John 8:12-20
“I AM the Light of the World”
February 28, 2021
It’s gaudy, always crowded, filled with buskers singing,
the sounds of dozens of languages within earshot,
vendors hawking hot dogs, hats and half-priced theater tickets, someone dressed up as Elmo and another undressed who bills himself as the Naked Cowboy.
On a pre-pandemic warm summer’s day anyone with claustrophobia would have been wise to avoid that swath of New York City that encapsulates so much of humanity.
The lights are never off but it is definitely more powerful and almost blinding to absorb, at night.
Annually, it uses 161 megawatts of electricity which is enough to power 161,000 U. S. homes for a year.
Times Square is so bright that it is one of the only spots on earth that can be visually identified by astronauts in space.
Today we consider another bright light.
Let’s shift our gaze to Jesus.
Here he is in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles also known as the Feast of Booths.
We hear about it back in Leviticus as a 7-day festival to remember and honor God providing for the Israelites.
It was God who led them out of Egypt and into the wilderness with a cloud and a fiery pillar as their guide.
This was a week when they would live in tents or booths that had leafy roofs.
The Jewish philosopher Philo explained that the first day of the festival was marked by sunset followed immediately by the rising of the moon so that there was a steady stream of light that pointed toward the continuous light of God.
Jesus uses this opportunity, despite the Pharisees’ challenging him because he doesn’t produce the two or three witnesses that are called for in Deuteronomy (19:15), to say “I Am the Light of the World.”
He doesn’t need another witness to defend him or shine a light on him because when Jesus identifies himself as The Light, he says that if they truly need another witness, he proclaims God the Father as his second witness.
At the end of today’s passage that Olavi shared, Jesus is described as having spoke these words while teaching in the part of the temple where folks put their offerings which would be in the women’s court.
The night before in that women’s court the crowds would have gathered around 4 large lamp stands, each holding 4 large bowls of oil that had wicks that were made from the undergarments of the priests.
The boys who were related to the priests would constantly keep the oil filled in the lamps so they would burn like the pillar of fire that led their ancestors through the wilderness.
All that light, from those 16 bowls would have bounced off the bronze gate and the white walls and could be seen throughout the city especially when accompanied by lots of music and men dancing with torches in their hands and singing words of the psalms.
It is the image of that joyous light that Jesus is invoking.
He wants his hearers to know that in him they can have a light that will see them through the dark times, the shadow times.
Of course, that is so easy to hear but hard to remember.
When death takes a wife or a son or a grandfather, that light can be hard to find.
When the cancer diagnosis comes or the family member’s mental illness has taken over their life, that light can be so dim as to be almost invisible.
When more months of isolation and distance and masking keeps us from family celebrations or social gatherings or church in person and winter’s grip seems to holding on for dear life, uncovering that light can feel futile.
Darkness is part of life and it is necessary for the contrast with light.
We do not see light. Rather we see what light illuminates.
As Buechner points out, when Jesus says that he is the Light of the World, which is intended for all of us, he’s not saying we are going to see him literally.
What we will see is what Jesus is pointing us toward.
From your seat at home there is light around you, but you can’t see or hold onto light itself, instead you see what it lights up – your table or rug or dog or the person you live with.
So, too, is this light that is Jesus pointing and illuminating something else – that would be God. All that Jesus is and does will be a reflection of God’s being.
So as we go out into the world as light seekers, may we each find glimpses of God that Jesus lights up for us.
Even in the darkness, hold on, keep your eyes trained to search for that bit of light that is our hope and our guide and then share the light, let it reflect off you as you offer light to someone you know who is struggling with the darkness.
Take then some of the words of a blessing from the late Irish writer John O’Donohue to light your way:
…When we look into the heart,
May our eyes have the kindness
And reverence of candlelight.
…When we are confined inside
The dark house of suffering
That moonlight might find a window.
…When we love, that dawn-light
Would lighten our feet
Upon the waters.
…And when we come to search for God,
Let us first be robed in night,
Put on the mind of morning
To feel the rush of light
Spread slowly inside
The color and stillness
Of a found world.
(To Bless the Space Between Us, pp. 15-16)
Amen