Saturday, February 10, 2007

Light and Dark...the Contrast

So as I stated before in my earlier blog, I ink I have found a solution to black and white theology.

Well I guess it would not be considered a solution, since in the reality of theology solutions simply don't exist.

But I think that I have connected two ideas that I, personally, have never seen connected before.

When we look at Black, White, and Grey we see concrete absolutes. They can destroy each other as well as themselves through moral obstructions.

This is the way the church has been looking at the world. That is our first problem. The church needs to stop using the Black and White theology and start using the Light and Dark theology.

Light and Dark is an anology that is used throughout the Bible.

"I am the light of the world"-Jesus

"This is the message we have heard and declare to you: God is light in him there is no darkness. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin." 1 John 1: 5-7

So the church has been viewing the way of Jesus as a moral ideal when they should have been viewing the way of Jesus as everything. All of life.

Light is not concrete.

The interesting thing about light is that it is flexiable. It defies scientific reasoning and it is a creation that is of epic proportion.


Darkness is not concrete either.

It has the ability to change the atmosphere of a situation. Things happen in the dark that are not scene. The dark is something of a mystery to us so we tell scary stories about it, because it's easier to be frightened by it then to be educated about it.

Light can always overcome darkness. Put one singe candle in a darkened room and every space can be shown to one degree or another.

These ideas are not concrete and they are not based on the moral subjectives that used to rule and dominate our world.

We have, as a church, gone one way or the other. We have declared that we will stick to the Black and White moral theology that has worked for us in the past, or we say love all tolerate all.

God's love isn't tolerant.

We have forgotten that Light conquers Dark and that Dark has a tendencty to conquer Black White and Gray.

As a Church we need to start asking the question; what did Jesus mean when he said

"I am the light of the world"

And how do we live that out in a morally stripped and subversivley spiritual culture?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

best friend,
i agree with zhengman, very good article. unfortunately i dont have a very good gift prepared for you.