| Sermon for Sunday, December 12, 2004 THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT
We said last week that during Advent we hear from the prophet Isaiah a great deal. We said that most of the Bible verses that Handel chose to use in his magnificent “Messiah” have come from Isaiah. We read in the ninth chapter of Isaiah these familiar words: the people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light; it is on those who live in a land of darkness that a light is now shining. Those words from the prophet can only make sense if we have experienced or are experiencing darkness and shadows in our lives. In the past ten days in this church we have participated in three funerals. We have also talked with friends and neighbors of Chris Sewell who was tragically killed when he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and his car was destroyed by someone fleeing from the police. His funeral service was Friday just up the street a few blocks at Mission Hills church. And I just heard yesterday of a friend of one of our members who ended his own life this past week. There is an advent prayer by a couple I was in seminary with at SMU that begins this way: Lord we are still feeling the darkness; are you still coming? We are feeling the darkness of war and violence; are you still coming as the prince of peace. We are feeling the darkness of sadness and sorrow; are you still coming as the light of the world? The time of that first Christmas was a time of darkness also. In our book study last Monday night correcting some of the many errors in the Da Vinci Code novel, scholar Bart Ehrman reminded us that the first century world was full of darkness and hardship. Most of the people were very poor, so when Jesus encouraged them in the Lord’s Prayer to pray for daily bread, it was not a metaphor as it is for most of us, it was a dire need for food. And most of them could not read or write. And they were severely oppressed by the boot heel of the Roman army and by the ruthless Roman government. So they were longing for a sliver of light and hope that would break into their hopelessness and darkness. When we remember those circumstances, the images of light that permeate our December celebrations is very powerful. We can start those images of light by thinking about the Jewish celebration of Hannukah which began last week and which is a festival of light commemorating God’s victory 150 years before Jesus birth over killers of the Jews and the lamps that burned miraculously in the temple for eight days. And the Christmas story itself is full of images of light. The shepherds-poorest of the poor in the first century, the lowest folks on the economic ladder-were the first to hear of the news of the birth and when they heard, they were blinded by the LIGHT. They were surrounded by singing angels, angels who could not really be seen because there was so much LIGHT! And the wise men, the astrologers from Arabia, mentioned in the gospel of Matthew were able to find the Christ child in the house (not a stable) because the light of a star, probably a comet some would say, had guided them there. By the way, Newsweek and Time have both done a good job in their cover stories on the birth of Christ. And the gospel of John as it tells us of the beginnings of Jesus says nothing at all about his birth; what does it say? John talks about the light of Christ that shines on in the darkness and the darkness has never been able to put out that light. God in Christmas is doing what writer Robert Louis Stevenson told his mother when he was a boy watching the lamplighter do his work on his dark street in England 200 years ago. Stevenson’s mother asked what he saw as he looked intently out the window as night fell. Stevenson told her. “I am watching this man poke holes in the darkness.” So we celebrate Christmas, to prepare our hearts and lives for Christmas by setting out our candles and stringing our LIGHTS because we need Christ’s light to come into our world and our heart and to poke holes in the darkness. Christmas does not mean that we will have no darkness or grief or tragedy or loss in our lives. Matthew’s gospel is graphic about that telling us that after Christ was born Herod’s soldiers came and murdered all the boys under two years old around Bethlehem to lessen the threat of a messiah. There will still be darkness in our world that God needs us to work to overcome also. But we will be able to join that struggle knowing that it is Christ’s light that is here with us and that light can never be put out. Thanks be to God. |
