Light Exposure

​4th Sunday in Lent – A                                                                                    LSB #’s 411, 541, 873
Text – Ephesians 5:13
 
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible.
 
LIGHT EXPOSURE
 
 
Photography is all about lighting.  Without light, there is no photography.  The quality of the light can differ by color, angle & intensity, indoors & out.   Filters can be used to alter the qualities of the light that is projected onto the image sensor.   Today, that is most often an electronic device.   In the old days the image sensor was called film. 
Photographs can be very flattering, or unflattering depending upon the skill & the intentions of the photographer.  Capturing an image can be as complicated as you care to make it, but the skill of any photographer boils down to their ability to understand & work with light. 
The sermon text makes a very simple & obvious point.  Light makes things visible, but St. Paul is not writing about photography.  He is using a physical phenomenon that all of us understand quite well, in order to reveal something about the spiritual realm that none of us understand well enough.   There are good reasons why many people are afraid of the dark. 
The church at Ephesus was the first Christian congregation in that pagan community.  So, it’s likely that the vast majority of the members were converted as adults.  Prior to that, they’d been living their lives in the darkness, but it was much more than just struggling to find their way.  Paul wrote of that prior life, “For at one time you were darkness…”  (Ephesians 5:8 ESV) 
It’s common to hear that most people are basically good.  It’s just that occasionally they do bad things because they aren’t properly educated.  That way of thinking is quite the opposite of what the Word of God teaches.  Connected to Paul’s words that the Ephesians “were darkness” are his words kicking off chapter 2: “And you were dead in your trespasses & sins.”  (2:1 NASB) 
Jesus refuted the notion that all people are basically good, when He stated in the Gospel
of Mark, “No one is good except God alone.”  (10:18b ESV)   King David confessed before God in Psalm 51, “Against You, You only, have I sinned & done what is evil in Your sight…  Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, & in sin did my mother conceive me.”  (51:4-5 ESV)   Sinful from birth is what all human beings are.   Our identity is darkness until the Holy Spirit enlightens us. 
There’s a ton of confusion in our culture about identity & it stems from the errant idea that all people are basically good.  Paul wrote to his church members, “For at one time you were darkness…”  (Ephesians 5:8 ESV)  When he wrote that, Paul was describing their former identity & it had nothing to do with being good.  In fact, they were evil – children of sin & iniquity. 
Demanding to choose our own identity, one independent of God’s choice, leaves us in darkness.  Since only God is good, choosing an identity, apart from our Creator, means the source of that identity is something other than good.   By default, any source other than good must be evil, even when it appears harmless to you & to me. 
The drift into darkness is subtle & easy because our sinful nature is part of the darkness.  As Christians, it is no longer our identity, but it is a defect that is constantly dragging us down.  Sin is not just mild indolence or something to wink at.  Sin & death are inseparable companions.   The death we carry around in the old Adam, needs to be drowned & made to die, each day. 
In the verses prior to the Epistle lesson, Paul was drawing out the profound consequences of Holy Baptism.  It divides our lives into then & now.   In the reading for today, Paul is highlighting the danger of going back to ‘then.’  For the Ephesians, who were converted pagans, sexual immorality was a bridge back to idolatry.  It is darkness, delusion & death. 
Rather, Paul was reminding the Ephesian church that they were a fulfillment of Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.”  (ESV)   As God’s children today, we also are a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah.  We too were once darkness.  Then, the light of Christ exposed us & made visible the fact that our deeds were evil.  However, the light that Paul wrote of in the sermon text is not only about exposing sin.  Light also helps us to heal & rebuild. 
As Jesus said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12 ESV)   There is death in the darkness & there is life in the light.  Both of those forces are constantly at work on us.  The teaching of ‘once saved always saved’ is not in God’s Word, & it certainly can lead to complacency & danger. 
Even though Yahweh is stronger by far, Satan will never stop tempting us in this life.  To combat the devil’s temptation, all of us need constant exposure to the Light.  Jesus used different terminology in the Gospel of John, but He was making the same point:
“As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.  I am the Vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me & I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”  (John 15:4b-5 ESV) 
Jesus knows what it is to be cut off from the Vine, to be darkness.  On the cross, as Jesus bore all the sins of the world, He shouted, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”  So often our thoughts, words & deeds grope in that darkness of sin, & we wonder if God has abandoned us too.  But God raised Jesus from the dead, & He raises us as well. 
In the last words of the Epistle lesson, Paul wrote: “…Awake, O sleeper, & arise from the dead, & Christ will shine on you.”  (Ephesians 5:14 ESV)   That is a resurrection that can occur each day we are here on earth.  It is a daily call, from God’s Spirit, to live in the Vine.  Especially when we fall, Paul is encouraging us to intentionally step forth again along the path to heaven. 
You & I need that encouragement, the daily resurrection, for as Jesus said, “…the gate is narrow & the way is hard that leads to life, & those who find it are few.”  (Matthew 7:14 ESV)  As Paul is using the word “light” it can be read as a metaphor for the Law & the Gospel.  Yes, the Law kills & it is meant to, but the Gospel gives life to those who were darkness & death.  We need that light in our lives every day, & our Lord & Savior is more than willing to interrupt us as needed in order to bring His light to bear on us. 
He always does so out of love.  His ultimate goal is always to save & give life, but if people refuse that, He will not shove it down their throats.  He has offered to each & everyone of us the identity His loving purposes intended for us.  If God were a photographer, His goal would always be to present us in our most flattering light. 
There are good reasons for us to be afraid of the dark, especially in the spiritual sense.  And yet, we need never be afraid, but Immanuel is always, even in this broken world, God with us.  And our God is the Light of the world.  Amen.
 
 
“Away from us!” the demon cried when Christ, the Lord, drew near.   “Our dark, disordered world is lost when You, the Light, appear!” But Jesus spoke with God’s own power;  “Come forth!” was His command;  for evil cannot bear the Light  nor sin the Truth withstand.      Drive out the doubt that cripples faith; expel our pride & greed that we, from powers that threaten us, may, by Your grace, be freed.  Amen.  LSB 541:1-2, 4.