This sermon was written by Mark Fry, a Diocese of Orlando diaconate candidate, revised for use by Deacon Joe Gassman.
We have blackout curtains in our bedroom to make it really easy to sleep in on the weekends, I really wish I could sleep in on the weekdays more often. Why the blackout curtains, because it blocks out any chance of the light disrupting my desire to extend my sleep habit. It makes it really easy to forget all the chores around the house that need to be done and helps me focus on sleeping. I can waste the whole morning if the room stays dark.
One day our curtain rod broke. The next morning, the blinds were no match for the rising sun. The light of the sun and the warmth of its’ rays disturbed my desire to continue sleeping. I found myself up and could not believe how much I got done before lunch! Once we got a new curtain rod and curtain reinstalled, I found myself right back to sleeping away the mornings. Were the curtains my problem or is it my unwillingness to let the sun light shine in.
Our Gospel reading today reminds me of the following saying “Each of us brings light into a room. Some when we enter, some when we leave.”
The light, “the shekinah”, the divine presence had left the Israelites because of their ever-increasing transgressions and infidelities. They preferred the cold, spiritless and emptiness of the pagan gods and the carnal pleasures of other nations to the warmth, freedom and spirit-filled grace of the one true God. They’d forgotten Moses’ warning as they prepared to enter into the Promised Land. “Take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live but teach them to your children and to your children's children” (Dt 4:9). Their forgetfulness led to the Babylonian exile and the unimaginable destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Yet in God’s infinite compassion and mercy, the Lord inspired King Cyrus of Persia to release the Israelites to return and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple! And the Lord’s chosen people lived happily ever after, right?
This amnesia of who God is and what God has done for the Israelites was once again prevalent in the time Jesus. Time and time again we read in the scripture about Jesus chastising the Pharisees and Sadducees for the hardness of their hearts and the soul crushing weight of the Law. In their zeal to uphold the Law, their traditions in reality became blackout curtains covering their hearts in such a darkness, they couldn’t even recognize the Son of God, Jesus, the true light of the world in their midst.
In our Gospel reading Jesus is continuing to teach Nicodemus, who sought Jesus out under cover of darkness. Jesus reminds him of the story of how “Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” Jesus shares with Nicodemus the heart of God’s Law, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish.” “That the light came into the world, but people preferred…” their blackout curtains.
So, the question seems to be, which do we prefer? The darkness of Blackout curtains, where we are blinded to God’s great compassion and merciful love or are we open to letting the Son’s light shine on and through us, a light that draws all people to the Father?
As baptized Christians we were claimed by Jesus as his “Light shines through the darkness for the upright; gracious, compassionate, and righteous” (Ps 112:4). Lent is a season of self-reflection, reconsideration, repentance, and renewal. A time to climb out of the darkness to the light. To cleans and purify ourselves, so that we can put on the light of Christ! Better yet, “BE” the light of Christ, especially for those who are shrouded in the darkness of this world, for those who have forgotten or were not properly catechized in the Lord’s precepts or feel unworthy to receive the Lord’s compassion, unfathomable mercy, and great love for all His children.
Our Church membership is not merely a passive status. It is a profound and fundamental commitment to live a life that reflects the life and light of Jesus. A life full of the light of love, wisdom, holiness, prayerfulness, compassion, generosity, humility and obedience. Jesus is asking us to draw back our blackout curtains, wake up and get to the task at hand, evangelizing in our everyday lives. When we do this, then we cannot help but bring our light into any room we enter and when we leave the light remaining can no longer be overpowered by the darkness.
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