Lent Day 4: Walking in the Light

 

Jesus said to them, "The light is with you a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going."
~John 12:35

Jesus is speaking to a group of "Greeks," which indicates Gentiles. This takes place just after Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem on what we know as Palm Sunday. Jesus has predicted his death, and is being asked, Who is the Messiah? Who is the Son of Man? Essentially, he is being asked who he is.  When Jesus tells the people around him that "the light" will be with them just a little while longer, he is speaking about himself. Jesus is the light of the world, and he knows that his death is imminent.

Like anyone faced with the immediacy of their own mortality, Jesus' soul is troubled. He asks aloud the question.. should I ask God to save me? But no. Here, as in every gospel, Jesus knows where he is being called, and he will walk that path. But he also wants the people around him to walk the path he believes God has chosen for them--the path of the light, the path that the early church called "the Way."

The Way of Jesus is described in the Acts of the Apostles as a time of great love and care shared by the fledgling faith community:

Awe came upon everyone because many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. All who believed were together, and had everything in common; they would sell their possessions and goods, and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home, and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
~Acts 2:43-47

This is what the early church understood as "walking in the light," or in the Way of Jesus. When I read this passage, I think of the forces of light and darkness that are always around us, but which seem to be especially visible to us in these chaotic times. What does it mean to walk in the light in these days? The early church offers us a blueprint of deliberate and generous-hearted care of one another, and of our neighbors (whether or not they are a part of" our" community). A wise woman said this week that, in these days of chaos, we must double down on love. 

...We’re living in a moment that has a very apocalyptic fragility to it, meaning that we can see the limits and how very delicate our structures are... But I will say one of the weird gifts of feeling apocalyptic fragility is, and we see this all throughout Scripture, is that heightened awareness. We have to... create practices that try to restore our own peace, to try to bring our neurological alert systems down, to remind ourselves of God’s abiding love, and really, the strength of the way that we can love each other back into a web that can reweave our own lives and our culture. I really do believe that. But the other thing is moments where we feel apocalyptic, you know, fragility.. it's the feeling of seeing things. And there’s some things that we should see. We should see injustice. We should see how much we are required to be a part of a world that needs us. We should see our own interdependence. So sometimes that revelation feels pretty awful. But other times I think it can make us really like sane. Like deeply sane. Because we can know what’s true, that our world is fragile. We can give ourselves more grace to restore our own peace, and that we just kind of double down on the stuff that really matters. Like being concretely loving, concretely honest... double down on the stuff that actually makes us good people of faith...*

Walking in the light means doubling down on love--loving the people who are in our circles, our community, and even who are not. Being there for folks as they lose their jobs, or lose their faith in the structures and systems that seems to be crumbling before our eyes. Being there for folks who have gotten a terrible diagnosis, or who face huge, unanticipated life transitions. Being there for those who might be lonely, or feel forgotten, neglected. 

What does it mean to you, for you, today, to walk in the light?

Blessings to you this weekend. Don't forget to set your clocks ahead! Let's walk in the light together.

* Kate Bowler, PhD, “The Hardest Part: Lent for Real Life,” Everything Happens Podcast, Season 14, Episode 3, March 4, 2025.

Lent Day 28: Sparking Love

There is something about Lent that brings an intensity of purpose to my work, and that is all for the good. I am glad and grateful that the church sets aside this time for us to aspire to a spiritual journey to the cross.

Yesterday's gospel reading did it for me. (John 12:1-8; you can find it here.) It brought the cross near. We witnessed Mary of Bethany anoint Jesus, as a tender act of both extravagant love and gratitude (Jesus had raised her brother from the dead! That calls for something big).

But it was also a prophetic act.

It was an anointing for Jesus' burial, even before he is dead. Jesus recognizes the act for what it is.

I witness in our culture, on a regular basis, real unease with the death of Jesus-- the pain, the blood, the real, human cost of a brutal system that saw all but the official state religion as a threat.

(Sounds familiar, in these days when some seek to make a bizarre, unrecognizable version of "Christianity" the law of the land.)

But Mary nails it (if you could, um, excuse that expression). She recognizes Jesus' death-- even before it has occurred-- as a supreme act of love. As the supreme act of love. And so, she responds in kind, with an act that also recognizes the human Jesus-- the feet that carry him on his journey, this journey to the cross. She responds in kind, in kindness, with extravagant love, love fragrant and pure, love that doesn't count the cost.

What good is religion if, in the end, it doesn't come to love?

These words, then, from today's reading from Hebrews, speak to me:

And let us consider each other carefully for the purpose of sparking love and good deeds.  Don’t stop meeting together with other believers, which some people have gotten into the habit of doing. Instead, encourage each other, especially as you see the day drawing near. ~ Hebrews 10:24-25

Spark love in one another, my beloveds. Spark love, kind acts, and encouragement.

What good is our faith, if it doesn't come to love?