Title: The Need for Light Then… and Now
Text: Genesis 1:1-5
Thesis: God said it and says it still, “Let there be light!”
The message the dark and chaotic world needs to hear and see is that God has sent light to show us the way out of darkness into light.
Introduction
Most thought it ironic that Australian Steve Irwin, who was famous for his daring exploits in handling dangerous creatures like crocodiles and snakes, would die from a freakish accident in which a stingray stung him in the heart.
Famous last words are often thought to be ironic as in the case of Union Civil War General, John Sedgwick, who while looking across a field at a row of Confederate snipers said, “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”
Famous last words may be recalled as reckless assertions but they may also be recalled as someone’s dying words. In her eulogy of Steve Jobs, his sister, Mona Simpson wrote of the hours before he slipped into unconsciousness and then she wrote, “Before embarking, he looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then his partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. His last words were: ‘OH WOW. OH WOW.’” (Steve Jobs’s last words: ‘Oh wow. Oh wow.’, Harley Tsukayama, The Washington Post with Bloomberg Business, October 3,2011)
The famous German writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who authored the greatest long poem of modern German literature, Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s last words were, “Mehr Licht!”
Interestingly Goethe’s last words were God’s first words.
Transition: The first words God spoke in Scripture are famous first words…
I. The Light of Creation
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Genesis 1:1-5
The first word God spoke into his creation was light. We could paraphrase the bible and say, God said, “mehr licht!”
In the beginning the implications are that whatever was existed as primodorial chaos. The earth was empty, a formless mass cloaked in darkness. And the Spirit of God was hovering over its surface.
The first scene is what we might imagine as post apocalyptic. Everything has been reduced to chaotic ruin. Destruction is everywhere. There is not light. It is murky. Vapors are rising as from a murky swamp. There is a deathly silence about the place. It is lifeless. Barren. Dark.
Illustration: I have a good dentist and dental insurance that allows for two cleanings, x-rays and examinations. I needed a crown last year so I went in on the appointed day. The assistant asked me if I would like a movie or something to watch while the dentist worked. The monitor was mounted high and I would be wearing a headset so as to be totally distracted while the dentist did his work.
So with Office reruns on the monitor and headset in place I leaned back to watch… and then the dentist came in, pulled a stool up beside my chair, reached up and pulled a giant light down from an extended arm, directed it into my mouth and went to work. In addition to the big light he had a smaller laser-like light on his glassed. Apparently good lighting is requisite for the creating of a new crown.
I would never say that not even God can work in the dark but the first thing he created was light. He said, “Let there be light and there was light.”
Illustration: The earth was a dark place and the earth is a dark place when and wherever there is no light. Last November the Huffington Post reported that the city of Highland Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, had removed 1,000 of it 1,500 street lights to reduce the $60,000 monthly electric bill. Highland Park, Michigan is a dark place these days and they are discovering what every other city has discovered. Whenever you dim the lights there is a corresponding uptick in crime. (Alexander Eicher, Highland Park, MI Tearing Out Its Street Lights, Huffington Post, November 7, 2011)
Dark places are chaotic and unruly places in desperate need of good lighting. And that is what God initially brought to creation. “Mehr lichte!”
Despite the fact that God transformed and divided the darkness into the light of day and the dark of night. And despite the presence of day light, the sun, moon and stars, people still lived in a darkness of another sort.
Transition: The bible says that God sent Jesus Christ to be the light of all mankind.
II. The Light of Christ.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-9
When we begin reading John 1 we find ourselves right back in Genesis 1. And we learn that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were all there. In the beginning the Word already existed. Jesus Christ is named as the agent of creation. He was with God and. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make.
In Colossians the Apostle Paul speaks of the creative activity of Christ writing, Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before God made anything… and Christ is the one through whom God created everything in heaven and on earth. Colossians1:15ff
Back in John 1:4 John wrote of Christ saying that, Life itself was in Christ and this life gives light to everyone.
Life is the opposite of darkness. Life is the opposite of destruction, condemnation and death. When Jesus came into the world he came into the world so that we would no longer live in darkness and perish… but rather have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Darkness is about death and light is about life.
In other words, Christ created the light of day and night to dispel the darkness so that we might see with our physical eyes… and Christ also gives us the light of understanding so that we may not only see physically but also understand and live spiritually.
Illustration: Senator John McCain, in an interview with Time Magazine told of his life in captivity in North Viet Nam. He was often trussed with a rope and tied into miserably and torturous positions and left to suffer for the night. He told of how one night a guard came into his cell. He put his finger to his lips signaling for John McCain to be quiet and then he loosed his ropes to relieve his pain. In the morning the guard returned retightened the ropes and left never saying a word.
A month or so later, on Christmas Day, McCain said he was standing in the dirt courtyard when that same guard approached him. He said the guard stood next to him, not looking at him or smiling at him. Then with his sandaled foot the guard drew a cross in the dirt.
McCain said we stood wordlessly looking at the cross, remembering the true light of Christmas, even in the darkness of a prison camp. (John McCain, “A Light in the Darkness,” Time magazine, 8/18/08, p. 40)
Jesus is the one true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. John 1:9 To all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. And they are reborn! John 1:12 - 13
It is interesting how God spoke the light into creation. God sent the light of his Son Jesus Christ to the world and now God sends us, Christians, to be lights in the world.
Transition: Those who are in Christ are themselves of the light and lights of the world.
III. The Light of Christians.
But you, brothers and sisters are not in darkness… You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. I Thessalonians 5:4-11
In the book of Revelation the bible speaks of a time when we will not know darkness, and there will be no night there - no need for lamps or sun – for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign with him forever. Revelation 22:5
However meanwhile, we need lamps and the sun. The world is, spiritually speaking, a dark place. And just as there are street lights to light a dark street there are Christians whose lives light the darkness.
Frederick Buechner wrote in The Hungering Dark, HarperOne, 1985, p. 50, “If there is a terror about darkness because we cannot see, there is also a terror about light because we can see. There is a terror about light because much of what we see in the light about ourselves and our world we would rather not see, would rather not have be seen.”
Illustration: I recently read about a man who owned a family carpet cleaning business that specialized in removing pet odors. To show potential customers their need for his service he would darken a room and turn on a powerful black light which then caused urine crystals to glow brightly.
The homeowners were horrified when they say every drop and dribble on the carpet. They were mortified when they saw the glow on their walls, drapes, furniture and even lampshades. He reported that one woman begged him to turn off the light.
That is how we live in the world… not so as to condemn but to live in such a way that what is in the darkness is exposed and that others will want to get their lives cleaned up.
In I Peter 2:11 we are warned, keep away from evil desires because they fight against your very souls. Be careful how you live among your unbelieving neighbors. Even if they accuse you of doing wrong, they will see your honorable behavior and they will believe and give honor to God when he comes to judge the world.
We are children of light and we are to live in the light and be the light.
Conclusion
No one among us would dare suggest that there is no darkness in the world or even our own lives. Just as God separated the day and the night so we can distinguish between day and night… in Christ we can also distinguish between light and dark in our lives. We can distinguish between right and wrong. We know the difference between good and evil.
So when we find ourselves clinging to destructive and hurtful habits and ways of life or living in anger and bitterness or wallowing in guilt and regret or being dishonest or abusive or out of control and in chaos we know we need to move out of that darkness into the light.
Transition: And, if God were to speak a word into this New Year what might that word be?
“Mehr lichte?” “Let there be light?”
“You are the light of the world… let you light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16
