Scripture:
1 John 1:5-10
5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; 7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Observation:
At first blush it sounds like the writer is saying that unless our lives are perfectly "light" then we must not be in fellowship with God through the actions and abiding presence of Jesus Christ with us and the Holy Spirit within us. In my experience, that kind of "black-or-white" faith doesn't hold up to well when it gets out of the church building and into the world. That kind of thinking about our faith usually leads to either direct confrontation with the world, or retreat from it. It leads to a church whose mission is either about conquering the world or about creating a disengaged alternative to the world.
In the Christian tradition in which I grew up (Lutheran), these words from 1 John are used as part of the introduction to Public Confession and Absolution that is said at the outset of worship services with the congregation as a whole. Specifically, we say together, "8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." We do not say this once and for all; rather, we say this together on a regular basis - meaning, we acknowledge that while we may not be "of this world" we are most certainly "in this world", and being in this messy world has a way of making us dirty.
It is not by accident that we worship this way. It is a conscious acknowledgement of our understanding of being a people called to be "in mission" for and with the world in all its complex messiness.
Application:
I experience some correction and challenge in this scriptural passage today. I am thankful for the blessings the Lord has poured over me through the particular (...some might even say, peculiar...) tradition in which I was raised. I have been emboldened by it to engage the world without being over fearful of becoming sullied by influences or experiences sometimes labelled as "not of God". That being said, sometimes the grace I have been taught slips
(...dare I say "backslides"...) into the "cheap grace" of moral relativism.
The question I am left to ponder upon today is, "How do I hold together the seemingly paradoxical challenges to
"walk in the light" as a sign of my "fellowship" with God while also and always acknowledging the truth of my sins and of my sinful nature?" Put another way (...in churchy language that is perilously loaded..) I hear the Lord challenging me to demonstrate a sanctified life that flows out of the justification I have received
(and continue to receive) by the Grace of God through faith in the righteous love of God.
Is it enough to begin and end each day with a knowledge that the light comes and goes unbidden and unearned?
Would it make a difference to take time and make space to turn and face the Sun twice each day and be intentionally bathed in this free and beautiful gift?
Prayer:
Speak Lord, your servant is listening ... (also, grant your servant grace to listen for more than a moment or two...) Amen.
