Light of My Life

There are two words that stand out as I meditate on this image of Christ as the light of the
world, and the first of these is the word discipleship. In this passage in chapter eight,
when Jesus says, “I am the light of the world,” he goes on to say, “those who follow me
will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The word here is discipleship,
because Jesus is telling us that following him is the way to receive the light. Mark Twain
one time said, “Most people are bothered by those passages in Scripture which they
cannot understand, but for me I always noticed that the passages of Scripture which
trouble me most are those which I do understand.” Well, I can certainly identify with that.
I understand what Jesus is saying here. He’s saying, “follow me,” just as he said it to
Peter and Matthew, and James and John. He doesn’t say, “let’s sit down and talk about
doctrine, or let’s sit down and talk about some kind of an agreement that we can have
over this, some kind of contract we’ll make with each other. He simple says, “Follow
me.” And if we want to experience the light, then it means following Jesus as his
disciple, it is being with Jesus.

For many of us this is a movement from being a dilettante to being a disciple. There are
many, many

of us who love Jesus, but we’re dilettantes in our relationship with him, it’s on again, off
again, sporadic, going to church when we feel like it, reading the Bible once in a while,
praying when we feel like it or when we’re in special need. What Jesus calls us to do is to

move from being dilettantes in our relationship with him, and in our expression of the
Christian faith, to be disciples. And it’s by being disciples, it’s by following him in prayer
and service that we experience the inner light of his immediate presence.

So this image, on one level, becomes an invitation to each of us, an invitation to

discipleship, to accept the light, to receive the light. Wherever we happen to be right now
in our faith journey, whatever is going on in our faith journey, here is Jesus saying to us,
“follow me.” It began with the three Magi, who stooped to worship the Holy Child as the
light of their lives, and it happens today, and so you see before you, representatives of our
own community: doctors, artists, business people, musicians, pilots, social service
workers, parents, children, young and old, who gather around Christ, to accept the light.
“Those who follow me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

Light to the World

The other word that occurs to me, as I meditate on this particular image, is for some
people a very difficult word, the word evangelism. Epiphany, if you read the description
in your bulletin, is the missionary season, the season of evangelism. Jesus said, “I am the
light of the world. ”But many people, even in our own neighborhoods, do not know the
light, and so the followers of Jesus, the disciples of Jesus, are called to share the light
with others. Jesus made a great deal of this. He said to his disciples, “you are light, let
your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to
God.” Let your light shine. Being an evangelist in this sense is an essential part of our life
with Christ.

Now I know this term turns a lot of people off. They say, sure I agree evangelism is
important, but it’s just not my style, it’s too aggressive, sounds too much like head-
hunting. There was an army colonel in the South Pacific who was put in charge of a small
island as a military governor, and as he assumed command he said, “I’ll teach these
natives democracy even if I have order them all to vote.”

Well, there’s been too much of that attitude in Christian evangelism and it drives people
away.

We need to understand that when we go into the world to talk about Christ, we need to go
out in love, it’s because we care about people. And if we go out to do good works, as our
mission trips, for instance do, we don’t have to “wear Christ on our sleeves” But if we’re
asked the source of our action, we can share that Jesus is the source, and so the
conversation begins.

And there are those times when someone might be sharing with us about a problem they
are having, and we need to listen, but we can also share, if it feels comfortable, that when
Christ came into our lives, we found it much easier to handle our own situation, and the
conversation is started. Or we can simply invite a friend to church with us some day.

But few of us ever think of bringing this into the conversation. And that’s what we’re
talking about, a gentle sharing when the situation seems right, of what God has done for
us and what God can do for you, sharing the light. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world,
those who follow me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”