Sunday, January 02, 2005

Sun, Jan 2, 2005 - The Light Shines

John 1:1-18
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=john+1%3A1-18

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it."

"I don’t get it." "I don’t understand." How many times a week do you say or hear that? It’s a phrase we use constantly, sometimes in puzzlement, sometimes in annoyance. And sometimes in a tone of frustration. "I can’t understand what’s going on. I don’t get why these things are happening to us." There’s a lot we don’t get in the world. There’s a lot we don’t understand. One of the things that is particularly hard to understand is the darkness of the world we live in, the seeming absence of any hopeful light. Even though Christmas was a week and a half ago, and even though we proclaimed then that there was light in the darkness, I wouldn’t be surprised if the glow of Christmas was over quickly. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re right back where you were before Christmas, wondering where all the light and love in the world has gone. One of the consequences of living in the world today is that we are constantly engulfed by darkness - it doesn’t stop because of Christmas. You only have to watch the news at night, especially with the tsunami coverage, to start thinking, "What has happened to our world? Where are all the good things? Doesn’t anything go right anymore?" With all the darkness surrounding us, it becomes difficult to for us to comprehend the light that is shining in our midst. We have a hard time understanding how that light can continue to shine. We have a hard time even grasping hold of the idea that there is a light shining amongst all this darkness.

The truth is that there is darkness in the world, we can’t ignore it. But we know that the light came into the world because of this darkness, and the only way to truly comprehend the brilliance of that light is to fully realize the depth of the darkness. Jesus was born in the middle of the night, that time when we’re laying in bed and things seem their utter worst. Jesus wasn’t born at noon, when the sun is shining and all our cares seem like nothing. Jesus came during that time when our world looked the blackest, in order to bring light to the deepest dark.

And even though we are Christians, that doesn’t make us immune to the despair that engulfs others. Our midnights are just as tortuous as an atheist’s. Our darkness is just as black. Sometimes, Christians find it even harder to recognize the light than non-Christians. I don’t know why - I suspect it is because the devil gets a bigger kick out of seeing Christians struggle. But the point is that we do have dark nights, when we can’t see the light that we know is supposed to be there - or if we can see it, we struggle to understand how or why it is even shining. These nights can last a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, or even longer. Many of the psalmists wrote about the seeming hopelessness of the night.

The fact is, though, that there is hope. From the beginning of the Bible to the end, we are constantly reminded that where there is darkness, there is God. And where there is God, there is light. John starts his Gospel with "In the beginning." But there’s another beginning. "In the beginning, the world was a dark, formless void." Genesis. It almost sounds like our world - a dark and formless void. The Hebrew word that describes this state of being is "tohu abohu" and it means a rolling, churning, chaotic mess. Sound like life around you? But God was there too, present in all the rolling and churning and chaos, just like God is present in all the chaos of our life. And God who is not willing that the darkness should rule our life, said, "Let there be Light!" And there was light! In the midst of the darkness, suddenly there was light! It illumined the dark, and ordered the world, and brought form to the chaos. The light changed this "tohu abohu" into the earth, teeming with life - animals, plants, and us. God wasn’t daunted by all that darkness. The void wasn’t an obstacle. In the same way, God isn’t daunted by all the darkness we encounter now. War, famine, disease. None of these things are enough to prevent God from bringing the light into our world. To shine in the darkest dark, and the longest night.

So why do we have such a hard time seeing this light? Why is it so difficult for us to understand how God’s light can shine in the midst of our human darkness? We know the light is there; we’ve been told it’s there, over and over, we celebrated it not more than nine days ago. Yet we still have despairing nights, and we still hang our heads over the evening news. What we know with our head, we don’t seem to get with our heart. We think, "Well, I’m Christian. Why is it so hard for me to find the light?" We search blindly in the darkness, trying to find this light that brings life, trying to understand why it’s there. The light shines in our darkness, and we cannot comprehend it.

One of my favourite artists is Bev Doolittle. http://www.bnr-art.com/doolitt/sentinal.htm Her works are paintings of scenery; snowy birch forests, rocky escarpments with rivers rushing underneath, things like that. However, what makes her paintings so unique is that within each picture are hidden various animals: wolves, Indian ponies, bears, eagles. When you look at each painting, you have to search for what is camouflaged. I used to spend hours staring at these paintings, not seeing a thing, until one of my sisters would show up. She would point out a tail, or an outline of an ear, and then suddenly, "I get it! I see it! There it is!" It was like finding lost treasure. I knew something was there, but I needed somebody to help me find it.

We need help to see the light. God knows we can’t do it on our own. Have you ever noticed how when you’re in the midst of a depression, it takes somebody else to pull you out of it, to show you the way out of your dark cave into the light? God knows this. So two thousand years ago, when the world seemed its darkest, God sent people to show us that the light is shining. God sent somebody to point out the tails, and ears, until we finally exclaim, "I get it!" God sent messengers to proclaim the good news, to announce salvation to all the nations of the earth. John the Baptist was one of these messengers. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe. God showed John who Jesus was, so that John in turn might show us. Luckily for us, John did more than just point out a tail or an ear. John pointed out the whole thing. He said, "Behold, the Lamb of God!" John helped us to understand that the light which came into the world was Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He helped us to comprehend that the light shines in the darkness in order to bring us life.

So what is this light like? Well, first of all, it continues to shine, even when we can’t recognize it and when the darkness around us threatens to extinguish everything. It’s actually quite interesting, because in the original Greek, it says "The light shines in the darkness." Shines is a present tense verb - not "the light shone in the darkness." No, the light shines. I think the use of the present tense was very deliberate. The light is still shining, right now. This minute. And it will continue to keep on shining for as long as we are here. Even when we feel caught up in darkness, knowing the light is there but not being able to see it, it’s shining. Nothing can put it out. The light shines into the darkest corners of our lives, and banishes all of the shadows. The light sets everything ablaze. With that light, we get the most miniscule detail. But the most important thing we get, the most important thing we understand is that despair and darkness do not have the last word. The terrible things that we live through in this world, the losses we suffer are not the end. The night that seems endless has a dawn, for the simple reason that God is there in the darkness, creating light.

The author of the Gospel of John wrote: What has come into being in the Word was life, and the life was the light of all people. In the midst of the darkness that encompasses the world, we know and with the help of God’s messengers we understand that this light is God. This light is hope, and love, and life, all wrapped up in a tiny baby boy named Jesus. That is why we come to church, even though Christmas is over, to hear, again and again, about the light has been brought into the world. To hear that this light continues to shine, regardless of all the darkness around it.

I would like to end with the words from hymn 49 in the LBW. "O Saviour of our fallen race, O Brightness of the Father’s face, O Son who shared the Father’s might before the world knew day or night, O Jesus, very Light of light, our constant star in sin’s deep night: Now hear the prayers your people pray throughout the world this holy day. O Christ, Redeemer virgin-born, let songs of praise your name adorn, whom with the Father we adore and Holy Spirit evermore." As we begin another new year, let us remember that in the midst of all the darkness we encounter, God is there, too, causing the light to shine and bringing life to us all.

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