Hello friends,
This is Mark Gladman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk in dogs.
Welcome back to our second audio in the How Deep Is Your Love series as we contemplate love through the letter of one John.
And as you settle into these next few minutes together,
Just become aware of your breathing.
Just notice the movement as it comes and goes,
As it ebbs and flows.
And with each breath in just receive this day as a gift.
With each breath out.
Just relax,
Let go and settle fully into this time together.
Yesterday,
John invited us to discover that the deepest reality is life itself,
The life of God revealed in Christ.
And today,
He'll be taking us one step further.
If love is the deepest reality,
Then love is also the deepest light.
So listen to these words from 1 John 1.
5-7.
To chapter two,
Verse two.
John Rhines.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you.
That God is light.
And in God there is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with God while we are walking in darkness,
We lie and do not do what is true.
But if we walk in the light.
As God himself is in the light.
We have fellowship with one another.
And the blood of Jesus,
God's Son,
Cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin,
We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins,
He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we have not sinned,
We have made God a liar,
And his word is not in us.
My little children,
I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin.
But if anyone does sin,
We have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the Righteous.
And He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
And not for ours only,
But also for the sins of the whole world.
Now I think one of the easiest mistakes we can make is to hear the word light and immediately think of exposure,
Like it's a spotlight,
An interrogation or a courtroom or something like that.
We imagine God shining a torch into the darkest corners of our lives to uncover everything we've tried to keep hidden.
And a lot of us have carried that image for years.
But it only makes us cautious around God,
Careful,
Guarded,
Always wondering if we're measuring up.
But John isn't describing that kind of light.
Notice where he begins.
He says,
God is light.
He doesn't write God Has Light.
Or God sometimes shines light,
But that God is light,
Just as later he'll also say God is light.
Love.
And so the light that John's speaking of here isn't separate from love.
It's the way love sees.
So think about walking into a dark room.
In darkness,
We stumble,
We misjudge distances,
We mistake one thing for another.
And sometimes fears grow in the dark because our imagination fills the gaps,
Right?
And then someone.
Gently opens the curtains.
Nothing's been added to the room.
To the room.
The furniture hasn't changed,
But the room becomes visible.
Light doesn't create reality,
It reveals.
Reality.
Now that's how God's love works.
Love doesn't invent a better version of you.
Love reveals the person God has always known you to be.
Now that can feel a bit unsettling at first,
Because when love shines.
.
.
We begin to notice things we've ignored,
Our impatience,
Our pride.
Hidden fears?
Even the ways we've always tried to protect ourselves,
The masks we've worn.
But notice something really important.
John never says that we're invited into light so that God can reject us.
Quite the opposite.
The light makes healing possible.
A skilled doctor can't heal.
What remains hidden,
The gardener can't tend a root that's never uncovered.
Light isn't the enemy.
It's the beginning of restoration.
John says,
If we walk in the light.
And walking is a beautiful image.
It's a gentle one.
It doesn't say sprint or arrive.
John Wright's walk,
Step by step.
Day by day,
A life lived honestly before God,
And this honesty is one of the beautiful gifts that we've received through this contemplative tradition.
That the Desert Fathers and Mothers often spoke about learning to stand before God without illusion,
Not pretending to be more spiritual than we are,
Not pretending to be worse than we are either.
Just allowing ourselves to be seen.
And there's a tremendous freedom in that.
Because pretending is exhausting,
Isn't it?
Keeping up appearances just drains the soul.
And when we try and earn more love,
It just leaves us anxious.
But living in the light,
That means we no longer need to curate an image for God,
Because God already knows.
And God already loves.
Even in that knowing.
It doesn't make sin unimportant per se.
John takes sin seriously,
But notice how he frames it.
It's not about breaking rules.
It's whatever causes us to live outside of reality.
When we act without love.
When we let fear override us,
When we let ego become our guide,
Then we step outside of the light.
But when there's no light there,
It doesn't mean that God's abandoned us.
It just means we've lost sight of who we truly are.
And this is why confession.
.
.
Can be such a beautiful practice.
Because when we confess sin,
It's not telling God something that God doesn't already know.
It's actually agreeing with reality.
It's stepping back into light.
And there's an old Greek word that's often translated as repentance,
And that word is metanoia.
And it literally means to change our mind or to see differently or to come back to the way.
And so maybe repentance is less about becoming someone different and more about seeing clearly again.
Coming back to ourselves,
And when I mean ourselves,
I mean who we truly are,
Seeing ourselves as God sees us.
Seeing other people too as God sees them,
And then seeing the world through eyes of love and not fear.
And Deng Xian gives us this beautiful reassurance.
If anyone does sin,
We have an advocate.
Now be careful when you read this because this is not about being complacent.
What he's trying to do is to remove despair and guilt.
Our journey,
Our spiritual journey,
And particularly one in the Christian tradition,
We need to understand it's not flawless performance and it's not even that God looks for flawless performance.
I think we've really misunderstood what holiness is in that way.
What it is,
It's a lifelong return to the light again and again and again.
Yesterday,
Today,
Tomorrow and the day after that as well.
Every moment.
Of honesty becomes another step.
Into freedom and every act of surrender becomes another opening through which love can enter.
And maybe this is why John places light.
Before commandment.
Because we can't love well until we see well.
Because love illuminates.
Love helps us recognize the sacredness that's in ourselves and in others.
The sacredness that's quietly hidden within all those ordinary moments of life.
And when we walk in that light.
Our lives slowly become transparent to God's presence.
No,
That's not perfect.
But transparent and there's a difference.
Because transparent people matter.
Don't pretend to have everything together.
They just become increasingly open to the transforming work of love.
And so now let's just allow these words to become a prayer of our hearts.
Just sit comfortably and notice your breathing.
And imagine yourself standing at dawn,
First light beginning to spread across the landscape.
The light just simply arrives.
And now imagine that same gentle light filling your heart.
Not harsh or accusative,
Just warm and patient and kind.
And then as you hold those images,
Just quietly pray within yourself,
Love,
Help me to see.
Love,
Help me to see.
Just allow God's light to rest on whatever part of your life most needs tenderness today.
And know that that light comes as truth that's held within compassion and just rest there for a few moments.
And so we pray.
God of Light.
Your love does not shame us,
It awakens us.
Thank you for seeing us completely.
And loving us completely.
Give us the courage to stop hiding.
Teach us to walk honestly,
Gently and humbly in your light.
Help us to see ourselves with compassion,
To see others with mercy.
Help us to see this world as a place already filled with your presence.
May your light become our way of seeing.
May your love become our way of living and may grace,
Peace and love go with us and remain with us today and always.
Amen.
Until tomorrow,
Friends,
Grace and peace be with you.
Bye for now.
