Scripture reading: John 1:1-5, 20:1-18
Pastor's Note: As last month, this sermon/worship liturgy comes out of Cross The Sky Ministry's Youth Sunday materials.
This Little Light... Skit
Three Christians stand in a line with lit candles.
The Accuser approaches
Accuser: How can you stand there and pray to God after all the things you’ve done? You’re a failure. You’re sick and twisted. Think of the skeletons in your closet. Think of all the times you’ve lied. Hated others. Cheated people. Lusted after what you could not have. Think on all that and tell me again that you believe!
First Christian puts out their light.
Accuser: How can you stand there and pray to God after all the things you’ve seen? 9/11. Orlando. Floods in West Virginia. Wildfires in California. Police shooting black people. People shooting police. Terrorism across the world. War. Violence. Disease. People all over dying for stupid reasons. And yet what does God do about it? Nothing. Think on all that and tell me again that you believe!
Second Christian puts out their light.
Third Christian begins singing “This Little Light of Mine”
Accuser: No, wait, stop that...Don’t do that.
Third Christian encourages congregation to join in.
Accuser: You can’t...no...(He’s drowned out and cowers.)
As song continues, the third Christian relights the second one’s candle and they join in the song.
As song continues, the second Christian relights the first one’s candle and they join in the song.
Accuser: No....arrrgh! (He runs away.)
Song concludes.
-----
Darkness. Despair. Hopelessness. Fear. Anxiety. Sorrow. These are the most potent weapons of the enemy. All designed to make us think one of three things: God does not exist, God has no power to change things, or God does not care.
As the Accuser makes his claims in our skit, you can almost see how this works. He throws our sins and our failures at us and what happens? We become convinced that we are unlovable, that our sins are unforgivable. Self-loathing sets in. Even God, if he’s out there, cannot redeem us and even if he can, why would he? Despair poisons our minds and our hearts.
That self-loathing can spread. How often do we begin to play this little game with ourselves and our neighbors; the game where we try to make everyone look worse than us? I may be a sinner, but at least I’m not one of THOSE people over there. I may have made my mistakes, but at least I’m not like THAT guy. We think that if we highlight other people’s failures and vices, God will somehow ignore our own. Do you realize what’s happened when we do that? Who is the Accuser now? Doing Satan’s work for him, yeah, that’s a winning strategy.
But that’s not Evil’s only strategy. He takes things from the personal to the general. Let’s talk about the world and how screwed up it is. A place where children can and are mowed down by madmen with assault weapons. Where wedding celebrations are bombed by drones and suicidal maniacs. Where the earth itself rains death and destruction down on us with earthquakes and fires and floods. Where tiny microbes can fell even the mightiest of us. Where is God in the midst of that?
I don’t know. None of us do and that unanswered question haunts each of us, adding more fuel to the devil’s fire.
It is not easy to be a believer. Easier by far to believe the world is chaos, that evil holds sway, but that is not who we are. To be Christian requires a certain fortitude, for faith calls us to both defiance and patience in the face of the evils of this world. Because what we do believe is even though things are pretty screwed up now, they won’t always be that way. There will come a day when all will be put right. Evil does not have the last word.
The Scriptures testify to this truth. John’s Gospel tells us that the darkness cannot overcome the light. And we see that most fully in the greatest story of our faith, that Easter morning when the stone rolled away. Here is all the answers to Satan’s accusations.
Think God doesn’t care about you? Look to how he treats Mary, a sinner like us, calling her by name with love and affection in his voice.
Think God has no power? Look, the stone is rolled back. He is alive who once was dead. If he can do that, what can’t he do?
Yes, the world is a mess and so too are we. But it will not always be so. God’s work is not done. He’s not finished with us yet. Creation is ongoing. It hasn’t stopped. You and I, we are a long way from what God intends, but he’s still molding and crafting us, forgiving our faults and growing our faith. That takes time. God’s plan was never going to happen overnight. It’s been going on for the world since the beginning of human history; why would it be any different for us?
And as that plan works itself out, the world continues to grown in the midst of its own chaos. We are called to stand firm in the midst of it all. Yes, tragedy and atrocity continue, but we are promised a new heaven and a new earth through Christ’s death and resurrection. They’re not here yet, but they’re coming. In the meantime, we stand firm against a crazy world and say with boldness, “I still believe.”
That is our light, a light that others can and will see. When we stand stalwart in the face of the world’s insanity and our own failings, others will take notice. You cannot miss a candle in the darkness. Be that candle. Trust that despite the way things are with yourself and the world that they will not always be so. God is still at work. Trust in that and your faith will be a guide to others. Be the light. Amen.
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