Jack Hardaway
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Light.
We can’t see it unless it shines on or through something or someone.
Like stained glass.
Or, like the Light People in Pelzer, wrapped and robed in Christmas lights, waving as people drive by in the dark, regardless of everything else, just bringing some light to a dark place.
Light requires a witness to testify to it, to be seen.
John was a witness to the light coming into the world.
In Matthew, Mark and Luke- John is called the Baptizer, or the Baptist.
But, in John’s Gospel John is someone else, he is John the Witness, the witness to the light, giving testimony to the change coming into the world.
The Advent of Jesus, who is the light and the life that makes everything live, that kind of light, that kind of testimony, that kind of change, becoming all the way alive.
The Resurrection light, raising the dead. The ancient believers called it vivifying.
Either the resurrection of Jesus changes everything or it changes nothing.
It’s that kind of change that John is giving witness to, the light that is life itself has entered into a dying world and is bringing it back to life.
All the ways that darkness and death play out on our daily lives, the resurrection changes that.
With John, and the people in Pelzer, we are the Light people, the witnesses giving testimony to the Light.
Like stained glass making light visible.
The consequences of darkness and death being done away with are so profound that it is like trying to grasp at a tidal wave. Life has erupted into a dead world. What we knew before is over. Now it is time to discover life.
How will we give testimony to that light? How will it shine through and vanquish darkness?
It has already happened.
It doesn’t depend on us.
It is bigger than our capacity to choose or control.
We can only testify to the light that shines all around us, whether we see it, or not, whether we choose it, or not, whether we feel it, or not, whether we understand it, or not. Whether we want to become alive, or not. It has happened. It is finished. The light of all people. All. Not some. All. Resurrection changes everything.
The resurrection wakeup call means that we are in the company of all kinds of people. That means I have to make room for all kinds of people in my life, all the time, everywhere, right here, right now. All those divisions that death forces us into making are gone. Will I let go of that dead world?
Either the resurrection changes everything or it changes nothing.
The light shines in the darkness, it has arrived, it has risen from the grave. Either it changes everything or it changes nothing.
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.
Light people. Crazy, crazy light people. Shining light in the dark regardless of everything else, just bringing some light to a dark place.
The advent of life.
It changes everything.
Testify.