Grace and peace are yours through Jesus Christ, the light of the world. Amen.

Holy God, we give You thanks for Your grace and mercy, which You have always shown to Your people. In particular we thank You for revealing Your Son's glory before His suffering and death for our salvation. By the power of Your Spirit nourish and strengthen our faith as we continue to hear Jesus through the inspired apostles' words. Amen.

In certain movies, it is fairly easy to figure out who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. Many times the bad guys are dressed in black, sinister looking, and even grotesque. In "The Lord of the Rings" you have Sauron, Saurumon, the Orcs, the Orikai, and the Bellrog, It is fairly easy to see which team they are playing for.

Or think of the "Star Wars" movies. Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and the Emperor. All dressed in black. All very sinister looking. And all very powerful and evil.

You can even throw Disney movies into the mix. Ursula, the sea witch in "The Little Mermaid." The queen/witch in "Snow White." Scar in "The Lion King." Medusa in "101 Dalmatians." Maleficent in "Sleeping Beauty." All of them have some kind of black clothing or black hair. That blackness is an easy way to represent darkness and evil.

But that’s just the movies. It isn’t quite so easy to pick out the bad guys or to find the evil lurking in the real world. Evil that is caused by "the god of this age," "the Prince of Darkness," Satan. Today, we learn to combat the evil of this age and shine light in the darkness of our world. We let God speak to us and hear him say, "Let light shine out of darkness."

Have you noticed that our society is willing to discuss and allow just about anything, as long as God is removed from the discussion. Our judges want to allow for same-sex marriages. People don’t want God mentioned in the Pledge of Allegiance. We accept the lies and lack of morals from our political leaders as long as the economy is doing fine. Society won’t allow religious leaders, like myself, to teach in public schools. TV shows promote pastors and Christians as bigots or buffoons. Movies that glorify homosexuality, communism, abortion, and the evils of this world receive Oscar nominations, while a movie that portrays the suffering of Christ like "The Passion of Christ" is snubbed. When the book "The Da Vinci Code" came out last year, there were all kinds of TV talk shows which delved into the ridiculously false accusation that Jesus had an affair with Mary Magdelene. Napoleon stated it correctly when he said: "It is strange what men can believe, as long as it is not in the Bible."

Christians are not isolate from this. Not by a longshot. You and I are willing to talk with our friends and co-workers about the weather and the war, but we are afraid to mention the name of Jesus. We are willing to talk about people behind their backs, but unwilling to personally confront them with their sins. We will spend hours reading novels and watching reality TV shows, but are unwilling to take the same amount of time to read God’s truth in our Bibles.

Where do these lies come from? Why does this kind of thinking pervade our society? Why are even dedicated Christians like us willing to speak of myths, but afraid to speak the truth about Jesus? The devil works very hard to keep us in the dark – to not speak about the light of Christ. He works at throwing a veil over the eyes of this world, so people cannot see the truth of the gospel and perish in hell. Paul says, "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

The devil holds the veil over the hearts of people so that they cannot see the light. What is the light? It is the gospel – the message about the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. God’s greatest glory is to be seen in Christ, who is God in human flesh, the image of God.

On Mt. Sinai, Moses saw the glory of God as the giver of the old covenant. In Christ, believers see the even greater glory of God as the author and fulfiller of the new covenant. That, of course, the devil wants no one to see. And in many cases he is successful in keeping the veil firmly in place so that the light, which is the glory of Christ, does not penetrate. We are living in a time that Paul mentions to Timothy: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

How are we able to combat the darkness that the god of this age brings into our world? With the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake." We preach Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

Far greater than any miracles Jesus performed was the invisible miracle of who he was. He wasn’t some great example that we should follow. He wasn’t a lunatic who believed he was God. He wasn’t a martyr who died for his cause. He was who he said he was. He was the Son of God in human flesh. His Father tells us that we should listen to him. Jesus wasn’t shining in his glory on that mountain so that he looked good in front of his disciples. His miraculous transfiguration was a powerful display of his glory – to prove to them who he really was. It was a glorious display that he had the power and the authority to rescue people from sin, death, and the god of this age. Though many who had followed Jesus or had been healed by him missed that point, these disciples didn’t. They didn’t want to come down off the mountain. It was good for them to be there. See what this heavenly friend did for them. He strengthened their faith. He became closer and dearer to them, more precious and glorious than ever before.

Do we want faith and friendship with Jesus strengthened? There is a way, one that the world despises and that even some lukewarm friends of Jesus at times disregard. As we hear his Holy Word in our churches and read it at home, he sends the Spirit to renew our faith. As we receive the Lord's Supper at his altar, he refreshes our hearts. And through the miracle of Holy Baptism, he makes and then reminds us of his promise that we are his and he is ours forever.

These are the ways to combat the evils of this world. The way to put an end to abortion is not to make it illegal, but to change the hearts of young mothers with the love of Jesus Christ. The way to get drugs and gangs off of our streets is to build our families upon the foundation of Christ and his Word. The way to help change society is to speak out against the ills and sins that have been permitted for so long and then to offer the solution that is only found in God’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I wasn’t invited to be just a guest preacher this morning, but also a guest teacher. I am assuming that all of you will be in Bible class today, because why wouldn’t you want to see more of the light of Christ. In Bible study we are discussing exciting and interesting ways to share the light of Christ with others who are caught in the darkness of their sin. For example, when people want to discuss the weather, you can discuss the Creator of the weather. When your friends complain about the evils of society, you can explain that sin is the problem that plagues society, but Christ’s forgiveness is the solution. When you are enjoying the Super Bowl with your friends this evening, watching the Eagles and Patriots play, you can explain that it doesn’t really matter who wins since God is a Packer fan anyhow.

As Christians, as members of First Evan and as a whole church, you need to be looking for new ways to share the light of Christ with others in our sin-darkened world. For example: the Mankato area in Minnesota is now home for approximately 350 Sudanese refugees. As many as 25 Sudanese now worship at St. Mark’s in Mankato. Adult confirmations and baptisms are taking place. Individuals in the congregation are providing English- as-a-second-language classes and transportation to church and other locations. Still others assist with the paperwork required for the Sudanese to relocate in the United States or bring other family members to the United States.

On the north side of Chicago a group of WELS Christians have been meeting for nearly two years for monthly Bible studies and social activities. Their group is called "Crossroads". They are not a home mission, but are linked somewhat to Jerusalem congregation in Morton Grove. The effort for this new mission on Chicago’s north side is entirely lay driven. There is no pastor yet. And still, these dedicated Christians have personally contacted referrals and other prospects, invited friends and publicized the group’s existence and activities. They have 65 in their group right now and among that small group, they have the money to call their own pastor and to do outreach ministry.

God will allow us to accomplish great things for him. We just need to do the work. At a meeting at my congregation of Epiphany, I asked the question, "What kind of ministry could we do if money were not an object?" People suggested paying off our debts, painting the church, increasing our commitment to Shoreland. Pretty basic stuff. Still, there were a few that thought "outside of the box" – they thought of new and exciting ministries – increasing WLS’s preschool enrollment so more unchurched people might be in contact with Christ and his Church; calling a bilingual staff minister to do mission work to children, families, and the 11,000 Hispanic people in our ministry area.

Someone even mentioned that we have Epiphany in southwest Racine, we have First Evan downtown, and New Hope on the north side. We have WELS churches in Kenosha, Union Grove, Oak Creek and Caledonia, but there isn’t anything over by I-94. We don’t have a church presence there. He said it is open and empty. There’s nothing there. Someone who lives there replied, "We call it Sturtevant." I live in Sturtevant. Wouldn’t be awesome for First Evan and Epiphany to not only run a school together, but also start a mission congregation together.

I don’t know if any of this will ever happen. But God expects us to dream, to work, to spread his message and he will bless.

"For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Just as in creation God called light out of darkness by his word, so he makes light shine into the hearts of lost sinners by his word. He doesn’t say, "Let there be faith." Rather, he says, "Your sins are forgiven."

A little boy was afraid of the dark. One night his mother told him to go out to the back porch and bring her the broom. The little boy turned to his mother and said, "Mama, I don't want to go out there. It's dark." The mother smiled reassuringly at her son. "You don't have to be afraid of the dark," she explained. "Jesus is out there. He'll look after you and protect you." The little boy looked at his mother real hard and asked, "Are you sure he's out there?" "Yes, I'm sure. He is everywhere, and he is always ready to help you when you need him," she said. The little boy thought about that for a minute and then went to the back door and cracked it a little. Peering out into the darkness, he called, "Jesus? If you're out there, would you please hand me the broom?"

Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The light no darkness can overcome. Not in a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire, not as a reflection in the face of Moses, but in the face of Jesus Christ we get to know God’s glory. In Christ, the Lord’s face shines on us, looks upon us with favor. To people who are stumbling in darkness, groping blindly and falling to eternal death comes One who shows us the undeserved and unfailing love of God.

We might be able to pick out the bad guys in the movies. It is much more difficult to find the god of the age lurking in the darkness of our society. Praise God that Jesus shines the light of his glory into our sin-darkened world. He is the eternal good guy. He is the light of the world. The light no darkness can overcome. Let us look for ways to share this light with the world. Amen.

"The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." Amen. (Matthew 4:16)

Where