10:30 am, Sun, April 7, 2024 ~ FBCA

(1 John 1:1-2:2; John 20:19-31; Mark 16:1-8)

Turn around Every now and then I get a little bit lonely

And you never coming 'round

Turn around Every now and then I get a little bit tired

Of listening to the sound of my tears

Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time (all of the time)

I don't know what to do, I'm always in the dark

We’re living in a powder keg and giving off sparks…

I could not resist the metaphor of the moon’s shadow that will cross the earth tomorrow. And I could not resist using that classic rock ballad sung by Bonnie Tyler, today. Mid-afternoon, tomorrow, that shadow, that eclipse, will pass over us, and more dramatically up across New Brunswick. The sun will shrink and darken, the air will cool, some birds will behave like it is dusk. And then, like a sunrise, the light will slowly return to normal, by the time supper is cooking.

The images of light and darkness fill the scriptural little book we call First John, the 1st Letter of John. These pages share a style and sayings with John’s Gospel, though the letter is anonymous, and which person named John is the author can be debated.

God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. We might remember Jesus saying, ‘I am the light of the world.’

In the ups and downs of our lives, we have times that are bright, wonderful, and holy. We also have those seasons that are dim, or even dark, so to speak. Sometimes it is as if our hearts are eclipsed, the light and love and energy has been covered up. We ‘don’t know what to do,’ we’re ‘always in the dark.’

Often, we know what is behind this. We can name the things that have happened, the things we did, the things others did that affected us. At other times, a hard time comes out of the blue, and it takes some attention, and help, to get to the bottom of things and find our path up and out.

I think the only time I was truly depressed was thirty-one years ago. In the late winter of ‘93 I was finishing my first year of Divinity School studies, but got depressed. As far as I knew, there was no reason for it. But I lost energy and interest and wondered about life. I had to drop a course or two at university. I remember the day I drove down the Valley to Annapolis, for a summer job interview at the Baptist Church. I was still wondering ‘Why?’

I worked there that summer, and somewhere along the way the darkness dwindled and I felt and acted well again. All these years later it is still a bit mysterious to me. And I know that is what it is like for many others. Unlike a solar or lunar eclipse - that can be accurately predicted, from start to finish - a depression or other illness can arrive, and leave, with little to no apparent reason.

There are many other circumstances that challenge people. Some are relationship disasters, or spiritual crises, and of course serious health problems, or injuries. There is violence - of every sort - which leaves its long term mark on the psyche, and the body. Not to mention financial and work troubles: these days are filled with such challenges. Housing is not easy. Raising children is not simple. Growing old is no walk in the park.

Today is ‘Green Shirt Day,’ an event that promotes organ donation as a plan for each of us. It arose out of the deadly auto accident of the Humboldt Broncos bus in Saskatchewan, in April 2018, which resulted in 16 people killed and 13 injured. Today is In honour of the Logan Boulet Effect. When the news of Logan’s organs being donated became widely known, tens of thousands of Canadians registered to be organ donors in the weeks that followed. It was a miraculous response.

Is this an example of a terrible darkness, even an eclipse of the heart, we could call it, and then of the bright light and hope that came after. From our solar eclipse playlist I should quote Cat Stevens, for the bright side of loss, the positive attitude, the hope after death:

Yes, I'm being followed by a moonshadow

Moonshadow, moonshadow

And if I ever lose my hands

Lose my plough, lose my land

Oh, if I ever lose my hands

Oh, wey ay... I won't have to work no more

Back to the Bible, before we end this and approach the Communion Table. If the story of Thomas, missing out on seeing Jesus alive again, in person, is an example of a little darkness followed by joyous light, then the text from 1st John closes with words about the problems we cause ourselves, and a solution.

Sin. That’s the classic word from this. The actions and attitudes that break our connection with the Divine, and with others. The ways we fail, and keep failing, can keep us from the best light of God’s presence. As well as the sins of others against us. We have Christ, who sets us free from all the powers of wrongdoing and failure. We have Christ, who is ready to speak up on our behalf, when we condemn ourselves.

The Church has gone too far with this, at times, this sin problem. Sometimes this has been the harsh teaching - how sinful we all are and how few are truly finding salvation. Jesus’ salvation gets made into just ‘sin management,’ when it is actually far more. One of the books I inherited from a professor is one on pastoral counselling. It takes the tack that everyone who comes to counselling with a problem, the root of the problem is always a sin in their lives they need to confess and get forgiven. That’s that.

Uh, no. I don’t see things that way. Spirituality and psychology are not all about sin and forgiveness. Yet sin and forgiveness are still so very important to us, so very basic. Like a dark moon that covers the life-giving sun, wrong things block our life with the Holy One.

An old, obscure hymn I have never heard sung, got quoted to me by a wise, old minister. It tells of how unworthy we feel, how burned to a crisp we would actually be, metaphorically, in the vibrant, direct light of God.

Eternal Light! Eternal Light! How pure the soul must be

When, placed within Thy searching sight,

It shrinks not, but with calm delight

Can live, and look on Thee!

O how shall I, whose native sphere Is dark, whose mind is dim

Before the Ineffable appear, And on my naked spirit bear

That uncreated beam?

There is a way for [us] to rise To that sublime abode;--

An offering and a sacrifice, A Holy Spirit’s energies,

An Advocate with God: (Thomas Binney, 1798-1874)

In a few minutes we celebrate the symbolic feast called Communion, or The Lord’s Supper. We remember the offering and the sacrifice of Christ. We seek the energy of the Holy Spirit. We rely upon our Advocate with God, Jesus, who is for us, not against us.

Let me take again the words of Jim Steinman, and reinterpret them for our spirituality. Dare this become a prayer?

And I need You day and night

And I need You more than ever

And if You only hold me tight

We'll be holding on forever