Children of Light
“There was a time when you were darkness, but now you are light in Christ. Live as children of light. Light produces every kind of goodness, indeed the fruit of the light is every kind of goodness and justice and truth.” — Ephesians 5:8-9
My late mother was born in Brooklyn, New York, in December of 1924. Hence, before my mother was five, the Great Depression hit. I also need to add that her father died shortly before her birth.
So my Mother was raised by a single Mother in an era of severe economic stress. My grandmother was not well educated or skilled and, when she did work, she worked as a domestic, cleaning houses of those few who could afford such amenities in that era. This is a long way of saying that, in her childhood, during the Great Depression, when many were challenged by economic conditions, my Mother’s family lived in what can only be described as extreme poverty.
One of the things I remember my mother saying to her children— myself, my brother and my sister— probably saying this in an effort to let us know that we were, by comparison, well off, is that every day when she would walk home from elementary school, she did not know if she would see her mother on the street in front of their apartment with a couple of pieces of furniture, having been evicted for non-payment of rent. She said this often enough to make me think she experienced that situation more than once.
Despite those circumstances, it was also clear to me she knew, even at a young age, that she had to move forward one day at a time, she had to try, every day, to make things better than they were the previous day for those she loved. And by the time she had a family of her own, those she loved clearly included my brother, my sister and me. I sometimes wonder if I can live up to her example. (Slight pause.)
One of the things I suspected she also knew, though I never heard her put it quite this way, is that life cannot be judged or viewed in a linear way. Life cannot be viewed as a story of triumph or a story of failure. Life is a journey. It unfolds day by day. You meet the challenges life presents, you do your best, you keep going. (Slight pause.)
Tomorrow, April 4th, is the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King was born in 1920. He grew up in an era when African-Americans were systemically denied all kinds of rights. The rights they were denied included the right to vote, the right of free assembly, the right to sit at a non-segregated lunch counter, the right to ride on a non-segregated bus.
Dr. King’s writings tell us he did not really know what hit him when he was thrust, at a fairly young age, into a leadership role in the Civil Rights movement. All he could do was feel his way forward, one day at a time, every day trying to do what was right, trying to make things better than they were the previous day.
Today the President of the United States is an African-American. Are we to the promised land King envisioned yet? Probably not. King envisioned not just equal rights and equal opportunity but a place where the weak are cared for and the poor protected from the ravages of greed and systemically inflicted poverty.
I believe Dr. King knew life cannot be viewed or judged in a linear way. Life cannot be viewed as a story of triumph or a story of failure. Life is a journey. It unfolds day by day. You meet the challenges life presents, you do your best, you keep going. (Slight pause.)
Seven weeks ago in a sermon I said this (quote): “We— humans— tend to be risk averse. We like to reduce risk.” Then, in reference to the situation in the Middle East, I said (quote): “...if truth be told... the foreign policy of... any nation including ours, has nothing to do with freedom or lack thereof nor with forms of governments from democracies to dictatorships.”
“You can talk all you want to about ideals, but a sound foreign policy hates... risk. A sound foreign policy has everything to do with trying to ensure stability.”
But, of course, stability is not just a goal of foreign policy. Stability is something most everyone seeks in life.
Now, over the last several weeks we have witnessed even more turmoil in the Middle East. We have witnessed a major earthquake and a devastating tsunami in the Far East. Because of the earthquake and the tsunami, a nuclear power plant has had a crisis.
As a result of all that, I think many have been left feeling uneasy, many have been left feeling that stability on the world front and even personal stability is at best fleeting. (Slight pause.) So, what is stability? Does stability mean we are in control or does it mean something else? (Slight pause.)
And these words are from the work known as Ephesians: “There was a time when you were darkness, but now you are light in Christ. Live as children of light. Light produces every kind of goodness, indeed the fruit of the light is every kind of goodness and justice and truth.” (Slight pause.)
How can we live as (quote): “children of light”? What does it mean to be children of light and to then see the fruit of light as goodness and justice and truth? In short, what is real stability? (Slight pause.)
I want to suggest that real stability does not mean we are in control. Real stability means we come to a realization that life cannot be viewed or judged in a linear way. Stability has nothing to do with seeing life as a story of triumph or a story of failure.
Real stability has to do with seeing life as a journey. It unfolds day by day by day. You meet the challenges life presents, you do your best, you keep going. (Slight pause.)
Every time any church celebrates the Sacrament of Communion, the very act brings the crucifixion to mind. The form of the Sacrament we used earlier, the one we often use during Lent, does so in a stark way. The crucifixion should remind us of instability.
But equally, every time a church celebrates the Sacrament of Communion it should remind us that the story does not end with the crucifixion, the murder of Jesus. The story continues and in the Sacrament we are lead to know the Resurrection, the presence of the Christ in the breaking of the bread and the taste of the cup. The Sacrament, thereby, should remind us of the journey of life experienced by the Christ.
Life, you see, cannot be simply viewed or judged in a linear way. Stability, real stability, has nothing to do with seeing life as a story of triumph or a story of failure.
Real stability has to do with seeing life as a journey. It unfolds day by day by day. You meet the challenges life presents, you do your best, you keep going. Why?
Because we strive to (quote): “Live as children of light. Light produces every kind of goodness, indeed the fruit of the light is every kind of goodness and justice and truth.” Amen.
04/03/2011
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “It has been said that the mission of church is transformation. That is not just a transformation of us. That means a transformation of the world. But it does need to start with us and move out from us to the world. That takes time. Indeed, we must remember what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” In short, we need to be open, daily to what God will do in us and through us.”
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