Sunlight, Moonlight--November 1, 2024
"We love because he first loved us." [1 John 4:19]
On a recent evening when I was walking my dog through the neighborhood after dark by the light of a full moon, I had a realization. I was actually walking by the light of the sun. I had just forgotten.
And in an instant, I was transported back to some elementary school classroom where we first learned about the sun and the moon and the planets, and how the sun gives off its own light by constantly fusing hydrogen into oxygen (okay, we didn't learn those details until junior high, maybe). Meanwhile, the moon only reflects the light it gets from the sun. The moon, the Apollo astronauts had confirmed for us, was just a pile of dull rocks. It doesn't generate its own light, and it isn't even terribly shiny on its own. But the light from the sun is so bright, so powerful, and so strong, that even when it falls on the dusty gray rock of the lunar surface, it illuminates the moon enough to reflect light onto the dark side of the earth. It is a wonder of creation unfolding before our eyes, just outside our doors in the night sky.
So I have found myself thinking, since noticing the additional darkness from the new moon these last few nights and darkened mornings, about what an amazing thing it really is that the sun's light hurtles through space and hits a dull rock, bounces off, and hits my eyes. And I cannot help but think that something like that is going on at every moment of our lives in Christ. The love that radiates from God--the love that "is" God, as First John reminded us in yesterday's verses--meets us where we are, even though we, like living moon rocks, are not terribly shiny or reflective beings. And yet that love, as powerful as it is, reflects off of us and into the world around us--so in a true sense it is ours and God's at the same time, just like we talk about the lovely hue of "moonlight" when it is, properly speaking, actually sunlight that has bounced off the moon's surface. (And when you are in your bathroom brushing your teeth in the morning, you know that the light from your reflection isn't "mirror light," but comes from the light bulbs above your vanity that are giving off light that bounces around the bathroom, off the glass, and into your eyes.) In other words, as First John puts it so simply, "We love, because God first loved us." God's love shines onto us, and from us, that love radiates into the whole world, in all its dark places, like the sun's brightness hitting the moon and illuminating my nighttime walk with the dog.
If you really want to get scientific, in a sense, the sun's light isn't merely a product the sun makes, but it actually and literally is the sun, since the fusion reaction that makes the sun's light actually transforms some of its mass into energy (it's literally Einstein's E=mc2 in action). In other words, the sunlight isn't merely something that the sun "makes," but it is the sun's own self-giving, converted from matter to energy, and hurtling out into space at the speed of light. To be hit by the sun's light is, in a sense, to be hit with the sun itself. And in theological parallel, to be touched by the love of God is to be touched by God's own being, since God IS love. That love creates our capacity to love, and to give ourselves away to others like a light in a dark place. In a sense, then, we are like the moon--receiving a light that is not our own, but as it touches us we then offer it out into the world in our own coloring, like the slightly cooler bluish tinge of moonlight compared to the warmer yellow of the daytime sun.
All this month we've been talking about "the love of Jesus" as our focus for these devotions, and you might have noticed that sometimes we've zeroed in on God's love for us, while at other times we've centered on our love for others following Jesus' example. And that wasn't a matter of being sloppy or disorganized--it's because there is an organic connection between God's love for us and our love for others. God's love is the SOURCE of our love, like the moon's light really comes from the sun in the first place. And that means that the character of God's love becomes the character of our love for others--as we have seen over the course of this month's focus, because God's love includes enemies, strangers, foreigners, and outsiders, we are called to love enemies, strangers, foreigners, and outsiders. Because God's love is given without condition and without earning, our love for others is meant to be unconditional and without earning. And because God's love is not a transactional "deal" meant for God to get something in return, we are freed from that kind of petty transactional thinking, too. We love--and we love the way that God loves--because God's love has first come to us.
The one other thing I want us to note here, both from our verse in First John and from the analogy of the sun and the moon, is that because the sun is the source of the light, it doesn't wait for the moon to do its part first. The moon cannot reflect light until the sun has shone first--in fact, because the moon is 90-odd million miles away from the sun, it takes about eight minutes for the sun's light to get to the moon in the first place. But the sun doesn't make its light conditional or contingent on the moon doing its part first. And similarly, as I hope it's been clear so far in our devotions this month, God's love isn't dependent on delayed based on our loving God first. God's love comes first. God doesn't calculate and guess, sitting up in heaven, whether we'll reciprocate enough love back to God to make it worth the investment on God's part, but rather God loves first, before we've done a thing, and in a sense running the risk that we will not reflect it back. God's love initiates relationship with us--God is not, in other words, waiting around twiddling divine thumbs on a cloud, to see if we'll take the first step, make the first move, or pray the right prayer to invite Jesus into our hearts.
That is critical for us to be clear about in a time when so much of pop religion boils down to saying, "You have to take the first step and ask God, invite God, profess your faith, or whatever, in order for God to then love and claim you." But that's as backwards as saying that the sun is waiting for the moon to shine first--it isn't, because the moon's light only comes from the sun's light shining on it first.
And at the very same time, the moon almost cannot help but reflect the light it receives because the sun's light is just that compelling. For us as the people of God, there is no option in which we merely absorb God's love self-centeredly without giving it back in all directions to the rest of creation. There is no version of Christianity in which we are permitted to claim God's love as our personal and private possession, and then hold it back from other people. There is no way to arrange our relationship with God such that we only ever have to think about "Me and My Group First" without in the very same breath reflecting God's powerful love back out at everyone around. You can't keep God's love limited to "Me and My Group First!" any more than the moon can hold onto the sun's light without radiating it outward in all directions to all places, including the people walking their dogs in darkness on the night-time side of the earth. God's love cannot help but go beyond us to others. It is never our possession to clutch; it is only and always a gift to be received and then shared.
That truth guides every decision we make, ever choice we encounter, and every opportunity in front of us, every day. When I consider what I do with my day, how to spend my energy, who I take into consideration when I act, and even how I make choices when I step into the voting booth, the question I cannot shake--precisely because I know I am loved by God already--is, "How could God's love move through me to reach ALL people in this situation?" It's not about behaving well enough or acting holy enough to earn God's love as a prize. It's about letting God's love flow through me because I know it isn't ONLY for me.
So... how could God's love reflect off of you and me today, and into the lives of all people with the day that is unfolding before us?
Lord Jesus, let your love shine on us, and let your love reflect from us into every corner of the universe.
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