Love: A Matter of Light and Darkness - 1st John 2:1-11

Disney seems to have always had the idea in mind…from its first release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 to Sleeping Beauty in 1959 to more recently in 1991’s Beauty and the Beast and 2010’s Tangled. Evil, anger, and hatred seem to have brought the movie and its world into a mounting darkness that will apparently continue without end, because though the antagonist (or “bad guy/gal”) have been defeated, the world seems to be left in darkness of eternal sleep (early in Disney’s movie making) or death (in recent years).  It is only through the kiss of a handsome prince or the tear of lost love from the female lead that love brings the world back out of darkness and shadows to life and light.  Darkness and despair are overcome by nothing but the light of love.
While the idea of love conquering the darkness may be an ongoing Disney theme and use of animated theatrics.  It is not limited to the world of make-believe or the movies.  It is a truth that we can trace all the way back to the Scriptures.
We can go all the way back to the very beginning as, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep…”[i]  Then as God began to create the universe with which to show and share His love, he began by saying, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light..  And God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness.”[ii]  We know that not long after the creation of humanity, the darkness of sin entered the world.  We catch glimpses of the breaking in of the light of God’s love through the Old Testament, but then, moving into the Gospels, we witness the light of a star and the light of a legion of God’s angels breaking into the night sky, signifying, with the birth of Christ, that love Himself, God, has come into the world.  The darkness of the crucifixion attempts to extinguish that light, but the dawn of the third day reveals that light has won.
While this imagery is scene throughout God’s Word, is never addressed more clearly than in the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.  He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.  He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[iii]
In the nighttime scene between Jesus and Nicodemus John continues this theme of the darkness of sin versus the light of God as Jesus tells Nicodemus: “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deed were evil.  For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light…But those who do what is true come to the light…their deeds have been done in God.”[iv]
Our Scripture reading this morning, then, should come as no surprise as the author of First John continues the imagery of light and darkness, and, in case there was any doubt in our minds, rather than hint at the connection between light and darkness and love and hate, he openly lays it before us: “Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.  Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness.  Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light…But whoever hates another believe is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.” 
The old commandment that is the new commandment that John refers to by tying it to love can only be calling to his readers’ minds the words of Jesus.  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  Bu this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[v]  Jesus’ command to love one another…a new commandment that is an old commandment that goes all the way back to God’s Law which is summed up in “love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  John brings it all together and puts it to us bluntly: if you love, you are of God, and you walk in the light; if you hate, you are not of God, you walk in the darkness, and you are blind.
John’s words are a challenge to us as we live in a world that is filled with darkness—the darkness of evil that still runs rampant throughout our world—through disease, through depression,  through disaster, through violence, through prejudice, and through hatred.
We are called, as God’s people, to be the “light of the world.”[vi]  We are called to bear the light of God’s love into a dark world, but all too often, we, who claim to be followers of Christ, choose to walk in the darkness and spread darkness rather than light.  We choose the darkness of bitterness, animosity, and hate over the light of God’s grace and love.
We choose to walk blindly in the darkness when one of our brothers or sisters wrong us, and we hold onto bitterness.  We decide we will not speak to them.  We decide we will ignore them.  We decide we will avoid them.  We decide we will tell others over and over again how they have wronged us.  We decide we will stand opposed to anything that they suggest, want to do, or are involved in.  When we choose to do these things, we choose to walk in darkness.
We choose to walk blindly in the darkness when we look at the sins of one of our brothers or sisters and decide that while Jesus may have cleansed them of that sin, and while God may have forgiven them of that sin, that they are still not worthy.  We hold their sins against them further and longer than God has.  We choose to shun them or ignore them or even talk trash about them, rather than embrace them with the forgiving love of God, or celebrate with the angels in heaven of a child of God coming home.
We choose to walk blindly in the darkness when we look at a brother or sister in Christ and decide that because of the color of their skin or maybe the ethnicity of their spouse that they are less than us.  We choose to walk blindly in the darkness when we decide that because they can’t or don’t speak the same language as we speak that they are not worthy to be around us.  We choose to walk blindly in the darkness when we decide that we focus our attention and affection on those who match us in social standing and educational levels, and treat those above us or below us as if they have the plague.
There are two troubling things about walking in this darkness, my brothers and sisters.  The first is that this is not even how we are acting toward those outside our faith, those who are in the world, but John is talking about how we treat those to whom we have been joined through Christ.  Why is how we treat one another important?  Why does John care about how those in the church treat one another?  It is because how we treat one another reflects who we are to the world and how the world can expect us to treat them.  If the world looks at those of us in the church and see that we treat one another with the hatred of bigotry and unforgivness, then how can they ever expect us to embrace them with the love of Christ?  If we are the only Christ that they ever see, how can they ever understand the light of God’s love in their lives?  If all they encounter in God’s church is the same darkness that they find in the world, we leave them lost in the same darkness in which we choose to walk. 
The second, and probably most troubling, is that when we choose to walk in this darkness, when we choose hatred, when we choose bitterness, when we choose prejudice, we are choosing not choosing Christ…we are choosing ourselves, we are choosing the world, we are choosing Satan over Jesus…Jesus says that the world will know that we are disciples of Jesus if we love one another.  If we choose to not love one another, we choose to not follow Jesus.
My brothers and sisters, God, through Christ, has entered our darkness and embraced us, right where we stand, with His love.  He has offered us compassion, forgiveness, and acceptance…not waiting for us to get our act together, to get our lives straight, to become like Him first, but in the midst of our sin, God has loved us.  God has shown His light into the darkness of our world, into the darkness of our lives.  Let us be willing, my friends to do the same for one another that we may truly shine the light of God into the darkness of our world.
We need to show the world, my brothers and sisters, that Disney does not have the lock on showing light to a dark world.  They share tales that are full all about fantasy and fiction, that while they may make for a good story, fall and fail.  We possess, my friends, not a story of light, not a fictitious light, but we have access to the True Light of the World that will never fail nor falter.  We are to strive reflect the perfect love of God to one another and to the world…that we may dispel the darkness and fill the world with the light of His Love.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!  Amen.




[i] Genesis 1:1-2
[ii] Genesis 1:-3-4
[iii] John 1:1-9
[iv] John 3:19-21
[v] John 13:34-35
[vi] Matthew 5:14

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