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Pastor Lorraine's Sermon for October 5, 2003
The Life-Light
John 1:9-18
"The Life-Light was the real thing-Every person everything Life he brings into Light."
"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world."
John 1:9
Quaker verse about universal redemption
Doesn't mean universalism-or that all are redeemed
But it does mean everyone receives the light
The light comes to all people
Just as sin comes to all people
so does the light
Robert Barclay in his Apology
Proposition 5:
God, out of is infinite love,
takes "no pleasure in death of the wicked person" (Ezekiel 18:32, 33:11)
but God has given his only Son, that whoever "has faith in him may not die but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
He is "the real light which enlightens everyone" (John 1:9).
And makes visible everything that is exposed to the light.
And teaches all temperance, righteousness, and godliness.
And enlightens the hearts of all to prepare them for salvation.
It is this light which reproves the sin of every individual,
and if it were not resisted it would effect the salvation of all people.
This light is no less universal than the seed of sin,
being purchased by his death who tasted death for everyone:
"For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made to live" (1 Corinthians 15:22).
This was particularly good news at the time of George Fox
When the prevailing teaching said only the elect would be saved
But as early Quakers read this scripture (and others) the saw a new reality here
That the light of God is available to all
Not all may heed the light-turn to it-follow it
But the light is present for all to see
The light comes to all
Human resistance to the light
is the reason not all are saved
From the beginning God's Logos has been active in the world
The Logos of God made the world as a ordered whole and people as thinking beings
à If people have the sense to see it-the Logos was always recognizable
The light is there-if we but turn to it
Even those who have not heard the Gospel story have been given the light
Not all choose to follow it
But they are not without excuse
Romans 1:19, 20
Barclay says,
It is false and erroneous to teach denial of the fact that Christ died for all people,
and yet require outward knowledge of this fact as a prerequisite to salvation.
While the knowledge is helpful
Christ is fully able to draw people to himself
without that knowledge
Back to John-"The Life-Light was the real thing…"
God's creating and directing Logos did come into the world in the form of the man Jesus
Jesus came to the "chosen people" of God
those with whom God had journeyed for many years
Therefore they ought to recognize him
But they didn't
God prepared all people to receive him
But they didn't
But to those who did heed the light-want him-believed in him
Read "But whoever did want him…not sex-begotten."
God makes us to be our true selves, our child-of-God selves
The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood
The Word became flesh
This Logos, which created the world
This reason which controls the order of the world
has become a person… and we saw him with our eyes
For Greeks this was impossible-No god could take a body
the body was evil-a prison for the soul/spirit
But John says God became human
Eternity appeared in time
The word moved into the neighborhood
NRSV The Word became flesh and lived among us
Verb translated lived, literally means "to pitch a tent or dwell temporarily"
Eugene Peterson captured the thought well with moved into the neighborhood
Jesus left his usual place in the Spirit world with God
and accepted human life with limitations, feelings
Because of that we have seen his glory
For John, he literally saw him-talked with him
For all of us-we see his glory
through the stories that have been told in Scripture
Personally-because the Logos has revealed itself to us
Because Jesus comes to each of us
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