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There is no more prominent theme across the Bible than darkness/light.
God's first and might act is to create light in the deepest darkness in the history of reality. From this time forward, God is the light-creator; God creates light repeatedly. Whenever light abides, God dwells. Whenever God is present, light comes. "The light bearers" are bearers of God's light and so are many other sources.
In the mid 18th century BCE Israel religious belief caused the nation to look forward to "the day of the Lord, a day of great vindication and light across the land. " Amos , to the contrary, declared that the day of the Lord would be "darkness and not light, and gloom with no brightness". (Amos 5:20
It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Isaiah. 49:6
In 4 BCE a brilliant light in the eastern sky, a star, announced the birth of God's Messiah. The star shone in the darkness of the night sky but also in the darkness of decades of Roman oppression in Israel. And also in the darkness of the last chaotic, brutal days of the reign of the increasingly paranoid King Herod the Great. Nearly a century later the gospel writer JOHN would report, "the light shines in the he darkness and the darkness has not overcome it" John 1:5
Jesus said: "I am the light of the world, the one who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of LIFE" John 8:12
Jesus also said, "This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather that light because their deeds were evil.
THE PEOPLE WHO SAT IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT
This is a world spoken to all who are battle weary, to all who have been oppressed and afflicted so long that they can barely remember another way, to all who gaze in the he future looking for promise and find nothing. It is a word to those grown weak with struggling, to those who cannot think where their next bit of determination will come from. The endless violence of warfare, political oppression cannot rule forever. The shadows of the human souls will give way to greater future.
Many of us know darkness. The weariness of prolonged illness, the deep hurt of a broken family relationship. Children who go a different way than we had planned. Lives that fall apart.
It is not difficult for any of us to thing of our acquaintances and remember the that have been immobilized with darkness. Their vary lives under a blanket of with no vision or hope. They have no reason to put forth any effort to do anything.
For these people- no miracle will happen other then through one of US! Step by step, very small steps we can re-establish their worth and confidence and help them carry on. One or two things can happen that will make then again feel good about themselves and the splendor will return to their lives.
A simple example and to the lest amount of effort it takes to rekindle the spark in some life is the example of the story concerning the Mammoth Caves.
The US Park Service conducts public tours of the Mammoth Cave Complex in Kentucky. On one of the tours cave visitors are led into a huge "cave room" probably 125 yards long and 75 yards wide a giant cavity etched from the limestone by endless ages of rising and receding water. The room is now totally dry. It is in this room that the tour guide gives the guests a taste of total and utter darkness. With everyone standing still, the lights are turned off. It is truly an over whelming experience according to the participants. One can move their hands close to their faces an never even catch a shadow. The darkness is so total that one even looses their equilibrium.
After a minute to two the guide lights a match. It is amazing that a single match is enough light make out the total contour of the entire room. He can then lead them down the footpath and back to the entrance of the cave with not more than "one match power of light"
The light of that tiny match is transfixing. It dominates the whole cave. Darkness abounds everywhere, but the light is clearly the VICTOR. One greets it with the inner feeling that all is well once more.
What is this major work we have to do through God?
The first thing is for us to realize that we must live our live for GOD in the world. This very community/ congregation is the very spot from where we must begin. D. Bonnhoffer "I thought that I could acquire faith by living a holy Life" Later...I discovered that it is only by living completely in the world that one learns to believe on oneself, whether it be a saint, a converted sinner, a churchman.. This is what I mean by worldliness--taking life in one's stride with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experience and helplessness. It is such a life that we throw in the arms of God and participate in the sufferings of the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemene."
It is no different with in the Wesley experiences. John’s education in the vicarage of Epworth, the various educational experiences of Oxford did not make John living working Christian until God was at work in the through him. This "heartwarming experience" lead John to trust in Jesus for salvation, and the assurance that He taken away his sins. Johns path did not change with education, preaching or teaching it changed as he trusted in Jesus for his very being and took the words/world of religion from the shelf, so to speak, from the worlds and of the Bible and applied them to the everyday existence of his community.
If God is to work through us and in us the main test for this is the strength of our FATIH.
How do we experience this faith?
by going to Church,
by communicating our faith with others,
by praying,
by reading the scriptures,
and last but not least by sharing our new found confidence in
Jesus with others.
How do we promote healing in ourselves and with others?
by getting out in the Community and helping.
by visiting the sick, and the less fortunate,
by strengthening in any way possible all those people we come
in contact with.
Education of our children is another way of sharing God's work.
by teaching Sunday school,
by directing a choir,
by leading a youth group,
by helping in the day to day work of this Church.
We must always have the strength and conviction that God/Jesus is alive and the only reflection others get of him is through us.
My friends we are true Wesleyan's!
The strength of this belief is drawn from the belief that we are God's workers on a day-to-day basis.
The scriptures are our source of renewal.
Prayer is our daily duty.
Jesus teachings is the measuring tape for our own daily lives.
And the world, or community or Church family our own family
is the recipient of the Love of God through Jesus Christ.
We must make the decision to follow Jesus teachings even more closely in today’s world. We must make the decision to work for God harder in today’s world. We must make the decision to make our lives a window through which other may see Jesus. We must make the decision that the extra effort needed to do all this is worth it. I'm not asking you give up your life as Jesus did, just to give your life to Jesus. Carry on the work of God in ourselves and allow it to flow through us to others.
John Wesley saw several ways to tell his followers about Gods work in the through them. And I'm sure they are just as useful now.
1-Abstain from doing evil;
2-Zealously maintain good works, that is to help those less
fortunate than ones self.
3-Constantly adhere to all of the ordnances of God:
a) go to Church
b) minister to the ill in body and spirit,
c) pray,
d) read the scriptures,
AMEN
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