The Narrow Way Broadens Us
Sermon
THE HAPPY HOUR
SERMONS FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY (SUNDAYS 1-8 IN ORDINARY TIME)
I grew up with the "anti-Epiphany heresy" that says being a Christian and being narrow are synonymous. Heresies are caused by people who try to make conclusions about the faith even though they know little about the Bible. Knowing little about the Bible, I was controlled by the terrible fear and apprehension that if I became a Christian I would be endangered by narrow-mindedness. It was an enlightenment when I began to read the Bible for myself and discover that the Epiphany lessons taught the opposite.
Now there is the profound thought that has been here long before Christianity arrived that one has to enter a narrow way in order to enter into a broader perspective. For example, Plato in his Republic shared with us a simile of the cave man which is symbolic of all persons. The cave man lived in a hole in the ground. He thought that the only world there was was this world in which he lived. He thought the only light there was was the light that came from his flickering little campfire. Someone came through a narrow entrance into the shaft in which he lived and said to him, "Hey, if you will go through this narrow hole to the outside, there is a huge, vast world and universe reaching out endlessly into space, and there is a sun that is so bright, a light so brilliant that it makes your little campfire look dim." Plato says that the cave man, symbolizing us, picked up his club and clubbed the messenger to death for two reasons. First, the cave man refused to leave his cave of darkness and enter the narrow, small tunnel to find a more expansive kind of life. Secondly, he refused to admit there was a light far brighter than the one he currently enjoyed.
A recent television episode about coal miners told about a cave-in and a group of the miners stranded in a certain shaft, boxed in, waiting and hoping to be rescued from the outside. Finally, rescue came from the outside when rescuers dug a narrow tunnel into that large room in which they waited. If they would enter that little tunnel, they could follow it outside, to where their loved ones awaited them, and where the sun shone brightly. And by entering that narrow way, they could save themselves and enlarge their universe. Without hesitation they crawled through the narrow tunnel, knowing that it led to something broader. This is an analogy of the paradox in the Bible. It says to us that we must enter by the narrow way, the narrow tunnel. "Straight is the way and narrow." But after you have entered and found the Christ, the Light, it enlarges your whole life. Attitudes and relationships, instead of becoming more narrow, become more liberal, more tolerant, more understanding, and more expansive.
No one can say of a "born again" person, "He or she is a narrow-minded Christian." No one can say that because you really can't be narrow-minded and be a Christian! Now there might be someone who is in the narrow way, trying to find Christ, but hasn't yet found him. Consequently, they are narrow in everything they do and think because they are in the passage which is narrow. There is no broad way there; it is narrow.
I have known people going through the narrow passage of alcoholism. At first, they thought they were enjoying a broad unrestrained life but it wasn't; it was narrow. They could not do what they wanted to do. There were times they did not want to drink excessively, but they did. They lost control of their lives. It was a narrow way they followed. But once they found Christ they discovered a broad kind of living. This is what the story in Epiphany is talking about. The star or the light mentioned in Isaiah 60 was used as a symbol for the announcement of the coming of the Lord. In that day they believed that the world was flat. So when they talked about a star or light in the heavens, they were talking about a symbol that could be seen from every corner of the earth.
The symbol of the star says that the truth and revelation of God has expanded to all the world, that all might come and see. But the coming is a very narrow way. You can't just pick out any star. There is one single star or light. It is a "special" revelation. And you can't just go any way. You must follow the way it goes. It is straight and it is narrow, and it leads to the small confines of a little town, a small barn, with a small infant in it, all of it taking place in a small country on a small planet in this small universe. This event is trying to say to you that the religion of Jesus' day was expanded by being made small. Do you understand that?
Isaiah 60:1-3:
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
But the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
By reducing it, by narrowing the truth of Judaism to the Messiah, it was at the same time expanding it to all the world. For example, when you summarize something, it doesn't mean that you have necessarily narrowed it. You might have taken a very wide concept and reduced it to a few words or a definition.
They asked Jesus if he could reduce or define all the teachings of the Holy Scriptures to a few words. He answered. "Yes, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself." He reduced it to that one brief concept but there is nothing narrow about it. I saw a TV program about a tidal wave that was going to hit a beach in seven minutes. It told how one policeman had to clear off the beach in seven minutes. It took thirty minutes to tell the episode that took place in the seven minutes. Have you ever had your wife take twenty minutes to explain something that only took one minute to happen? That doesn't mean that it wasn't an expansive idea or experience. It means that you have reduced it or else she has taken something that was reduced and expanded it. This is what the star or light of Epiphany means. This is what it is all about: by a narrow way you find God who is all in all. It is the opening or birth passage into the most expansive kind of world view you could possibly conceive. It dosn't make you narrow, but it explodes the whole concept of your attitudes, your thoughts, your relationships, your feelings, your forgiveness, your tolerance, your love, and your hope.
Whether or not Isaiah 60:1-6 is a prophecy of the light bringing wise men from the east on camels, bringing gifts of gold and frankincense to the King of Judah, is not germane to this passage. This passage teaches the truth that God reveals himself through the one and only light, and that following the light leads to the broad revelation of God to all people and all nations. The message is, "The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh see it." The scholars of the first century claimed that the three wise men were Babylonian astrologers. These gentiles believed the stars determined one's whole life. That was their religion. Astrology says that your life is determined by the relationships of stars to one another and in what relationship they are to each other at certain times. But notice: the Christmas story says there was only one star out of all the other stars that you were supposed to follow. And the outcome of your life is not determined by its relationship to other stars but by its relationship to this child, Jesus, who was born in that one spot. He is a singular answer to the vast problems of the whole world - narrow yet expansive.
Marco Polo wrote in his diary about having discovered the village from which the wise men or the three kings supposedly came. He tells how he interviewed the villagers, and how they told about how their grandfathers and great-grandfathers spoke about these three kings who left their village to go to this country down near the Jordan River to find this new King of the Jews. He says that the people in the village still spoke about these three kings; that one of them was young, one was middle-aged, and one was older. And the young one came back and said, "Oh, he is a young king filled with enthusiasm and daring." The middle-aged king came back and said, "Well, he's young enough to have vitality but he's old enough to have maturity." The older king came back and said, "He is a man wise of experience and possesses the wisdom of the ages." Now you can conclude that man makes out of Jesus what he wants to make out of him. But that is not the point. The point is that Christ is for all people of all ages of all races and of all nations. He is for all the world. That is the whole story of Epiphany, that a star or light being set in the sky tells us that the Messiah in the small confines of a manger is for the whole universe. To take place, it requires that the babe to be born, enter through a small passage of the mother, into the expansiveness of this world.
To be born again you must go through the narrow way. But if you have been born again in Christ your whole life has expanded, including your attitudes and hopes. The Bible reveals that everytime someone had an experience with Jesus. it broadened them. Take old narrow-minded Peter, for example. He thought everyone else was wrong but himself. But Peter had a vision that night, praying on the rooftop at the house of the tanner. He really was born again in that moment. The Bible says the next morning he then went over to Caesarea to the home of Cornelius, who was a Roman officer and a gentile and an enemy. No Jew allowed himself to enter a gentile home. He would be unclean. It was to break all the religious laws. But Peter, now that he had been "born again", went over to his enemy's home and told him about Jesus and baptized all the members of the family. Or you remember Paul. He, too, was narrow-minded until he really knew Christ and was born again. He had that experience on the Damascus Road, and he was born again. At Troas he experienced a vision which said, "Come over to Macedonia." He became so broad that he went over to Europe to minister and to evangelize people like us. Once he had been born again, it broadened him.
I. There Was Just One Star
"Arise shine, for your light has come." There was just one star, one light that we are supposed to follow. The problem with most of our lives is that they are filled with multiple lights or stars. We follow multiple stars and lights and it causes confusion after confusion. We are always trying to witness to different things. We try to witness to the fact that we are smart, clever, shrewd, charming, dedicated, good, idealistic, realistic, and pragmatic. And we don't even know what we are, who we are. We follow all kinds of stars. The Bible says the only way to experience Jesus is to follow the "One Light", the one way. Paul Tillich reminded us of this in his sobering definition of religion when he said that "religion is man's ultimate concern." It is his prime concern, the one thing, the one star out of all the others he follows. If we don't do that, if we try to be so many things to so many people, we'll end up terribly frustrated.
Remember the man Jesus met, the one living in the tombs? He was insane. He came to Jesus and Jesus asked, "What is your name?" He said, "My name is Legion" which means 'many.' I have no singular light. That is why I am insane."
Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher and playwright, wrote a play entitled "Kene," which is about a professional Shakespearean actor, who for 37 years played a different role on the stage every night. One night he was Othello, one night Macbeth, one night King Lear, one night Romeo. Finally after thirty-seven years, in a sobering monment in his dressing room, he asked himself the ultimate question. "Who am I? Am I King Lear? Am I Macbeth? Am I Romeo? Who am I?"
Yes, the light is a singular way. Following a singular star, we can find the singular answer. But remember: the narrow way opens into a broad life. That is where we find unity. We don't find unity by putting a bunch of denominations together into one denomination or organizational structure. If every denomination would make one witness to "The One Light" which is Jesus Christ, then we would be unified. When you have narrowed it down to that one "ultimate concern," you have expanded your faith to include all.
Paul had that problem at Mars Hill. He stood before the great philosophers of Athens, and he tried to impress them with the broadness of his philosophy. He talked about the various gods that were represented there. Now Paul was a brilliant man, but he had no singular thought in his sermon. He left there and no one was converted to the Christian faith. Paul promised from that time forward, he would only preach one singular thing - Jesus Christ, the onetime Light.
II. Broadening Unites and Narrowing Expands
Isaiah goes on to say in the fourth verse, "They all gather together, they come to you." We need to realize that the broadening effect is that which does unify. In the narrowing of our way and discipline, our lives are expanded. The broadening process unites us into one, and the narrowing is what expands us. We need to realize that the world into which this prophecy came was a narrow world, a world filled with all kinds of divisions and all kinds of walls, a division between Jew and gentile. Even the temple had four different walls to separate four different groups of people: the gentiles were on one side, the Jews on another, the priest on one side, the people on another. Judaism was a narrow way, a narrow religion. There was no acceptance of other religions, cultures, people. There was war and strife. But Isaiah says that the light comes to bring all together.
Later Ephesians says that "in Christ those that are far off are brought near." Wise men from afar were brought near to this one spot. In Christ all are made one. You say, "Oh, yes, it says that but it hasn't happened. In our world there are all kinds of divisions, all kinds of war, Iron Curtains, and Bamboo Curtains, Southern and Northern Korea, Northern and Southern Ireland, East and West of the River Jordan, black and white, liberal and conservative, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Arab."
There are divisions in our day and yet we live in a day in which the world grows smaller daily. I can travel around the world today in less time than my grandfather could go to the county seat. Astronauts now go around the world in a matter of minutes. It used to take my grandfather half a day to go to town. Can you conceive how much smaller the world is? I can hear it squeak everyday as it shrinks.
I can remember when I was a boy in a little church of 100 members; it would take maybe a week to get the announcements to every member. Now in less than five minutes, we can send a message to every human on the earth. Barefoot shepherd boys in Algiers, running up the path chasing their sheep, hear within seconds on the transistor radios in their pockets what happens in the United States only seconds after it happens. We live in a small world. You can leave Chicago, for example, on Sunday morning at 12:15 a.m. and fly in less than forty-five minutes to Detroit, arriving on Saturday night. When you get there, the time will be fifteen minutes earlier than when you left. Your friends that meet you at the airport ask you what time you left and you could say, "Well, I left tomorrow." That's how small the world is.
There is a necessity that this world that has shrunk must be broadened to the point where it includes us all, so that we might become one. Christ said, "If I, the Light of the World be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself." That is a promise. and it works. I can hardly conceive how you and I can exclude other people, because if you have really been born again in Christ, life can't be narrow; it will be inclusive.
What is the obligation of the faith? It begins with the narrowness of a singular star or light to be followed in a singular way to a singular spot, to a singular Messiah who is the singular answer to all the world's problems. And it broadens and explodes our whole life until we reach out even unto all the world.
I was in Chicago and wanted to go to the Chapel in the Sky, which is a sort of Methodist shrine. It was the tallest building in Chicago. It is on top of the Chicago Temple, which is a Methodist Church. I had heard so much about it, but when I got up there, I was disillusioned. It was a small chapel. I sat there, trying to ponder why it was considered a significant place. Then I noticed that the stained glass windows had little cranks on them, like Miami windows which can be cranked open. The main window had a hand in it. I wondered about the meaning of that symbol. I walked to the window and cranked it out. Out of the confines of that little chapel, through that small narrow window, I could see the whole city of Chicago lying before me: 3,000,000 people coming through the confines of a small window!
Then I realized what that stained glass window was supposed to say to me. The hand represented the hand of God. As the ballad says, "He's got the whole wide world in His hands." One hand only, but how broad it is.That is what the star of light does. It leads us in a narrow way through the birth chamber of a small tunnel that opens into an expansive new kind of a life. That is what being born again means, and what Epiphany is about.
Arise, shine, for your light has come. Lift up your eyes round about and see.
Now there is the profound thought that has been here long before Christianity arrived that one has to enter a narrow way in order to enter into a broader perspective. For example, Plato in his Republic shared with us a simile of the cave man which is symbolic of all persons. The cave man lived in a hole in the ground. He thought that the only world there was was this world in which he lived. He thought the only light there was was the light that came from his flickering little campfire. Someone came through a narrow entrance into the shaft in which he lived and said to him, "Hey, if you will go through this narrow hole to the outside, there is a huge, vast world and universe reaching out endlessly into space, and there is a sun that is so bright, a light so brilliant that it makes your little campfire look dim." Plato says that the cave man, symbolizing us, picked up his club and clubbed the messenger to death for two reasons. First, the cave man refused to leave his cave of darkness and enter the narrow, small tunnel to find a more expansive kind of life. Secondly, he refused to admit there was a light far brighter than the one he currently enjoyed.
A recent television episode about coal miners told about a cave-in and a group of the miners stranded in a certain shaft, boxed in, waiting and hoping to be rescued from the outside. Finally, rescue came from the outside when rescuers dug a narrow tunnel into that large room in which they waited. If they would enter that little tunnel, they could follow it outside, to where their loved ones awaited them, and where the sun shone brightly. And by entering that narrow way, they could save themselves and enlarge their universe. Without hesitation they crawled through the narrow tunnel, knowing that it led to something broader. This is an analogy of the paradox in the Bible. It says to us that we must enter by the narrow way, the narrow tunnel. "Straight is the way and narrow." But after you have entered and found the Christ, the Light, it enlarges your whole life. Attitudes and relationships, instead of becoming more narrow, become more liberal, more tolerant, more understanding, and more expansive.
No one can say of a "born again" person, "He or she is a narrow-minded Christian." No one can say that because you really can't be narrow-minded and be a Christian! Now there might be someone who is in the narrow way, trying to find Christ, but hasn't yet found him. Consequently, they are narrow in everything they do and think because they are in the passage which is narrow. There is no broad way there; it is narrow.
I have known people going through the narrow passage of alcoholism. At first, they thought they were enjoying a broad unrestrained life but it wasn't; it was narrow. They could not do what they wanted to do. There were times they did not want to drink excessively, but they did. They lost control of their lives. It was a narrow way they followed. But once they found Christ they discovered a broad kind of living. This is what the story in Epiphany is talking about. The star or the light mentioned in Isaiah 60 was used as a symbol for the announcement of the coming of the Lord. In that day they believed that the world was flat. So when they talked about a star or light in the heavens, they were talking about a symbol that could be seen from every corner of the earth.
The symbol of the star says that the truth and revelation of God has expanded to all the world, that all might come and see. But the coming is a very narrow way. You can't just pick out any star. There is one single star or light. It is a "special" revelation. And you can't just go any way. You must follow the way it goes. It is straight and it is narrow, and it leads to the small confines of a little town, a small barn, with a small infant in it, all of it taking place in a small country on a small planet in this small universe. This event is trying to say to you that the religion of Jesus' day was expanded by being made small. Do you understand that?
Isaiah 60:1-3:
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
But the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your rising.
By reducing it, by narrowing the truth of Judaism to the Messiah, it was at the same time expanding it to all the world. For example, when you summarize something, it doesn't mean that you have necessarily narrowed it. You might have taken a very wide concept and reduced it to a few words or a definition.
They asked Jesus if he could reduce or define all the teachings of the Holy Scriptures to a few words. He answered. "Yes, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself." He reduced it to that one brief concept but there is nothing narrow about it. I saw a TV program about a tidal wave that was going to hit a beach in seven minutes. It told how one policeman had to clear off the beach in seven minutes. It took thirty minutes to tell the episode that took place in the seven minutes. Have you ever had your wife take twenty minutes to explain something that only took one minute to happen? That doesn't mean that it wasn't an expansive idea or experience. It means that you have reduced it or else she has taken something that was reduced and expanded it. This is what the star or light of Epiphany means. This is what it is all about: by a narrow way you find God who is all in all. It is the opening or birth passage into the most expansive kind of world view you could possibly conceive. It dosn't make you narrow, but it explodes the whole concept of your attitudes, your thoughts, your relationships, your feelings, your forgiveness, your tolerance, your love, and your hope.
Whether or not Isaiah 60:1-6 is a prophecy of the light bringing wise men from the east on camels, bringing gifts of gold and frankincense to the King of Judah, is not germane to this passage. This passage teaches the truth that God reveals himself through the one and only light, and that following the light leads to the broad revelation of God to all people and all nations. The message is, "The Glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh see it." The scholars of the first century claimed that the three wise men were Babylonian astrologers. These gentiles believed the stars determined one's whole life. That was their religion. Astrology says that your life is determined by the relationships of stars to one another and in what relationship they are to each other at certain times. But notice: the Christmas story says there was only one star out of all the other stars that you were supposed to follow. And the outcome of your life is not determined by its relationship to other stars but by its relationship to this child, Jesus, who was born in that one spot. He is a singular answer to the vast problems of the whole world - narrow yet expansive.
Marco Polo wrote in his diary about having discovered the village from which the wise men or the three kings supposedly came. He tells how he interviewed the villagers, and how they told about how their grandfathers and great-grandfathers spoke about these three kings who left their village to go to this country down near the Jordan River to find this new King of the Jews. He says that the people in the village still spoke about these three kings; that one of them was young, one was middle-aged, and one was older. And the young one came back and said, "Oh, he is a young king filled with enthusiasm and daring." The middle-aged king came back and said, "Well, he's young enough to have vitality but he's old enough to have maturity." The older king came back and said, "He is a man wise of experience and possesses the wisdom of the ages." Now you can conclude that man makes out of Jesus what he wants to make out of him. But that is not the point. The point is that Christ is for all people of all ages of all races and of all nations. He is for all the world. That is the whole story of Epiphany, that a star or light being set in the sky tells us that the Messiah in the small confines of a manger is for the whole universe. To take place, it requires that the babe to be born, enter through a small passage of the mother, into the expansiveness of this world.
To be born again you must go through the narrow way. But if you have been born again in Christ your whole life has expanded, including your attitudes and hopes. The Bible reveals that everytime someone had an experience with Jesus. it broadened them. Take old narrow-minded Peter, for example. He thought everyone else was wrong but himself. But Peter had a vision that night, praying on the rooftop at the house of the tanner. He really was born again in that moment. The Bible says the next morning he then went over to Caesarea to the home of Cornelius, who was a Roman officer and a gentile and an enemy. No Jew allowed himself to enter a gentile home. He would be unclean. It was to break all the religious laws. But Peter, now that he had been "born again", went over to his enemy's home and told him about Jesus and baptized all the members of the family. Or you remember Paul. He, too, was narrow-minded until he really knew Christ and was born again. He had that experience on the Damascus Road, and he was born again. At Troas he experienced a vision which said, "Come over to Macedonia." He became so broad that he went over to Europe to minister and to evangelize people like us. Once he had been born again, it broadened him.
I. There Was Just One Star
"Arise shine, for your light has come." There was just one star, one light that we are supposed to follow. The problem with most of our lives is that they are filled with multiple lights or stars. We follow multiple stars and lights and it causes confusion after confusion. We are always trying to witness to different things. We try to witness to the fact that we are smart, clever, shrewd, charming, dedicated, good, idealistic, realistic, and pragmatic. And we don't even know what we are, who we are. We follow all kinds of stars. The Bible says the only way to experience Jesus is to follow the "One Light", the one way. Paul Tillich reminded us of this in his sobering definition of religion when he said that "religion is man's ultimate concern." It is his prime concern, the one thing, the one star out of all the others he follows. If we don't do that, if we try to be so many things to so many people, we'll end up terribly frustrated.
Remember the man Jesus met, the one living in the tombs? He was insane. He came to Jesus and Jesus asked, "What is your name?" He said, "My name is Legion" which means 'many.' I have no singular light. That is why I am insane."
Jean-Paul Sartre, the French existentialist philosopher and playwright, wrote a play entitled "Kene," which is about a professional Shakespearean actor, who for 37 years played a different role on the stage every night. One night he was Othello, one night Macbeth, one night King Lear, one night Romeo. Finally after thirty-seven years, in a sobering monment in his dressing room, he asked himself the ultimate question. "Who am I? Am I King Lear? Am I Macbeth? Am I Romeo? Who am I?"
Yes, the light is a singular way. Following a singular star, we can find the singular answer. But remember: the narrow way opens into a broad life. That is where we find unity. We don't find unity by putting a bunch of denominations together into one denomination or organizational structure. If every denomination would make one witness to "The One Light" which is Jesus Christ, then we would be unified. When you have narrowed it down to that one "ultimate concern," you have expanded your faith to include all.
Paul had that problem at Mars Hill. He stood before the great philosophers of Athens, and he tried to impress them with the broadness of his philosophy. He talked about the various gods that were represented there. Now Paul was a brilliant man, but he had no singular thought in his sermon. He left there and no one was converted to the Christian faith. Paul promised from that time forward, he would only preach one singular thing - Jesus Christ, the onetime Light.
II. Broadening Unites and Narrowing Expands
Isaiah goes on to say in the fourth verse, "They all gather together, they come to you." We need to realize that the broadening effect is that which does unify. In the narrowing of our way and discipline, our lives are expanded. The broadening process unites us into one, and the narrowing is what expands us. We need to realize that the world into which this prophecy came was a narrow world, a world filled with all kinds of divisions and all kinds of walls, a division between Jew and gentile. Even the temple had four different walls to separate four different groups of people: the gentiles were on one side, the Jews on another, the priest on one side, the people on another. Judaism was a narrow way, a narrow religion. There was no acceptance of other religions, cultures, people. There was war and strife. But Isaiah says that the light comes to bring all together.
Later Ephesians says that "in Christ those that are far off are brought near." Wise men from afar were brought near to this one spot. In Christ all are made one. You say, "Oh, yes, it says that but it hasn't happened. In our world there are all kinds of divisions, all kinds of war, Iron Curtains, and Bamboo Curtains, Southern and Northern Korea, Northern and Southern Ireland, East and West of the River Jordan, black and white, liberal and conservative, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Arab."
There are divisions in our day and yet we live in a day in which the world grows smaller daily. I can travel around the world today in less time than my grandfather could go to the county seat. Astronauts now go around the world in a matter of minutes. It used to take my grandfather half a day to go to town. Can you conceive how much smaller the world is? I can hear it squeak everyday as it shrinks.
I can remember when I was a boy in a little church of 100 members; it would take maybe a week to get the announcements to every member. Now in less than five minutes, we can send a message to every human on the earth. Barefoot shepherd boys in Algiers, running up the path chasing their sheep, hear within seconds on the transistor radios in their pockets what happens in the United States only seconds after it happens. We live in a small world. You can leave Chicago, for example, on Sunday morning at 12:15 a.m. and fly in less than forty-five minutes to Detroit, arriving on Saturday night. When you get there, the time will be fifteen minutes earlier than when you left. Your friends that meet you at the airport ask you what time you left and you could say, "Well, I left tomorrow." That's how small the world is.
There is a necessity that this world that has shrunk must be broadened to the point where it includes us all, so that we might become one. Christ said, "If I, the Light of the World be lifted up, I will draw all men unto myself." That is a promise. and it works. I can hardly conceive how you and I can exclude other people, because if you have really been born again in Christ, life can't be narrow; it will be inclusive.
What is the obligation of the faith? It begins with the narrowness of a singular star or light to be followed in a singular way to a singular spot, to a singular Messiah who is the singular answer to all the world's problems. And it broadens and explodes our whole life until we reach out even unto all the world.
I was in Chicago and wanted to go to the Chapel in the Sky, which is a sort of Methodist shrine. It was the tallest building in Chicago. It is on top of the Chicago Temple, which is a Methodist Church. I had heard so much about it, but when I got up there, I was disillusioned. It was a small chapel. I sat there, trying to ponder why it was considered a significant place. Then I noticed that the stained glass windows had little cranks on them, like Miami windows which can be cranked open. The main window had a hand in it. I wondered about the meaning of that symbol. I walked to the window and cranked it out. Out of the confines of that little chapel, through that small narrow window, I could see the whole city of Chicago lying before me: 3,000,000 people coming through the confines of a small window!
Then I realized what that stained glass window was supposed to say to me. The hand represented the hand of God. As the ballad says, "He's got the whole wide world in His hands." One hand only, but how broad it is.That is what the star of light does. It leads us in a narrow way through the birth chamber of a small tunnel that opens into an expansive new kind of a life. That is what being born again means, and what Epiphany is about.
Arise, shine, for your light has come. Lift up your eyes round about and see.
