light
With the exception (perhaps)
Of biolumescence
Always burns
Always the symptom, the result, the flood
Of fire
So when He says these things about light
They would have been connected in a way we are not
With the pure physical fact–
Where there is light
Something
Someone
Must burn
We talk about the two roads: (notice there are no others) one narrow, one broad.
I picture the broad one littered with neon signs, carnival-lit and well-paved.
The narrow one is hard to find, off the the side, obscured by overgrown vines and branches. Because, let’s face it: not much traffic.
You climb through the overgrowth to get there and once on the Path the going is any but easy. Rocks, besetting ills, humiliations, and the echoing loneliness of it all.
But always the figure of the Man in front of us. Stick close to Him. After all He is the way itself. The narrow path to life–home waiting at the end.
There we will belong.
This morning I listened to an excellent sermon.
The pastor had a great pastor voice–warm, sincere, sonorant.
The text was a biggie–Abraham and Isaac and the God who provides.
The sermon points were worth writing down, like a good recipe.
But.
But if my calculations are correct the sermon was delivered when the pastor was sliding down a hill of temptation, sin, and loss that he would not survive.
Good sermon. Worth playing at a funeral.
The truth of the sermon does not change if the speaker is not following the recipe.
But his willful hypocrisy will make the valley harder for his community, his family, his children.
By contrast Jesus preached a sermon and then exceeded the scope of that sermon by miles, years, eternity, and hell.
That is right: Jesus was damned for us.
We will be judged by the measure of our lives or his, our words or his.
I choose the God of life because he walks a path of sacrifice and love and then looks over his shoulder and says,
c’mon, follow me.
Follow Him, walk the hard road all the way to life…everlasting.
Carrying Light 