Choices About the Light

This week's scriptures are Isaiah 9: 2-7 and Matthew 4: 12-23.

This week's Matthew passage refers to Jesus as being the "light" that Isaiah spoke of; the Light that came to those wo lived in darkness. Matthew seems to echo some of the same thoughts expressed by John 1: 4-5: "In him was life, and that life was the light of humankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never mastered it."

Light is an interesting thing. It transforms everywhere it goes. Turn on a light, open a window to the sun...the room is suddenly different. Things that once were frightening become less so. Things we could not see become visable. Artwork such as paintings, carvings, and sculptures depend upon light to make them truly touch us in our deepest self (imagine Monet without light).

Light demands our immediate attention...it's really hard to ignore (not impossible, but pretty difficult). So it is with the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand" there is an immediacy, a 'here-and-now'-ness about it. This Light, this presence of the Kingdom in the person of Jesus, calls for a response. Matthew uses the words "at once" to talk about the ways in which Peter and Andrew, James and John responded when Jesus said, "follow me."

So what do we have here? Those who have sat in the darkness, who have suffered in the inability to see, to hope, to believe in a future. They have seen a great light. And that Light says, "look here; the Kingdom of Heaven is here-right now. You don't have to wait. But you do need to change (repent), radically change what you're doing." It's not a 'wait and see' kind of question. It's a NOW event. The Kingdom of Heaven is here NOW. And you and I are invited to live in it's light...today. To follow "at once." To open our eyes to the light that the darkness can never conquer.

Join us Sunday as we explore what that may look like.
Hope to see you then.

Shalom,
Stephen