4 Lent B

Why might one hide from the light? Why would we choose darkness?

4 Lent B

Sermon given

March 18, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas' Episcopal Church

John 3:14-21

Imagine that twenty or forty years ago a group of tourists were being shown around a great cave. The guide had taken them all the way down to the lowest chamber where there was a river that went through and had shown them the fish that didn’t have any eyes that lived in it. The guide showed them another section where there were all kinds of resources stored. There were blankets, cans of food and dried meat. He said this used to be a hide out for people who didn’t want to be caught by the law, and they stored things here so they could live there for months and months, maybe even years at a time. And just when he finished telling them about that there was a great earthquake and in the earthquake a piece of granite fell down and covered up the entrance to the cave The people who were there were stuck in this lower chamber and they couldn’t get out. Now they had enough oxygen coming in to live, and they had water from the river, and they had food that was stored and they had fish in the stream but they couldn’t get back out into the world. Of course as time went by things got more difficult.

Meanwhile, outside, after the earthquake the people saw that they couldn’t get down to this group that they knew was down in the cave. They tried everything they could to get through but they didn’t have the technology to go through solid granite. There was no way to reach the people who were trapped down below. They worked for weeks to try and get through. After a few months had gone by people began giving up, but the man who ran the guide service knew that down at the bottom there was water and there was food and that they could survive. And he cared deeply for all his guides including the guide who had taken them down there, and the people that had come to see the cave. He never gave up hope for them.

Decades went by, and the people underneath learned to survive. Of course it wasn’t too long before the batteries in their flashlights burned out and the candles that were down there had been used up.  Then they were in total darkness.

Human beings are amazingly able to adapt. They had what they needed; food, water, air and community. And they did establish their own community. It wasn’t the life that any of us would choose, but it was a life. And in fact it was an existence they got used to, adapted to. There were even children born there. They had blankets. They didn’t have rain. The temperature was always moderate. And they had all agreed at the beginning that the way they were going to survive was that whatever someone found that was helpful would be shared with all of the group.

As time went by some of the people, the older people who were trapped originally, remembered being outside and would tell the children about what it was like to be in the light, although some of the children in their rebellious teenage years thought that was just a story made up by the parents.

Time passed. And the people on the outside forgot, except for the one man who knew there may be people there, and who told his son about his love for the people who were trapped in darkness. He made his son promises that as soon as it was technologically possible he would go in and see if anyone had survived. So the son grew up to be an engineer and he studied mining methods. Finally when they came out with lasers that could cut through solid granite safely, they made a hole big enough for one person to go through. The son took a bright flashlight and went down into the cave, searching for where he might find anyone who would be alive.

You can imagine what it was like down there for the people who were living out their lives in darkness. They had no real idea of how much time had passed and they had totally adapted to the darkness. They were used to being in the dark and suddenly they saw a light coming. Some of them thought it was an illusion. There couldn’t possibly be a light down here. Others who remembered what it had been like recognized it for what it was and went to greet the person who was coming. But there were some who pulled back. Who didn’t want to be seen by the light. They didn’t want the flashlight aimed at them. That didn’t want to have anything to do with this one who had come in to disturb their lives.

Why would anyone not want to go to the light and leave the darkness? You see there were a few people there who had been hoarding food and not sharing it. And even though most of the people were very thin and just getting by there were a few who were well fed. Also some had found things and put them aside for themselves, or had found some clothing and not told others so they were better dressed then everyone else. When it was dark, no one knew, but if the light were to shine on them then the truth of what they were doing would come out. So they preferred to stay in the darkness. Now the man who came down with the flashlight to lead them out had no desire to condemn anybody who tried to survive down there, certainly understanding that you do whatever you can to survive. He had no concern about what people had done down there, all he wanted was to show them another life, to show them the light - to give them some new hope, new life.

So most of the people followed the flashlight out, but some chose to stay because they had developed a comfortable, secure life in the darkness and they didn’t want to acknowledge how they had lived their lives. Now the person who came in to save them, the son, was not going to force anyone to leave. So he left a rope and he said if you ever decide to come out, just feel for the rope and follow it out. You are always welcome out in the light.

That’s what Jesus came for, because we live in darkness. There is a lot of darkness in our world. Like the darkness of lying, and doubt and selfishness. We know what the darkness is. And Jesus came to say that you don’t have to stay in darkness because I can show you the way to the light. A light that is full of life, and joy, and hope, and freedom. It says here in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

He came out of love for the world, or another way to translate this is the cosmos, or all of creation. God’s incredible love for all of creation, especially for human beings, for each person, sent Jesus to show us a new life. It says very clearly here that God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. It says later, “The light has come into world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” That’s one thing about light, when it shines it sees everything. When we have things that we don’t want others to know about, when there are parts of ourselves where we have guilt, or doubt or resentments, we don’t want others to see it. If we open ourselves to the light of Christ’s love then we know that that will be seen. If we open up to Christ, he sees it all. Sometimes people choose to not open themselves rather than to be truly seen.

We all have bits of darkness within us. We all have things we would rather not have shown on TV. I don’t understand the reality TV shows because there are things I would not want to put out there. We all have those little secrets, those things we are not proud of. That’s why we have confession. If you have darkness, if you have a secret, if the light shines on something, if you shine a light on a dark place it is no longer a dark place. It is seen. And if you have darkness inside of you and it is spoken out loud and it is offered into the world it is transformed. It is transformed from darkness into just what happened. That is the power of confession. That’s really what we do during lent, we try to look honestly at ourselves. We take those things about ourselves that we are not comfortable with and bringing them out into the light so they can be transformed by God’s love. That’s what confession is for.

Every Sunday we have a confession where we all speak together. Usually that is sufficient. Sometimes we still hold onto things inside of us. We have things that bother us and we can’t let go of. That is why we have the option in our church of what they call reconciliation of a penitent. Some might call it confession. We have the option of going to a priest and saying out loud what is on our hearts and being told by the priest that God has forgiven us. That can be a powerful healing of a burden that we might carry.

Richard Cranmer who was the person who put together the first Anglican Prayer Book said about the office of reconciliation of a penitent, “All may” (anyone who wants to do that can go to a priest any time and ask for it), “None must” (it was not required. No one has to go to confession). Then he added, “Some should.”

It is a wonderful and powerful tool, especially for times of transition in your life. There are some people who like to do it during lent or during holy week in preparation for Easter. It is an option that is available. Just call me or you can contact Jeremy, or some other priest.

Sometimes if you have something on your heart you are not able to let go of, shining the bright light of Christ’s love upon it transforms it, and we are invited to a new life, a life of freedom, and joy, and hope in the light of God’s love.

Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Third Sunday after Epiphany Year A

Transcribed from a sermon given on

January 23, 2011

At St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

I don’t know about you, but I when I was growing up I had this image of the fisherman that Jesus called as being these kind of poor, ignorant fishermen who lived in a real back water part of the world. That they fished in little tiny boats like I’d go fishing in on the weekend and did not have much money or any connection with people. But that is not the way it was.

One of the things that I remember best when I was in the Holy land is when we went to Capernaum. I learned that Capernaum was at the time of Christ was a thriving community. it was right on a major trade route. If you had gone to Capernaum in Jesus’ day and gone to the bazaar where all the shops were you would have of course heard Hebrew, and you would have heard Greek, you would have heard Latin, you would have heard Egyptian, you would have heard Persian, you would have probably heard some of the languages from India. This is because if you were going to get from Lebanon, which is north of Palestine, to Egypt the way to get there was the road that lead by the west side of the sea of Galilee right by Capernaum. And remember this was during the Roman Empire when the roads were relatively good and relatively safe. There was trade between Egypt and India, and most of it went right by Capernaum.

Being on that kind of a trade route meant Capernaum was also a place of intellectual fervor. When you go there and you see the excavations of the town, and they have only excavated part of the town, there is a very large synagogue. Now they are not sure whether this particular synagogue was there when Jesus was alive, but it does date back to the first century. In that synagogue there was a great amount of study of the Law, of the Torah. Some people suggest that most of the Talmud, which is the book that kept the Jewish people together after the destruction of the Temple, was written in Capernaum. So the reason Jesus chose Capernaum as his home base was because it was an exciting place. It was a place of scholars and teachers and things going on.

Capernaum was on Western the shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is call a sea, but actually it is a fresh water lake. It’s probably not even as big as lake Tahoe because on a clear day you can kind of see the hills on the far side of it.  Right across the lake was what was called the Decapolis. Now Decapolis means ten cities. So there were ten gentile cities right across the lake. And at the southern tip of the sea of Galilee was Tiberius, which was a major Roman center. So this was a vibrant, interesting, complex area with lots of different peoples of lots of different backgrounds.

Jerusalem on the other had was kind of a back water. None of the trade routes went through Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s only real claim to fame was having the temple. It was very Jewish and very sure that only if you were purely Jewish were you in the right relationship with God. While Galilee had all these gentiles and pagans, a variety of peoples. And certainly there was some intermarriage. That’s why it was referred to as Galilee of the gentiles. Its darkness was not that it was a backwater, its darkness was that it wasn’t pure.

This is the environment in which Jesus calls these fishermen. These fishermen that Jesus called owned their own boats so they weren’t poverty stricken. They were clearly middle class. They had their own businesses. They were doing pretty well. And the fact that James and John could leave their father in the boat meant that they obviously had hired workers that were helping his father out, otherwise they couldn’t have left. So they came from families that were clearly middle class. Also Jewish men of that time all learned how to read because they needed to be able to read in the synagogue. Very few people learned how to write, but they learned how to read. And they probably knew the Hebrew scriptures pretty well. They weren’t ignorant men. They weren’t poor men.

And we know that Peter was married. We know that because of one of the first things that happens after Jesus comes to Capernaum. He goes to Peter’s house. If you ever go visit Capernaum there is a spot that is Peter’s house, where you can see where the rooms were. And there was a church that was built around it. Now there is a church that is built over top of it. It is a very odd situation but you can see where the house was. So he went to Peter’s house and Peter’s mother-in-law was sick. Jesus healed Peter’s Mother-in-law which means that Peter was married. He was a married middle class man of that time. Probably respected in the community.

It is a different image of the disciples than what I was raised with. I don’t know where I got the image of them being poor. I don’t know whether it was in Sunday school or whether it was the children’s books we had or it was the movies or what, but that was the image that I had. When you go over there you realize that it was more complicated than that.

Now Matthew chooses to pick from Isaiah the passage about Galilee, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” Now remember that Isaiah wrote many years before Jesus. Isaiah was centered in Jerusalem so Galilee was seen as a gentile and that would have been the darkness. The darkness was not ignorance; the darkness was the lack of the pure Judaism.

That image of darkness, that people in darkness have see a great light, let’s think about that for a moment. Imagine that there was a large cave and people went and lived in there, but it was completely dark. We won’t talk about how they managed to live, but they did find ways in which to live there for many generations while there was no light. They learned how to get along by feeling and sounds and so forth, but there was this sense that there was something missing, at least for some of the people. And every now and then one of the younger people might stray a little further out and see, having his or her eyes perceive something in the distance, but not quite sure what that was. And they had a myth in the culture of light, of a way to see in which you could know where something was without touching it. But it was just a myth. Except for the few people who got a little bit of a sense of what it might possibly be.

Then one day someone comes in carrying a lantern. Suddenly the whole cave is lit up. Now those who believed the myth and those who had strayed far enough out that they had seen a little bit of light were excited by it. What a wonder, what a wonderful thing to have this whole new world open up. But of course there were other ones who have had some power, who were afraid that with the light people would see what was going on. Some people might have hidden things that nobody could see when there was darkness, but suddenly, when there was light they could see all the stuff was being hoarded back here in the corner. So they had a mixed reaction to this person who came in with the light.

To some of the people he said, “Come and follow me.” Then he showed them how to get to the entrance of the cave. And he showed them the world in which there was bright light and sunshine. Even though it was a little overwhelming and hurt their eyes, they came to enjoy the feeling of light on their faces and of seeing one another. A whole new world opened up to them and they wanted to just stay and bask in the sunlight. But instead he said, “Look, let me show you how to make lanterns yourself and now take these lanterns back in and lead other people out to the light so that they can know about it too. And teach them about lanterns so that they can go back in and bring more and more people to the light.”

Now of course the darkness that Isaiah was talking about and the darkness that Matthew was talking about, was not the lack of physical light. It is not that kind of darkness because of course the sun shines in Galilee. It was a different kind of darkness. It was a spiritual darkness. That darkness in which you feel there is no purpose in life. The darkness you might feel when your life is getting up in the morning, having a cup of coffee, going to work, doing your work, coming home, having dinner, going to bed and then getting up the next morning and there is nothing else in the world. It is the darkness of feeling alone and unloved and uncared about. It is the darkness of guilt, and fear. It is the darkness of grief and loss. It is the darkness of addiction. It is the darkness that keeps you from knowing that spiritual light, that thing you’ve heard about, that myth that some people talk about that there is something more. That inner sense that there’s got to be more to life than just this. That there is something missing.

Most of us here today have had glimpses of the light. It might have been a sunset over the ocean where everything was so perfect that you know that there is something more. Or it might be in a relationship where the love between the two people let’s you know that that love comes from something greater than ourselves. Or it might be being at the birth of a child and the wonder of a new life. We get little glimpses of the light in our lives and there is a sense that there has got to be more, there has got to be more.

Then Jesus comes into our lives and Jesus is that light, that “more” that we have been longing for. Those glimpses we got is right here. So the the disciples saw by the sea of Galilee that here was a person walking along who carried and manifested that which was the deepest longing of their souls. He manifested the love of God in a way that people could see.

That love of God is like light in the sense that we look around and light is everywhere. The only reason we can see shadows is because there is light, but even in the shadows there is light. The light is all around us, heals us. What Jesus showed us was that in which we live and have our being. That God which is love and loves us like a bright light, that loves us completely, that gives us meaning and purpose and hope even in the dark times.

Jesus walked in the world and manifested that in a way that was extraordinarily attractive so there were those who followed him. What he did was he taught them and he showed them the light. And then he said “Now that you have seen the light, now that you have experienced it, it is your job to go out and lead other people to the light.” You can’t just bask in it. You have to go back and share it with other people. So if you have experienced that light of Christ, if you feel drawn to become a disciple, to follow that light, to let that light fill you and change you and empower you and give you peace and joy, then the next step is to share that light with others. It becomes a natural thing because the more we let that light in to come and fill us and transform us the more we are that light in the world. People see it in our smile, our forgiveness, our compassion and the way we hold ourselves.

That we have to be willing to tell people what is it, what is it that makes us different? To be open to sharing that gift of knowing the light, of living in the light, of experiencing the light all the time. To be willing to share that with other people. And invite them to come and follow Christ.

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent year B

Imagine a group of people trapped in a dark cave for decades. What happens when someone comes with a flashlight?

4 Lent B

Sermon given

March 18, 2012

By Rev. Valerie Ann Hart

At St. Barnabas' Episcopal Church

John 3:14-21

I’d like you to imagine a story. Imagine that twenty or forty years ago a group of tourists were being shown around a great cave. The guide had taken them all the way down to the lowest chamber where there was a river that went through and had shown them the fish that didn’t have any eyes that lived in it. The guide showed them another section where there were all kinds of resources stored. There were blankets, cans of food and dried meat. He said this used to be a hide out for people who didn’t want to be caught by the law, and they stored things here so they could live there for months and months, maybe even years at a time. And just when he finished telling them about that there was a great earthquake and in the earthquake a piece of granite fell down and covered up the entrance to the cave The people who were there were stuck in this lower chamber and they couldn’t get out. Now they had enough oxygen coming in to live, and they had water from the river, and they had food that was stored and they had fish in the stream but they couldn’t get back out into the world. Of course as time went by things got more difficult.

Meanwhile, outside, after the earthquake the people saw that they couldn’t get down to this group that they knew was down in the cave. They tried everything they could to get through but they didn’t have the technology to go through solid granite. There was no way to reach the people who were trapped down below. They worked for weeks to try and get through. After a few months had gone by people began giving up, but the man who ran the guide service knew that down at the bottom there was water and there was food and that they could survive. And he cared deeply for all his guides including the guide who had taken them down there, and the people that had come to see the cave. He never gave up hope for them.

Decades went by, and the people underneath learned to survive. Of course it wasn’t too long before the batteries in their flashlights burned out and the candles that were down there had been used up.  Then they were in total darkness.

Human beings are amazingly able to adapt. They had what they needed; food, water, air and community. And they did establish their own community. It wasn’t the life that any of us would choose, but it was a life. And in fact it was and existence they got used to, adapted to. There were even children born there. They had blankets. They didn’t have rain. The temperature was always moderate. And they had all agreed at the beginning that the way they were going to survive was that whatever someone found that was helpful would be shared with all of the group.

As time went by some of the people, the older people who were trapped originally, always remembered what it was like to be outside and would tell the children about what it was like to be in the light, although some of the children in their rebellious teenage years thought that was just a story made up by the parents.

Time passed. And the people on the outside forgot, except for the one man who knew there may be people there, and who told his son about his love for the people who were trapped in darkness. He made his son promises that as soon as it was technologically possible he would go in and see if anyone had survived. So the son grew up to be an engineer and he studied mining methods. Finally when they came out with lasers that could cut through solid granite safely, they made a hole big enough for one person to go through. The son took a bright flashlight and went down into the cave, searching for where he might find anyone who would be alive.

You can imagine what it was like down there for the people who were living out their lives in darkness. They had no real idea of how much time had passed and they had totally adapted to the darkness. They were used to being in the dark and suddenly they saw a light coming. Some of them thought it was an illusion. There couldn’t possibly be a light down here. Others who had remembered what it had been like recognized it for what it was and went to greet the person who was coming. But there were some who pulled back. Who didn’t want to be seen by the light. They didn’t want the flashlight aimed at them. That didn’t want to have anything to do with this one who had come in to disturb their lives.

Why would anyone not want to go to the light and leave the darkness? You see there were a few people there who had been hoarding food and not sharing it. And even though most of the people were very thin and just getting by there were a few who were well fed. Also some had found things and put them aside for themselves, or had found some clothing and not told others so they were better dressed then everyone else. When it was dark, no one knew, but if the light were to shine on them then the truth of what they were doing would come out. So they preferred to stay in the darkness. Now the man who came down with the flashlight to lead them out had no desire to condemn anybody who tried to survive down there, certainly understanding that you do whatever you could to survive. He had no concern about what people had done down there, all he wanted was to show them another life, to show them the light - to give them some new hope, new life.

So most of the people followed the flashlight out, but some chose to stay because they had developed a comfortable, secure life in the darkness and they didn’t want to acknowledge how they had lived their lives. Now the person who came in to save them, the son, was not going to force anyone to leave. So he left a rope and he said if you ever decide to come out, just feel for the rope and follow it out. You are always welcome out in the light.

That’s what Jesus came for, because we live in darkness. There is a lot of darkness in our world. Like the darkness of lying, and doubt and selfishness. We know what the darkness is. And Jesus came to say that you don’t have to stay in darkness because I can show you the way to the light. A light that is full of life, and joy, and hope, and freedom. And is it says here in John 3:16, (and I’m sure we have all seen those signs that get put up or held up that say John 3:16) it says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

He came out of love for the world, or another way to translate this is the cosmos, or all of creation. God’s incredible love for all of creation especially for human beings, for each person, sent Jesus to show us a new life. And it says very clearly here that God did not send the son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. But it says later, “The light has come into world and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” That’s one thing about light, when it shines it sees everything. When we have things that we don’t want others to know about, when there are parts of ourselves where we have guilt, or doubt or resentments, we don’t want others to see it. And if we open ourselves to the light of Christ’s love then we know that that will be seen. If we open up to Christ he sees it all. And so sometimes people choose to not open themselves rather than to be truly seen.

We all have bits of darkness within us. We all have things we would rather not have shown on TV. I don’t understand the reality TV shows because there are things I would not want to put out there. We all have those little secrets, those things we are not proud of. That’s why we have confession, because if you have darkness, if you have a secret, if the light shines on something, if you shine a light on a dark place it is no longer a dark place. It is seen. And if you have darkness inside of you and it is spoken out loud and it is offered into the world it is transformed. It is transformed from darkness into just what happened. That is the power of confession. That’s really what we do during lent, we try to do that looking honestly at ourselves and taking those things about ourselves that we are not comfortable with and bringing them out into the light so they can be transformed by God’s love. That’s what confession is for.

Every Sunday we have a confession where we all speak together. Usually that is sufficient. Sometimes we still hold onto things inside of us. We have things that bother us and we can’t let go of. That is why we have the option in our church of what they call reconciliation of a penitent. Some might call it confession. We have the option of going to a priest and saying out loud what is on our hearts and being told by the priest that God has forgiven us. That can be a powerful healing of a burden that we might carry.

Richard Cranmer who was the person who put together the first Anglican Prayer Book said about the office of reconciliation of a penitent, “All may (anyone who wants to do that can go to a priest any time and ask for it), None must (it was not required. No one has to go to confession.” Then he added, “Some should.”

It is a wonderful and powerful tool, especially for times of transition in your life. There are some people who like to do it during lent or during holy week in preparation for Easter. It is an option that is available. Just call me or you can contact Jeremy, or some other priest.

Sometimes if you have something on your heart you are not able to let go of, to shine the bright light of Christ’s love upon it transforms it, and then we are invited to a new life, a life of freedom, and joy, and hope in the light of God’s love.