1703AFC012017 – The Light Spreads
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Isaiah 9:2 – 2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea. There is certainly a need for more Light, True Light, these days (See 1 John 2:8). My Little Light is very important to me. These posts and messages are one way that I Let My Little Light Shine (↔ Music Link) I hope you, too, have a little light that you do not hide under a basket, but let it shine for all to see. There are many, many references to the Light in scripture. I want to give you just a smattering of what’s available there, and hope that you will – at the very least – use these links to feast on The Word. My greatest hope is that these passages will shed light INTO your heart, mind, and soul and thereby lead us to help spread the light. In this passage, Isaiah had in mind the circumstances for Israel under the very wicked king, Ahaz. He uses the image of light shining in the darkness to illustrate how God will overcome that shadow of evil. We know that, at the dawn, light will flood across our lives. Just as surely, all who walk in darkness have seen the Great Light which shines brightly on “the valley of the shadow of death.” It is The Light of the World. “The Light of the World is Jesus” (↔ Music Link)
Let us begin with a follow-up to the passage from Isaiah. It’s from Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm.
Psalm 27:1 – 1 The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
The Lord is my light and my salvation.
That is true for me and for all who live in The Light of Christ. That light has come into the world and many have rejected it, preferring instead to skulk about in the Darkness. Some of those prowlers believe they have the light, but sometimes that is not the case. Reflect on what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:12-15. At the end of that passage he says, “ 14 And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.15 So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.“ This is why Paul took the Church in Corinth to task for failing to focus on the One True Light. We see that admonition in the verses before and after 1 Corinthians 1:12-13a – 12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ. Has Christ been divided?” In this passage “Cephas” is Κηφᾶς, (Kēphas) {kay-fas’} – the Aramaic word for “rock” – the name give to Peter by Our Lord Jesus. The divisions that have arisen in our “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church” have the effect of dimming and even extinguishing our Little Lights. It isn’t just the differences between Christian denominations, though, that keep us from sharing and spreading The Light. Our Light is also diminished by failing to “trim the wick” as it were. We are like a candle in that we are “wicked” (pronounced “wickt.”) ← Check it out!
When a candle wick or a lamp wick is not positioned or cared for properly, the light it sheds sputters and wavers. Without a wick, the fuel in the candle or lamp is useless. There’s no way to use it. Trimming the wick on a lamp, for example, is similar to what we need to do in our faith-life. We need to trim off what is no longer useful, that which does not contribute to the light produced. If we think of that as being sin, then we need to trim away the sin. We do that by repentance. After John the Baptist was arrested, Jesus immediately began preaching. What was his opening message? We read about that first message here: Mark 1:15 – 15 … saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” And also here: Matthew 4:17 – 17 From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” What is the initial requirement for approaching the Kingdom of Heaven? Repentance is the entryway to The Kingdom. The Path to follow is to believe in the good news, the Gospel. The Light is in the Kingdom, and The Light is the Kingdom. We are called to be in and of The Light: Matthew 5:16 – 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. We are called to Discipleship, to Stewardship, and to Community with, in, and through Jesus. We are to become the Servants of Christ. The Servants of Christ are indeed Many and Great (↔ Music Link) because we indeed all have a share in the Life of Christ if we but repent and believe the Good News. You are called; are you chosen?
Matthew 22:14 – 14 For many are called, but few are chosen. And who are those who are called? The lowly, the powerless, those who are abandoned and marginalized. And why are these called? 1 Corinthians 1:27-31 – 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, 29 so that no one might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” God calls all that is lowly, all that The World deems worthless, even things and persons that are – in The World’s eyes – so very worthless that they don’t even merit being acknowledged as existing. If we are hated or despised by The World, that is at least an acknowledgement that we exist. If The World, and all the evil in it, will not even acknowledge existence because of indifference, then in the ways of The World, we are less than nothing. By choosing what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, God opens himself to us and pulls us into the embrace of his Wisdom, his Glory, and his Grace. He deliberately calls and chooses what is foolish, weak, low (not righteous), and despised. The world counts such as nothing, but in God through Christ Jesus, all that is valued as “something” is turned to nothing and all that is “nothing” becomes superlative. We have been called because, in God’s view, we are everything he loves the most. How can we, how should we, how will we answer?
We can find a good clue on how to answer in one of the Messianic Psalms – Psalms that make predications about the Messiah. One such prediction is in Psalm 40:6-8. The psalmist’s messianic prophesy is that the Messiah will respond to God’s call thusly: “Here I am;
in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God;
your law is within my heart.”
We see this kind of response in Isaiah 6:8c – “Here am I; send me!” as well as 1 Samuel 3:8 when Samuel thought Eli was calling him – “Here I am!” It is also in Genesis 22:1 – Abraham’s response when God called him to sacrifice Isaac as well his answer to Isaac when the lad asked him where were the wood and fire for the sacrifice. It was Jacob’s reply to the angel (Genesis 31:11), and later of Moses when God called him from the burning bush. Ananias (Acts 9:10) gave the same answer when God called him to go to Paul and heal his blindness. Remember when we said that “80% of the job is showing up.”? That’s what happens when you say, “Here I am, Send me!” Even better is what Eli told Samuel to say once he realized it was God calling Samuel (Samuel 3:9): “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” That, Belovéd, is when the wick get lit and The Light starts to shine in the darkness; and as The Light spreads, the Darkness recedes. There is a Day, not long off, when The Light will be so intense that it will be impossible to see anything other than Light. We can be so uplifted by saying Here I am Lord. I come to do your will. (↔ Music Link)That Cloud of Unknowing, in which God alone is the center of contemplation, is the destination for that Call to Servanthood which we hear now in our hearts. What will we say? What will we do? How will you, will I, will we spread the light until darkness fades and the Dawn yields to full day (Proverbs 4:18)? Keep looking! Find these: Acts 2:38-39 and John 6:44 Shall we emigrate from “a land of deep darkness” to him “alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light (1 Timothy 6:16)? Listen, he is calling out to us, Whom shall I send? Answer! Spread the Light!
And in closing, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12 – 11 To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, 12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us go there together, Belovéd, to that City of Light described in Revelation 21:23 – 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Belovéd!
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
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