One of the final images in our Scriptures is this:
23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to light it, for the glory of God and of the Lamb illuminate it. 24 Its light will light the nations of the earth, and the rulers of the world will come and bring their glory to it. (Rev. 21:23-24 TLB)
What a vision! A safe dwelling place in which God and Jesus the Lamb are its warm and radiant illumination. In that divine glow, the nations of the earth rest and live in harmony. No war. No violence. No barriers. There’s a place in the light for all. No segregation. No separation. No discrimination. Every person dwelling together in God’s glow.
The ancient Christians used the word “union” to describe this vision. Union is what God’s after. Union is what Jesus lived and died and lives for. Union is oneness–with God and with all other humans. It is the absolute elimination of every barrier barricading us from each other and from the One who made each of us.
But how do we get there?
The Christian mystics believed there were three steps toward it: awakening, purgation and illumination. Today we explore illumination. In many ways that final image in the Bible tells us what illumination is. It’s a divine light. And this light more and more deeply reveals to us who God is, who we are and what’s happening in our world.
Illumination is like a campfire.
I grew up camping. At least once a year, my family would pack up the station wagon and drive to a desert or mountain spot where we’d set up a couple of tents, build a big fire and relax under the stars. I’ve passed the tradition on to my kids. About once a year, we’ve taken them camping, usually in some state park.
Once you get away from the bright city lights, it’s dark. So dark! This is one of the reasons why building a fire at night has always been one of my favorite activities. It’s remarkable, when you first light the fire and only have the smallest flames, how even those tiny flames enlighten the campsite. Things you couldn’t see before you now can see.
But it’s even more true once that fire really starts burning. With the fire at full force, you’re able to make out all kinds of things nearby and far away that you couldn’t see without the fire.
John Michael Talbot (Come to the Table, 86) writes that illumination is that roaring fire. If awakening is the first flickering flames, illumination is the fire fully fueled. This illumination is critical to our journey toward union. Illumination is the ongoing and deepening process by which we come to see ourselves more clearly, our God more closely and our world more comprehensively. Awakening opens our eyes. Illumination keeps them open so that we face reality and are moved to do something about it.
Moses experienced this illumination. While tending sheep, Moses saw a burning bush (Ex. 3). The radiance from the bush enabled Moses to more clearly see God:
“4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Ex. 3:4-6 NLT)
In this illumination Moses more clearly saw God.
And he more clearly saw his world and himself:
7 Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering … 9 Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. 10 Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.” (Ex. 3:7-10 NLT)
By this blazing fire, Moses saw his world more closely–the suffering, the distress, the oppression, the abuse. And he saw himself more closely–one commissioned by God to bring rescue and relief.
This is what illumination does. M. Robert Mulholland (Invitation to a Journey, 111) writes this:
“Illumination is … characterized by increasing social concern, not out of obligation but out of a deep sense of God’s love poured into the our heart for others. Good works are a hallmark of the illuminative way, not as a responsibility or a duty but again as a response of love. What happens in illumination is a paradigm shift in our motivation. Rather than a self-referenced, self-concerned motivation for our relationship with God, our motivation becomes a heart burning with love for God, the opening of our very being to the One we love, and living our life in the world out of that love.”
Illumination is waking up — every day and refusing to shut our eyes to the personal and systemic sins causing abuse, oppression, injustice and suffering. It’s opening our ears to the cries of distress as well as to God’s call sending us into the distress. Illumination is fighting and writing and preaching and teaching and serving and surrendering and sacrificing to make the final image of Scripture a reality now–a home where all, especially those who’ve long been beaten up, driven out or knocked down, dwell together safely in the warm radiance of God and of the Lamb.
