Daylight Saving Time: John 3:14-21 - Fourth Sunday in Lent

[Jesus said:] ¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
  ¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
  ¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (NRSV)

Sunrise - March 11, 2014 by ***Karen on Flickr. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

 Would you believe that Daylight-Saving Time was invented by a man who wanted more daylight to collect bugs?

He was New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, and though his 1895 proposal gained some local support, it took world war for Day Light Saving Time to be implemented on a more global scale. The idea was that conserving daylight for the evenings would conserve resources that were needed to fight the war. 

Today is the day we hate Daylight-Saving Time most of all—but consider this: if we didn’t have it, the sun would be rising before 5am by the time June rolls around. Think of what that would do to your sleep patterns…

The rhythms of daytime and nighttime are indispensable for the flourishing of life. However, in

today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of human beings rejecting the light and embracing the darkness. And it’s not because we’re lazy creatures who want to sleep our lives away. 

Light illuminates what we prefer to remain unseen. For cheaters and thieves, darkness is the perfect cover. It’s also useful for helping you to control what others see. We love light when we can control it; showing what we want to be shown, and hiding the rest. This is why movie theaters turn down the lights: so you see only the light projected on the screen. 

Isn’t that what everyone wants—to project an idealized image of yourself for all the world to see; showing off what you want to be seen and concealing the rest?

In the light of day, everything is exposed. This is why drive-in movie theaters don’t do business in daylight. You could see the screen but not what’s projected upon it.

In the same way, God’s judgment brings everything into the light of day. Not only are your faults, failings, and weaknesses exposed to the world, you are forced to see them in yourself.

Contrary to popular belief, judgment isn’t a scorecard of how righteous versus unrighteous you are; or how your deeds compare to everyone else’s. If this were so, you wouldn’t need a Savior. You’d just need to just do better. 

But the truth is that you cannot change who you are. You are dead in sin. That is who I am. That is who you are. You need a Savior.

When the Israelites rebelled against God, God sent poisonous serpents that bit the people, and they died. God commanded Moses to make a poisonous serpent out of bronze, put it on a pole, and lift it up. This forced people to see and own the truth of their sin and its deadly consequences; only then could they be healed. The cross is the very same for you and me—it forces you to see and own the truth of who you are. You are a sinner. Sinners reject love, mercy, and grace even when it is freely given. Sinners reject peace, justice, and charity in favor of self-interest. Sinners crucify Jesus. That is who I am. That is who you are.

But the cross reveals the greater truth of who God is—a God who loves you despite your sin; who forgives you despite your undeserving; who rescues and redeems you from sin’s deadly grip because you cannot do this for yourself. True salvation is the light of Jesus, which shines brightly upon you despite everything for which you are ashamed, and everything negative and degrading people say about you (true or not).

In the light of God’s love there is no condemnation, only forgiveness, healing, and hope. God not only loves you; God desires you. 

Trusting Jesus, and not in your own flesh or the idols of this world, you are made alive together in Christ. You have become light. And that’s good news for every child of God who’s lost in darkness. Some are in the darkness of sickness, pain, and grief—with no light at the end of the tunnel. Some run into darkness, pursuing the artificial light of wealth, control, and success. Some hide in darkness, ashamed by what their past deeds; ashamed that they can’t make ends meet; ashamed that they can’t pull themselves up by their bootstraps and fix everything that’s gone wrong. They need help. They need light. They need Jesus. They need you.

We are church to gather God’s children in from the darkness they find themselves. We are church to accompany one another through dark times and places. We are church to shine God’s love upon one other, and upon a broken and suffering world.

It’s been one year since we’ve been in this pandemic. So much has been lost, and no one can say for sure how much longer it will last. Neighbors still struggle to make ends meet; the prayer list grows ever longer. The darkness of our world is frightful and foreboding. But the darkness of the grave failed to consume Jesus.

 

On this first morning of Daylight-Saving Time, we awaken in the light of this beautiful truth: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” 

Jesus knows your flaws and failures; every sin committed against God and neighbor is a nail of his crucifixion. Yet he not only loves you, he desires you. No longer must you hide out in shame of who you are or what you’ve done; no longer must you wander through the darkness waiting anxiously for a light at the end of the tunnel to appear. Light has come into the world. We are church together because Jesus welcomes us home into the light of his love.