Series: Lectionary Notes
tl;dr: This week's readings dive into the imagery of light and truly seeing God in the world.
Light
This week we're moving from a water theme last week into a theme of light and darkness. I could do my usual attempt to dive into each text, but I kind of want to just dwell in that metaphor for most of this post.
The first caveat I want to make is that I think there's a big difference between the language of "light is good, darkness is bad" and "white is good, black is bad." The former is largely out of the context where daytime was mostly safe and nighttime was mostly dangerous. Light is an essential component of a safe and sustainable life. The latter, white vs black, is more often used to reinforce subtle racism. I know some people conflate the two and want to even avoid the light/darkness metaphor to avoid reinforcing any white supremacist ideas, but I don't think they are the same metaphor and I do think something gets lost when you take away that light/dark language.
So, light. Last week I had my bike's front light stolen, while I was in a church meeting at night. I had to ride home without a front light. I improvised putting my phone's light turned on in the phone mount I have (which is more solidly attached with screws and harder to steal). That probably gave me enough of a signal I was coming to those in front of me, but it was extremely diluted by the plastic of the phone mount so it didn't really do much to help me see the path in front of me.
Fortunately, most of my trip was on a very well lit public trail in the city where I live, so with a couple of short exceptions it still felt safe to me. But I was definitely more on edge that I was going to hit a pothole (it's spring after a harsh winter) or a piece of sharp garbage or even a pedestrian in all black clothing because I couldn't see as far ahead as I am used to. Light is important. Without light, we can't see, and that does bring dangers.
My experience is a tiny fraction of what the ancient world would have felt when they talked about darkness or not seeing. I live in a light-polluted part of world where I rarely experience true darkness.
Sight
All of this week's texts have something to do with light and/or sight, and especially how spiritual sight is more important than physical sight.
In Samuel, God sees what we humans do not. We look at each other and make judgements based on what we see. God invites Samuel to have a different kind of sight to glimpse the character that is more important.
The psalmist fears no evil even in the metaphorical valley of darkness. When he can't see his way forward, the one thing he can still "see" is that God is with him. Similarly, even when surrounded by enemies, he still knows that God is making a safe table for him.
Ephesians invites us to live in the light, countering darkness with the power to reveal the evils being done.
In John, Jesus heals a physically blind man and then uses it to reveal that this man was actually more spiritually enlightened than the leaders who sat back and judged both him and Jesus. This man then goes forward and helps some of the religious leaders see that they were in fact blind in the more important ways.
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