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Step Into The Light

December 27, 2025

Exodus 33:8-23 | Psalm 92 |1 John 1:1-9 | John 21:19b-24

This is the message we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

One of the things I have been struggling with for quite a while now is how to live up to Jesus’ exhortation to love my neighbor when my neighbor is behaving badly, whether it’s the driver dangerously weaving in and out of traffic (it’s good that I’m usually in my car alone!), or those who claim to be acting in good faith behaving inhumanely. It’s easy enough to quickly shift to “Dear Lord, let them not hurt themselves or anyone else” on the road, but incredibly difficult to shape my reactions to what I see and hear happening in this country and other corners of the world. Today’s psalm, thousands of years old, is all about my current battle.

Although Psalm 92 starts joyfully enough by singing praise to God it quickly turns dark and even vengeful, “…though the wicked grow like weeds and all the workers of iniquity flourish, they flourish only to be destroyed forever.” It’s so hard not to cheer that thought when we watch racism, bigotry and cruelty being celebrated. But then those seasonal weeds are compared to the long-lasting trees that “shall flourish in the courts of our God.” So, what is God asking of us when we seem to be surrounded by nastiness? The symbolic weeds and trees in the psalm are prophetic. The wicked weeds will wither and die and the steadfast trees “planted in the house of the Lord” will continue to grow. Believing that God’s love is eternal and that evil is not is the key to keeping my sanity. There is an echo here in the lesson from Exodus, when God creates a safe space for Moses, a cleft in the rock. He is our both safe space and the light we need to grow.

Where does Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist fit in? This is his feast day, after all. He was one of the earliest disciples and present at many of Jesus’ miracles. As we wait for Epiphany, he invites us in with his testimony and his epistles. “If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us…”.  And in the Gospel he repeats Jesus’ words to Peter, “Follow me.” So let’s do that, let’s follow him. Let’s be strong and fight the wrongs we see in whatever way we can, and let’s take solace in God’s love.

Mallory Walsh