As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world
2 March 2008
May I first of all take this opportunity publicly to thank the Principal and the Librarians for their support of St. Barnabas Jericho, and also of me personally, during the recent interregnum and indeed before that.
Second, on this “Mothering Sunday” I can’t resist quoting a flier entitled “What is Pusey House?” which I must have picked up as an undergraduate because I used the back of it to write a note home to my mother which consists of a list of things I’d forgotten to bring back to Oxford including a photograph from Gilman & Soame, some dress shirt studs and a black bow tie! I discovered this flier when going through my mother’s belongings after her death. The note isn’t dated and neither is the reverse but the printed side does include the sentence, “At the principal Sunday morning service there is a course of sermons soundly interpreting the Bible (my italics) and the teaching of the Church”.
Now my problem in this connection is with the “abbreviated” Gospel we have heard this morning: abbreviated that is from the one set in the Common Worship lectionary. I have no problem with abbreviating some of these inordinately long Gospel readings for pastoral reasons but today, of the 9th chapter of St. John’s Gospel 15 verses have been read and 31 omitted! The omitted verses include I’m afraid my text from verse 5 - “I am the light of the world”! I do wonder what Bishop Gore, Darwell Stone, Frederick Hood and some of your other distinguished predecessors would have made of that, Principal.
Well, let’s get on. Even from what we have left the theme of today’s Gospel is apparent: it’s the contrast of blindness and sight; of darkness and light. Unfortunately we miss today one of those dialogues, so beloved of St. John and so beautifully written, between Our Lord and “the Jews” or “the Pharisees” where, rather like the Democratic candidates in the U.S. Primaries, there is no “meeting of minds” – they are talking, if not at cross-purposes, certainly on different planes. The best example of this is the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus at the beginning of the Gospel – “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Today in chapter 9 the distinction is between physical & spiritual blindness. Our Lord is speaking of enlightenment. Now, if one were to play a game of word association and throw that word “enlightenment” into a group of reasonably educated and intelligent, but mostly not committed Christian, people I wonder what ideas the word would give rise to. For some (I fancy the majority) it would surely conjure up the school of 18C philosophers mainly French, though beginning with the English Locke in the 17C, which included Voltaire, Rousseau and Diderot. They aimed to sweep away medieval superstition and replace it with the “Age of Reason”, equality before the law, and liberty. Whatever our reservations about this “Enlightenment” we cannot deny it has had far-reaching consequences for Europe and the United States and we shall return to it in a moment.
For a second (I suspect smaller) group the word “enlightenment” might resonate with what they knew of Buddhism, and the Buddha himself in particular, though I notice that in writings about Buddhism recently the word “enlightenment” seems to have been replaced by “awakening”. Religions alternative to Christianity are increasingly attractive to young Europeans. Almost anything alternative to what is perceived to be a formal institution which purveys its message through the Establishment and has often been exposed as corrupt is popular.
Well, as you know, it is said that about 500BC on a single night in the lunar month April/May sitting under a bodhi tree in the modern Indian state of Bihar, the Buddha attained first, a knowledge of the human condition that would lead to salvation and, second the certainty that he himself had attained liberation from the sorrows of that condition. He is supposed to have described himself as “like a lotus flower born and growing in the water, but growing out of the water and standing above it unsoiled”. In a world of selfish greed, exploitation and violence there is something very attractive about peace-loving, prayerful, vegetarian Buddhism.
There might be a few (only one or two) in our group to whom “enlightenment” would mean the revelation of God in Christ who is the Light of the World and who enables us to open our eyes and face the truth – the truth that will ultimately set us free. These few will speak in a language that we recognise and can claim as our own; it speaks of an objective and benevolent reality which has identified with humanity, suffered, died, and risen and thereby enables humanity to flourish and progress towards a state of union with the origin of all things. It speaks of being able to access this process by following the example of him who was incarnate and, in baptism, being enabled to enter into his life-giving death and resurrection. And at no time of the year is this clearer to us, his followers, than during the lunar month that leads to Easter.
However, as we proceed on our journey of faith let us not despise those who see “enlightenment” differently from ourselves. I think that first (and largest) group in our word-association game have a lot to teach us. Recent examples of fanatical religious fundamentalism (and I do not exclude the Christian variety) have taught us just how important is Reason in our Christian apologetic – that apologetic which commends our faith to the intelligent agnostic. Reason implies clarity and you may have seen the recent “Thought for the Day” in Private Eye where the Archbishop of Canterbury is mischievously portrayed as commending “Faith Hope and Clarity but the greatest of these is Clarity” !
Belief in a Revealed Religion is by no means incompatible with reasoned argument and, if we’re honest, the fruits of the 18C Enlightenment have affected us all in the West in ways which are generally beneficial. The freedoms which Voltaire campaigned for we take for granted and they meet with nearly universal approval in our society. We are happy to practise our religion and commend it to others in a sprit of tolerance and mutual respect – we have too many examples of intolerance and repression in our world to want to go back to a pre-Enlightenment world, however romantic it may seem.
Then I believe that we have much to learn from the Buddhist’s prayer life and his attitude to the earth which sustains us. I have to say that their belief does seem rather self-centred to me; very much wrapped up in their own personal fulfilment, though I’m aware that fairly early on in Buddhism a movement grew up (the Mahayana movement) where the paramount virtue is “compassion” (karuna) – a loving concern for others and a desire to alleviate suffering. So Buddhism is not wholly self concerned and certainly their commitment to the practice of meditation can put us Christians to shame! We should not be too proud to learn from them (especially in Lent) the importance of prayer in our Christian discipleship.
For us, Christ is not the only “light of the world” but certainly the paramount light and, though we are bidden to be lights in our own generations, we draw such light as we have from him – we are reflections of his light which reveals the truth.
By our Lenten discipline
By our penance, prayer and fasting
By our participation in the Liturgy
By our attention to Scripture
And by our corporal works of mercy
Our reflected light shines ever more brightly as we draw closer to the Source of that Light – our Risen and glorified Lord.
The Revd Michael Wright Sometime Vicar of St Barnabas and St Paul, Jericho