Readings were from Isaiah 2:1-5 and 1 John 1:5-9; 2:9-11.
Tonight we add to our cross the color yellow which represents God's perfect light.
God's perfect light. So light becomes an image for goodness in scripture, and particularly for a goodness God brings into the world. Right? Think of Genesis chapter 1, the beginning of creation God said "Let there be...light!" And God saw that the light was...good! So light was the first good that God brought into the world and thereafter it often becomes in scripture an image for goodness in some fashion, often a goodness associated with God like where our reading today says "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all". Light is then even a part of God's own goodness shared in this world.
In that respect, the cross makes sense to have yellow for one of its colors, because there the most perfect goodness of God was shared, there was good news, there was Jesus, the Good Shepherd who came from God's own being. It also in no way belongs on the cross, since Jesus in no way belonged there. He, the perfect goodness, he, the light of the world, should be anywhere but the cross. But since he was there, yellow belongs on the cross.
But I want tonight to get more specific, at least in regards to our readings. Since in these readings light speaks not for goodness in general but for a specific form of goodness. In our readings, the light of God has to do with bringing peace.
Isaiah says that from Jerusalem shall go out instruction - a teaching - that would indeed allow God to arbitrate between nations, to settle disputes and bring peace. This was a peace, if you will, between peoples. Whenever we have a "them". Us and them. Us and Mexicans - that's a big "them" group lately. Or us and Russians - that's a longstanding one. Or how about democrats to republicans? Anytime we see a group of people to whom we feel we cannot be one. That is precisely the people this passage calls to peace. He says that people will "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks". It's weapons repurposed - like turning tanks into tractors or carriers into cruise ships. Weapons are not needed anymore. It's like that song (sing it with me) "I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the riverside, down by the riverside, down by the riverside. I'm gonna lay down my sword and shield down by the riverside, gonna study war no more. Ain't gonna study war no more, ain't gonna study war no more. Gonna study war no more. I ain't gonna study war no more, I ain't gonna study war no more. Gonna study war no more."
That song holds to the promise that God is leading us away from war into peace and invites us as we sing it to already join into that peaceful gathering. And Isaiah likewise invites us in the words "O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!"
Now if Isaiah speaks of peace between peoples then 1 John is very much about peace between people. For after saying that God is light and there is no darkness in him, then it begs us to ask ourselves if and in what ways we are in darkness. And one of John's major themes is this: there is no greater sign of living in light than loving one another, and no greater sign of living in darkness than hating one another. Thus, though the word is love, the love is one that brings peace between people. It calls us to lay aside our hatred and disputes in order to love. Or as he says, "If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another..." Love and fellowship between people, for if God's light brings peace between nations, we cannot pretend that it has no intention of bringing peace into the disputes in our lives.
And now we return to the cross, since our focus this Lent is not just on concepts of our faith but how they keep going back to the cross. Now we return to Jesus, God's perfect light, who didn't belong there but went there anyways for us. If our two readings today as they speak of light speak of being drawn into a peace that God brings, we look to the cross to do just that. This isn't about saying "can't we all just get along" or "you need to find a way to get along". Those efforts have failed miserably. They are noble, and we should always listen and strive to find common ground, but if peace only comes when all people agree I find it more far fetched than anything our faith has ever promised.
But the cross says that God didn't wait to see if we'd all get along. Instead he came and shined a peace we've been struggling to bring. Among our "Scriptures of the Cross" which we've been reading each week this series there was another one I originally included but then took out because of space and length. It's from Ephesians 2, where it says:
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. 15 He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, 16 and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.
"He is our peace" He has "made both groups into one" and created "one new humanity...in one body through the cross". Notice the language Paul uses here. Notice how God makes all this happen. The light of the cross includes a peace that the world cannot give. In Christ, in the Church as a whole and in our part within it, Christ is bringing together people who otherwise have no business being together. And he has given us a blessing and a faith in common, he has given us the grounds to be together.
The instruction we have that came from Jerusalem was the witness of the apostles, the story of Jesus, the cross that consistently is reaching beyond the limits of where we think it can stretch - making us and them into a new "we". If you aren't living in that peace - either because you refuse to love those whom God has brought you or because you will only accept a peace you yourself can agree on - you are in darkness. But even if you are in darkness, Jesus has come to shine his light in that darkness that you too could walk in the light of the Lord. For he did not go the the cross to let you remain a "them" in darkness, but rather to draw you to the light.
He is our peace, and as 1 John says today his blood will cleanse us from all sin. So come, let's not simply try to make our own peace but join up already in the peace that was promised by his cross. Let's lay down our sword and shield. Let's walk in the works he has prepared for us. Let's walk in the peace he has won for us. Let's walk as the people the cross made you to be. Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! Amen.
