Living in the Light, 11.13

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

¹Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. ²For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!

⁴But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; ⁵for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness. ⁶So then let us not fall asleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober; ⁷for those who sleep sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. ⁹For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

Matthew 25:14-30

¹⁴“For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; ¹⁵to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. ¹⁶The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. ¹⁷In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. ¹⁸But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.

¹⁹After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. ²⁰Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying ‘Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.’ ²¹His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ ²²And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, ‘Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.’ ²³His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’

²⁴Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; ²⁵so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’ ²⁶But his master replied, ‘You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? ²⁷Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest.

²⁸So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. ²⁹For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. ³⁰As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

------------------------------------------------------------------

            OK, raise your hand if passages like this one make you nervous or make you want to just shake your head and close the Bible. We’ve been reading passages about the end of time and the final judgment for several weeks now. It seems like as Jesus got closer to his own death he became more insistent about warning his audience that the end was coming soon for them too. I get it, and at the same time it still feels a little like we’ve been getting beaten over the head with judgment talk for weeks now.

            A couple times in the last few weeks Jesus has talked about how his return will be like a thief in the night. Paul uses the same image in today’s passage. The idea is that Christ will return suddenly, when we least expect it. In a lot of ways it’s a threatening image. We imagine darkness and shadows. We imagine a sneaky guy in a ski mask prowling around the back of the house looking for a loose windowpane. Maybe we even imagine a mugger in a dark alley striking unsuspecting victims without warning and without mercy.

             If we’re honest we often see Christ’s return like that. We think of Christ coming back and judging the world and we feel afraid. We’re suspicious of his intentions in judgment and fearful about what might happen to us. We worry he’s going to hurt us and take away our treasure like a thief. We have this Santa Clause image of Jesus making his list and checking it twice, he’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.

            Paul helps us see this image in a more hopeful way. Yes, Christ will come like thief in the night, he says, “But you, beloved, are not in darkness, for that day to surprise you like a thief; for you are all children of light and children of the day; we are not of the night or of darkness.” The darkness that makes the thief seem threatening isn’t a given; it’s a choice. Christ is the light of the world and when we belong to him we aren’t stuck in the darkness. In Christ we walk in the light, and everything looks different in the light.

            When we’re in the darkness Christ’s return feels like a threat; in the light we see his return as the joyful reunion it is. In the dark God’s justice seems threatening; in the light it’s a relief because we know that everything wrong will finally be made right. In the dark it feels like we can do whatever we want and that we need to look out for ourselves. In the light we see the needs and possibilities of the world around us and it’s clear that our calling is outside our walls.

            The challenge of this passage is to be who God made us, to live like redeemed followers of Jesus, to do what we know we are called to do. Paul reminds his readers that they are in the light so they have nothing to worry about from thieves or from judgment. He also reminds them to keep acting like they are in the light, he encourages them to remember who they are.

            When we remember our identity as Jesus followers we know how to do the right thing. When we walk in the light we can see where we’re going. The Christian life is natural. It means looking at Jesus as an example of what authentic and faithful life looks like. It means caring about our neighbors, speaking up for the powerless, serving the poor. It means comforting those who are sad or afraid, reaching out to people who are lonely, sharing our hope with others. In short, it means acting like a Christian.

            Faithful Christian living takes practice but becomes almost instinctual. It’s less about rules and more about choosing our actions in the light of who we are and who Jesus is. At our core we have been redeemed and we are new creations in Christ. So when we live honest, love-filled lives we will naturally do the right thing.

Light in the darkness (1.3.10)

Ephesians 1:3-14
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 5He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8that he lavished on us.
With all wisdom and insight 9he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 10as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people, to the praise of his glory.
John 1:(1-9) 10-18
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. 15(John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
-------------------------------------------------
This magnificent passage is known as John’s prologue. These familiar words set the stage for the rest of John’s Gospel. John’s writing holds a unique place among the Gospels. A woman in my last church, a powerful and well-seasoned believer, once told me that she liked Matthew for its clarity, but she felt John’s Gospel was the one most likely to make you a Christian.

John’s language is beautiful and poetic from start to finish. His Gospel boasts some of the most powerful theological language about Jesus anywhere in the Bible. That language has shaped church doctrine powerfully, but it can be difficult to penetrate. But John’s Gospel also holds some of the freshest stories about Jesus; stories you can picture in your mind’s eye as you read. Stories that just jump off the page like the man born blind whom Jesus heals or the woman caught in adultery. It is a powerful Gospel and so it begins with this prologue, a powerful introduction.

John uses his prologue to introduce some themes that will run throughout the Gospel, preparing us to pay attention to them as the story unfolds. Themes like light and darkness, the world that rejects Christ and the believers who become God’s children by the Spirit, Christ the Son who lets us know the Father: these ideas appear first in the prologue and then shape the rest of the book.

All the Gospels tell Jesus’ story, but only John starts at the beginning. It’s fitting that we begin a new year with the start of John’s Gospel, which goes all the way back to the beginning of creation: a fresh start for a new year. For John this isn’t a story about a special man chosen by God for a mission. Instead it is about the living Word of God before the creation of the world. God’s Word is God, with God from the start and active in creating everything. John is retelling the creation story from Genesis to show that God created everything through Christ, his Word.

In Genesis God says a word and things are created: “God said let there be light and there was light;” “God said and it was so.” For John, God’s creating word isn’t just the words God speaks. The capital W Word it is a creative power alive in its own right. “The Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, everything was made through him and without him nothing was made.”