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Jun 02, 2023

Rev. Dan Robertson's Pastor's Corner: Light of the world

There’s something scary about being without light, isn’t there? About being … in

There's something scary about being without light, isn't there? About being … in the dark? There was a television show in the 1990s called "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" It was written for kids, but it was meant to be scary.

Being in the dark is a near universal fear and we see it all around us. We see darkness in haunted houses, dimly lit scenes in movies, and it is a common reference to fear of the unknown. Have you ever tried to navigate your home in true darkness? Or maybe just closed your eyes and found out that your coffee table was a foot closer than you thought? Ouch.

Isaiah, chapter 9, begins verse 2 with a phrase often repeated in our churches during Advent: "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned" (NIV).

Before Isaiah, there were many dark times in the history of the Jewish people. Think about the stories we have early in the Old Testament — Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, slavery in Egypt, wandering in the desert, drought and famine, injustice, surrounded by aggressive empires (Egypt, Babylon and Assyria), destruction of their temple, and exile from their home. They had seen a lot of darkness, deep darkness.

Isaiah 9 was probably written about 2,800 years ago with the message applied then applies now, and it likely applies to just about every time in history between then and now.

There is not a nation, or time period, or people group, which escapes this metaphor of living in darkness. Even though we can always point to good things (and practicing gratitude is important!), we also know that we can always point to bad things. There is not a place or time on this earth that has truly experienced lasting peace, lasting justice, and lasting righteousness — not one. Yet that is the call, that is the dream presented [Isaiah 9:1-7].

In our church, and it's a common practice in many churches, we have corporate confession every Sunday. Corporate confession is when we confess not just for what we individually have done or taken part of but confess the failings of the church as a whole, of society, of humanity. Confessing on behalf of a larger group, is acknowledging that we are in a time of darkness. Confessing is acknowledging that we need light.

If we take our call to follow Christ seriously, then we also take seriously the charge to right the wrongs of the world even if we did not personally cause them to occur. Let us not forget or take lightly that Jesus went to the cross for the absolution of sins he did not personally commit.

It is with the hope and promise of Christ, that we can acknowledge both that we are in a time of darkness and that there is a great light. We could even argue that light shines brighter in the darkness.

Light really is a funny thing. We like to have certain amounts of light, don't we? Our phones and computer screens can even filter what kind of light we see, such as removing blue light to help us better transition to sleep.

When we’re faced with light that is too bright, or too dim, we struggle to see. Yet the darker it is around us, the brighter a single light becomes. Just ask anyone trying to sleep in when a single bright light is suddenly turned on in a pitch-dark room.

A single bright light in darkness can serve as a beacon. Light can draw in, and like a lighthouse, light can also serve as a warning. Yet, what light does at its core is it reveals. Light reveals what darkness hides.

When we are looking for light from God we are looking for revelation. The people in Isaiah's time, much like us today, were continuing to look for God, desiring desperately to see God alongside them, to know that they were not alone and were not forgotten. May we remember that even in a time of darkness, we can cling to the light of the world [John 8:12]. Amen.

Rev. Dan Robertson pastors at First Presbyterian Church, Fairbury