Introduction
Several years ago, there was a movie called "The Witches of Eastwick," based on a popular novel. It had big name stars and was a big hit. Jack Nicholson played the part of Satan, and in one scene he goes into a church to cause some mischief. All of the good church people are sitting there, but they are powerless to cast Satan out of their midst. The three women whom Satan has befriended conspire against him and manage to cast a spell that gets him out of the church.
At the time I was shocked and appalled. How dare they show the Christian church in such a negative light? How dare they portray Christians as powerless while three secular women with good intentions but no discernible faith in God manage to defeat the devil? It made me uncomfortable and it made me angry.
Over the years I began to see that my anger was misplaced. The film was, in fact, an accurate reflection of how many (if not most) people in society view the Christian church. And their view is based on their own personal experience. Many of them have been to church and seen for themselves that nothing much seems to happen.
History has a way of repeating. I was watching a "Buffy" rerun the other day where vampires, in an attempt to face their fears, had gone into a church and were holding the parishioners hostage, threatening to eat them. Who saved the day? Was it a believer in the risen Christ, standing up, taking authority over evil and casting it out of their presence? Well, no. It was secular Buffy and her friends, nice kids all, but not an active Christian among them. It has been 10, maybe 15 years since "The Witches of Eastwick" and society's view of the church hasn't changed all that much.
Buffy, along with the witches of Eastwick seem to stumble around in the gloom and the dark without thinking that there might be a better way to confront evil.
Jesus, the Light
In our reading today from St John's gospel Jesus tells the crowds that he is "the world's light". This is one of the well known sayings of Jesus. We often see it on posters with the light of a candle in the background, but what does it mean to recognise Jesus as the Light of the World? For me it covers three things - first the darkness of this world cannot understand nor overpower the light, second Jesus' light guides us through the darkness and thirdly we become followers of the light.
Darkness cannot understand nor overpower the Light
In the opening chapter of his gospel St John says that when Jesus, the light, came into the world, the darkness could not understand it and could not overpower it. The whole plan of salvation for the human race was a plan which was hidden from the darkness. Instead of being born in a palace, Jesus was born in a stable. Instead of raising up a Messiah, or chosen one, to free Israel from Roman occupation, the Messiah died on a cross at the hands of the Romans. Instead of succumbing to temptation to take physical rule of the world, Jesus died as a common criminal. Instead of summoning rank on rank of angels to save him, Jesus allowed himself to be crucified. I have a picture of the armies of hell staring at the cross and rejoicing at Jesus' death, only to be thrown into horror and confusion when the light, did not stay extinguished but rose again burning forever. Darkness cannot understand light.
In our time the darkness still cannot fully understand the light.
People can't understand disinterested acts of kindness when they come with no strings attached. People cannot understand how the father of the policeman murdered in Manchester this week can forgive the killer. People cannot understand the commitment of those who attend church each week and who give sacrificially to God's work. Darkness will never understand the light.
Sometimes we struggle as the light in us battles with the darkness. Sometimes we don't want to forgive those who have harmed us. Sometimes we don't want to turn out to church when it is cold and wet. Sometimes we struggle with our finances, and instead of planning to give a proportion of our income, give God the loose change in our pockets.
Like the witches of Eastwick and like Buffy, we forget that the darkness is always at a disadvantage when dealing with the light - as it cannot understand its enemy.
A Guide through the gloom
Sometimes our lives seem confusing. We may be hunting for a job, we may be in a job we hate. We may be yearning for a relationship or in a relationship which has turned sour. We may love our jobs and our lovers but still feel that life is confusing and that we have lost our way. As Christians we need to become better at letting Jesus lead us through the gloom and the darkness of our lives and of the world.
In many ways allowing Jesus to lead us is both breathtakingly simple and incredibly hard to do. It is simple as we simply need to trust, to pray and to follow the leading we get from Jesus through our prayers, through our daily reading of the scriptures and through what we receive at church. It is incredibly hard to do as it often means changing the habits of a lifetime.
Last week I heard two psychologists talking - now often listening to two psychologists is about as interesting to me as listening to two theologians must be to a psychologist! However, I was transfixed with this conversation about how to deal with young people who need to regulate and control their behaviour. Evidently one of the things that child psychologists will do with kids who have issues with their behaviour, is to coach the parents to help them become regulators of their children's moods. They will help the child talk about and think through what he or she wants to do. Now all this sounds quite simple, even mundane. However, what fascinated me was the assertion that in doing this, the brain re-trains itself. It builds new pathways for thoughts so that the child not only learns to think before acting, but the brain actually changes. Evidently this happens to all of us when we try and change the way we think or behave - if we do it often enough we change the physical way our brain deals with information - it roots information in a different way through our brain cells.
This means that if we make it a habit to pray each day - our brain patterns change. Not only do we get the benefits of spending some time in the stillness and quiet before God, but we also find that our minds are, literally, being transformed. By spending time in prayer and by bringing our concerns and the major choices we must make in our lives to God in prayer we are allowing Jesus to be our guide, his light leading us through life.
We become followers of the light
In doing all this we become more and more committed followers of the light. Many people seem to think that being a Christian is about agreeing to a set of intellectual and theological propositions, but - whilst such theology is important - the key thing in being a Christian is following Jesus.
Last week those we renewed our covenant with God. We asked God to use us for God's own service, inviting God to rank us with whom God wills. We said we "freely and wholeheartedly" devoted ourselves to God's service. We don't know where God will lead us. I never dreamt when I became a committed Christian in my teenage years that I would end up leading a church in Manchester, living in a wonderful relationship with another man. I have no idea where God will lead each one of us in our individual lives, but I know that God's plans for us as a church this year are wonderful.
As followers of the light we trust Jesus to lead us. I trust Jesus to lead more guests to us, to lead us to develop better and more effective ways of reaching out to people and, most importantly, to lead us into deeper discipleship.
Conclusion
I know is that God is calling us. We are to take up that mantle of spiritual authority (and the responsibility that goes with it) and confront the evil in this world. As followers of the light, letting Jesus lead us and knowing that the darkness can never understand nor overpower the dark, we can confront the evil in the world, and in ourselves, that we see. Just now there seems to be plenty of evil to confront as the world seems to be plunging headlong into war and terrorism. I am coming more and more to the conclusion that the power of the risen Jesus is the only hope our world has for peace.
I look forward to the day when Buffy meets someone who is better than she is at vanquishing demons--someone who doesn't use fists or magic or anything other than the power of the Power of God. On that day she will know where the cross that she wears gets its power.
Amen.
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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