I would like to use the First Epistle of St. John to set the context for today’s lesson:

1. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (1 St. John 1: 5-9)
   

God is Light: the purest perfection.  The purest joy.  The purest love.  The purest beauty.  The purest peace.  He desires that we join Him in that light.  That we become pure joy, pure love, pure beauty, and pure peace.   That we transcend the sin and darkness of this broken world to live now and eternally in abundant and rational bliss.

Is this something that you think you might enjoy?  Wouldn’t you prefer a life of peace to one where you are beset by worries; a life of purest joy to one where your happiness is dependent on the stock market, the size of your paycheck, or the vicissitudes of bodily health?  Wouldn’t you enjoy a life of shared love, fellowship, and communion with others who walk only in beauty and joy and who desire only the best for you?  Isn’t that kind of success better than anything the world offers?

And I say to you as God says to you: this goal is within your reach.  The path is before you.  It will take you to your heart’s deepest desire.  Will you take it?

I have benefitted from the advice of many counselors.  In my junior year of college at the University of Georgia, I realized that I liked studying political science and thought I might like to go to graduate school.  So I went to the graduate school admissions counselor to find out how to get there.  He pulled out my transcript and immediately put a wall between me and my new dream, saying; “you don’t have the grades to get into graduate school; I just don’t think you would do well.  There are plenty of other things I am sure you are good at.  Graduate school is not for everyone.”  You see, I had not applied myself during my first two years of college.  I made some really bad grades, and would have had more if I had not dropped several classes before their grades stuck. I did well at the classes I liked, but lacked the discipline to work at the ones I didn’t.  But that had been two or three years before.  Since then, my time in the army had taught me the value of hard work, perseverance, and self-discipline.  During a year at the army’s language school, a year in which we lost 50% of my class, I learned how to learn.  I knew that I had the skills to succeed at graduate school.  Rather than giving up, I asked; “what would it take for me to get into graduate school?”  To his credit, he gave me a target:; “a 4.0 from here on out, and a really good score on your GRE”.  I smiled, thanked him, shook his hand, and left.  I am sure he thought he would never see me again.  But I followed the plan he set out for me and, despite working two to three jobs and taking extra classes, I hit the target [of course, Pani Tina played a big role in this; we were married between my junior and senior year].  Unfortunately, while I was able get into graduate school, I still haven’t figured out how to get out.  One day I’ll get around to defending a dissertation :-)

As you know, there are all kinds of counselors willing to give us advice about how to improve aspects of our lives: career counselors can help us get better jobs; financial counselors can help us save for retirement; credit counselors can help us get and stay out of debt; marriage counselors can help us gain greater fulfillment from our marriages.  But the value of advice even the best of these can give pales next to that given to us by God.  Those other counselors can help you be more productive in your life; but Our Great Counselor can give you a reason to live.

The counselor told me that graduate school was not for everyone.  Those who did not enjoy reading, writing, and working hard would only be hurt by the experience.  St. John tells us that God is light; and that if we have sin or darkness in us that we cannot be with Him.  So how do we become creatures of the light?  What is the path that leads to the only goal worth achieving?

Glory to God that He has made the way straight.  In today’s scripture lessons He tells us what we must do.

1. 1.  The first lesson come from the epistle reading: St. Paul teaches us that if we want to be true “sons and daughters” of God; then we have to separate ourselves from all the things that defile us.  He uses the metaphor of the temple.  We are to be temples of the Living God.  Our church is a temple.  We would never bring or do anything in here that was not holy, that did not reflect God, that did not help us move closer to Him.  All of our icons, literature, banners, candles; everything is specifically and intentionally put here for our edification and God’s glory.  We are to do the same with our lives; intentionally surrounding ourselves with things that are holy and removing and avoiding those things that defile us.  As St. John says, God gave us the sacraments to cleanse our hearts; but don’t stop there.  Intentionally order your life in purity.  Purify your time through morning and evening prayer.  Purify your house by removing temptations and putting up icons.  We are in the midst of a financial crisis: purify your budget by removing those things that distract you from the Truth.  All these things will allow us to “perfect holiness in the fear of God.
   

2.  The second lesson comes from the Gospel reading:  Christ Himself tells us that must “love [our] enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return.”  It is not enough for us to love those who might love us back; or give to those who might reciprocate; or welcome those who might join; or console those who might console us.  We must do these things despite the expected return.  When we say that “God is Love” we mean that it comes out of Him like light from the sun.  The sun does not give light because we want to see, or even because it wants light back.  It gives light because that is what it does.  This is how we are to live.  We are to be love.  We are to radiate Christ to everyone and everything.   

In summary, God desires us to live in perfect joy, to become partakers of eternal goodness.  He has given us the straight path of His Son so that we might attain this goal.  Order your life around Him and become like Him.  This is our calling; our life’s work.  It is also our blessed assurance, our peace, and our joy.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.