Bonfire or Spotlight?

John 3:21

We sold our home this past summer.  I miss my man cave and porch, but an area I miss almost as much is our firepit.  I love sitting around a bonfire.  Anyone else?  Can you smell roasting hot dogs and marshmallows?  There is something that happens around a fire that doesn’t happen anywhere else.  I’m not sure why, but it invites conversation, friendship, and an occasional s’more.  We had tiki torches around our pit, and my neighbors knew if the tikis were lit a bonfire wasn’t far behind. It was their invitation to come sit, talk, and melt some chocolate with a marshmallow or two.  We loved those conversations with Rob and Peggy, Mike and Janet, Bill and Sherri, Gary and Renee, Jason and Jenelle; our neighbors and friends.

The home we currently live in has a great back deck, but no firepit.  My wife, knowing how much I missed ours bought me a portable one for Father’s Day, but it hasn’t been the same.  We sit on the back porch a lot, but don’t use our pit much.  There is one problem with our back deck, there is a spotlight that comes on every evening.  It has a light sensor so as the sun sets, a light turns on.  It also has a motion detector, so when it senses motion it gets brighter.  Significantly brighter.  Like, blinding.  It goes from providing low light to the backyard that gives us a sense of security and ability to see, to a bright light that is irritating and blinding.  Not the same, know what I mean?  I find myself trying to not move while sitting on the deck so it won’t go from low comfortable lumens to bright, blinding mode.

It is probably obvious – I prefer bonfires over spotlights.

Bonfires are warm, inviting, welcoming.  A fire can create an atmosphere where your conversations go from “how was your day?” to “how is your life?”  The light from a bonfire isn’t blinding, it is comforting, easy to look at. Bonfires are meant to be shared.  It seems like a waste of firewood to just light one for yourself, but if friends are coming over, the wood is ready to light.  Who doesn’t want to sit around a bonfire?  

I’m not sure how you feel about the last 20 months, and the “walk in the dark” we have all been on together, but I feel like there have been an awful lot of spotlights that have been shining in my eyes.  Some of them have been difficult to look at, and when I try to look away, I’m left with what is called an “afterimage,” that small white light left in your eyes after staring at a bright light.  There have been times the last 20 months it’s been difficult for me to see because of all the lights on high beam.  

I think you know where I’m going.  In chapel this week, Pastor Eric talked about the difference between three kinds of lights; spotlight, refrigerator light, or a fire.  The imagery is obvious, so I won’t belabor the point, but wonder if as we walk in the dark it would be better if we lit some bonfires instead of shining our 1 million lumen candle lights in each other’s eyes, blinding us instead of enabling us to see.  What if our conversations were kinder and more welcoming instead of abrasive and confrontational?  What if we lit some tikis, and invited our neighbors to talk about life with us?  What if the conversations we are part of were more about listening and hearing; dispelling fear instead of creating pain?  Invitationally providing comfort like a bonfire.

Look, there are times when hearing the truth isn’t easy.  There are times speaking the truth is appropriate and right.  But, it’s easier to hear truth when I know it’s coming from someone who cares, than someone just lobbing a bomb.  

John says in his gospel: “Those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”  So others can see.

I think that John is saying that the gospel is good news.  The good news is caught as much as it is taught.  Jesus won people over, yes, because he told them the truth — just read the stories of Nicodemus or the unnamed woman at the well.  But he was also gracious and kind as he did.  Why else would sinners and tax collectors keep hanging around?  I think Jesus was more like the bonfire you have in your backyard with friends and neighbors than that irritating spotlight I can’t figure out how to turn off.  

If Jesus was that way while walking around in the dark, maybe while we walk around in the dark we should, or could be, too.