Library
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Follow the Light
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Isaiah 2:1 - 5 New Revised Standard Version
1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. 3 Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that God may teach us God’s ways and that we may walk in God’s paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 God shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
How could we celebrate Advent, the preparation time before Christmas, without hearing from the prophet Isaiah? Isaiah is the prophet that Jesus quotes from the most, and Isaiah has some words and pictures for us that have become part of our memory, even if we don’t know much about the Bible.
The prophet tells us about a God whose temple in Jerusalem has become a place of worship for all peoples and nations. It is a center of teaching so that people may walk in the right paths of justice and compassion. Isaiah’s words have shown up in folk songs about beating our swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and studying war no more. At the end, Isaiah invites all of us to walk in the light of God.
The theme of God’s light shining in our darkness shows up a lot in this prophet. It shows up again and again in the Bible, and it is a central message of the Christmas story. When God began to create the heavens and the earth, when darkness was roiling over the face of the deep, the first thing God created on the first day of creation was LIGHT.
When the Israelites had escaped from slavery in Egypt and they were wandering in the dark and the unknown on the way to the promised land, God shows them the way by giving them a light, a pillar of fire at night so they would not be lost.
When Isaiah is offering his words of promise and hope to God’s people, on two very scary occasions, when they were about to be overwhelmed by the Assyrians, at first, and then taken into exile by the Babylonians, here are the words our friend Isaiah gives to them and gives to us.
Violence is not the way to peace and security: “the people who have walked in darkness have now seen a great light.” “Arise and shine for your light has come.”
We find that promise from some of the psalmists who speak to the darkness of fear and doubt and war and grief.
From Psalm 27 which is often read at funerals, The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
From Psalm 119, your word, O God, is a lamp for my feet and a light unto my path. Perhaps, as one teacher says, a light that only shows us a few steps ahead, does not illuminate a mile or so, but just a few steps at a time so we can learn to trust. And still, God gives us that light in the times of darkness.
The other book in the Bible that is jam packed with images of light is the Gospel of John which we will read on Christmas Eve right before we light the 1,000 individual candles and sing Silent Night, the hymn about that first Christmas when the angels came to the shepherds in the dark fields and surrounded them with music and of course, with LIGHT!
John’s gospel says: What has come into being with Christ was life, and that life is a light for all persons, and that light still shines in our darkness and the darkness has never put it out.
We could not celebrate Christmas without the Bible images of light, and without decorating our homes and our streets with, what else, LIGHTS, of course. And we even take our children and our friends and our family around with us at night to see how the lights on people’s homes make the night not so dark.
Those promises and images of light are only important to us if we are still feeling any darkness in our lives. The darkness of fear and grief and illness and intimations of war with an unstable dictator in North Korea who controls nuclear weapons and whose mental state is hard to predict and understand, and a congress who occasionally keeps the common good of the American people in mind but not often enough.
The people in the Bible, who first heard Isaiah talk about light and comfort, and God’s hopeful presence in our darkness, felt what we have felt. The Israelites who heard the words from chapter two were doubtful and afraid of war and violence from the Assyrians. Their fear was justified because right after Isaiah gives his invitation to come back to God, to leave the destructive ways of selfishness and greed, the ten northern tribes of Israel are conquered by the Assyrians. Those of you who will go to England with us next September will see the sculptures in the British Museum from the Assyrian artists who have marked that violent victory over Israel in bronze. These are real and true historical events.
In chapter 40 of Isaiah, a different writer speaks to a different time in the story of God’s people. This is a time of exile and loneliness and darkness in exile, when they are again enslaved, but this time by the Babylonians. Psalm 137 commemorates this time. How can we sing the songs of God when we are strangers in a strange land? The words from Jesus’ favorite prophet give us hope and light again in chapter 40. These are the words that the composer Handel has immortalized in his masterpiece of music.
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Saith your God. Saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare, her time of darkness has been accomplished, has been finished.” I hope you will be listening to some of the music from Handel’s brilliant creation this month as we prepare our hearts for Christmas.
What is the darkness that you and your loved ones are wrestling with in these weeks before we celebrate the one who is the Light of the World? Can we lift that darkness up to God in a time of silence?
Some of you have looked at the book by Marcus Borg on understanding the first Christmas, and you will remember that we really don’t know the exact time of the year that Christ was born. What we do know is that it was probably not in December because shepherds keeping watch over sheep in the fields is probably in the springtime. We believe that the early Christians co-opted the timing of a secular celebration of the ending of the winter solstice when the days stop getting darker, December 21, and the light has begun to come back into the world after the time of greatest darkness.
The winter solstice, a time of deepest darkness, is a fitting time of the year to thank God for the gift of Light and abundant life in Jesus Christ.
We will be talking more about where you have seen darkness and fear in your life and in our world. These are the same themes present in the first Christmas as people dealt with the oppression of the roman rulers. We’ll also be talking about where we have also seen God’s light breaking through into that darkness. Please think about those images as you observe any lights these next few days.
One of the stories we will look at next week, about light and darkness, has to do with a book I read over the Thanksgiving holiday by author Laura Hillenbrand who wrote Seabiscuit some ten years ago. Laura is an amazing woman who is one of my heroes. She has suffered for years from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which keeps her confined to her house for years at a time. She rarely gets out with her husband. In spite of that debilitating illness, she has now authored another bestselling book about a budding Olympic athlete who became a prisoner of war in Japan during World War II. He endured horrible torture and abuse but survived, and with God’s help overcame his alcohol addiction to become an inspiration to millions of others.
We will hear more of his incredible story next week as we talk about the places where the light of Christ is overcoming and shining in our world and in our hearts. Let me know about those stories of darkness and light and we will share them with each other.
I’d like to recommend, not only Handel’s Messiah, but Mary Chapin Carpenter’s Christmas Album. Elise Kish will sing the title song, Come Darkness, Come Light, in a couple of weeks.
Come darkness, come light; come new star shining bright
Come love to this world tonight, alleluia.
Come broken, come whole, come wounded in your soul
Come anyway that you know, alleluia.
Come doubting come sure, come fearful to this door
Come see what love is for. Alleluia.
Come running, come walking slow, come weary on your broken road
Come see Him and shed your heavy load. Alleluia.
There’s a humble stable and a light within;
there’s an angel hovering and three wise men
today a baby’s born in Bethlehem. Alleluia.
Come darkness, come light, come new star burning bright
Come love to this world tonight. Alleluia.