light and darkness

Your Light Has Come

Posted on by Betsy

Epiphany is celebrated on January 6 every year. It is a day that recalls the arrival of the Wise Men in Bethlehem. They followed the glorious Epiphany star that had arisen over the town on the night of Jesus’ birth and remained there as a guide in the darkness. It became symbolic of the light that beckoned people to step out of their own darkness into the glory of Christ.

When we say we have “had an epiphany,” we are letting others know that a lightbulb has gone off in our brain and we’ve had an enlightenment.

Today’s lectionary passage takes us back to Isaiah’s words, which foreshadow the Messiah’s arrival as a light that would come upon the darkness of the earth:

Isaiah 60 (Common English Bible)

Arise! Shine! Your light has come;
    the Lord’s glory has shone upon you.
2 Though darkness covers the earth
    and gloom the nations,
    the Lord will shine upon you;
    God’s glory will appear over you.
3 Nations will come to your light
    and kings to your dawning radiance.

Verse 3 places us squarely at the scene in Bethlehem, where we kneel in wonder with the kings. Isaiah describes the glory of Christ as a “dawning radiance”. Let’s pause there for just a moment. It is the daily dawning radiance that dispels the darkness of night. Imagine our world without the sun! We would not survive. We need its warmth, its brilliance, and its constant presence in our days to light up our pathways. That is exactly what Christ does. He is the constant presence in the darkness of today’s reality that lights our pathway … straight back to him.

4 Lift up your eyes and look all around:
    they are all gathered; they have come to you.
Your sons will come from far away,
    and your daughters on caregivers’ hips.
5 Then you will see and be radiant;
    your heart will tremble and open wide,
    because the sea’s abundance will be turned over to you;
    the nations’ wealth will come to you.

Isaiah reminds us that we can be radiant, too. God’s glory shines through us when we lift up one another in “care, prayer, and share.”

We are invited to care for the things God cares about … the marginalized, the hungry, the animals, the poor, the addicted, the imprisoned, the planet … these are the things God cares about.

We are invited to pray for the hurts and concerns of those around us and pray for forgiveness of our sins. We can lift up our nation and pray for our future. We can pray for our leaders, our children, and those in faraway places.

And God is counting on us to share our abundance with people who don’t have anything. Food banks, homeless shelters, nursing homes filled with lonely people … these are places where we can share ourselves and be a light in someone’s darkness.

6 Countless camels will cover your land,
    young camels from Midian and Ephah.
They will all come from Sheba,
    carrying gold and incense,
    proclaiming the Lord’s praises.

How will you respond to this call to be a dawning radiance today? Arise and shine! Your light has come.

Light Path by Michelle Robertson

The Power of Darkness

Posted on by Betsy

This is the time of year when the sun is fickle about making an appearance. It acts like a self-conscious teenager deciding on whether or not to go to the school dance. She shows up too early in the morning and peeks through our bedroom blinds like she needs to see who else is there before she commits. Then she ducks behind clouds for the rest of day, avoiding the scrutiny of the rest of the kids. Finally, she calls her dad and goes home way too early, making us think that midnight has suddenly arrived in the middle of the afternoon as she takes her light with her. We miss the boldness of that summer sun who came out to play and stayed all day! Come back, summer sun!

In our Scripture today, Paul talks to the church at Colossae about the “power of darkness”. This same phrase is used in Luke 22:53 when Jesus describes the sinister forces of Satan as he was being arrested and taken away for his crucifixion. This is the darkness of Satan’s domain. It lulls us to sleep, distracts us, afflicts and depresses us, and is very skillful at hiding.

Colossians 1 (New Revised Standard Version)

For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, so that you may have all endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. 

Paul gives us the switch to flood our souls with the light that overpowers the darkness. When we know God’s will we have spiritual understanding. This wisdom enables us to live a life worthy of Christ and bear spiritual fruit in everything we do: The big tasks as well as the small moments of grace that we share with others. God strengthens us and blesses us with endurance and patience. And what is the result? We inherit the light.

13 He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

God rescues us from the power of darkness ,and we now belong to his kingdom, which is a kingdom of light.

How can you be the light to someone living in darkness today? The days are getting shorter and colder and people living on the edge are anxiously waiting for help and redemption. Who will you save today?

Moonlight Overcoming the Darkness

The Lightness of Life

Posted on by Betsy

Many years ago I had an opportunity to go spelunking. For those who don’t recognize the word, spelunking means cave exploration. I was a student at Penn State and had just been hired as a Resident Advisor for a women’s dorm. The team of RA’s from my dorm and the nearby men’s dorm RA’s were taken on a “team building” weekend that included exploring one of Pennsylvania’s famous caves. We dropped down a large hole on a rickety ladder and begin walking, squatting, crawling on all fours, and finally belly-crawling through underground passages that got tighter and more narrow as we proceeded.

Did I mention I am claustrophobic? This is actually where I found that out.

I was struggling to hold my panic at bay as we approached the last “room,” which was accessed through a slender crevice in the rock that was so narrow, you had to go in feet first and twist your shoulders to fit. A larger male RA was right in front of me, and he got stuck for a moment and had to wiggle around a few times before he made it through. That did me in. I turned to the advisor behind me and told her I was done, finished, caput, and bloody well over it. We backed up a bit so that she could shimmy past me, and she told me to wait in the passageway while they explored and returned.

As she left me, I only had my tiny head lamp to illuminate that cold, black space. I felt that I could hang on a few more minutes until they came back out and we could go back through the passages up to the surface. My logic was that since I had made it that far, going back would easier because the passages would get larger rather than smaller. All of that reasoning worked in my brain right up until the moment that my headlamp went out.

There is nothing darker than a cave. The black is the blackest black I have ever seen, and my brain was confused by the fact that I had my eyes wide open and could not see even a sliver of discernible light anywhere. It was like being in a waking nightmare.

We continue our study of John’s “I Am” passages where Jesus used beautiful metaphorical language to teach the people about his true nature. In today’s passage, he explained that he is the light of the world:

John 6 (Common English Bible)

12 Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

What a word of hope for us today! We don’t have to live and walk in the darkness of sin and death but have a guarantee of eternal life that will illuminate our way through even the blackest moments.

Of course the Pharisees objected. They defaulted to their faulty understanding of the law and claimed that his testimony wasn’t valid.

13 Then the Pharisees said to him, “Because you are testifying about yourself, your testimony isn’t valid.”

14 Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, since I know where I came from and where I’m going. You don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge according to human standards, but I judge no one. 16 Even if I do judge, my judgment is truthful, because I’m not alone. My judgments come from me and from the Father who sent me. 17 In your Law it is written that the witness of two people is true. 18 I am one witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me is the other.”

The truth of the matter was that Jesus stood in the witness box with his Father as co-defendant.

19 They asked him, “Where is your Father?”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” 20 He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn’t yet come.

The Pharisees’ love of order, law, and the minutia of little rules had led them far astray from the love and grace of the Father. Because they had lost touch with their creating and sustaining God, they could not recognize God’s redeeming son. They walked in spiritual darkness, blinded to their own blindness.

I obviously made it out of the cave and into the light and don’t ever want to be in such a dark place again. How about you? Are you in a dark place of despair, sin, hopelessness, abuse, or grief today? Do you need the light of the world to come in and show you the way?

Jesus is the light of the world, a light no force on earth can extinguish. Open the eyes of your heart and behold him.

Let There Be Light by Michelle Robertson