle of these ethereal truths, to
a human being, a crazy man of sorts, named John. He could have said,
“There was a man sent from God named Bob, George or Bill, or
a woman named Sue, Mary or Betty.” Whoever your name is. There
you are in the text, and you are on a mission from God that is connected
to creation’s light. You too have been woven into this great
story. Verse six is your verse because that’s where you come
and discover your purpose in life.
Like the mission of John the Baptist, your mission is to reflect the
light of Jesus Christ. Whether you are a student, a homemaker, a grandparent,
or a business leader, the reason you exist is to reflect the light
of Jesus Christ. Said another way, the world you inhabit should become
a little brighter where you are because God is there, and your life
points the way to the Light that lightens the world. Is there more
light in the places you live and work because God is there in and
through you? Everything else you are contributing to your family,
your business, your students, or to your career will fade. The light
of Christ that was shining through us, and will go on shining after
we are gone, is the only thing you will leave behind. That makes life
deeply significant if you can see your life connected to this unending
and eternal Energy of God in the world.
If we are sitting here this morning, more than likely, that is what
we all want for our lives. We all are interested in what God created
us to do. But the next four verses are important if we are to guard
against two temptations that will prevent us from fulfilling our mission:
The first temptation is to think that we are the Light. After introducing
John the Baptist to us, John reminds us about John the Baptist in
case we were confused, “He was not the Light, but he came to
testify to the Light.” I love that John feels the need to remind
us of this. Our first response to this verse might be, “Well,
duh, John. John the Baptist has nothing on Jesus.” But John
knows how easily we get confused, and how quickly we assert ourselves
as the Light. So when I realize that John the Baptist is “me”
in this text, and that he was not the Light, I want to say, “Thank
God. If I’m the Light, we are going to be in a heap of trouble.”
But all of us have people and circumstances in our lives that trouble
us. A friend is lost in a darkness of addiction, or hurt, and most
of it is their own fault. A child is pursuing a sinful course and
bringing pain to the whole family. A relative is sick, or a person
we love is lonely. You would love to make things better for this person.
You would give anything if you could correct their mistakes, or persuade
them from following a sinful direction.
And so, there are days when you insert yourself just a little too
much. You speak harsh words, or manipulate events, or you lie awake
night after night wishing you could do something. Sometimes you do
too much. But then you read this verse, and you are reminded that
you are not the Light. You are just here to testify to God’s
presence, not to be God. You can’t save anyone. Your mission
is not to take responsibility for someone else’s happiness,
or even their actions. That is the mission of Jesus Christ, but it
isn’t your mission. Jesus alone is the light that can shine
into the darkness, the only Light that the darkness can’t overcome.
There are some people, and it’s particularly bad in churches,
that are what psychologists call “pathological givers.”
They are like the Energizer bunny. They just keep on giving and giving.
You know the pathological givers because they not only keep on giving,
which is honorable, but they keep on telling you that they are giving
and giving. They want to make sure you know that they are giving,
that they are praying for you, that they are looking out for you,
that they are protecting you. Giving is a trait of a person who testifies
to the Light. Some parents take too much responsibility for their
children’s actions, believing that their whole identity is on
the line based on the actions of their children. Some brothers and
sisters in churches so take responsibility for the lives of others
that they impose their own judgment and legalisms upon those they
wish to control. They all are trying to be the Light. But Jesus alone
is the Light that can bring life. In summary, Jesus is the Light,
and I am not. Thank God!
John was not the Light, but he was a witness to it. Witnesses do not
make things happen. As a courtroom lawyer, the last thing you want
is a creative witness who feels the need to get his or her own ego
stroked while on the witness stand. The job of a witness is just to
tell what he or she saw and heard. When the witness gets themselves
out of the way and can focus on the truth, then the Light can shine
through and pierce the confusion and darkness. But the witness is
not the authority. The truth is even bigger than the witness. The
witness is just there to point to the Truth he or she experienced.
And that’s what our mission is too. We are not the Truth, nor
do we contain all of it. We simply point to Jesus Christ who is the
Truth, and then the Light comes shining down into the dark corners
of falsehoods and lostness.
I love the novel Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos. In
the novel, a young priest is called to care for a dying church member
who always has been a difficult person in his church. The priest is
filled with ambivalence about attending to her because she has been
such a thorn in his side, but he also knows that the truth of the
moment and her need supersedes his own feelings about her. But he
goes through the motions, and he says to her without feeling, “Be
at peace.” To his surprise, the woman kneels down before him
and she receives the blessing. Her face lights up, and a peacefulness
overcame her, a peace that exceeded anything He had himself or could
give her in that moment. “Oh miracle,” he says, “to
be able to give what we ourselves do not possess, the sweet miracle
of our empty hands.”
I love that line from the novel because it describes my experience
of ministry on so many occasions. But I’ve come to learn that
empty hands are an invitation for God’s Light. You never know
what God will do when you get out of the way and let Him be the Light.
That requires you to let go of the need to be in charge. When you
do, “signs” will begin to happen in your life because
you will finally see the ordinary events of your life as the most
extraordinary of events. You can finally see God all around you ready
to bless you and your world with light.
The second temptation is too assume that the light belongs to you.
In Jesus Christ, John tells us, “The true Light which enlightens
everyone was coming into the world.” That is quite a claim.
In Jesus Christ, there is enough light for everyone. John was writing
his gospel most likely to those early followers of a heresy known
as Gnosticism. Gnosticism taught that God chooses only certain people
to receive his light, and they are the only ones “in the know.”
All others are lost in their darkness while they basked in their ability
to know the things of God correctly and confidently. John says that
the light that God shines in Jesus Christ is not meant for anyone’s
sectarian control or exclusivist tendencies. There is no person or
church or tradition that owns the Light of the world. Even in the
places of profound darkness, God’s light shines. So never think
that you are the Light, or that you own the Light. God’s light
can shine wherever it wishes, and sometimes on people and in places
you least expect (John 3:8). But this light doesn’t belong to
your group or to mine. God wants to enlighten every person, and so
your mission too is to every person, regardless of your own evaluation
of them.
That is why John tells us that it is God who is making us His children
again without regard to anything having to do with human characteristics
but by His own choosing and power. Wherever God is, Jesus is, and
Jesus loves the most unexpected people and does the most extraordinary
things. So open your eyes to a world filled with the Presence of God.
His light is shining on everyone, and you have been given a great
purpose to point to His Light. So, with empty hands, pray for the
Light of Christ’s glory to shine on you. The miracles are just
around the corner.
February 5, 2006
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