Scripture: 1 John 1:5-2:2
1 John in this passage is an apt description of the tension we live in as human beings and followers of Christ. We are called out of the darkness of sinful, selfish, greedy, self-serving lives that come so naturally to humanity and into the light of Christ – that is a life of sacrifice, caring more about others than yourself, and always, always, behaving in the best possible way at all times.
The reality is – none of us are going to live that way in this world 100% of the time. Think of the number of Christians in this world if they never acted sinfully – if they never in their faith journey “walked in the dark,” so to speak. The world would be a different place, no doubt.
But we know, for a fact, no Christian out there walks in the light 100% of the time. Because sin is not just an action that we do – it is a state of being. Our world itself is filled with dark corners, with brokenness, problems that are both in and outside of our control… and we simply cannot avoid falling into the depths of darkness at times.
So how can 1 John state, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness we lie and we do not do what is true?”
Is John saying it’s impossible to be in fellowship with God whenever there is darkness, despair, or sin in our lives? Is God only present in the light and when there is no light, there is no God?
I don’t think that’s what 1 John is getting at. Now it is true that those of us who walk in sin and continue to claim fellowship with God are indeed lying and do not do what is true as we continue in lives of sinful behaviors that separate us from God. When we wander into the darkness of that sin, we easily can lose our way and it threatens to overwhelm us if we get too far down the rabbit hole and deny it’s a problem.
It is, in many ways, very much like an addiction. Which is why the writer of 1 John emphasizes the importance of confession. Anyone who has been through AA knows that the first step to recovery from an addiction is to admit there is a problem.
And I don’t mean just that private, quiet little conversation you have in your head with God that says, “OK God, we know what my sin is. And we’ll just keep it there, in the darkness, where no one but you and me can see it.” While it’s good to be honest with God and yourself, this type of confession also tends to be a way of avoiding the sin in our lives.
We shove the sin into those deep, dark corners so they hopefully will never see the light of day. Never be exposed for others to see.
It’s another thing entirely when you have to voice your sin – out loud, in the open, to another person, and risk judgment. Risk breaking a relationship further by confessing your wrong-doing.
Instead we prefer to avoid our sin. Avoid thinking about or confessing or dealing with whatever the sin is we’ve committed. Bury it – forget about it.
And indeed, putting our sin behind us so it does not rule our future is an important aspect of the healing process. But forgiveness – real forgiveness, comes through confession – confessing to ourselves first and foremost, confessing to others, and then, yes, confessing to God.
Because when we keep our sin in the dark recesses of our own mind, they are never exposed to the light, they are never revealed and cleansed. They stay shuttered away from view so that we don’t deal with them. We avoid them, and eventually, we even tell ourselves they don’t matter.
And THIS becomes the lie that 1 John is talking about. We walk with our sin in deep darkness, pretend it doesn’t matter, and therefore we do not do what is true. We live a lie. We live in community where we claim fellowship with God, yet keep the darkness of our sins hidden in our lives out of shame, fear, and guilt – because we don’t want others to judge us.
Afraid someone might find out our dark secret. Afraid someone might discover something about us that will change their view of us. Change their idea of who we are. Perhaps they won’t like us anymore, perhaps they won’t want to be around us. My sin, if exposed, might break a relationship.
Yet... unexposed sin that lies in darkness WILL ultimately break relationships, too. Secrets and lies only separate us from the ones we love, and most importantly – separates us from God. They cast deep, dark clouds over not just ourselves, but the ones we love, and create chaos and confusion. And the more we shove those things into the dark recesses of our lives, the more they fester and the harder they become to bring out into the light.
If you have ever been in a dark cave where they take you deep down into the cavern and shut off the light to let you know what it looks like, you know what happens.
How your eyes struggle to adjust, struggling to see a silhouette, a shadow, something besides just the pitch black of the cavern, until you get almost panicky for them to turn the light back on. By the time they do – the light is harsh and nearly blinds you when it comes on. The sudden light – even a dim one – is painful at first.
But here’s the thing… while indeed, there is no darkness in God, that does not mean God is not present in the darkness. That God is not present when darkness threatens to overwhelm our lives. In fact, according to scripture – it is in the darkness of broken humanity that God does some of his most transformative work.
The Bible itself begins with that truth. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters…”
Author and former Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor points out so eloquently in her sermon "Entering the Dark Cloud of God," that throughout scripture, God does indeed dwell in deep darkness. That “God comes to people in dark clouds, dark nights, dark dreams, and dark strangers in ways that sometimes scare them half to death but almost always for their good—or at least their renovation. God does some of God’s best work in the dark.”
God does his best work in the dark because let’s face it – we all, at one time or another – have walked in the dark. We have all fallen into that dark pit where we have not been able to see where we are going, had the bottom drop out, had our prayers go unanswered, been stranded in the kind of darkness that makes us afraid to move and keep telling ourselves if we just keep our minds focused on the light of the world then sooner or later a bright angel will miraculously free us from the darkness we are in.
When that cloud of darkness descends, it gives one time to realize a few things. That maybe all this time we thought we were the directors in this drama called life, and God was just an actor we could tell what we wanted and He would make it happen.
It’s rather embarrassing, then, when we discover the opposite is true. That the sunshiney faith of thinking as long as I go to church, am kind to people, do and say all the right things, God will reward me for this bright, joyful faith. As long as I am cheerful and never down, He will give me what I want because I am such a good and faithful servant.
Such is a faith that has been designed to get you where you want to go in life, and by getting a handle on God while you’re at it, you can figure out how to manipulate God into helping you get there faster.
But then – when the dark cloud comes, your life’s plans are thrown aside, and your life lies in ruins at the bottom of the deep dark pit you have fallen into… it’s more than embarrassing to realize that you were, in fact, not the director of your life’s drama. Instead, it breaks your heart. It strips you of everything as you are surrounded by that dark despair to the point that you eventually hold out the pieces of that heart that you can’t even see and say, “Here—do what you want with this. It’s broken – and I can’t fix it.”
So you see, it is not that God does not venture into the dark places and the dark moments of our lives. Because all of us – all of us – LIVE in the shadows of that darkness to one degree or another. For as 1 John says, we lie when we say we have no sin or darkness in our lives. The deep, dark truth is that no one bypasses the dark cloud. No one bypasses the darkness. No one lives fully in the light, every piece of their being exposed for all to see.
But it is also not that God is not present in the darkness of our sinful lives that lay broken and shattered. That he will have nothing to do with us when we fall into that dark chasm, but rather, it is in the darkness where God is able to take us apart, take those broken pieces so that he can put us back together and breathe new life into us.
And it is when we are in the dark that we are able to see His light shine most distinctly, most brightly; when we eventually become most aware of His presence because it stands out from that darkness that threatens us. The light does not hide the sin, or the problems or the embarrassments for us – but reveals it more clearly for us to face and deal with. We can no longer shove it away and hide it.
The light of God calls us to stand up and be revealed for who and what we are. We are sinful people who try hard to shove our sins, our embarrassments, our problems into dark corners.
He calls us, our sin, our problems out of those dark corners, so that our lives do not remain in the dark, but are exposed, confessed, and forgiven so that we may have fellowship – true, honest, fellowship, with both God and with one another.
I know this well, because the past several years of my life have been shoved into those deep, dark recesses that were filled with an enormous amount of shame, fear, dishonesty, guilt, depression, sorrow, a LOT of anger, a LOT of resentment and even violence. I tried so hard and so desperately not to let the outside world know of my colossal mistakes, my regrets, my poor choices, and despite the evidence that stared me in the face – I was choosing utter blindness, I was choosing to believe lies – and was trying desperately to hide, not just from everyone else, but from myself the reality of an utterly broken and destructive relationship – because I thought if I just tried hard enough, if I just loved enough, if I forgave enough, that would fix and mend anything – and anybody. I was prideful. Such things simply did not happen to ME. Because I thought, if I just had enough faith – things would work out... because that’s what I WANTED and if I just wanted it enough, I could make it happen... and so I kept choosing to not believe and not see the truth of a situation, which when you do that – only makes you complicit with the lies and the sin that are going on – until I finally hit the bottom of that dark pit. That my life lay completely shattered and broken at the bottom and I felt as though it would never find its way back to the light again. I felt destroyed and like a part of me had died.
And there was indeed death – death of a relationship... and it couldn’t be shoved away and kept secret anymore.
But that death made me realize that going through the dark and pain of Good Friday causes one to fully understand and appreciate the true meaning of Easter… of resurrection and new life. Of forgiveness, and healing and wholeness when one eventually emerges from the darkness.
Are we called to live in the light? Absolutely. Because the dark brokenness of sin separates us from God’s healing and wholeness. The light, where we’re exposed, where we have nothing to hide, is where God wants us. Because the darkness hurts. It’s scary. And it rips us apart.
For only when we live in the light of God’s gracious forgiveness and love can we be healed and made whole again.
1 John in this passage is an apt description of the tension we live in as human beings and followers of Christ. We are called out of the darkness of sinful, selfish, greedy, self-serving lives that come so naturally to humanity and into the light of Christ – that is a life of sacrifice, caring more about others than yourself, and always, always, behaving in the best possible way at all times.
The reality is – none of us are going to live that way in this world 100% of the time. Think of the number of Christians in this world if they never acted sinfully – if they never in their faith journey “walked in the dark,” so to speak. The world would be a different place, no doubt.
But we know, for a fact, no Christian out there walks in the light 100% of the time. Because sin is not just an action that we do – it is a state of being. Our world itself is filled with dark corners, with brokenness, problems that are both in and outside of our control… and we simply cannot avoid falling into the depths of darkness at times.
So how can 1 John state, “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness we lie and we do not do what is true?”
Is John saying it’s impossible to be in fellowship with God whenever there is darkness, despair, or sin in our lives? Is God only present in the light and when there is no light, there is no God?
I don’t think that’s what 1 John is getting at. Now it is true that those of us who walk in sin and continue to claim fellowship with God are indeed lying and do not do what is true as we continue in lives of sinful behaviors that separate us from God. When we wander into the darkness of that sin, we easily can lose our way and it threatens to overwhelm us if we get too far down the rabbit hole and deny it’s a problem.
It is, in many ways, very much like an addiction. Which is why the writer of 1 John emphasizes the importance of confession. Anyone who has been through AA knows that the first step to recovery from an addiction is to admit there is a problem.
And I don’t mean just that private, quiet little conversation you have in your head with God that says, “OK God, we know what my sin is. And we’ll just keep it there, in the darkness, where no one but you and me can see it.” While it’s good to be honest with God and yourself, this type of confession also tends to be a way of avoiding the sin in our lives.
We shove the sin into those deep, dark corners so they hopefully will never see the light of day. Never be exposed for others to see.
It’s another thing entirely when you have to voice your sin – out loud, in the open, to another person, and risk judgment. Risk breaking a relationship further by confessing your wrong-doing.
Instead we prefer to avoid our sin. Avoid thinking about or confessing or dealing with whatever the sin is we’ve committed. Bury it – forget about it.
And indeed, putting our sin behind us so it does not rule our future is an important aspect of the healing process. But forgiveness – real forgiveness, comes through confession – confessing to ourselves first and foremost, confessing to others, and then, yes, confessing to God.
Because when we keep our sin in the dark recesses of our own mind, they are never exposed to the light, they are never revealed and cleansed. They stay shuttered away from view so that we don’t deal with them. We avoid them, and eventually, we even tell ourselves they don’t matter.
And THIS becomes the lie that 1 John is talking about. We walk with our sin in deep darkness, pretend it doesn’t matter, and therefore we do not do what is true. We live a lie. We live in community where we claim fellowship with God, yet keep the darkness of our sins hidden in our lives out of shame, fear, and guilt – because we don’t want others to judge us.
Afraid someone might find out our dark secret. Afraid someone might discover something about us that will change their view of us. Change their idea of who we are. Perhaps they won’t like us anymore, perhaps they won’t want to be around us. My sin, if exposed, might break a relationship.
Yet... unexposed sin that lies in darkness WILL ultimately break relationships, too. Secrets and lies only separate us from the ones we love, and most importantly – separates us from God. They cast deep, dark clouds over not just ourselves, but the ones we love, and create chaos and confusion. And the more we shove those things into the dark recesses of our lives, the more they fester and the harder they become to bring out into the light.
If you have ever been in a dark cave where they take you deep down into the cavern and shut off the light to let you know what it looks like, you know what happens.
How your eyes struggle to adjust, struggling to see a silhouette, a shadow, something besides just the pitch black of the cavern, until you get almost panicky for them to turn the light back on. By the time they do – the light is harsh and nearly blinds you when it comes on. The sudden light – even a dim one – is painful at first.
But here’s the thing… while indeed, there is no darkness in God, that does not mean God is not present in the darkness. That God is not present when darkness threatens to overwhelm our lives. In fact, according to scripture – it is in the darkness of broken humanity that God does some of his most transformative work.
The Bible itself begins with that truth. “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters…”
Author and former Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor points out so eloquently in her sermon "Entering the Dark Cloud of God," that throughout scripture, God does indeed dwell in deep darkness. That “God comes to people in dark clouds, dark nights, dark dreams, and dark strangers in ways that sometimes scare them half to death but almost always for their good—or at least their renovation. God does some of God’s best work in the dark.”
God does his best work in the dark because let’s face it – we all, at one time or another – have walked in the dark. We have all fallen into that dark pit where we have not been able to see where we are going, had the bottom drop out, had our prayers go unanswered, been stranded in the kind of darkness that makes us afraid to move and keep telling ourselves if we just keep our minds focused on the light of the world then sooner or later a bright angel will miraculously free us from the darkness we are in.
When that cloud of darkness descends, it gives one time to realize a few things. That maybe all this time we thought we were the directors in this drama called life, and God was just an actor we could tell what we wanted and He would make it happen.
It’s rather embarrassing, then, when we discover the opposite is true. That the sunshiney faith of thinking as long as I go to church, am kind to people, do and say all the right things, God will reward me for this bright, joyful faith. As long as I am cheerful and never down, He will give me what I want because I am such a good and faithful servant.
Such is a faith that has been designed to get you where you want to go in life, and by getting a handle on God while you’re at it, you can figure out how to manipulate God into helping you get there faster.
But then – when the dark cloud comes, your life’s plans are thrown aside, and your life lies in ruins at the bottom of the deep dark pit you have fallen into… it’s more than embarrassing to realize that you were, in fact, not the director of your life’s drama. Instead, it breaks your heart. It strips you of everything as you are surrounded by that dark despair to the point that you eventually hold out the pieces of that heart that you can’t even see and say, “Here—do what you want with this. It’s broken – and I can’t fix it.”
So you see, it is not that God does not venture into the dark places and the dark moments of our lives. Because all of us – all of us – LIVE in the shadows of that darkness to one degree or another. For as 1 John says, we lie when we say we have no sin or darkness in our lives. The deep, dark truth is that no one bypasses the dark cloud. No one bypasses the darkness. No one lives fully in the light, every piece of their being exposed for all to see.
But it is also not that God is not present in the darkness of our sinful lives that lay broken and shattered. That he will have nothing to do with us when we fall into that dark chasm, but rather, it is in the darkness where God is able to take us apart, take those broken pieces so that he can put us back together and breathe new life into us.
And it is when we are in the dark that we are able to see His light shine most distinctly, most brightly; when we eventually become most aware of His presence because it stands out from that darkness that threatens us. The light does not hide the sin, or the problems or the embarrassments for us – but reveals it more clearly for us to face and deal with. We can no longer shove it away and hide it.
The light of God calls us to stand up and be revealed for who and what we are. We are sinful people who try hard to shove our sins, our embarrassments, our problems into dark corners.
He calls us, our sin, our problems out of those dark corners, so that our lives do not remain in the dark, but are exposed, confessed, and forgiven so that we may have fellowship – true, honest, fellowship, with both God and with one another.
I know this well, because the past several years of my life have been shoved into those deep, dark recesses that were filled with an enormous amount of shame, fear, dishonesty, guilt, depression, sorrow, a LOT of anger, a LOT of resentment and even violence. I tried so hard and so desperately not to let the outside world know of my colossal mistakes, my regrets, my poor choices, and despite the evidence that stared me in the face – I was choosing utter blindness, I was choosing to believe lies – and was trying desperately to hide, not just from everyone else, but from myself the reality of an utterly broken and destructive relationship – because I thought if I just tried hard enough, if I just loved enough, if I forgave enough, that would fix and mend anything – and anybody. I was prideful. Such things simply did not happen to ME. Because I thought, if I just had enough faith – things would work out... because that’s what I WANTED and if I just wanted it enough, I could make it happen... and so I kept choosing to not believe and not see the truth of a situation, which when you do that – only makes you complicit with the lies and the sin that are going on – until I finally hit the bottom of that dark pit. That my life lay completely shattered and broken at the bottom and I felt as though it would never find its way back to the light again. I felt destroyed and like a part of me had died.
And there was indeed death – death of a relationship... and it couldn’t be shoved away and kept secret anymore.
But that death made me realize that going through the dark and pain of Good Friday causes one to fully understand and appreciate the true meaning of Easter… of resurrection and new life. Of forgiveness, and healing and wholeness when one eventually emerges from the darkness.
Are we called to live in the light? Absolutely. Because the dark brokenness of sin separates us from God’s healing and wholeness. The light, where we’re exposed, where we have nothing to hide, is where God wants us. Because the darkness hurts. It’s scary. And it rips us apart.
For only when we live in the light of God’s gracious forgiveness and love can we be healed and made whole again.
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