As we approach the end
of the Church’s teaching Year B we are being sent out to witness to our own experience
of being healed, made holy by God and sharing in the love, joy and peace of His
Kingdom in our Christian fellowship. People all around us are starving for
meaning and fellowship in their lives. Young Muslims of both sexes are so bored
and desperate they travel to the horrific violence and danger of the ideal of establishing
a new Islamic State. The end of Christendom has left many people without hope
or meaning. They have never seen or experienced the spiritual light of hope for
healing, forgiveness and an eternal life of love, joy and peace that Jesus taught
and modelled on Earth. They have been deceived by false teachers (Mark 13.5,
22) because nobody forcefully proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ to them.
1.
Christians are being “made holy” (Hebrews
10.14)
Holiness is a lost value
in our time. Many people are focussed on the hollow values of inclusiveness,
materialism and individualism – that do not really satisfy our basic human need
for meaning, fellowship and community.
·
God
is trying to do something – “make” us holy
·
Make
us into something we are not by nature
·
Reason
is God desires fellowship with us, relationship
·
Problems:
o God is holy - cannot be in the
presence un-holiness
o God gives us free-will, cannot force
us to love, obey Him
·
We
pray “Your Kingdom come, your will (holiness) be done
·
Holy
= pure, undivided, un-polluted, whole, complete, perfect
·
Holy
people are like a light that shines brightly
·
Light
of holy people exposes the darkness around them
2.
Christians are made holy by the “Light of Christ”
The “Light of Christ” is
a short form or code for all the actions and healings of Jesus in the Bible.
The Hebrews Reading (10.11-25) teaches us that God added to the Covenant of
Moses with a new form of (divine and human) sacrifice that created a new way
for believers to repent, confess and receive pardon for specific sins.
This “Light of Christ:
- Exposes
our personal and corporate darkness
- Gives
us the hope of healing and forgiveness
- Opens
our spiritual eyes so we can believe in Jesus and trust in Him for
forgiveness
- Opens
our spiritual eyes so we can see, repent, confess and be pardoned from the
sin guilt that was making us unholy
- Not
automatic or easy – need to ask, pray and read whole Bible sometimes to “get
it
- My
story of being a cradle Anglican but not really “getting it”
3.
Overcoming our darkness is not easy
Serious believers
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens our
spiritual eyes and helps us see our own darkness. The Holy Spirit is like the
continuing “Light of Christ” in the world. As those who have been on Cursillo
know there are “Obstacles” that make it harder to overcome our darkness:
- Overcoming
self-deception, fear of ridicule
- Overcoming
sloth – most people have not actually read or studied the Bible themselves
– essence of Protestantism
- “False teachers” (Mark 13.5, 22) –
including some bishops
- Overcoming
human weakness – pride, envy, jealousy, fear
- Overcoming
spiritual temptations, lying spirits, bondages
The Good News is that we
all know what we have to do to overcome:
- Focus,
humble ourselves and ask Holy Spirit to show us the cause of the darkness
- Listen
to the Holy Spirit and specifically name and repent the sin behind the darkness
- Ask
Jesus to take this sin-guilt to His Cross and pardon us
- Really
accept our forgiveness from Jesus and give thanks!
The
Readings for today inspire us to step out into a dark and confused world in Faith:
·
Real Faith helps us overcome obstacles
and push back our own darkness so we can be the Light of Christ for people
around us.
·
Others need to see the joy and purpose
in our lives and be drawn into the loving fellowship of our church.
This is how we can all witness to the Light of
Christ in a dark world.
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