A book entitled The Benedict Option was recently published. The author, Rod Dreher, is a blogger for the American Conservative. The assertion he makes in his book is that anti-Christian forces and values in America have become victorious to the point that many Christian institutions have ceased living by distinctively Christian values, and those which still do feel relegated to the social margins or even persecuted.
The book’s title comes from St. Benedict (active in the first half of the sixth century C.E.), and his invention of monastic communities, which were places where Christians could be more deliberately and deeply formed by their faith. He and his communities are credited with saving Western civilization during dark times. Dreher is calling for Christians to withdraw from political engagement with the world, become more internally focused on spiritual formation by creating deeply Christian institutions, and then re-engage the world through better and more sophisticated as well as more persuasive strategies.(1)
One of the philosophical points underlying Dreher’s thought process is a dualism that goes back to ancient Greek philosophical dialogues predating Christ, Paul, and the early church and which were prevalent in the century following the Pentecost birthing of the church: light and darkness, good and evil. This dualism is found in the apocalyptic – end times – writings of the inter-testamental period between the last written Old Testament writing (possibly Daniel) and the earliest Christian writing, mostly letters from Paul to the churches in Asia Minor.
This dualism of light and darkness was also prominent in the writings of the Essenes, a cloistered, eclectic sect active when the Ephesian letter author was active. The Essenes considered themselves the elite heirs of an advanced, esoteric knowledge that could flood our inner darkness with the light of awakened consciousness.
The Essenes’ way of engaging the forces of darkness consisted mainly in huddling in secluded safety to translate life’s mysteries into useful knowledge.(2) They pursued their calling far from the centers of public life, living in the wilderness wastelands around the Dead Sea. They are most noted for their preservation of canonical scriptural texts, such as Isaiah, and non-canonical texts such as “The Community Rule” and “The War Scroll.” Since the first discovery in 1946/47, fragments of nearly 1,000 manuscripts have been found hidden in 12 caves, with the most recent just this year.
The problem with the separation approach to faith, in the understanding of theologian Marcus Borg, is that small orthodox communities find it difficult to be faithful, since so many have a history of becoming preoccupied with tribal issues of us-versus-them while ignoring the very heart of Christianity, which is compassion for the least of the brothers and sisters.(3)
Separation from the world was the last thing the writer to the Ephesians was interested in. He calls for his followers to take to the streets in the fight with the minions of darkness. While there can be no doubt that the writer shares the Essenes’ call for separation from the “sons of darkness,” he charges his readers to storm the ramparts of darkness as moral agents in the world: “Don’t participate in the unfruitful actions of darkness. Instead you should reveal the truth about them.”
Revealing the truth about darkness is easier said than done. And it is a thankless task. Crucifixion comes to mind. This Lenten journey which we have been on since leaving the mountain of the transfiguration has descended from the realm of divine glory into the realm of where darkness increasingly smothers light. The omitted verses from the ninth chapter of John highlight the growing boldness and stubbornness of the religious leaders to the teaching and ministry of Jesus. The man healed of his blindness and his parents were subjected to terrorizing interrogation at the hands of the temple leaders.
They insulted him: “You are his disciple, but we are Moses’ disciples. We know that God spoke to Moses, but we don’t know where this man is from.”
The man answered, “This is incredible! You don’t know where he is from, yet he healed my eyes! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners. God listens to anyone who is devout and does God’s will. No one has ever heard of a healing of the eyes of someone born blind. If this man wasn’t from God, he couldn’t do this.”
They responded, “You were born completely in sin! How is it that you dare to teach us?” Then they expelled him. (John 9:28-34)With that exchange another nail was crafted for the waiting cross. None of us has the strength of will-power or the gumption to risk everything to halt the smithy crafting those nails. In the midst of our personal struggles and the daily reports of global terrorism, mounting drug deaths, the growing gap between the have-nots and the haves, the resurgence of economic jingoism, racism, and sectarian hatred, and the existence of outright political intransigence, there is nothing to contradict the reality that we humans, in spite of our professed ethics and ideals, consistently lack the moral muscle to hold back, much less overcome, the forces of evil.
That’s the reality which our Pauline author comes out swinging against. This passage is bookended with grace. Verse 8 opens the reading with a triumphal declaration: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” The phrase, “in the Lord,” is an early church watchword for “in the risen Christ.” The author proclaims an awesome fact: in our mystic union with the living Christ we are aglow with Christ’s light. Such a glow is more than inspired intellectual keenness. This light also carries the spiritual energy that can empower us in our struggle with the forces of evil.
If the first half of verse 8 is the prelude of grace for our passage, then verses 13-14 similarly provide a triumphal postlude of God's favor:
Everything exposed to the light is revealed by the light. Everything that is revealed by the light is light. Therefore it says, ‘Wake up, sleeper! Get up from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.'Here the writer gives a trumpet fanfare to the fact that God’s light both reveals and renews, exposing what is in the dark, while also changing into light what it exposes. The “Wake up, sleeper” citation is very likely part of a hymn from an early church baptismal ritual. It caps the passage with a celebratory declaration that locates the light in Christ. This light, which both reveals and renews, is in fact the risen Christ. We awake and rise up from spiritual death, as if emerging from baptismal waters, to stand renewed by and pervaded with Christ’s light.(4)
The apostle writes, “Light produces fruit that consists of every sort of goodness, justice, and truth.” Since the passage has grace at its beginning and grace at its ending, this phrase tucked into the middle is a clarion call to live out the grace that has been bestowed on us. In the words of Don Wardlaw, emeritus professor of preaching at the Presbyterian McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, “Grace turns the imperative of what we ought to do into the indicative of what we may do.”(5)
Most of us are all too aware of the formidable powers of darkness. What you and I most need, as bearers of Christ's light, are glimpses of our possibilities for exposing the works of that darkness. We need broad brushstrokes of things that bring to life Christ’s aglow in each of us.
- Perhaps that is writing letters to our senators and congressman by hand (the staff actually has to read them) about issues where light is being obscured by darkness, where human dignity is abused rather than uplifted.
- Perhaps we can shine Christ’s light by calling out a person for a racial or ethnic slur.
- Another possible revealing and renewing light is shed when we write letters to the editors of newspapers pointing out inaccuracies in public perceptions of individuals or groups of people tossed to the margins or about mistaken understandings of faith.
- We can also shine Christ’s light by standing with and for people caught in the cogs of dehumanizing social systems by being advocates or sponsors or simply friends.
As Jesus said, our activities to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, to visit the sick and imprisoned, to care for widows and widowers, orphans and children in single-parent homes, and immigrants are done not just to and for them, the activities are done to and for Christ.
Your imagination, your relationships, your contexts will help describe and prescribe what it looks and feels like to live in the chemistry of God’s transforming light. That light in us who are in the risen Lord can and will reveal and renew.
(1) Michael Maudlin, senior vice-president and executive editor, HarperOne, “News and Pews,” March 20, 2017; http://www.newsandpews.com/the-borg-option-v-the-benedict-option/
(2) Don Wardlaw, "Ephesians 5:8-14: Homileticial Perspective,” Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), Year A, vol. 2, 111-115.
(3) Maudlin, op.cit.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Ibid.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright © 2017 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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