"I Wear My Sunglasses at Night" - Sermon

So picture the beginning and ending of this sermon with music: the singing of "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night."  At the end the congregation sang the line over and over.  It was awesome!!! It was also sunglass Sunday, so people were encouraged to wear their sunglasses to and in church.

This song belongs to the Canadian song writer Corey Hart.

What I like about the song is that it is an afterthought in many ways.  It was an unfinished track 12, for a record produced in the UK and originally had another name, that is until Corey recorded the rest of the record.  Just before his 20^th birthday he put down 11 tracks, and while he did this, it rained and rained, and rained.  He had with him a brand new pair of Ray Band sunglasses –which were very cool in the 1980’s – and in London, while recording, he never had a chance to wear.

Wouldn’t it be great if the world was such a bright place, if the kingdom of God were here, such that we needed to wear our sunglasses at night, or on days when it rained– for the glory of the Lord was so bright?!

How often do we see sunglasses in the newspaper? Big sunglasses that are meant to cover bloodshot eyes of those who have drunk too much; or to cover black eyes from where partners have left marks of abuse; worn to cover eyes puffy from tears; or worn as a disguise to hide faces and emotions from others?  In some ways we all have glasses that we wear, to hide parts of ourselves from others, or to hide parts of ourselves from God.  Some of us have secrets, things we don’t want God or other people to know about us. There are things we hide because we are afraid that if we share them, others will think less of us, or tease us, judge us in some way.

The song says... So I can see you live and breathe the story line...

We all wear sunglasses, and perhaps that is the meaning of the Colossians letter.  We are all human beings, all with a life before accepting the life of following Christ, even if we have been in the church all our lives.  But we are not to dwell on the past.  We are to live the present in the fullness of God.  There was a point when we agreed that we would be part of the community, that we would keep coming and worshiping with the community.  It is here we watch each other live and breathe, and journey.  It is here that we support each other and encourage the taking off of the sunglasses, to share intimate things about ourselves.  This is the place where we can share questions, doubts, troubles, circumstances...because it is here that we are fully who we are called to be.  It is here that we can cry in grief, in joy, in frustration, in excitement.

This place is meant to be a place to,

Keep track of visions in my eyes...

This is the place we come to be reminded that we are not alone.  Today’s reading from Colossians reminds us, “if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it.  Pursue the things over which Christ presides.  Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you.  Lookup, and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is.  See things from God’s perspective.” In saying you were dead and now are alive –, Paul refers to baptism.  On baptism Sundays we are reminded, “to let your lights so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.”

Corey Hart’s song says, “She’s deceiving me, seeks security”...

...we get deceived don’t we? Our eyes are darkened and we fail to see God, perhaps even believe in God.  We get distracted and deceived by all those things that Paul mentions in Colossians.  Things that belong to the old life, the life before we knew differently; the life before committing to BEING a Christ follower...a light bearer...  meaning we commit to, in the word’s of Eugene Petersen’s translation of Colossians, “That means killing off everything connected with that way of death:  Sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy.  That’s a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God.”

This week at camp I was reading a section of a book on liturgy.  This particular portion spoke about the use of candles in church.  The writer was adamant that it be REAL candles used on the altar, beside the lectern, by the baptismal font.  You see modernity has allowed for gas fuelled or electric candles, where the sheath of the candle never changes. Churches have gone to fake because it is cheaper.  At this the author suggests candles might as well not be used.  The idea of REAL candles, is that as the light burns, the candle in order to give light, and be about what it was created to do – it has to sacrifice itself.  To BE, the candle in essence has to die.

And in essence that’s what Colossians is about –BEING; being dead to the old life, and embracing new life in Christ which is REAL life –even though, as Paul admits,  it may be invisible to spectators; and definitely at times goes unnoticed, unappreciated, and seemingly not worthwhile.  Eugene Petersen’s translation says, “Christ is your life.  When Christ (your life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you’ll show up too –the real you; the glorious you.  Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.”

...Christ was that candle, who in living, gave of himself, sacrificed himself out of love for the world...

and we are asked to do the same.  We are lit by the Spirit in baptism to be alive, to be passionate, on fire; a candle lit...

meaning that as we live we sacrifice ourselves for the healing and wholeness of others.

So I can see the light right before my eyes...

...it has been one of those months for me.  Nine years of ministry in this place has let me see candles burning, people sacrificing while happily sharing Christ’s light and faith.  It has been one of those months because for the first time in nine years –everything has happened...it has been one light before my eyes after another...it has been calls at midnight, bedside prayers for the dying, the rising, the dying; it has been sicknesses, deaths, funerals, funerals yet to come, burials two years later from bodies given to science...it has been bizarre circumstances warranting private baptisms, rescheduling of wedding plans...and in each case there is faith, hope, an assurance that God is and will be present from beginning to end; that light will endure.

Don’t switch the blade on the man in shades...

Don’t masquerade with the man in shades...

It has been a time when I have no tolerance for lies, ho-hums, or nonsense.  It is time for the all of us to take off our sunglasses and look into each other’s eyes and tell the truth.

At camp this week, the campers tried various kinds of contemplative prayer.  On Thursday night following live worship, which is like line dancing to praise songs, the campers ages 13-15 gathered in a circle, shoulder to shoulder.  They were invited to breathe, in for four counts and out for four counts, in and out, in and out.  While they breathed I intoned short worded prayers, and allowed for silence.  At the end of the prayer, after breathing in and out, amen was said...and then there was silence...

13-15 year olds, 75 of them, were silent.  The spirit had settled, a moment to want to put the sunglasses on so that the brightness of that moment might stay on the inside of the glasses, in the depths of the soul forever. Christ was alive, present.

And that is it, we are being asked to be light in the world, to burn with love, flickering in faith, hope and action, until we are spent.  We are to as the song says, “Forget my name”, so that others may revel in the glory and collect the claim. We seek not reward, but only to be a beautiful light  -to dispel darkness is our only desire.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had to wear our sunglasses at night because the glory of the Lord shining through creation was so bright...it is to this end that we spread the Gospel, the love and light of Christ; to put an end to darkness, evil, human nature’s propensity to deceive and to seek fame and glory.  Let us live into the fullness of God, alive, passionate, BEING through sacrifice...

...everybody put on your sunglasses and sing along...