Word to the Wise
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 - Wednesday in the Second Week of Easter
[Acts 5:17-26 and John 3:16-21]For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
The Gospel of John uses highly dualistic and contrasting metaphors: light/darkness, above/below, sight/blindness. Another expression is that of judgment in the sense of a situation brought about by the confrontation with truth. Our word, "crisis," comes from the Greek term meaning judgment! This Gospel seems to portray Jesus as someone who draws a line in the sand and leaves little room to wiggle. Scripture scholars tell us that struggles between those who believed in Jesus and those who did not were resulting in Christians being expelled from synagogues in the period when the Gospel of John was put into writing. Thus the adversarial tone found its way into the portrayal of Jesus. How do we react when confronted with a truth that is new or threatening? Do we not deny it at first and refuse to accept it? Is this denial stronger in proportion to the enthusiasm of the one who proposes the particular truth in question? Notice the reaction of the religious authorities in Jerusalem to the zeal of the apostles as presented in the scriptures from the Acts of the Apostles in this season. For us Western individualists, who see religion as a private affair, the public outcry and turmoil surrounding the early Christian communities seems a bit strange. We find the Middle Eastern culture where religion is an intimate part of the expression of the culture to be difficult to understand. The Islamic and Jewish and Christian tensions of the area baffle us. When faith determines the way of life of a people instead of economics, a person must come to terms with the truth of faith and live accordingly. Otherwise one winds up living in "darkness" for fear of being discovered! This underlies some of the quote above. The preaching of the early community brought about a confrontation and the consequences were painful. In our own culture, we compartmentalize and assign religious faith its "niche." It may be an important niche but is it any more important than the soccer match that conflicts with the Sunday obligation? Or with a popular local celebration like Mardi Gras or other festival? If we choose other than what our faith requires, do we not bring about a judgment and conflict, or do we simply deny there IS any conflict? The Gospel of John has a way of demanding some difficult choices. AMEN
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