January 27, 2008

From Darkness to Light

The Rev. A. Thomas Carlson

Scriptures: Isaiah 9:1-4

Matthew 4:12-23

The Lord is my light and salvation (Psalm 27:1a).

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light (Matthew 4:16).

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in the land of deep darkness on them light has shined (Isaiah 9:2).

These past five days have been a study in contrasts. We had a streak of bright, clear weather (lots of light) and then came the rain and snow mix. The sensor light on the patio was working by 3:30 yesterday afternoon! We know the difference between light and darkness simply by observing the weather patterns these past five days. I'd venture to say that 99 percent of us prefer sunshine (even when it's below 32 degrees) to the warmer, wetter weather of today. Do the Scripture readings for today help in penetrating this wet, wintry gray? Or must we rely on Puget Sound Energy simply to make it through these dreary times?

It is true that we are a people who depend on artificial light. Except for those times that the power goes out (like last winter), we cannot appreciate the significance of Isaiah's comments that are repeated in Matthew's Gospel: "The people who walked (Matthew says 'sat') in darkness have seen a great light." Walking in the night for folks in biblical times could be a fearful experience. The night was perilous and fraught with danger. People illumined their homes, their work places with fire up to 1803, when William Murdock invented the gaslight. When the night came, people walked and sat in darkness!

When we read these words from Scripture this morning, people knew the meaning of darkness. To proclaim that they, who walked and sat in darkness, saw a great light was a vivid, dramatic, and hopeful message. The light referred to in these passages changes everything. It changes how the world looks. It changes how people feel. It is really used to affirm God's appearing and God's presence. When the New Testament writers spoke of Christ as The Light of the World, they were ascribing to Him the ability to transform their world from one of darkness and despair to one of hope and joy. Thus we read in John 1:5, "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." As we move to the conclusion of the Epiphany Season, it is appropriate for us to appreciate and celebrate this light referred to by Isaiah and Matthew.

It isn't easy to live in darkness. Remember, we are referring to two kinds of darkness: the darkness of nature and the dark night of the soul. As Christ followers, I want us to consider how He brings light into our lives.

1. Christ illumines the nature of God. Christ shows us in His own life what God is all about.

Several months ago, the floors in the parsonage were sanded. It required the moving of our oversized sofa to the basement and back again. The only way to accomplish this feat was to take it outside up and down the hill on the side of the parsonage. It was brought back upstairs after the work was done at night and in the dark. Tony and Anthony will agree that if it were not for a very powerful work light brought over from the church, shinning on the outside steps, it probably would have been a disaster! The light made all the difference. In an intellectual and spiritual sense, Jesus Christ can keep us from stumbling in the dark. If one feels the need to argue with the doctrines of the church or question some faith tenet, my advice is for them to spend quiet time with the words of Jesus. Allow them to speak to your heart and mind. I really believe that if you do just that, you will not only appreciate His words but that they will illumine the very nature of God. I believe the mind of Jesus captures the mind of God. What is God like? God is like Jesus: loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving. Christ illumines the nature of God.

2. Christ illumines the way to God. There is a reason the writer of Hebrews proclaimed: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). He is our constant in a constantly changing world. He is our predictable point of reference in our faith journey.

A lesson from astronomy might be helpful at this point. A teenage son of a pastor gave his dad this insight from astronomy. About forty-five degrees up from the horizon in the northern sky the boy pointed to the North Star. He pointed out that the constellations—Taurus, Pegasus, Orion, and all the others—move during each hour of the night. They rotate like the hands of a clock around one fixed light—the North Star. They move, but it never moves. That is why sailors in every century in the Western Hemisphere have used the North Star to steer in the right direction. It is always a reliable point of reference. It does raise and lower about twenty-three degrees in reference to the horizon between summer and winter. But while everything else in the heavens shuffles around, it basically stands still. It is a constant. There are some lights that shine as a fixed reminder of a permanent reality. The light of Christ is that kind of light.

3. Finally, Christ brings light into the darkest of places. It is the search light of compassion and concern. It is best illustrated by the shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine and goes out on the hillside to find the one sheep who is lost. It is the light a woman shines looking for a precious coin. It is the light of a loving God who will not let us go. And, we are to carry that light with us wherever we go.

The lighthouse is the perfect structure for a church building. It shines on water and land, illuminating the path people are searching for. What a witness to what God is all about.

In London during the reign of Queen Anne in the 18th Century there were few or no street lights. A law was passed requiring everyone whose property fronted on a street or alley to hang out a light from six to eleven in the evening during the months from September until March. It was declared that everyone was responsible for the safety of his or her neighbors from the dangers of the night. A man with a lantern went about the streets crying: "Hang out your lights. Hang out your lights." That, my friends, is Christ's call to us today.

The challenge for you and for me is to reflect enough light from Christ that we can bring some hope, compassion and cheer into the dark places around us. We are called to be lights (yes, beacon lights), reflecting the love, compassion, mercy and forgiveness that has been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. "Hang out the lamps." If I were to summarize what Epiphany is all about, this is it!

THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT; THOSE WHO LIVED IN A LAND OF DEEP DARKNESS ON THEM LIGHT HAS SHINED (Isaiah 9:2). Amen.