Love the Light

Polk City UMC

March 30, 2003

Mark Haverland

 

 

John 3:14-21  And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. (16) "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (17) "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (18) Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (19) And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. (20) For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. (21) But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

 

Virtually everyone knows the verse from John 3:16.  Indeed, we can hardly escape the signs in the crowds at ball games, the citation painted on rocks along the highway.  I suspect that this verse is as well known as any in the Bible: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotton son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but may have eternal life.

 

This whole passage is full of powerful, weird and, to many of us, familiar themes and images.  The first line refers to what well be may the first use of homeopathic medicine.  Homeopathy, if I understand it correctly, is a respectable way of suggesting that the old hangover cure (hair of the dog that bit you) applies to all illness.  Moses hangs a large snake, actually a bronze replica of a large snake, on a pole in front of the people who were suffering greatly from snake bite.  Apparently seeing a snake cured them of the snake bites they were experiencing.  The writer of John seems to think Moses lifting a snake on a pole to cure snake bite is analogous to the raising of Jesus on the cross to cure people of the great curse of sin, brought into the world, you may remember, by the snake in the Garden of Eden.  There is some logic to this, I suppose, but, in truth, it seems to me to be a pretty tortured use of Biblical allusion.

 

Of more interest is the way John uses a favorite image of light. ...the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. John loves to note that light is better than darkness even though people often are afraid to be in the light.  Nicodemus, apparently one of those who prefer the cover of darkness, comes to Jesus in the night and is the silent listener to this little sermon which forms our reading this morning.

 

Many people, John suggests, prefer to live in darkness rather show themselves in the light where all their warts and imperfections are visible.  I had a long conversation with an acquaintance a while back who illustrates our fear of being in the light.  He has had several years of great misfortune.  He had lost his job, his house, his honor, and his future prospects as a result of criminal behavior.  He’d recently got out of jail and is trying to put together life as a convicted felon.  This is not easy, since he was a stock broker and needs to be bonded for the jobs which suit him best.  He belongs to a breakfast group I attend and we have listened to his laments at each stage of his long ordeal.  He never really told us the truth of his embezzlement activity.  Instead, he told great tales of a huge conspiracy to drive him down.  The banks were out to get him.  His lawyers were incompetent.  The judge was mean spirited.  The counselors were on his side.  It would be very good were he able to tell us how he had made some serious mistakes, but he is too afraid to come out into the light.  I pressed him about what he had learned, what he had done to bring this on himself, what he would do differently in the future.  He visibly struggled with these questions and tried hard to evade them.  I could sense that he wanted to blurt out a confession of the bad things he had done to bring the troubles on himself and his family, but he couldn’t quite get himself to expose himself this much.  He loves the darkness because his deeds are evil, as John puts it.  His friends in the room were poised to forgive him and affirm his effort and his honesty, but he did not give us the chance.  My prayer was that he would someday remember not just John 3:16, but also John3:17 God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

 

When I was the minster at Faith UMC several years ago a few of the high school kids asked me to speak to their Fellowship of Christian Athletes group on human sexuality.  Now this is always a tricky thing to do and it inevitably leads one into hot water, unless, of course, you are willing to lie.  The part of the evening that startled me the most was their reaction to my question about what they would do if they got pregnant.  Whom would they tell?  To whom would they go for help?  A parent or teacher was the most likely confidant.  This is a very important question, because it’s easy to despair when one is in trouble and there is no one to tell.  As you may know, the Dept of Public Health in Iowa has produced a film for pregnant teenagers.  The film emphasizes that the teens are not alone, that there are people willing and able to help, including the ones who were showing the film, including, one would hope, their parents.  The law of course requires that unmarried teens tell either a judge or one of their parents if they want to have an abortion, but the film goes on to say that it is important that teens find others who can offer them support and guidance as they make their decision.  The real danger and horror comes from keeping a secret from those who might otherwise forgive and help.  You’ve got to come out into the light if you want help.

 

But back to my youth group experience.  When I asked what they thought about telling their minister, they rolled their eyes and hooted in derision at such an outrageous thought.  Some of the kids were members of other churches, but even those from my own church found it impossible to picture talking to their minister about being pregnant as an unmarried teen.  I was stunned and hurt.

 

The great irony of this episode was that one of the girls in the room was pregnant.  She gave birth a few months later and I visited her in the hospital, once a few members of the congregation let me in on the secret - which many of them knew (ministers are sometimes the last to know).  She seemed surprised but pleased to see me.  I had a wonderful conversation with her about her choice to place the child for adoption and how she was going to get back to her life as a teen. 

 

The secrets she kept were not as awful as she feared and there were many people around her willing to offer help and forgiving love once she let the light of day shine on her problem.  A good question to ask ourselves as parents is, will our children confide in us if they are really in trouble.

 

Too often we let our shame keep us in the dark where no one can see us and so no one can help us.  Some of this has to do with our sense of privacy.  We don’t like others to know how much money we make, what our house is worth, what is really inside us.  We have an obsession with privacy, it seems, even when it hurts us.  This past week a legislative committee passed an appropriation bill for Elder Affairs, my department.  I knew something was up when they changed the room three times, scheduled the meeting for the evening when the reporters had all gone home, did not distribute a copy of the bill in advance and did not allow time for discussion once they did.  They preferred to operate in the dark because they knew what they were doing would be unpopular.  But they can run but they can’t hide.  Americans are the luckiest people in the world because we live in a democracy where our government can’t hide in the dark. 

 

I’m learning in my new job about what are aptly called ‘sunshine laws.”  Everything we do as government officials is public.  Every memo I write, every report I issue, every email, every letter, every meeting is open to anyone who wants to listen in.  At first, this seems like a huge inconvenience, an invasion of my privacy, a sever limitation on my ability to “do business,” as we like to say.  But in fact this has saved me often from doing something dumb and embarrassing.  Every time I send a report, I examine it with the thought that it could be in the morning paper and ask, sometimes out loud to my staff: “Would this exposure embarrass me or the Governor if published in the paper?”  I think this is pretty good advice for everybody.  It’s actually much better to live in the light.  Besides, as we also like to say, telling the truth makes it a lot easier to remember what you said.

 

This week's Christian Century features a cartoon that shows a couch potato surrounded by cases of beer and snack food. Remote control in his hand he says, "OK, start the war, I'm ready."  This war does seem to be a live on TV production.  In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if we are getting too much information.  In 1917 Hiram Johnson, candidate for the Senate from California, said, “When war comes, the first casualty is the truth.”   I keep wondering in this time of exasperating omnipresent news of war if we are not being kept in the dark by being blinded by light.  Many commentators are beginning to question the way the military has embedded reporters with the troops.  All the reports we get are full of the details of war, some of them horrible, some inspiring.  But increasing numbers of voices are wondering if we are missing the forest for the trees.  Some are suggesting that the military and political leaders know that one way to hide the truth is to bury people in minutia.  I know that I keep searching for the truth about this war and find that I am increasingly in the dark.

 

I looked up my comments on the war from last fall.  I talked about the war because other pastors in town seemed to be joining in the war fever beginning to build.  I discovered that in September I just had questions.  I also discovered that the questions are still unanswered.  Here’s what I said:

 

I have only a few questions for us as we decide whether to put both our soldiers and their entire population in harm’s way.  Can we have confidence that our government is telling us the truth?  They have lied to us before when trying to get us to go to war.  Can we have confidence that the current administration is correct in its judgment?  People with equally impressive credentials have led us in tragic and lethal mistakes.  Will they exercise restraint in the killing fields?  Our military has engaged in excessive carnage before.  Do they have a plan to accomplish their goals once lots of people, including Saddam, are dead?  We have left countries floundering before.

 

I wish that someone would throw a little light on these questions.  They seem more pertinent with each passing day.  We are clearly still in the dark about this war, it’s purpose, it’s outcome, it’s cost.  There is a biblical image, from Luke 19, which helps illuminate and comfort us in our darkness.  Jesus has just entered the holy city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Still today Jerusalem is a focal point of human aspiration: a holy place to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, yet the scene of so much conflict, much of it in the name of God. Jesus weeps over the city and says, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." Jesus' tears for Jerusalem connect at a deep level with the overwhelming sadness I feel.

 

Our scripture this morning comes from a larger story about Nicodemus, who comes to Jesus in the dark with a question:  “How can anyone be born after have grown old?”  And when Jesus gives him the answer, he remains in the dark for he asks a second question: “How can these things be?”  We also come to Jesus in the dark, asking questions about being born again for we too want to live in the light.  We hope that Jesus will shine the light of truth on us.  It may be hard sometimes to face the truth which the light reveals.  But it’s not hard to love the light, when the light we love is Jesus.