Take our eyes and see through them. Take our ears and hear through them. Take our lips and speak through them. Take our hearts and fill them with your fire. Amen.
We are now in week 5 of our “Excursions through Ephesians” if you can believe it! In case you’ve missed the previous sermons, they are all available on our church website. Week 1 was titled “Discovering Who We Are In Christ”, Week 2: “Built Together in Christ”, Week 3: “Ask and Imagine -- God’s Power Working in Us”, and Week 4: “Gifted by God”. This week, I will focus on where the light of God shines through in our lives.
The word light comes from the Greek word phos meaning to shine or make manifest. A search for the word light in the New Revised Standard Version brings up 335 results throughout the Bible, clearly an important concept. In their most basic meanings, light is often likened to good things and darkness to bad things.
One of the greatest secular stories of light versus darkness comes from the Star Wars saga, especially surrounding the relationship between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. In this portion of the timeline, “...two noble knights from an order called the Jedi discover a boy destined to be a powerful wielder of the mystical energy that connects the universe, called the force. One of them dies protecting him from the Jedi’s evil counterparts, the Sith aka the Dark Side, but the other -- Obi-Wan Kenobi -- [tries] to train the boy, Anakin Skywalker, to fight on the side of good (Wired).”
“It doesn’t take…Jedi aren’t supposed to succumb to emotion or form attachments -- [whereas] the Dark Side of the Force, which the Sith worship…[relies] on ‘negative’ emotions like anger and fear…
[Eventually], Obi-Wan [meets and] defeats Anakin in battle after he turned to the Dark Side, wounding him so badly that he requires a mechanical suit to keep him alive. He becomes known as Darth Vader, [one of the most feared Sith Lords in the galaxy]” (Wired).
Obi Wan does not enter the battle without expressing his dismay regarding Anakin turning to the Dark Side of the Force. Before their battle, he says: “I have failed you Anakin. I have failed you. You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the force, not leave it in darkness! You were my brother Anakin! I loved you!”
They had presumably spent many years training together before they came to this battle, thus his exclamation that he considered Anakin to be like a brother. Even though Anakin was in such a dark place, Obi-Wan knew the light, the Force, was still inside of him that he had developed during their training.
But, unfortunately, Anakin gave into the fear, anger, and darkness more than he wanted to embrace the Force and Jedi Order. It was going to take many more years before he reached the level of authority in the pecking order of the Jedi he sought and he was not satisfied with that trajectory.
It is interesting to note, though, that fear in the Bible is understood in a different way than it is in the Star Wars saga and the Dark Side of the Force. One commentary points out that “the fear of the Lord” is mentioned four times in the central section of Psalm 34, a portion of which we hear today. I have always had a hard time with this concept of “fear of the Lord” as it seems to go contrary to someone I strive to have a close, personal relationship with in my life.
However, this commentary goes on to remind us that Biblical words have a range of meanings connected to the contexts in which they are found just like the Jedis had different understandings of the Force. “‘Fear’ can be associated with terror, respect, or worship depending upon the setting. In the Psalms, when the Lord is the object of this fear, the meaning of worship pervades.”
If you replace the word “fear” with “worship” in verse 9 of Psalm 34, you get: Worship the Lord, you that are his saints, for those who worship him lack nothing.”
This is why it is so critical that we come together each week for worship. Because when we worship God and spend time with Him, we lack nothing. In the Episcopal Church, we are blessed with additional resources like the daily office morning, noon, evening, and compline services, to give us ample opportunities to keep worship at the center of our relationships with God. We worship God because it brings us to a deeper understanding of who God is and thereby who we are as beings made in God’s image.
We see the centrality of worship echoed once again in our reading from Ephesians today through Paul’s discussion about how we live. He says to “be careful...how you live, not as unwise people but as wise...do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
This is the type of life and posture that God wants to make manifest and shine through in our hearts. I don’t think this passage is trying to say that you will never do bad things or that not drinking wine is the only thing on that list. Rather, I think it indicates we have a choice to make each and every day to strive to follow the will of God in all we do.
His will for our lives is made clearer when we listen to the Holy Spirit individually and then in the life of our parish. In other words, living wisely means that the light of Christ permeates everything we do and everything we are.
Anakin and Obi Wan both followed their own paths because they believed and worshipped the ideals that they thought would fulfill them. Their respective ideals were supposed to bring them to a place where they lacked nothing.
God wants the same for us and like Obi Wan will continue to leave his imprints to show us the path he has laid out for us. Even when it might seem like we are too far from redemption, like I think Anakin felt, God is always seeking to draw us back to Him.
We must keep in mind that God shines his light through the good and the bad of our lives, the mountaintops and the valleys. Oftentimes, I have found the journey back to the right from the wrong to be a more powerful testament to the power of God than anything else. Because it shows that God does not give up on us the moment we have gone against his will for our lives.
Today, I want to leave you with the lyrics from a song called “Where the Light Shines Through” by one of my favorite bands Switchfoot. As you listen to these lyrics, think about something you have done or may be struggling with that you want God’s light to shine through and help you with today.
Cause your scars shine like dark stars
Yeah, your wounds are where the light shines through
So let's go there, to that place where
We sing these broken prayers where the light shines through--
The wound is where the light shines through
I was reminded of something my parents used to say to me as a kid on Instagram today through a friend’s post: “Instagram is not as happy as you’d think, so be kind to people.” We never know what someone else is going through. Not unlike Anakin and Obi Wan, where they only realized something was wrong when it was too late. So let’s lift each other up in our prayers and songs we sing today and remember that God is with us every step of the way, even when it might seem like there is no clear path ahead. As the beginning of our Ephesians passage reminds us today, when we are in the Lord we are light. So let your light shine brightly to those around you today and every day. Amen.