This is a translation of the homily for the twenty-second Sunday of Trinity (year II) in Ænes Church in Kvinnherad, Norway, Sunday 20th October, 2024. The readings are as follows: Proverbs 6:20-23; Philippians 2:1-4; and John 12:35-36. When quoting Scripture, I will use the Revised Standard Version of Scripture (RSV), unless otherwise noted.
Collect of the day (translated by yours truly):1
Let us Pray:
Holy God, Gud, Source of Life, you have created the world through your word. We pray: Teach us to live like children of the Light, so that we do not offend you or our neighbour, but show love in word and deed, through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one true God, world without end. Amen.
The largest star we know of in the universe has the exciting name WOH G64.2 It has been calculated that it has a diameter of around 1.1 billion kilometres, i.e. approx. 7-800 times larger than our sun. That is much larger than we can imagine. But no matter how large a star is, it is absolutely nothing compared to a human being who is created in the image of God and even smaller than the child who was born in Betlehem over 2000 years ago. It is He, Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world, not WOH G64. In fact, all these starts – and all the potentially larger stars we do not know about – are created by God and stand there as a testimony to Him. As it says in James 1:17: “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” And this is a central theme today, that God stands firm, that He does not follow the spirit of the times, which changes all the time. In the first reading, from Proverbs 6, we see this in relation to the word in Scripture. We read in v.20: “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.”
Children are at the mercy of those who were around them and as a fairly new father I hope that my wife and I can teach our son the way he should walk, that we can teach him the way of God, as it says in v23: “For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life.” The word of God, then, is a lamp and a light, for it enlightens us. But this is not just external. God dwells in us. We should not just live in the Light but the Light lives in us. And then we must look to the word, to the word of God, as it is revealed to us through the Old and New Testaments. Again, as it is said in James 1:17: “Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” But v18 is just as important: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.”
God “has brought us forth by the word of truth,” for when He speaks, something happens. When God speaks, He does not just exhort or describe, He creates. And by his word he creates something new in us. But this does not happen in the abstract, it is inextricably linked to the true Word with a capital W, Jesus Christ. As we read in John 1:1-5:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
And then it says in v14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have beheld his glory, a glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”3 The Word, God, the true light, thus became flesh, a man of flesh and blood. And He is the center piece of the Bible. He is the fulcrum around which reality turns. He, no one else, is the Light of the world and in today’s Gospel reading, John 12:35-36, Jesus emphasises how important it is that we cling to him. He says: “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”
We must believe in the Light as long as we have the Light, so that we can be children or sons of the light. Because we need to participate in the Divine Light that we cannot fully comprehend. But if we cannot see the Light itself, because it is so radiant, we can see everything else precisely because of this Light. For light is the opposite of darkness, in every way. Because darkness does not actually exist in itself. In order for it to become dark, we must remove the light. And if we have light, the darkness must give way at once. Because darkness is only the absence of light. We cannot go to the store to buy a ‘dark bulb.’ The darkness that tries to swallow us is emptiness, it is nothing. It is everything that God is not. But by the Word of God, with a capital W, God, who became flesh for us, we get to particiate in this. We then get to live in the light, we become children of God, children of the Light.
But what is it to live in the Light? That we can see in the second reading, from Philippians 2:1-4. St. Paul exhorts us there to live in the Light we have received, as he says in v2-4: “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
To live in the Light is to live like Christ, with other people than ourselves in mind, which is a participation in Christ, as we see from what St. Paul continues, in v5-11, sometimes called the hymn of Philippians:
Have this mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Here we see that everything points to Christ, to Him who gave everything for us. And when we live in the Light, it is not that we strive as hard as possible, but that He lives in us, that He works in us, because He is God. Because, as St. Paul continues, in v12-13: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We must therefore work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, i.e. live the life that will flow out of the new life that has been created in us by the word of God, as it comes to us in Scripture, in Baptism, in the Eucharist. As St. Paul says in Ephesians 5:8: “For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” But then we must simultaneously understand that this is the work of God, not us. Because it is He who is active.
And when He is active, we are set free, our sins are forgiven. Because we need that. Sin is not just a purely legal problem. No, sin is a disease that can destroy us if we do not do something about it. After becoming a father, I have got a new image which I think can be of help. Sin is like jaundice. And how do you treat it? Yes, with light. It is only the Light of Christ that can remove sin. But when He makes us free, then we will truly be free! Then we are allowed to live the new life, because He gives us the grace to do so. Christ is the one who gives us kindness and love. He is the source of love. Today we celebrate that this true Light came into the world to make us partakers of His salvation. We celebrate that God became man in Jesus so that we could share in the life of God through Him. Because it is in God that we find the Light, as it says in one of the Psalms in the Bible, Psalm 36:9: “For with thee is the fountain of life; in thy light do we see light.”
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, who was, is, and will remain, one true God, world without end. Amen.
The liturgies of the Church of Norway can be found online, with some translations. The Collects, however, have not been translated or they have been but not published.
My translation, partly based on RSV. For the Greek text, see Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th rev. ed., eds., Barbara and Kurt Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012).