St John’s Church Sermon by Dr Prashantham on Dec 6, 2009 on: Word of God, Light of the World

Thank you Pastor Clive and Doctor Muthusamy for your very kind words of welcome and introduction.

The theme that has been given to me for today is “Word of God, Light of the World”.

In a country where our sages have emphasized that the deepest longings of the human heart could be expressed in the words of Rig Veda, and there it is said “lead me from darkness to light”; and in a country where a large number of our friends celebrate the festivals that have light as a symbol for victory over evil by good. Today we are talking about “ Word of God, light of the world”

When we talk about the word of God, you know people have many approaches to learning about what God has to say to them through the Bible. They may range from superstitious to very profound ways. You would have heard about instances where somebody says you know,’ I’m going to close my eyes, open the Bible, put my finger there and whatever verse my finger is on, that is God’s message to me’.

Sometimes it may even work, but sometimes it may not work. One instance when it didn’t work was when somebody did that ,the verse that came was “ and Judas hanged himself”. He said “boy, this is not what God is telling me” so he tried again and this time it was” go and do likewise’. So he changed his method of learning what God is going to be speaking. So let’s spend a little time on what we mean by “word of God and what does the light of the world mean”?

In the Gospel of Luke, “Luke says to Theophilus about the nature of what he wrote, which I believe applies to whole Bible both Old and New Testaments. What he said was something as follows: “Though others have written many accounts about what Jesus said and did, I have collected a very systematic account which is historically true, which is verified, credible and hence which is authentic. Luke was a doctor and a scientist.

From Genesis to Revelation we know that over 40 writers spread out across many centuries, historically covering so many epochs of empires all the way from Babylonians to Assyrians to the Persians, to the Greeks and to the Romans. The Jews were under all these empires. These books were written in a remarkable manner. Later the church decided that these 66 books are going to form the Canon. I would like to invite you to consider 3 ways of looking at this subject of “Word of God, Light of the world”

First is –What does the word of God as you know it affirm or confirm? What is the essence of it all?

Secondly I would like to invite you to take a look at the “Word of God, Light of the World- what is the word of God exposing and confronting with that we need to pay attention to.
When I go for my regular checkups, the doctors put on some lights and look into my eyes or throat; they want to put greater light than what is obvious to see what is behind, so that appropriate remedies can be provided. They sometimes say “go through x-rays, take MRI etc. The Word of God that was read to us, is a double edged sword, it can separate joints and marrow, can analyze the thoughts and feelings at a depth that we ourselves may not understand. Therefore what does the Word of God, the light of the world confront?

Thirdly, the Word of God is a book of comfort. It enlightens, it brings new hope. So in what way does the Word of God do that? By Confirmation, Confrontation and Comfort.

1. Now starting with, what does the Bible Confirm?
Several things, one is that the hero of the Bible is God, not anybody else mentioned there. Another thing the Bible talks about is what God did in relation to his creation.
We read in Genesis passage, “He created light, and then He created the rest of the creation. The Bible also tells us that He sustains the whole universe. Further the Bible tells us that when human being faulted, sinned, missed the mark, fell, floods came, there was this flop in wanting to build this tower. God took deep compassion and decided, He was going to find a way in which human being maybe brought out of the mess, and the most important mess being disconnected from God.
To bring back the reign of God, the kingdom of God where his will prevails, where his rule prevails, so that in the context of the entire world which he created, the Bible specifically talks about one community, the Jews, the Israelites and the one person Jesus Christ. Finally, by the time we come to Revelation, I would also talk about how this full destiny of the human kind, destiny of the entire creation will be consummated in God himself, where the kingdom of God in the fullest measure come and reign.

The Word of God confirms that He is always there for us. One of the very things about what God Confirms is that Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, who claims in the passage read, “I am the light of the world”. In other words, the Word of God is not only what comes out of His mouth so powerfully creating so many things and sustaining so many things, but also the very word of God incarnate in Christ. So much so that Christians believe in the Bible as their supreme authority in their faith and practice, highly authentic, reliable, historical, verified, experience by the followers, but none of us worship the Bible, but worship the living Word who is Jesus Christ. The entire word of God, written Word of God, points us to, directs us to, connects us to, invites us to relate to the personal Jesus Christ who is living Word of God.

One of the important affirmation in this word of God, which is the light of the world is that those who are so chosen like the Israelites , like the church are chosen not because of their righteousness, their superiority, their merit, but because of God’s sovereign Grace and love. Therefore there’s no scope for holier than thou attitude” towards anybody on this globe, but to humbly discover why Jesus chose us, even though he could have done without us.
One more thing about what the Bible says about the people, God chooses is, that there’s suffering involved. Of course there’s suffering that needs to be ameliorated. But there’s also suffering that’s redemptive, the servant of God Israel, the servant of God Jesus, God Himself - Jesus Christ suffered in his life as a means of redemption for the world. These are some of the important things, the word of God, the light of the world affirms and confirms.

2.Secondly, what does the Word of God confront us about? What does this light show us? Because there’s no scope for illusions and delusions, guesses, when the Word of God comes, it’s a revelation of light, it’s an enlightenment to our soul, and here it is very interesting to distinguish two things that were read to us in the Psalm. One- “Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and the light to my path”. Lamp and light are not used in synonymous ways in this particular verse. Lamp helps us to make one step at a time if we take a torch and go in the dark, we can’t see from here to our home at once. We see the next step, but if a ship or aircraft is coming, beside its own light, lamps, it needs to see another light, which is an indication of the destination where it needs to go. Just like the wise man saw the stars, as the destination to which they need to go. Just like Jesus was called the Star Himself. That is what the Word of God is all about.

In terms of Confrontation, there are many things that the word of God confronts about. I’ll just mention a couple of things that I was struck by.
The first thing is that whenever we read about the Prodigal son, at least when I read it, I used to feel, I’m not like that prodigal son, I didn’t do all the things he did.
Then on further reading I discovered that I am like the first son who is also a prodigal son, because he was self righteous.
The prodigal son so called, causes his problems by disobedience.
The first son caused his problems by obedience and self righteousness which was scornful of others, unforgiving of others, not accepting the fault. The Word of God, light of the World shows these sorts of subtleties that I need to grow out of.

Another one, when the judgment occurs, it looks like God is not going to ask” how many chapters are there in the Old Testament, but He’s going to ask, ”I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was naked, I was in prison, I was sick, what did you do?”
Faith without works is dead, and when one is doing all these things, there’s also a sense of compliancy that gets in. The Word of God challenges us out of being complacent.
How it is that one –third of the world’s poor is living in India? How is it that 200 farmers have committed suicide in the last 10 years, because they couldn’t get loans, or couldn’t pay their debt?
The Word of God also challenges, confronts us about justice in our society.
The Word of God also confronts us about misusing the Bible.

If you recall, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, He went away for a few days, he was severely, sorely tempted by the devil, and every time the devil used the Bible the Word of God by misinterpreting what it is all about, by not taking the total of the message, but taking something out of context.
First temptation was for Jesus to take a stone and make bread.- the economic route. That is to pacify the immediate needs, make it into bread.
Jesus countered by proper understanding of the Word of God “man shall not live by bread alone”, though Jesus himself fed the 5000. He wasn’t neglecting that, but the priorities did not seem to be right for him.
Then there was the -religious route-, fall from there, do some magical, do something spectacular, that gives you attention. Jesus refused that also. That’s not the way to do things. Religion should not be misused for selfish gains.

The third temptation was a - political –one: “you bow down to me, I will make you king of all that you see”, Jesus said, No, my path is through suffering even on the cross , self- giving love, servant -leadership, power of resurrection. So in other words, not everybody who used the Word of God is necessarily doing God’s will. That is another major challenge that comes with confrontation. So be careful to see what the central message of the Bible is. Is this a God centered concern? Is this a Christ like concern? Not what is an expedient, convenient concern of mine? The devil tempted Jesus using the Bible; I hope I do better than the devil in using the Bible, I hope you will do the same.

In the book of Revelations, we see that lukewarm ness is detested by God.
He says “I will spit you out of my mouth”, these are the words used towards His church; that was neither hot nor cold but lukewarm. There are many times in the Bible we are challenged to grow up, why are we behaving like children.
Paul asks certain churches, why are you feeding on these children’s food?
Christian growth should not be neglected. These are the many ways the Word of God challenges us, but challenges us with an infinite love that God brings.

3.That’s why my last point is How does the Word of God, the Light of the World comfort us? If it’s only confrontation, then we are bleeding, there’s no hope for healing - but that’s not how God works. The first and foremost important comfort to me in the Bible is that, none of the characters in the Bible were perfect.

From Abraham to the last person, except Jesus, except God, everybody was imperfect, in fact they made vital blunders and messed up lots of things, and yet while humans were unfaithful, God remained faithful. God remained steadfast and God was committed to his relentless outflow of mercy in order to heal, in order to restore, in order to redeem, and that brings us a lot of comfort. The o0ther wonderful comfort is that, no matter what situation we’re in, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is there, and that’s what we are going to celebrate very soon at Christmas -Emmanuel, God with us, in all circumstances, the good times and the bad times, the triumphs and the trails, to give us perspective, to affirm us through his unconditional love, and to guide us step by step, through forgiveness, through grace, through strength and everything he can give us. He only wants us, even if we are not perfect, at least to be obedient to the light you see. God has shown you one situation, where you are not forgiving in the family or a neighbor, though they have apologized. He urges us to do the Christ like thing and forgive. You know, I know, that we have done something wrong, or said something wrong, but we refuse to apologize. .He urges us “go on with it,’ to grow in Grace, “and ask for forgiveness”.
.The mission of the kingdom of God to restore the creation, as told to us in the word of God has its origins in God Himself because it is only in God’s plan, and not man’s plan to restore this entire creation, to the glory for which He wanted it to be. Its embodiment is Christ. Church is chosen as an instrument, but if the church fails to deliver the goods, God is not limited to the Church. The kingdom of God is much bigger than the church.
Empowerment for this mission, the mission that the Word of God, as light of the World, wants to fulfill, comes from the Holy Spirit, while the object and the target is the whole world.

Thus the Word of God, the light of the world, - Confirms, Confronts and Comforts. May the Lord bless us all. Amen.