Secrets Revealed

Have you been caught on video?

For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But 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. - John 3:20-21

This is no time to be alive for anyone looking to keep his or her life secret.  Cameras are everywhere.

I saw a piece recently where a guy tried to steal the laser light Christmas decoration from someone's front yard.  Of course he was captured on video.  What was he thinking?

Do you think it is even possible to keep something secret today?

In today's Gospel reading, we have one of the most often quoted verses, John 3:16, telling us God loved the world and sent his son so everyone who believed in him may have eternal life.

This is truly good news, and it goes on to tell us that this is the light of the world that has come into it.  The power of light in the darkness is the power to reveal the truth.

But one thing we all can claim to have learned this year is that just because we can see or hear something, that doesn't mean it is the truth.  And this is nothing new.

I remember an incident when I was young.  My father, an elementary school teacher came home very upset one day because another teacher, a friend of his was accused of molesting a student.

This was devastating news.  My father said that his friend swore that it was not true, but the accusation was enough to destroy the man's career.  Parents and the administration believed that what was brought into the light of day had to be true.  Who would make such an accusation unless it was?

That was fifty years ago, and I don't know if we have gotten any better at knowing what is true versus what is false.  The light reveals a lot, but it fails to show us anything different from what we choose to see.

We love to have secrets revealed to us.  It is a sure fire way to get someone's attention, to announce that you have a secret to share.  It may even get people to read this installment of this blog.  It is our nature to want to know what someone is keeping from us.

So, our attraction to Christ as the revealer of our secrets is a bit strange, don't you think?  If we believe in the light of the world, we can receive eternal life.  That's good.

But if we choose to keep our selves in the dark, holding onto our secrets, living as though no one is watching, where is the commitment and truth in that?

So the lesson in this chapter of John is to be true to ourselves, so that we are truly in the light, revealed completely and honestly to God and the world.  It's a tough thing to do.

But in the end, who are we fooling?

People will believe whatever they want about us, so why not be honest and give them something real to talk about?  It makes for good conversation.

More to come...