Leaning Towards the Light

Overview of Leaning Towards the Light: Soaking Up the Presence of Jesus

Plants lean toward their source of light and life—the sun. Our lives should be oriented toward and leaning into Jesus. This Lent sermon series will help you lead your congregation into a closer relationship with God through New Testament texts drawn from RCL Year A. Each guide in this series includes:

• AIM exegetical commentary on the text,

• insightful sermon illustrations,

• inspiring quotes, and

• liturgical resources on themes in the passage.

Created for Lent 2023. Texts are for RCL Year A and are suitable for non-lectionary preachers at any time.

TPW puts you in the driver's seat. We want you to approach God's Word, prayerfully listen to the Holy Spirit, and create a message for your congregation. We don’t offer ready-made sermons. Instead, we provide resources and inspiration to help you craft your own sermons and services.

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Series Introduction

Scott B. Bullock

Phototropism: An Apt Analogy for the Spiritual Journey

Have you heard of phototropism? It is a survival mechanism in which a plant grows toward the greatest source of light in an effort to jump-start the process of photosynthesis. Picture the Leaning Tower of Pisa, only it’s a plant!  It is an elongation of the plant's cells towards its source of energy. This reach for the sun is initiated by auxin, a phytohormone (plant hormone) that regulates growth. This internal orientation towards the light makes it possible for a plant to thrive even in adverse conditions.

Exposure to Jesus

Our measure of spiritual growth is entirely dependent upon our exposure to Jesus. Just as a plant needs the sun to initiate the process of photosynthesis for its survival and growth, we need Jesus to jump-start our renewal and restoration.

Growth Dependent Upon Position

Nothing green grows in a cave because of lack of sunlight and nothing of spiritual significance can be birthed within us without the illumination of God’s Son. Therefore, the measure of our spiritual growth during Lent or any other time of the year is dependent upon position. Are we positioned to take in the presence of Jesus or not?

In his Pensées, Blaise Pascal in his section on “Morality and Doctrine,” says “there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings… but these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God himself.”

“True Happiness”

Lent represents a time when we can take inventory of our search for “true happiness,” moving away from a troglodyte existence that has left us spiritually blind and wanting and moving towards the light that will renew our growth.

Lenten Weariness

With that said, Lent can leave us worn and weary. Like a failed New Year’s resolution, we often make feeble efforts to fast during this season of repentance and fail miserably. Why? Because our focus in Lent becomes a material sacrifice we were never intended to make. What God desires is a different kind of sacrifice, the sacrifice of a “broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart” (Psalm 51:17).

It is simply “enough” to lean towards the light in this season of Lent, to orient ourselves towards Jesus, to position ourselves so that we can soak up his presence and take in his spiritual nourishment.

Rethinking Spiritual Growth

Contemporary missional theology addresses the misconception that many of us have regarding spiritual growth in its discussion of the bounded-set versus the centered-set.

Bounded-set theology and ecclesiology assign a place to those who have “successfully” arrived within Jesus’ inner circle in contrast to those who are still on the outside looking in. The encircled chosen few are perceived as thriving in the presence of Jesus because they’ve said the right prayers and exercised the correct “genuflect” gymnastics. The orbitless “outsiders” are in the cold and voidless space of a life without Jesus.

Centered-set theology and ecclesiology, on the other hand, places a premium on positional presence in relation to Jesus. There is no inner and outer circle, just a direction towards. We are either moving towards Jesus or away from Jesus.

Such a corrective is helpful for our spiritual renewal in that it frees us from assigning a value to spiritual growth akin to gaining membership into a club and puts it solely in terms of relational presence with Jesus. This allows us in seasons like Lent to sit at his feet and listen rather than check off a list of “dos” and “don’ts” that we believe will achieve for us some modicum of spiritual success.

Stories of Light Seekers

During Lent, RCL Year A has given us stories of individuals who have sought the light. They have leaned towards the light, made their way to Jesus, soaked up his presence, and discovered life.

Like us, they are flawed individuals,

• skeptics like Nicodemus (John 3:1-17),

• outsiders like the Samaritan woman (John 4:5-42),

• physically broken like the blind man (John 9:1-41), or

• lost in the darkness and gloom of death itself, like Lazarus (John 11:1-45).

This set of four individuals leaning in towards the light are surrounded by two stories of Jesus’ own full presence in the light of God the Father found in the stories of his temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11) and his Passion (Matthew 26:14-27:66).

What is AIM Commentary?

AIM stands for Ancient context, the text through the lens of Jesus (Ἰησοῦς), and our Modern application.

Understanding the Ancient or original context of the passage is necessary to inform and guide our interpretation. We also believe along with the Reformers that the interpretation of the Ancient context of the Hebrew scripture for the church necessarily flows through its Lord, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we affirm that the role of the preacher to bring the congregation from the Ancient context through Christ and to the Modern context, making the message real in our hearts and lives.

A Word of Encouragement

May you and your community be encouraged to simply allow “leaning towards Jesus and soaking up his presence” to be “enough” during this season and take encouragement from this set of unlikely characters who positioned themselves to grow towards the light.

—Scott Bullock