Sermon Title: "He Came As Light"
Date: April 3, 2011
Minister:  The Rev. Charles Ensley

Lesson:  Ephesians 5:8-14

Three weeks from today is Easter:  April 24, the latest day it can possibly be.  If you want to know how the date of Easter is determined, ask me; I can share with you the lunar formula.  The late April Sunday morning will hopefully be sunny and bright, as befits the day we commemorate Christ’s resurrection from the dead.  The sanctuary will look resplendent with Easter lilies and tulips.  We’ve already begun to put the order forms in the Sunday bulletin and newsletter.

Easter is the highest holy day in the Christian year, but my guess is if I were to take a poll of what is your most memorable worship event during the year, a great number of you would say holding a candle in the darkened sanctuary on Christmas Eve and singing Silent Night.  No matter the music or the message that night, the candlelighting ceremony is definitely the culmination, the highlight, the climax of each Christmas Eve service.

And it is meant to evoke more than a warm and cozy moment of peace in a sometime hectic season.  The darkening of the sanctuary and the lighting of the candles represents the world before Christ came.  It was a dark time, a time of political strife and Roman control over the Jewish people.  People longed for a messiah, a savior.  The words of scripture we read from the prologue to the Gospel of John just before the candles are lit attest to that: 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. … What has come into being in 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.”  (1:1, 4-5)

Why am I talking about Christmas Eve three weeks from Easter?  Did I pick up the wrong sermon this morning?  No, both Christmas and Easter highlight the fact that Jesus came as light.  He came to bring the light of God’s Word into a darkened and needy world.

Light is indeed powerful and beautiful.  The imagery of light is used throughout the Bible.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” says Psalm 27:1.  John the Baptist spoke about the light of Christ, testifying that “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:9)  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  … Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 9:5, 8:12)  “God is light and in him is no darkness at all,” says the book of First John. (1:5)

In today’s epistle from Paul to the new Christians at Ephesus, the emphasis on rejecting one’s shameful past behavior and adopting a path in life acceptable to God seems aimed at Gentiles who have become part of the Christian community.  He spells out the ethical implications for these converts:  “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light.  Live as children of light—for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.”  (5:8-9)  He discourages them from returning to their old ways of behavior.  “For it is shameful,” he writes, “even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible.” (12-13) 

To me, the word “integrity” means that which you do in public, how you behave, what you say and do, is the same way you should act in private.  We don’t turn on the “good behavior” just for the world to see.  Paul is essentially saying the same; he’s telling us to live our lives firmly believing that the more our struggles are exposed to the light of God’s Word and the accountability of God’s people, the better off we will be.

Before one comes to a life of faith, many times one finds oneself living a life of darkness and hiding.  You may well know the story behind the choir’s anthem last Sunday, an arrangement of John Newton’s (1725-1807) hymn Amazing Grace.  The son of a shipmaster, Newton also found his early livelihood on the sea as the master of slave ships.  Sailing back to England in 1748, he experienced a spiritual conversion.  The ship encountered a severe storm and almost sank.  Newton awoke in the middle of the night and finally called out to God as the ship filled with water.  It was this experience which he later marked as the beginnings of his conversion to Evangelical Christianity.  As the ship sailed home, Newton began to read the Bible and other religious literature.  By the time he reached Britain, he had accepted the doctrine of Evangelical Christianity.  On a subsequent voyage, while in west Africa (1748–49), Newton acknowledged the inadequacy of his spiritual life.  While he was sick with a fever, he professed his full belief in Christ and asked God to take control of his destiny.  He later said that this experience was his true conversion and the turning point in his spiritual life.  He claimed it was the first time he felt totally at peace with God.

However, Newton continued his slave-trading until a stroke in 1754.  He then began to study Hebrew, Greek and Syriac.  He applied for the ministry in a number of denominations, and was rejected by most.  Finally, a decade later, he received his deacon’s orders in the Church of England.  While a priest in Olney, in 1779 he penned a hymn about his conversion experience, which he entitled “Faith’s Review and Expectation,” which we know today by its opening phrase, “Amazing Grace.”

Over a period of time in his younger life, Newton realized he was hidden in the darkness of unbelief.  He operated in ignorance of sin and the necessity of salvation.  The light of mercy was shining on others, but not on him.  He was stuck.  He was in the dark.

But then something happened, just as it has for many believers.  The lights came on.  The lights come to us in the form of God’s Word, which entered our atmosphere and started doing its thing—causing us to review our life to that point, stirring up a trust in Jesus, and revealing the truth regarding the depth of our need and the height of God’s grace.  And now, as forgiven followers of Jesus Christ, just as it happened for John Newton, we live with the light of God’s Word shining over us at all times, not just while we’re holding a candle on Christmas Eve!

In Christ, we are children of the light.  This is the very word Jesus gave his disciples after telling them of his impending death:  “Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you.  If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.  While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”  (John 12:35-36)

Christ came to us as light, to provide abundant light by which to live our lives.  The light of God’s Word helps us to see things clearly, and once we see things clearly, we become more open to transformation, even to say, more godly.  Lent is the perfect time for this.  This season’s purpose is to place our lives under the intense light of God’s Word, preparing our hearts and minds for the sacrificial gift of Good Friday, and the joy and Good News of Easter morning.