8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)  10 and find out what pleases the Lord.  11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.  12 For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.  13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for it is light that makes everything visible.  This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
- Ephesians 5:8-14, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.

Brothers and sisters in Christ,

Have you been here?  It is three a clock in the morning and for some reason, unbeknownst to you, you wake up.  After a while of staring at the ceiling, you decide that you’re not going to fall back asleep anytime soon, and roll out of bed to head for the kitchen to get a late night snack.  As you walk carefully around the bed your shin catches the corner of the bed frame.  After stifling a yell, you continue with one hand on the edge of the bed, but your knee manages to find the dresser.  Finally, after accidentally finding every piece of furniture between the bedroom and the kitchen, you find the light switch and inspect the damage.  It is hard to walk around in darkness, especially when we are not used to it.

Have you been here?  In your life, you are trying to keep everything under control.  You try to set your priorities and stick to them.  Yet things happen, plans change and you are continually broad-sided with things in your life that you could never expect.  You try to do the right thing, but time after time the wrong choice is made and you have to pay the consequences.  At one point when you are at your wits end, your mind asks you the question, "What is all this for?  What is all this about?  Why do I have to deal with all these problems in my life?"  It is hard to walk around in a world darkened by sin.  It is impossible without Christ.  But God has turned on a light for us.  Because of what God has done, we can Let the Son, that is Jesus Christ, Shine.  For as our text says, I. We were once in darkness, but II. Now we are in the light.

Our text for this morning says, "For at one time, you were darkness."  The picture of darkness is vivid enough.  If we stop to think about how much of our lives depends on being able to see what we are doing, we can understand that we couldn’t function without our sight.  We couldn’t drive to work.  We couldn’t enjoy a walk along the sidewalk because we would be afraid of taking a step out into the street.  We would be helpless against those who would attack us.  We would be helpless to get anything for ourselves.  We would be helpless to help anyone else.  That is what our spiritual darkness was like.  That is where our Old Adam lives.  We didn’t even know what God expected of us, much less able to do anything about it or anything that God would accept.

Alright, we may say that it is tough to walk around in darkness, but it is not impossible. We can compare it to someone who has lost their sight, who although he is in total darkness has learned to live with what he has, to endure and has become proficient at living a pretty much normal life.  However, when we look at what God has to say to us through these words, we see that the darkness he describes is much thicker and goes much deeper than anything that we can compare it to on this earth.  It is something that renders us totally helpless. The darkness that he is talking about here isn’t just a handicap that we can learn to live with, but it is total corruption.  It is a darkness that every human being struggles with.  Some have thought that they have seen a shimmer of light in money and possessions, and they chase after it and try to bring themselves into the light.  They end up chasing after a fleeting shadow and never find peace.  Others see that shimmer in earthly pleasures.  Others see that shimmer in a false religion.  Yet in the end, all these things are passing shadows and never bring true peace.  This darkness misleads and drives people further and further away from God.  It says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the glory of God."

When Paul writes to the believers at Ephesus.  He doesn’t just say that they were in the dark.  But he says that they were darkness.  Christ’s words are recorded in Luke 6:39, "Can a blind man lead a blind man?  Will they not both fall into a pit?"  They weren’t just living in this state of hopelessness, but they were part of the problem.  By the things that they said, the ways that they lived, they kept people from the truth of God which is found in his Word. Their lives were conducted and controlled entirely by the one who is the master of darkness, the one who thrives on darkness and corruption, the devil.

To a certain extent, many of us aren’t like Ephesians.  Many of us have had blessings that they never had, myself included.  God blessed many of us with Christian parents who saw the value that God placed in baptism.  Parents that brought us up in God’s Word.  Through our baptism, and through his Word, the Holy Spirit created and maintained our faith in the one true God.  Yet have we always kept control of our Old Adam, or have we been darkness?  When we talk to our friends about church and the things that we do at church, are they a joy, or a burden that God has given us to live with?  Would that lead people away from God’s word?  Do we reflect the love that Jesus showed us by our acceptance of others, or have you looked down on someone else?  When we act according to our old Adam, the term darkness could describe us just as well as it described the Ephesians.  Because ever time we sin, every time we gossip, every time we break the law and laugh about it, every time we let our Old Adam get out from under our thumb and under our control.  We are hypocrites.  We lead people away from God.  We do not let God’s love shine in our lives.  We are a part of the problem instead of the solution.

II. God marks for us in Paul’s letter an incredible change. Paul says, "but now, you are light in the Lord."  Paul tells the Ephesians that they have been changed.  This change applies to us also.  We are now in the light, and we are the light.  We are the exact opposite of what we were. What is darkness?  It is the absence of light?  What is our New Man?  It is the absence of the devil.  We are God’s light in this world, and we can Let his Son shine through our lives.

This light, this fire that burns inside of us is not something that we have fanned into flames by our own effort.  Many people and many religions claim that man by nature has a spark of goodness in himself.  That is also what we see over and over again on TV and the movies.  We are told that the good which is in a man will always triumph over his circumstances.  But that is Hogwash.  Matthew 6:23, "But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.  If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!"  The corruption of this world has infected the human race, has infected us to the point that there is absolutely nothing left which is clean.  This light, this redemption has to come from the outside, and it has come through the working of the Holy Spirit.  He has entered our hearts and made a home for himself.

Through his work our bodies have become the temple of God.  He has lit a fire in our souls that burns like a bon fire.  That means that we are Christ’s light within this world.  Have you ever look up at the sky on a clear night?  Especially if you are out in the country away from all the light of the city, have you ever looked up and try to count all the stars?  When God looks at this world, that is one way that he sees his children.  As lights shining in the darkness.

Now when we look up at the stars, they just look like little pinpoints to us.  But each little pinpoint of light is a sun.  Although they look small to us, each one is in itself a huge ball of light.  That is what the Christian is in this world.  He or she is a ball of light shining forth and defeating the darkness that is in this world.  That is why Paul says in our reading, "Live as children of light."  We are God light, and like I said before, the light cannot have anything to do with darkness, in fact, darkness is the absence of light.  That is why God encourages us to be what we are through Christ Jesus, because we cannot be anything else.

So how do we live as the children of the light?  Paul says, "for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth."  Goodness is the moral character that God has given to us.  People know we are Christians, by our lives.  Our actions show what we believe.  Righteousness is the absolute truth of God’s law and God’s will.  Many would like to say that you have to find out what is right for yourself.  You have to find out what is your own truth.  Whatever you find out to be your morals, whatever you find out to be right for you is OK.  However, morality, truth does not vary from person to person, it is the same for all.  If it is a sin for one person, it is a sin for all.

How can we know what is God’s will?  How can we find out what is an action of light, of "goodness, righteousness and truth," instead of darkness.  God answers that question for us in the text for this morning too.  The NIV says, "find out what pleases the Lord."  That translation of this verse is poor.  It implies that God has left us uncertain as to how he want us to act, but God has given us his word for our direction.  He has revealed his will.  The Greek word that is used here actually is to test.  It portrays a metal worker who tests the quality of the metal he is working with, like someone who would test the gold to see what is pure.  Therefore, God says to test everything that we do against God’s standard.  Whenever we make a choice, we can go back to God’s word and let it guide us.  That idea is carried through in the letters W.W.J.D.  What would Jesus do? Because guides us and leads us to know what God would have us do, we hold God’s will dear.  As the Psalmist says, "Oh, how I love your law!  I meditate on it all day long.  Your commands make me wiser than my enemies for they are ever with me…How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (119:97-98, 103)

God’s words tell us to go one step further.  He says, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them…everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible."  If we stand beside our neighbor, our friend, a member or our family and let them continue in their sin, we are not doing them any favors.  We are God’s light, and we reveal the truth of his love and redemption.  The first part of being redeemed is seeing our sin.  Seeing that we cannot rely on ourselves, but we throw everything on Jesus.  I am not saying that this will always be easy.  Yet as God’s light, we can do nothing else.  With God’s light everything is reveal.  That not only means sin.  But that means all that God has given for us.

Friends, we have God’s truth in our hearts.  We have his love revealed by the Word.  The Son of God lives in us.  Let the Son shine!

Amen