Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders.              Psalm 119:2

Children of the Light

Ephesians 5:8-10

Fourth Sunday of Lent

March 2, 2008

Ephesians 5:8-10 ⁸ for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), ¹⁰ and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

            I had the pleasure of going to Alaska a couple years ago to do some mission work out in the bush west of Fairbanks . As you may know, Alaska is one of those places that experiences long periods of daylight and darkness, depending on the time of year. Where you are in Alaska determines how much daylight or darkness you will experience during the year. Fairbanks is the furthest North you can travel in Alaska by car via major highway. During the month of June at summer solstice, Fairbanks will experience almost 22 hours of daylight from 3am to 1am.  The other 2 hours of the day are similar to dusk. It does not get fully dark as it is at midnight here in New England . In the month of December, at winter solstice, Fairbanks will experience 3 hours and 45 minutes of daylight between the hours of 11 and 3 in the afternoon.

            One of the first questions we asked the people we were ministering to in the tiny bush village was, how do you cope during the winter when it is dark so long during the day? The children told us that they spent a lot more time sleeping and they were not as active. If they had a lot of snow on the ground, they would ride around on snowmobiles, but the price of gasoline was so expensive that their times on the snowmobiles became more limited. The winter months were very hard, because of the long periods of darkness. The kids loved the summer months. They slept very little and would play all day.

            Since I was visiting in May, I experienced the long periods of daylight. One of the odd things that struck me was that, in many homes, they would line their bedroom windows with aluminum foil to block out the light, to create the darkness they needed so they could sleep at night.  They would try to block out the light so that they could have darkness.

            In our epistle reading this morning, Paul uses Light and Darkness to illustrate the Christian life. Just before our text, Paul tells the Ephesians that they are to be imitators of God. He is imploring the Ephesians to act just like God. The only way that they can be imitators of God is to be free from all sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or of greed…nor should there be obscenity or coarse joking (5:3-4). These were the standards to live up to that Paul gives to the Ephesians.

            Now we come to our text this morning, and Paul is telling the Ephesians that before Jesus Christ, they were living in darkness. He compares their old sinful ways to the darkness and their new ways found only in Jesus Christ to the light. Paul saw the “heathen” life as life in the dark and the Christian life as life in the light. Paul is pretty blunt with the Ephesians. He does not say they were “living in darkness” he said that they WERE darkness. Paul is telling the Ephesians that heathen or non-Christians are darkness and Christians ARE the light.

            Paul is beseeching the Ephesians to understand that sexual immorality, greed, obscenity and the like are all practices of the world—those that are the darkness. Now the Ephesians have been made the light through the Lord, and he reminds them that they are to start acting like it. He tells them that the fruit of those living in the light is goodness, righteousness and truth.

            The fruits of the darkness are the most pleasing to our sinful nature. The standards of the world are all fulfilled in some sort of self gratification. Why is sexual immorality so rampant in society today? The root of sexual immorality is trying to find someway to please yourself, to make yourself feel good and to be number one in your life. Do whatever makes you feel good. Why place my spouse, who seems to barely think about me, first, when that person over there or that internet site would gratify MY sexual desires?  

            We all struggle with the sin of laziness from time to time. The root of laziness comes from that desire of self gratification as well. I don’t want to take out the trash, I don’t want to help with the cooking and cleaning, I want to just sit here and watch TV until I fall asleep, or play video games. Why do I want to do these things? Because these things make ME feel good, and they are things that I enjoy. Who cares what these habits do to the rest of my life? They make ME happy…who cares if my family feels neglected or nothing gets done? I think I am happier when I can be lazy and totally self focused.          

            The world, the darkness, is all about those things that please ourselves, and make us happy. The world we live in is very dark. Our sinful lives are very dark. The darkness cannot produce light on its own, therefore we are stuck wandering in the darkness, in desperate need of light.

            The season of Lent is often a very dark season. We focus on our sins, and the total depravity of mankind. It is during the season of Lent that we remember our sinfulness and our need for a savior and a messiah. We will often give something up that we love—maybe it is chocolate or sweets, the computer or our cell phone. We do this so that we can remember that Jesus gave up his life and he died on the cross to pay for all our sins.

            In this dark season of Lent we are given a glimpse of that light. We saw it in our gospel reading this morning from John. Jesus addresses the man who was born blind and his disciples with one of the famous I AM statements of John. Jesus says: I am the light of the world.  The light is pure and without defect. The light is without sin, and he came and walked among us for a while. The light came and he exposed our sinful lives for what they were—filthy and disgusting. Jesus Christ came to this earth and he was a beacon of light in this dark world. Jesus exposed the darkness and he loved those that were stuck in the darkness.

            Jesus ultimately defeated the darkness of sin on the cross on Calvary . Jesus hung there on that cross, suffering and dying for each one of us. Jesus became the sacrifice that you desperately needed to atone for all your sins. You will probably remember that while Jesus hung on the cross, the sun refused to shine, and it became dark during the middle of the day. Jesus, the light of the world, became darkness on that Friday afternoon so that your debt of sin would be paid. You no longer owe anything for your sinfulness—the debt of sin was paid for by Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.

             Light helps us to discriminate between that which is well pleasing and that which is not pleasing to God. It is in the light of Christ that all motives and all actions must be tested. In the country of India , shops are often simply little covered enclosures with no windows. A man might want to buy a piece of silk or an article of beaten brass. Before he buys it he takes it out to the street and holds it up to the sun, so that the light might reveal any flaws which happen to be in it. As Christians, it is our duty to expose every action, every decision, and every motive to the light of Jesus Christ.

             Now that we have all been saved by the light of Jesus Christ—our sin is now exposed to the light. As Christians, we should not take on the ways of the world. Does your way of life reflect that of one who is walking in the light? How surprised would a coworker or family member be if you wore a nametag around that said “Christian”? Could they see a difference in your life? Or would your Christian nametag befuddle them? Jesus was our true light, and Jesus is the one that we are to measure all our deeds against.

            I challenge each and every one of us, myself definitely included, to examine closely our lives.  Let us ask Jesus, the pure light, to reveal and make clear to us the sinful nature still a part of us – our pride, our laziness, our prejudices, our tendency to quickly criticize in order to make ourselves look better, or the myriad of other ways our sinful nature presents itself.  Let us then, humbled and broken by this darkness revealed, confess and then rejoice with the writer of Romans in 7:24-25, “What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  Let us also be comforted also in this: that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38).  Now, being reassured of our forgiveness and the continual presence of our Lord, what shall we do, how shall we show the world who we serve, that we are in and of the light? 

            Jesus Christ is the light that is shining within you. We were all once darkness, but now we are Light. Jesus Christ has given us the Light. Jesus took your darkness of sin away on the cross, and he gave you a new life. Your life is now reflecting the Light of Jesus Christ your Savior.

            A light bulb needs electricity or power to illuminate a room. The same goes for us as Christians. Our light needs energy and power in order to illuminate in this dark world. The illumination and power comes from the Word of God. When you are in God’s Word daily, you are given the source and power for your light. When you are here in this sanctuary you are fed and nourished with God’s word and you are reassured of your forgiveness of sins. St. Paul ’s offers many opportunities to worship God and to spend time in His word. The Junior Youth are diving straight into the Scriptures on Sunday mornings. The Sunday morning Bible study on the Unchanging Truths in our Changing Times is studying all those doctrines that are found in Scripture that our world, the darkness, loves to challenge. Our younger saints have the opportunity to learn more about Jesus in our Sunday school, and in our Community Nursery School .

            The Gospel of John Bible study on Monday nights is right now knee deep studying the Passion narrative as found in John’s Gospel. And coming in the next few weeks I will be offering a Men’s Early Morning Bible study on Tuesday mornings, where we will be looking at the book of Romans and the study of God’s grace in our lives.

            On Wednesdays, the Junior Youth gather for Confirmation class with Pastor as they look deeply at the faith that God has given each one of them. The Senior Youth gather on Wednesdays as well and are going to be spending the next couple weeks studying the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ by watching the movie The Passion of the Christ and studying the different Gospel accounts of our Savior Jesus’ death for all of our sins. We gather for prayer Wednesday evenings at 7, followed by another opportunity to be fed and nourished through worship at 7:30. Thursday nights, the women of our congregation gather for fellowship and study as they look at finding time in the busyness of life for Jesus and time in his Word.

            The Holy Spirit uses His church here in New Hartford to energize the Light that he has given each one of you. The only way for your light to stay charged is to be in prayer and His Word daily. There are ample opportunities for you to be studying the Word of God on your own and here in this church with your brothers and sisters in Christ. The Question is then: will you make time in your life to let the Holy Spirit reenergize the Light that God has given each one of you? I pray that each and every one of you will.

            So I say to you what Paul told the Ephesians in our text:

            You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light!

                                                                                    Amen