The Father of Lights

~~~ James 1:12-18 ~~~ Psalm 94 ~~~ Mark 8:14-21 ~~~

...all good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights...

James must have been an inspirational person to those who knew him.
His writings bring us the fleshy beauty of the essence of God.
The words we hear today clearly states that everything good
comes down to us from the Light of the Father.
In reflecting on the properties of light, specifically white light...
White light is composed of the entire color spectrum.
white light is the balance of all the colors.
Can you name them? ROYGBIV...
red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.

No matter the nature of gift or grace
 it all comes from the pure light of the Father.
His light is made visible to us through the good in our life.
And if we receive this goodness we can then pass it on to others.

Jesus enjoined them, “Watch out,
guard against the leaven of the Pharisees
and the leaven of Herod.” 

The disciples are concerned that they may not have packed enough bread.
Jesus is more concerned about the spreading of evil in the land.
Jesus compares this evil with something they are familiar...bread making.

It only takes a small amount of yeast to leaven the whole batch of bread.
The leaven causes the bread to rise...even triple in volume.
The most common source of leavening was to retain a piece of dough
from the previous day to use as a form of sour dough bread.
Jesus does not want to use any previous leavened dough.
He is the one who was sent to make all things new.
He still wants there to be bread, but he wants fresh leaven.

So he is urging the disciples to wary
of what the Pharisees and Herod are spreading.
What they are spreading is definitely not coming from the Father of Light

Blessings in all good things
coming down from the Father of Lights.
Peace.