But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:9

Grace, peace & mercy are yours in the Triune God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Amen.

Holidays is a time for doing what you love…I thought we might start this teachers’ week off by getting ready to do some of those holiday activities. You may or may not be aware that I like to think of myself as a bit of an artist…when I get the time. Not that I’m great at it, but I do enjoy the absolute focus of it and the absorption in the processes. But most of all, I love how I start looking at and seeing everything differently.

I won’t mention this particular entertainer’s name… but when I was a young kid, I remembered his show, particularly the part where he’d take a large canvas and a pot of paint, and with one big paint-brush he’d start an image as he told a story… it was like magic…so I thought I might try it today, even though it might all go a bit pear-shaped.

But this is what I love about getting arty…you start to develop something I think of as “arty eyes”. With “arty eyes” you start to see things differently…you notice details you don’t normally see, you see the light bouncing off ordinary things and you see them in a different way…random lines come together…shapes that had no meaning start making sense. Can you tell what it is yet? 

With arty eyes, you start to see things in a different light.

Something similar happens to us spiritually when the Spirit of God opens our minds through the Scriptures. We get to see our lives from a different perspective – because we get to see God from a different perspective.

Through the scriptures we see Jesus. We get to know him. We hear his voice in his living Word and we grow in our knowledge of all that he has done for us by his cross and empty tomb. As we see Jesus in this way, we can say: “I can see God!”

When one gets to know Jesus, one gets to know something new and marvelous about God. God isn’t some out there, amorphous power. Unexpectedly, but wonderfully, one sees God as a fellow human being. Who would have expected that? God has become a human person and lived among us! We have a God who knows what we’re going through, because he has been through it.

When one sees Jesus one also sees a victim of sin. Who would have expected to see God as a victim? Who would have expected to see him as one of us, experiencing hurt? In Jesus, we see God nailed to a cross. God goes through the deepest suffering possible. Who would have expected to see God suffering? 

Jesus experienced a movement from darkness to light when he suffered and died. On the cross, he experienced the deepest, blackest darkness any human being has ever experienced. But after the darkness of the crucifixion came the marvellous light of the resurrection. 

This can remind us of our text, which says: he called you out of the darkness into his marvellous light.”

The resurrection and the light are inseparable. One sees beams of light exploding from the tomb of death. Death used to be a black hole. When one came up to it one could never see any further. Those who went in never returned. On Easter morning the women go to the tomb expecting to see the signs of death in the new light of dawn, but all the marks of death are gone. The tomb is empty of death and darkness.

In the new light of Easter there is so much to see. There is new life in all directions. One sees life now from a new vantage point. The future is opening up before us. 

Just as with the new dawn, we soon feels the warmth of the sun. So, spiritually we become lit by God’s love… we can soak up the love of God. God shines his light on us, and we see ourselves in a new light – no longer slaves to sin, to selfishness, to darkness, but people of the light.

The text tells us that we also see ourselves in a new light. We are now all priests. We are assured in verse 9, “You are a kingdom of priests.” Our chief priestly task is prayer. We can talk directly to God. WAs priests we can be ‘go betweens’ bringing the needs of our students to God in prayer and bringing the good news about God to those we work with.

As priests we also sacrifice our time for the sake of the people God puts us next to – who need our time and care. These people might be the students in our care, the difficult parent, members of our own family who need special care and help, or people we have never met, like refugees. The Spirit of God shines in us and gives us new energy to show love to those in need. We can be bearers of this light for others.

Finally, the Spirit opens our eyes to see this world as a miracle created by God’s own hands.  To see the creation is to see one great miracle of God.

We are people of the light. 
So go – be in the light and see God standing next to you in the co-worker, in the difficult student, in the worried parent…
Stand in the light and truly see God’s miraculous work. Enjoy the universe, care for it, and wonder at it.
Stand in the light and experience the deep, deep love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Go out into this week, and praise God, who has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light….and see yourselves as bearers of the light.

Amen.