The Light Shines in the Darkness

John 1:1-5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Light is a strange thing, scientifically speaking.

Sometimes it acts like a wave; the same as a radio wave, or a sound wave, or an ocean wave.

Sometimes it acts like a particle; a little packet of energy called a "photon."

Light is also the visual expression of energy. Simply put, light IS energy transmitted through space.

The interesting thing about light is that these three explanations of it are all true, but not able to be held at the same time. If you are talking about light as a wave, the rules of particle physics don't work well. If you are talking about light as a particle, the rules of waves don't work well. It seems to have a perfectly dual nature...it transmits energy in wave-ways and in particle-ways.

Yesterday's sermon was about the Trinity; an often-confusing teaching of the church that God is manifest in the world in three ways...

1. God is the source and ground of all being and life; the Creator; the one Jesus calls "Father."

2. God is this radical, forgiving, rule-breaking Jewish rabbi...the one we call "Jesus."

3. God is the Spirit of life; the breath; the wind of creation.

It is striking to me that John 1 describes God's presence through Jesus as the Light of all people. How true. God is the wave that undergirds all of creation; God is the discrete "packet" of holiness that showed up in Christ; God is the Spirit, the energy of love that flows between the Father and the Son.

So, today this theological nerd is just delighted by the thought that our best scientific understanding points us to Light as a three-fold reality.

May you rest in the Light tonight!

Peace,
Pr. Matt