We are walking through the gospel of John this year….and for John, Jesus is the light. He is the light of the world. That is how John describes him at the very beginning of his gospel. Jesus is the one through whom all things were made….the designer of all life…and In the midst of our muddled darkness, he turns the light on for us so we can see things clearly….see what the purpose and meaning of life is. He shines in our darkness to reveal the way we are to go…the truth about what matters…and the abundant life God intends for us.
In our church year, we are in the season of Epiphany…and an epiphany is that “aha” moment….when the light bulb goes on. And so, on these Sundays during Epiphany, we share stories that give us that ‘aha” moment about who Jesus is.
Last week…we saw Jesus at a wedding…a celebration of love and life…of our human joy. And when the family saw their wine run out… a mark of their poverty… Jesus erased their shame and gave them a celebration the community would talk about for years…..the best wine….gallons upon gallons of it. He erased their shame and lifted their heads. And this is our “aha” moment. This is light in our darkness….this is God in our midst. In the midst of our human joys and celebrations….it is God who erases our shame and multiplies our joy. So often, the church has been the one dealing out shame….shame for unwed mothers. Shame for those who divorce. Shame for LGBTQ folks. Shame for addicts. The church has so often heaped shame upon those who are already hurting, who are already broken hearted. During my COVID isolation, I binged on “Call the Midwife”…and over and over it showed stories of those who were being shamed by their community…because they were unwed…or they were poor….or they were gay…or they were foreigners…or they were divorced. And the beautiful work of the midwives, over and over, sought to restore them. To lift them up…to celebrate with them the beautiful miracle of birth and life. In one episode, they gently bathed a mentally ill woman, covered in filth, shoes stuck to the sores on her feet and gave her clean clothes. This is the work of Jesus. Jesus restores those who have been cast out by their neighbors. It is Jesus who lifts the unwed mother and their baby up and places them at the heart of the community…by his own birth. It is Jesus who joins weddings…including those who are finding new beginnings after marriages have ended. It is Jesus who delights in the unique identities of each person and celebrates the many ways people love one another. Where do we find Jesus in our midst? Where love is celebrated and grace is multiplied.
Today…we get another “epiphany”….we get another glimpse of who Jesus is and where we find him in our midst. Today…Jesus enters the temple…the place that is supposed to draw us close to God…and he is angry. He is angry, because people are using God to make money…he is angry because access to God is being bought and sold like a commodity that some can afford and others cannot. Jesus is angry, because they used faith to justify a caste system….where some people are better than others. Some people are more important to God than others. And Jesus is enraged. This is not who God is. How God is. This is not the way or the truth or the life that God intended from creation. As Paul farmer says, “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” Today, our “aha” moment is that in the face of injustice, Jesus protests. He does not stay silent, he doesn’t just ignore it….he overturns tables and throws the money on the floor. Jesus stages an act of public protest. And we are reminded that wherever people protest injustice….whenever people are angry about the injustice in the world….God is there.
On this weekend when we remember Martin Luther King Jr….we are reminded that Jesus walked with those who stood against the racism of that time…across the Edmund Pettus Bridge….sat with them at soda fountains. While many churches were silent…while many pastors thought they were going too far, pushing too hard…Jesus was overturning tables, throwing the moneychangers and lawmakers into disarray….because justice isn’t for some…it is for all. We are reminded today…who Jesus is. What Jesus does. Jesus does not ignore injustice…but speaks and acts and makes a scene and makes everyone uncomfortable. Jesus’ turns the light on to reveal the injustice that has infected God’s own house. Because, as Martin Luther King pointed out …”Injustice and corruption will never be transformed by keeping them hidden, but only by bringing them out into the light and confronting them with the power of love.”
Jesus is the light…that exposes what we would rather not see. In ourselves…in our church…in our nation…in our world. The racism. The sexism. The nationalism. All the ways we perpetuate the lie that some lives matter more than others. But he does so because of love. Because Jesus loves this world that he designed. Because Jesus loves each person created in the wondrous image of God. And he wants all of us to be changed….transformed…reborn by the power of love.
You see. Jesus knows what is in the heart of every person. That’s what John says…he himself knew what was in every person. He knows the pain…the hurt…the fear…the anger….and the beauty. Jesus knows your heart. Yep…all of it. The good, the bad and the ugly. And loves you completely. But loves you so much…that he wants us to quit hiding and come into the light. The light that exposes our sin…and bathes us in forgiveness and mercy. The light that exposes the lies so we can see clearly who we are…why we are…what we made for. Jesus simply wants for us to learn to love each other as God loves us. …to love ourselves as God loves us. Abundantly. Joyously.
Because that is where life is….that is what we were made for. That is the way and the truth. Everything else…all the arrogance and greed and pride and shame and selfishness and status and rigidity and judgmentalism….is a lie. Jesus is the light. And we are invited to live in that light. And it is glorious. I pray that each day…you will have that “aha” moment…and you will see clearly the joy and love that God intends for you. Amen.
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