The Ancient Future Church

Revelation 21:22-27

“And the city had no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, . .”

How great that would be, to live in a place so illuminated by the Light of the World such that we no longer need to rely on the conventional ways of seeing. We need no sun. We need no moon. We need no power plants or generators. His brilliance is sufficient.

This is the place being prepared for us. Nothing unclean will be allowed to enter it nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood. But those of us who believe, those who have their names etched in the Lamb’s book of life, will enter.

Even better news – we need not wait. We can enter now. It is the already of the “already and not yet.” That Light came into the world at Christmas. We have the Epiphany! Our present darkness can be obliterated such that there is no dark night of the soul. We need not despair. And the darkness cannot understand our light, comprehend it, or overcome it.

Where is the darkness for you that can be immediately undone? I am fascinated with elections. I am a bit of a political junky. But elections reveal for me just how dark the “present darkness” is. It doesn’t even require cynicism to say elections are mostly about getting or retaining power. No longer are they about truth. In them we wage war against men (literally going for the jugular of our opponent, all of whom have feet of clay – so the winner is simply the person who best keeps his baggage hid) rather than contending for truth and the supremacy of good over evil.

I could easily slip into a funk. Who couldn’t? But I put my head down at night knowing this present darkness does not define me, now or in the future. My world is defined by a Light that darkness cannot get its hands around. For me the light is so brilliant that not only does it scatter darkness. So all- encompassing is this light that it even eliminates the possibility of shadow.