Let Your Light Shine

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.

            I’d like to shed some light – some gospel light – on an issue or two today, and I ask you to hear me all the way out.  Too much is at stake – we’re talking about the eternal welfare of immortal souls . . . too much is at stake for us not to be educated by the gospel about these things!

            I stand before you today not as a human biology major or a doctor of sociology.  I’m neither a scientist nor a political scientist.  I don’t claim to be an expert on genetics or anthropogeography.

            I do know God’s Word, however.  I do know that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” and that within his Word God has revealed to us his divine wisdom.  I know that as the Bible says of itself, it is “completely reliable” and we would “do well to pay attention to it as to a light shining in a dark place” (2 Peter 1:19).

            I want to begin by reading to you a quote from the book, “When Harry Became Sally.” Not the movie, “When Harry Met Sally.”  The book, “When Harry Became Sally.”  The quote is from a transgender individual, who while born a biological woman, later had a series of surgeries and transitioned into identifying as a man, and then again later “detransitioned.”  She writes of herself and many like her:  “We transitioned for a lot of different reasons. Many of us transitioned due to trauma. We lived through events terrible enough that it damaged our sense of self and so we created a new self to cope and survive. That self was our trans or male or genderqueer identity. We transitioned because we got raped, because we’re incest survivors, because we faced violence for being lesbians, because we were locked up in psych wards, because one of our parents killed themselves…Sometimes bad things happened to us just for being female in a culture where women are violated every day and sometimes bad things happened because we’re the wrong kind of woman, maybe too butch or “masculine” or loud or unemotional. One way or another, we didn’t fit in with what other people and our culture expected women to be. Sometimes our bodies themselves were deemed not female enough and treated as if they were freakish. That happened to me because I had traits like an adam’s apple, body hair, an angular face, and so on, leading many to speculate on what sex I was. Eventually, other people’s judgments got inside my head and infected how I saw myself until I started questioning whether I was really female too.”  (Ryan T. Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, pgs. 73-74). 

            There is much more that I could read, but I hope you got the point.  The point is that the issue of sexual identity today is a serious issue for those who, by no fault of their own, by no choice of their own, were either born into this world with issues or were subjected to acts of cruelty and brutality which created or led to these issues arising.  Issues they’d rather not have.  Issues that have caused them a great deal of pain, emotional turmoil and serious soul-searching.  Issues that ought to lead us to pause a moment and then pray.  Pray for wisdom, for understanding, for compassion.  Pray that instead of cursing the darkness, the Lord would enable us to light a lamp . . . a gospel lamp that may bring light and love and hope and peace to the troubled souls that surround us in our world today.

            Allow me to share another quote with you, this one is shorter.  The following is a quote from an op-ed article from the New York Times written by Andrea Long Chu.  Listen to how she expresses her pain.  It reads:  “Dysphoria (which is the current term for what used to be called transsexualism) feels like being unable to get warm, no matter how many layers you put on.  It feels like hunger without appetite.  It feels like getting on an airplane to fly home, only to realize mid-flight that this is it:  you’re going to spend the rest of your life on an airplane.  It feels like grieving.  It feels like having nothing to grieve.”  (Ryan T. Anderson’s When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment, pg. 2). 

In the case of many people who struggle with sexual identity issues, it’s just not accurate to say that such a person has made the choice to be this way.  Who would choose this?!  The confusion and inner turmoil are real.  The situation they find themselves in is sad.  To listen to their pain is heartbreaking.

40% of people struggling with gender issues attempt suicide at some point in their lives.  That’s an incredibly high number – almost half!  One school teacher wrote:  “When each year begins, I ask students to fill out an information card so I can get to know them.  One of them answered the question ‘What’s something interesting about you?’ with ‘I’m trans!’,  and the question ‘What do I need to know about you to help you succeed?’ was answered with ‘I’m super mentally ill.’” (https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/trans-through-a-teachers-eyes/)

One of the fruits of our faith in Christ – to which the Lord appeals often in his Word – is compassion.  The root idea of compassion is to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.  Imagine what it would be like spending a day at the office or walking the halls at school wearing their clothes, wearing their hairdo and fingernail polish for a day.  What would it be like at night reading messages on your Facebook page or Instagram posts about you written by others, trying to go to sleep with these comments or these questions and emotions swirling around in your head?!

Another hot button topic today, which many of us have strong opinions about and may be quick to voice, is immigration . . . particularly, illegal immigration.  Many immigrants – whether here legally or illegally – are here not so much by choice, but by circumstances – often seriously dark and tragic circumstances – and forces of nature or history far beyond their control.  Today their struggle isn’t just one of trying to make a living and provide for their families in a foreign culture and foreign language.  Their daily struggle, and that of their children and grandchildren as well, is one of identity and purpose.  The person they were and the things they found meaning and value in have all been stripped away.  Their jobs, their homes, their families, their possessions, their hobbies and interests – most all those things we ourselves commonly find our identity and purpose and meaning in life in – have all been taken away from them.  Their children and grandchildren, even though born and raised in America, speaking English and knowing only life here, struggle just as much – maybe even more - to find their identity.  They feel like fish out of water, both at home and outside their homes.  They don’t identify with the culture of their parents and grandparents, but they’re not embraced either by their fellow Americans.  They don’t feel they belong anywhere. They don’t fit in anywhere. They are individuals without a people they can call their own. 

Have you ever found yourself cursing the darkness . . . “grumbling and arguing” about this “warped and crooked generation”?  Illegal immigration.  The LGBTQ community.  Abortion.  Divorce.  Addiction.  Substance abuse.  And all those who perpetuate it.  “Damn the darkness!”

Maybe you don’t personally know anyone who struggles with their sexuality or their cultural identity.  But look around you . . .  I’m sure you know someone who, perhaps secretly inside, is hurting and struggling.  A divorcee, a single parent, a child of divorced parents, a person with mental health issues or a physical handicap, an elderly person who – perhaps because of some bad choices over the course of their lives – spend every day alone, unnoticed, unloved.  Not all these are the direct result of sin in their lives, not all of these plunge a person into spiritual darkness.  But these people do all need the love of Jesus.  They do all need the light of Christ to brighten and bring cheer to their souls.  They do all need you to light the lamp of the gospel around them rather than curse the darkness that’s already all around them.  Our job is not to sit around and gripe to one another about how warped and crooked this generation is.  The Lord has left us here not to complain about how deep the darkness is, but to shine like stars in the midst of it.

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless 

and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’  Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.”

Grumbling and complaining about “how crummy life is” or “how terrible the world is getting to be” or “how messed up people are these days” is not unique in the world today.  Everyone does it.  Plenty who themselves live in the darkness and perpetuate the darkness do that, too.  Judgment is not unique to the Church.  Judgmentalism is not what is exclusive to Christianity. . . grace is!  The undeserved love of God is!  Forgiveness and peace in Christ are!  These are exclusive to the gospel, as are the true compassion and love and empathy and understanding that flow from the love of Christ.  Let your gospel light shine!  Instead of cursing the darkness, light a lamp!  Shine like stars!  Not merely as bright, shiny, squeaky clean individuals in this sin-darkened world, but as sources of caring and understanding, of hope and peace, of forgiveness and love through which Christ and his salvation shine! 

Is it fair that Christianity and our churches are best known for what we don’t believe in, what we don’t believe is good or right or true?  That we’re best known for what we condemn and curse?  Is that fair?  I don’t believe it’s fair.  But it could be argued that on the basis of the conversations we have and the communications we make in public that we’ve earned the reputation . . . that we ourselves have contributed to the impression many on the outside have of us - that the church and/or Christians are judgmental. 

It may be fair that people have this impression of the Christian church, but it’s not fair to Christ or to the gospel.  The gospel is a message of love . . . the love of a God who forgives, who rescues, who cares, who redeems.  A loving and compassionate God, who understands the pain and torment of a sinner, so much so that he was willing to take on flesh and blood and then take on our sin upon himself to deliver us from it.  Who went to hell and back to bring us redemption, peace and identity as his dearly loved children . . . washed clean of all sin by the blood of Christ.  That’s what you’ve come to love about him.  You cherish him as your Savior from sin. 

Jesus is the Light of the World.  As he walked and lived among us here in the world, he let that light shine in dark places.  So much so that he was infamously known as “a friend of sinners.”  He spent time with the prostitutes.  He accepted invitations to eat in the home of tax collectors.  He came to the defense of an adulteress, not to defend or excuse or give license to her sin, but to have the opportunity to assure her of her forgiveness and of his love. 

Do the notorious sinners in your life – the spiritually deceived and emotionally confused in your life – know that God loves them? . . . unconditionally?  When given the opportunity to speak the truth, do you do so in love?  In your interactions with them, in your demeanor, in your body language – the unspoken word – do they hear a curse or do they see Christ?  Do they experience condemnation or compassion? 

Probably better than most of us, people like this actually can truly relate to Jesus . . . who was reviled . . . talked about behind his back . . . mocked to his face . . . betrayed . . . condemned . . . crucified . . . forsaken by God.  Do they know these things about your Savior . . . their Savior?  Have you let them know these things about him?  “Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. . . . For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 2:18, 4:15-16).  Do you think many of them have heard that the Bible says this? . . . to them?  Do they know that Jesus has extended them the open invitation, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”?

Instead of cursing the darkness, light a lamp!  Let your light shine!  Let the light of the gospel shine through you.  “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. . . . For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, 

righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord” (Ephesians 2:1-2,8-10).

What pleases the Lord is compassion, kindness, humility, forgiveness.  What pleases the God of love is love!  What pleases the God of mercy is “mercy which triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). 

Please don’t misunderstand me . . . we must speak the truth.  In no way am I suggesting that we deny or water down the truth in any way.  Sin is sin, and the sinner – in time - must be called to repentance.  But we are to hold out the word of life.  We must speak the truth in love . . . in the love of Christ, a Savior who is a friend of sinners.  A Savior who wants all to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.  And that takes love, it takes compassion, it takes understanding, it takes time and patience. 

Of course, as you attempt to go about doing this, there will be those who will misunderstand your good intentions.  There will continue to be those who won’t understand the truth you communicate and mistake it for bigotry, discrimination and judgementalism.  There will be those, even in our Christian circles – maybe in your own church, who won’t understand the love you demonstrate and mistake it for liberalism, caving in to the ways of the world, and condoning sin.  Is that a risk you’re willing to take, maybe even becoming a cross you’re willing to bear?  Jesus was . . . Jesus did.  Are you willing to risk being misunderstood by those who already know Christ, so that someone who is dying from the inside out because they don’t know him may come to understand him . . . and his love, his forgiveness, his peace, his truth?  I pray more and more of us are!

Let your light shine!  Shine like stars in the night’s sky.  Instead of cursing the darkness, light a lamp . . . the lamp of the gospel . . . the lamp of Christ’s love.  Amen.