Since the early days of Jesus’ ministry, people have been asking, “Who is this man, Jesus of Nazareth?”  Actually, since Jesus’ early days period, not just his early days of ministry, but from the very first days of his life, people have been asking, “Who is this person, born in Bethlehem to an ordinary couple, yet announced by angels and greeted by kings?”  Who is this man at the center of our faith?

Jesus chose to answer that question in a variety of ways, including several “I am” statements that we will be studying this fall.  He did on occasion give concrete answers about who he was.  But most often, Jesus spoke in stories and images.  Jesus’ “I am” statements are not meant to be understood literally, but are metaphors, paintings if you will, that invite us in to look again and again at our Savior, Teacher, Lord, and Friend.

We begin with “I am the light of the world.”  These seven words must have blown the barn doors off the Jewish audience who originally heard them.  Jesus was associating himself with the very beginning of time.  You may remember from the Genesis creation stories that, out of the chaos of the universe, God created light before anything else.  Light was understood to be the energy through which all of life came.  By calling himself the light of the world, Jesus was linking himself with the divine energy through which all life comes.

Jesus went on to say, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  I used to think that meant that people who truly follow Jesus won’t have dark days or dark times.  Do you remember that old song, “Jesus wants me for a sunbeam”?  That was clearly written before the COVID pandemic!  It was only recently that I noticed that cheerfulness is NOT listed as one of the fruits of the Spirit!

Even when Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!”, I don’t think he meant to put a smile on your face no matter what.  I think the rejoicing comes not from being happy but from telling the truth.  And the truth is, God is with us.  We are not alone.  We are part of God’s family and God’s unfolding love story for the world.  That is why we can rejoice.  Because the truth is, we are deeply loved, and all of God’s energy is wrapped up in giving life to the world God loves.

For Jesus, walking in the light has nothing to do with feeling sunny.  It has to do with truth.  With seeing and being part of God’s action in the world.  In the creation story, light is created before anything else.  It’s the essence of God’s creative action in the world.  Jesus calls himself the Light of the World because he is the essence of God’s creative action.  And if we follow him, we walk “in the light”—we walk as people aware of God’s work in our midst.  We are awake to God’s dreams.  We are open to God’s leading.  We are, as Pastor Jim talked about last week, like clay in the hands of the master potter.  Putting ourselves in God’s hands, open and willing to be conformed to God’s will.

The first step toward that kind of faithful living is being willing to see things as they really are.  Jesus is the light of the world, who reveals not only the truth about God, but the truth about us.  Kate Bowler, who teaches at Duke Seminary, often mentions on her podcast that one of her favorite prayers is, “God, help me to see things as they really are.”  What a courageous prayer!  By praying that prayer, we are asking God to shine a light into our darkness.  This might be the darkness of our own hearts, or the darkness of hidden suffering in the world, or the darkness of lies we absorbed about ourselves and others.  God, help us to see things as they really are.  Be the light of the world for us, so we can shine your light for others.

This is our deepest hope as a congregation, right?  That we might be the light that helps others?  But what I have noticed is, it is also one of our deepest fears.  If we allow ourselves to see things as they really are, we will realize, some things have to change.  And most of us are a little weary from so much change!  If we keep ourselves in the dark, so to speak, we might not have to make more changes.  But by refusing to change, we miss out on the abundant life offered to us by Jesus, the light of the world.

So we have this spiritual work to do, all of us, to stay open to the light.  In March of 2021, several people from our congregation participated in a mission trip to Africa and India via Zoom.  It was hosted by Zoe Empowers and the Morrisville United Methodist Church.  Because of COVID, they could not travel to meet the members of their Zoe Empowers group, so they arranged a virtual trip and invited other congregations to come too.  What happened on that mission trip is that God helped us to see things as they really are.  We came face to face with the orphan crisis in Africa and India.  We saw firsthand what a huge difference a relatively small investment from a church like ours could make.  We could not unsee what we saw!  The light of Christ shined so that we could see the suffering of God’s children in another part of the world, and we were moved to shine the light of Christ in response.

The result of that is there is now a group of 27 young people and their younger siblings in Rwanda who are learning how to be self-sufficient, all because of support from Lima Church.  Zoe Empowers has helped all 27 families in our group—95 children in all–become food secure, by teaching them how to grow crops, and providing them with seeds and supplies for gardening.  That means 95 of God’s precious children are providing for themselves at least two meals a day now, when before they had to beg for every meal.  Every family now has at least one farm animal.  Every group member has started at least one income generating enterprise.  They are working on getting all the younger siblings enrolled in school.  They are learning about their rights and how to keep themselves safe from exploitation.  They now have health insurance and access to medical care.  And, according to the report we just received, in general there has been a revitalization of faith, with the young people no longer angry at God but now believing in God’s love for them.

If that isn’t the light of the world in action, I don’t know what is.

But, rather than hear me talk about it, let’s hear from Koni, one of our group members.  She is 20 years old, and has a younger brother, Regis.  She has just finished her first year as a member of our “Lift One Another” empowerment group in Rwanda.

 

[show Zoe Empowers video, which shows Koni achieving her dream of raising pigs, her vegetable selling business, the group’s potato harvest, and her specifically thanking Lima UMC for helping her overcome extreme poverty]

 

If our prayer is, “God, help me to see things as they really are”, then we can give thanks to God for answering our prayer.  For helping us see the very real level of suffering in severely impoverished places like rural Rwanda.  And for seeing that, although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.  I got that line from Helen Keller, who was born blind and deaf.  If anyone should know about overcoming suffering, it’s her.  When we follow Jesus, the light of the world, we see the truth.  The truth about the brokeness and suffering in the world. And the truth of how suffering can be overcome and brokenness can be made whole.

When we ask the question, “Jesus, who are you?”, and hear Jesus respond by saying he is the light of the world, we can’t forget that Jesus also went on to call us the light of the world.  Not any one of us individually, but all of us, working together.  That says something very important about Jesus’ character.  That he is not interested in a solo mission.  He is collaborative.  He is engaging.  He wants us in on this divine activity, too.

Phillip Gulley, the Quaker author, tells the story of how during the war in the Congo in 2007, gangs of soldiers and mercenaries roamed the countryside at night raping and killing women and girls. Despite a United Nations peacekeeping force of 17,000 troops, the practice continued. It was finally discovered that if trucks were driven into the bush and villages with their headlights on, the women and girls could sleep safely in the light cast from the truck’s headlights.

When morning arrived, there would often be 3,000 villagers asleep on the ground, safely within the light’s range.

Tonight in Rwanda, there are 95 children and young adults sleeping better because we are following Jesus, the light of the world.  There are 95 people sleeping better because they had food to eat that day, and they know where tomorrow’s food is coming from.  There are 95 people sleeping better tonight because they are now accepted and supported by their communities, and together they can protect themselves from child trafficking and exploitation.  Tonight there are 95 children sleeping better because they no longer wonder why God has taken their parents away from them and made their lives so hard.  They sleep better because they know they are loved.  That is the kind of thing that happens when we decide to start following Jesus in the light.

The light of Christ helps us see things as they really are, and sometimes, what we see is distressing.  But the light of Christ isn’t content to expose the truth, but wants to redeem it as well. The world is full of suffering.  But it full also of the overcoming of it.  Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  May this image help us look again and again, so we can see things as they really are, and respond accordingly.  Amen