Jesus is the Light of the world, and this Light has always been at work within us, whether or not we’ve been aware of it. Once we surrender to that Light, we find ourselves swept up into the greatest love story of all time!
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Lighting the Way Home
• Greg Boyd
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According to John 1, Jesus is called the Light of the world, and this Light has always been shining on us, whether or not we’ve been aware of it. This Light has been working in every human heart from the beginning of time, seeking to set it free that it might find its home in God.
Every human has known what it’s like to have deep yearnings, to long for something that’s greater than this world. That can’t be fulfilled by any worldly mean. This is the Light at work within us. We were designed to find our home, our rest, and our fulfillment in God, and the Light seeks to bring us home.
Because of these human longings, we find glimpses of the Christmas Story throughout mythological literature. This shouldn’t surprise us since we know the Light of the world has been at work in human hearts from the very beginning.
But in Christ, myth has become history. Christ becomes the very thing mythology has been pointing to all this time. And because of Christ, the Christmas Story can be called the greatest love story of all time!
If love can measured by the depth of sacrifice given by a lover, then God paid the highest price, crossed the farthest distance, and made the greatest sacrifice when he came as a baby to demonstrate his love for us. Truly, it is the greatest story ever told! But one that is true and not a myth.
Our hearts ache for this kind of love, and nothing satisfies it apart from God. This is why we don’t feel totally at home until we find that Love and Light. So when we surrender to that Light, we find ourselves swept up into the greatest love story for which our hearts have always hungered.
Jesus, the Light of the world, has come and this is good news!
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Love, Presence of God, Reconciliation
Sermon Series: Across the Universe
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Focus Scripture:
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John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Everything came into existence through him. Not one thing that exists was made without him. He was the source of life, and that life was the light for humanity. The real light, which shines on everyone, was coming into the world... The Word became human and lived among us. We saw his glory. It was the glory that the Father shares with his only Son, a glory full of kindness and truth.
2 thoughts on “Lighting the Way Home”
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I’ve had some extra time to relax this Christmas season and when that happens, I can’t help myself – “I get out my ‘Lord of the Rings Special Extended DVD Edition’ – Ha! I was half way through ‘The Two Towers’ when I stopped for a break to listen to Greg’s message online. One of many unforeseeable coincidences?
When it comes to the recontextualizing of Myth, nobody nearly did it better than Tolkien & Lewis – well, at least in a popular genre. Anyway, Greg’s emphasis on the transposition of Myth got me thinking about something I read recently about Rene Girard and his ‘Mimetic Theory’. Below is a link to ‘Shared Ignorance’ [which is what I might be doing here?] where Sherwood “Woody” Belangia lays out in brief the structure of ‘Mimetic Theory’ in 24 steps.
What is Mimetic Theory? | shared ignorance
https://woodybelangia.com/what-is-mimetic-theory/
As a believer, it’s not a chicken and egg proposition for me as to which came first; other cultural ‘myths’ simply shadow, reflect, typify or Christotelically point towards “the real McCoy” – Jesus in the Flesh! There’s a really great short vid by Adam Ericksen on the ‘Patheos’ website that concisely hits the mark –
Mimetic Mondays: Christianity 21 Talk: Mimetic Theory and the …www.patheos.com/…/mimetic-mondays-christianity-21-talk-mimetic-theory-and-the-n…
Adam is an education director at ‘The Raven Foundation’, which some might find helpful when looking into and understanding the political, sociological and spiritual mechanisms of ‘Scapegoating’ that seems to be ever looming on the horizon.
The Raven Foundation: Home
https://www.ravenfoundation.org/
Lovely message. Thank you.