Every Voice in Every Nation

“We can easily forgive a child who’s afraid of the dark, the real tragedy is adults who are afraid of the light”

This quote was given to me by the wonderful Mrs. Miller. She is a lovely woman of God who has manned the reeve desk in Mims hall since 1981 and she has been a blessing to my university. She has a glass bowl full of cut up colorful strips of paper now that she encourages people to reach into and read aloud the words of wisdom printed on them. Like the little fortunes you get inside cookies but much more tangible and worthwhile. These consist of profound sayings and scriptures, and truths about God and the realities of this life, and have consistently brought either smiles or amazement to the faces of the residents that pass by and stoop to fish out some wisdom.
This one in particular struck me because it reminded me of 2 bible verses. The first one about men loving darkness and fearing that their deeds will be exposed in the light (maybe in Matthew?) and the second one was about Jesus being the light of the world and His people not recognizing Him and even fearing Him because they were in, and enjoyed the darkness (definitely in John). Hey, since I’m lazy, the first person to find and quote accurately the two scriptures that I am talking about gets banana bread from me next semester. Alright, back to what I was saying. There was another quote in Mrs. Miller’s Jar that one of the maintenance staff pulled this morning. As best as I can recall, it went something like this:

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow”

Now, thing about those two quotes together, and think about how the scripture draws the metaphor of light and truth together and puts them into the person of Christ. Not only is our fear of the light – and truth tied to our actions and sin, but it is also tied to what could be defined as laziness. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I’m one of the laziest people I know, spiritually and otherwise, but that doesn’t mean that God cannot get a word in to me. I was raised in the church, which later in life lead me to spiritual complacency and even enabled my wickedness because I did not try to go beyond a head knowledge of Christ. I had a religion, but not a faith. I remember being able to answer correctly all the questions posed to me in Sunday school (much to the chagrin of my classmates). I also remember being very pious, yet a hypocrite. The sins I saw my friends committing freshman year were ones I did as well, yet did not even realize it. It was like when Christ talked about adultery and murder, the thought is just as grave as the actual external act. And yet I would go out every Sunday in my best thinking myself better than those “heathens” still in bed sleeping off hangovers.
While I don’t have a dramatic story of a turn back to God, it was definitely a gradual turn back to the light. I was enabling myself by thinking myself spiritually confident, secure in my intellectual knowledge of Christianity, thinking that if I never got drunk or had intercourse than the J-man and I were still tight. But in my heart, I knew the truth, I was shrinking back from the light, still am to a degree, but I was comfortable with what I had mastered and I did not want to go beyond that because I knew it would be harder and harder for me to control that.
Before I get too abstract, lets look at some of the scripture for today. In Deuteronomy 4:29-31, God states:
“But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. 30When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31(For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.”

'Had to use the King James Version, its got extra helpings of drama. Here God is addressing the Children of Israel, reminding them that they will face many temptations in the land He is leading them into. Warning them of false idols and the punishments for disobedience, yet at the same time, God is giving them a challenge, a chance to go one beyond what they have already mastered by seeking Him. A chance to get into a deeper knowledge and to lose oneself, lose the need for control, for security in one’s own arm and abilities and the selfishness of self indulgence. Think about that, seeking God means going actively into the light, actively after the truth, and leaving behind old ways in which you were supreme. There is an often said quote that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. Maybe the lukewarm Christian has one eye, but if he’s getting glaucoma in it, he will soon be no better than his subjects. Let us leave our land of darkness and walk into the light. Its going to be harsh at first, it is going to knock us down, but that is the only way we can get off our high horse and be set straight.
If we are to do this, what awaits us is a realization of a divided world of Light and Dark. Like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:1-17
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God.”
Think about that, you being Joe or Jane Christian walking around all happy clappy and to someone you are a breath of fresh air, the breath of life and to others you are the reek of death, the threat of death to their way of life. That is why in that same chapter Paul urgers us to reaffirm our love for Christ and especially to forgive each other lest in that division “that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Have you noticed people either get uncomfortable or even drawn to you when you talk about Christ? Body language can go a long way to conveying the spiritual nature of a person. But that does not mean they cannot be saved.
Its amazing, this post is already long enoguht and the gospel reading today was about the prodigal son! Lord knows everyone can talk long about that. But take that parable found in Luke and apply it to all of this. There comes a point in people’s lives when they just cannot live for themselves anymore – the material life, the excess and indulgence either becomes old to them (like Solomon) or they just burn through it, like the prodigal son. Either way, they are both in the darkness, mastered the art of self gratification, and they are unsatisfied. They swallowed hard and decided to come into the light because they realized that they just could not stay were they were anymore, maybe they had caught a whiff of the reek of death surrounding them. Even the prodigal son had to humble himself, swallow hard, and realized that it would be better to be back with his father as a servant, than to be a one-eyed king in a land of death and blind men. Let us always rejoice at the fact that to be in the light is better than in the darkness, and to press on in that light, to greater intensities so that we may become transformed and transfigured.

Alrighty that’s all I got, hope it’s a blessing to you!