Light Shining In Our Hearts
For Meditation
We have been in a prolonged period of trauma with the COVID pandemic and the social and political upheaval. We don’t think or talk about our experience as traumatic since we know there are far worse accidents and disasters that can be experienced. Yet, we have been hit with what can be called a lower level chronic and complex trauma. We have experienced an upheaval in our normal functioning for nearly a year now. Its effects have been isolation, uncertainty, and anxiety that carry along with them a sadness and numbness. It moves us to be self-protective, to “hunker down” and narrow our focus.
It has been a help to me to acknowledge that I have been traumatized. It helps me understand why I have been spiritually numb, more self-absorbed, and tend to isolate further. You may see different effects in your own experience but what we have all been going through has been a powerful pressure to constrict us from the life God has made us to live and the redemptive kingdom calling he has given us. The effects of trauma work against our call to love God and neighbor and as Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 to follow our calling as ambassadors in “the ministry of reconciliation.”
Paul describes a greater trauma that he and the Corinthian church were experiencing and seeks to encourage them not to lose hope in following out their calling in the ministry of reconciliation that Jesus called them to as his followers. 2 Corinthians 4:8-12 describe the trauma but also how God meets them in their pain and suffering. Paul centers his encouragement in verse 6 on the idea that God’s presence in the inner life of the believer is the reality that provides hope and power that not only sustains us in the traumas of life but also is the reality that shines through us to others. He describes this as a light that has shown in our hearts that enables us to know “God’s glory in the face of Christ.”
The word glory literally means weight and conveys the idea that through Christ we see the full weight and depth of who God is. All his attributes are revealed to our inner person as we see the face of Christ. We will spend time Sunday unpacking as much of this as we can but in preparation for Sunday contemplate the following:
Think of how Jesus “faced” different people in the New Testament – lepers, sinners, demon possessed and ill. What did they “see” in Jesus’ face? What did they receive from him?
Think back to a time (or several times) when God became most real to you and affected you, drew you into closer relationship with him. What were you seeing in him, learning of him? What was the effect on your life?
Think of times you have experienced pain and suffering. How has God met you in those places? How might he have shown the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ there?
If we are to be people who live out our calling to be ministers of reconciliation – reconciling people to God, Paul tells us that it will not be through our own strength or craftiness but in our vulnerability. He describes us as carrying this treasure (the light of God) in clay vessels so that the surpassing greatness of God will be seen (2 Corinthians 4:7). Our hope to find light and strength amid trauma will come as we encounter God’s glory in the face of Christ. Our ability to move from protective self-centeredness to serve others by introducing them to God will happen as we live vulnerably so that God’s power is shown in our weakness to a world in desperate need of a savior.
2 Corinthians 4:1–11; 5:14–17
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.