What Do Our Images Say to Us? To Others?March 15, 2021

What Do Our Images Say to Us? To Others?

After reading the Scripture for the fourth Sunday of Lent, my first inclination was to reflect on images of light from the readings. And then circling in my mind and heart were images and words and metaphors that painted light as good and darkness as bad and the possible racist implications of all of that.

Theologians from many traditions have written wiser words than I ever could about the connections. Esau McCauley is an Anglican priest who writes on topics like these which are often overlooked by white interpreters of the Bible. Eileen Flanagan is a Quaker who wonders how to appropriately use images of light and darkness that do not assign goodness to the former and evil to the latter. Adele Halliday of The United Church of Canada challenges us to move beyond those simple dualisms and find passages that suggest comfort and consolation in the dark night that envelops us as well as the light that shows the way.

So I am left wondering what Jesus might ask of us today. In my own vast ignorance and limping efforts to come to know the God who made all of us in the Divine image, I am left with more questions than answers. I am uneasy and uncertain. Perhaps that is exactly where God wants me, inviting me to join in the holy work of learning and growing. Let us commit to loving the gifts of light and dark, both of which surely God created.

Sister Laura Bregar