How God shines the light on who we are:
When God calls himself “light”, he means that his very nature is to reveal. It is inseparable from his being.
He reveals himself in all of creation. He reveals himself in the souls of humankind.
And like light, he reveals what lies in darkness. He cannot NOT reveal, for he cannot lie.
Human lie. Humans have darkness in the heart and hidden places where they think they are unseen. But God’s nature is to reveal, for he is light.
What we are seeing today which is so frightening to us is God’s revelation. Not only of himself, but also the darkness that lies in the hearts of evangelicalism.
God revealed the hearts of humans in the days of Jesus. He revealed their hurts to heal, the illnesses to take away, they pain and isolation to draw into community –
And he also reveals their darkness, their hatred, their schemes, their vicious lusts. He revealed himself to the woman caught in adultery and loved her. He revealed the murder and lies in the heart of the leaders of the Jews and they slunk away and plotted his death.
The heart of the huge evangelical corporate machine is revealed more so every day. There is no depth that they have not already reached and will continue to reach.
The broken contracts and promises of Reformed and Presbyterian churches are being revealed every day.
Donald Trump is a revelation. If those who claim the name of Christ will open their eyes, they will see their hearts revealed. It is an ugly, bloated, lying, lecherous, contract-breaking, amoral psychopath that knows nothing of love, beauty, wisdom, art or goodness.
The problem isn’t the slug in the white house. He is a mirror and that mirror is God’s light shining on who we are.
Look at your king, America. Look at the natives you tortured and raped and slaughtered in his bloated face. Look at the enslaved image-bearers you bullwhipped and traded like property to enrich yourself.
Look at the totalitarian dictators you set up throughout the world, impoverishing millions to rape their lands. Your golden ballroom and Temu-liberace decor in the oval office is a revelation of America. The dignity is erased for we had none. We tortured people of color, we raped women and children, we stole from the poor to enrich those that we already enriched and we called it the “American dream”.
And now the curtain is pulled away. Here is your god.
Let’s see if his bloated ugly corpse can save us in the day of trouble.
Before we reap what we sow, God is exposing us to the world. Will we move towards light and love and beauty and goodness, or will we continue to rape and pillage and destroy?
After this nightmare is over, we have a lot to rebuild. May we rebuild far better than we built. But maybe the first building has to come down.
My Only Comfort 