A few weeks ago I was reading to my daughters at bedtime and we picked out the book “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam” which, I have since researched, should more correctly be entitled “I’ll be a sunbeam,” the hymn lyrics written by Nellie Talbot around 1900. As I read the story I found that I couldn’t remember the tune that it was normally set to, so I looked it up on YouTube. Rather than the children’s hymn, however, the search returned a 1994 live recording of grunge band Nirvana and their rendition of the song, “Jesus Don’t Want Me For A Sunbeam.”
I am a Gen Xer and so have a soft spot for Nirvana. I appreciate that not all do, however, so follow the link at your own risk (I have shared the most innocuous version I could find, but listening to the song is not a prerequisite for reading the remainder of this article).
The lyrics are what struck me:
Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam
‘Cause sunbeams are not made like me
And don’t expect me to cry
For all the reasons you had to die
Don’t ever ask your love of me.
Don’t expect me to lie
Don’t expect me to cry
Don’t expect me to die for thee.
There is something intensely powerful in that line “Jesus don’t want me for a sunbeam ‘cause sunbeams are not made like me.” By who’s definition? How can we be so sure about that?
We have a long history in the Church of dividing humanity into those who believe and those who do not, or, to stick with the sunbeam analogy, those who walk in the light and those who are in darkness. I often hear this theme of brokenness and irredeemability from those outside the church, like they are somehow outside the reach of God, that they are stuck in the dark. And because they have been looked down upon by those who are in the light, they express anger towards God and the Christian faith.
Light and dark are common biblical themes but are especially prevalent in the Gospel of John. Jesus is “the light of all people” (John 1.4) and came to “shine in the darkness” (John 1.5). “All who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light…But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (John 3.20-21). This all sounds rather damning to unbelievers.
Theologian and Bishop Cyril of Alexandria (376-444) approaches this light and dark imagery from an interesting perspective. Cyril points out that the light is never ours, but originates in Jesus, who is “the light of the world” (John 8.12). All creation is dark, Cyril suggests, until it is illumined by the light of the Word of God. Enlightened beings (pun intended) are those which hear the Word of God, and believe.
What does this all have to do with sunbeams? Well, for starters, if we count ourselves among those who are in the light, we must recognize that we didn’t “do” anything – we did no works – to become enlightened. We enter the light through a leap of faith, but the light itself is all Jesus. We should therefore not be arrogant about being in the light, because we are not the lamp; we simply stepped into its glare.
Secondly, our friends who remain in the dark, who have come to believe that they are not sunbeam material, are not inherently bad. For Cyril, as for many early theologians, to be evil is simply to be unenlightened and fallen human beings. There is nothing irredeemable about this state. There is nowhere that cannot be reached by the light of Christ. There is no person too broken or lost that the light cannot shine upon them.
Light or dark, we are all sons and daughters of the same God. We do not need to be sunbeams, but we do need to walk in faith, to step into the sun together. “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa 2.5).
Blessings and peace,
Deacon Nick