Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

On You Has Light Shined

Isaiah 9: 2

January 23, 2005

On You has Light Shined

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined." (Is. 9:2)

Human beings have always feared darkness. Until recent times, night was something hostile. Walking in the darkness was a fearful experience. It was more than the fear of walking into a chair because you couldn't see. Wild animals hid in the dark to surprise their prey. At night thieves and murderers plied their trade. At night the drug dealers and the merchants in human flesh did their thing. "Early to bed and early to rise..." is the ancient wisdom. Why? Because the night is menacing and filled with danger.

Night and darkness aren't nearly as menacing to us today. With electricity in every home and flashlights throughout the house, light is only a finger switch away. With artificial light so immediately available it may be difficult for us to appreciate the way people in those times perceived darkness.

But in biblical times, with the feeble light from a candle the only source to illumine the darkness, people had reason to fear. So it is that when Biblical writers proclaimed that the people who walked in darkness had seen a great light, they were speaking of something vivid, dramatic, and hopeful. When they spoke of Christ as the light of the world, they were attributing to him the ability to transform their world from one of darkness, danger, and despair to one of hope security, and joy. When you put yourself in the sandals of the people of Bible times you will gain an all new perspective on Psalm 27:1; "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?"

It is true - we, too, feel safer in the light, but it is a light that we, not the Lord, provide. The first step to battle crime in a neighborhood is to put in more streetlights. Increased outside lighting on college campuses makes students safer. When our children take the car at night we remind them to park near a light. If only the threats from darkness were this easy to battle. But they aren't. There is still some darkness for which the Lord continues to be the only light and salvation.

Spiritual darkness is one kind of darkness that only Jesus can change. Spiritual darkness is our inability to see God that leaves us in the dark spiritually. Jesus is the light that illumines spiritual darkness and allows us to see God.

An officer in the National Council of Churches was invited to help lead worship in a service to be televised from Israel some years ago. The service was beamed from a very old, small church under the care of a community of monks. The church was a bit run-down. It hadn't been modernized with electrical power.

As the officer from the Council looked around, a fascinating scene played before her. The television crew was busy going about its work of setting up generators, stringing cables, mounting cameras to stands, placing microphones. Hushed and standing back against the walls, were the monks. They seemed like guests from another century.

Then something extraordinary happened. The technicians began to test the lights. The whole dark chapel flamed to light. Some of the monks looked up, nudged their brothers. Soon they were all pointing upward. The monks then vanished. Presently they scurried back bringing the entire monastery community to see what they had seen.

On the ceiling was a painting. A member of their order, in a forgotten century long ago, had erected a scaffold. High above the small sanctuary he had quietly painted by candlelight an unseen masterpiece meant for the eyes of God only. The lights of the television cameras had brought this ancient masterpiece into full view.

Light has the power to bring into full view that which has been hidden. Christ did that to our knowledge of God. God has revealed himself in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It is as if God took this cosmically powerful spotlight, turned it on Jesus of Nazareth, and said, "Do you want to see me? Look at him! What am I like? I'm like him...loving, compassionate, merciful, forgiving. Jesus sheds light on the nature of God.

When we are lost, when we are wandering in circles not knowing where we are or where we are going, we say something like, "Well, I'm in the dark." To be "in the dark" means to be confusedly lost. In a world that is changing as fast as ours, it shouldn't surprise us that we feel lost at times.

"Research by the Census Bureau shows that adults today undergo at least twice as many important ‘life changes’ as their parents and grandparents.” The bureau's surveys show that at one time, the typical American passed through five major life-cycle transitions: childhood, marriage, childbirth, child-rearing, and eventual dissolution of the marriage, usually through death of a spouse.

Today the typical person will have at least twice that many life transitions, many the result of adjusting to divorce, re-marriage, and the blending of families. All such changes, for the adults as well as the children, contribute greatly to the increased complexities of passing through the family life cycle.

The authors continue: "Change of all types - economic, social, cultural, technological, and political - is occurring at an increasing rate. In some areas, it is not merely accelerating but exploding. The rapid rate of change shows no sign of slowing in our lifetime."

Best selling author and Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter likens the constant changes happening today to the croquet game in Alice in Wonderland, a game in which "nothing remains stable for very long, because everything is changing."

All of this change is exciting to some, but it is frightening to others. In a world that is constantly changing, many feel as lost and confused as if they were wandering in a forest in the middle of the night. They look for that single, unchanging referent point around which everything finds a place; they seek a single, unchanging constant against which everything else is measured; they look for some light to guide them through the complexities of modem society.

Jesus is that light. Jesus is the existential North Star that leads us through life. While all other stars in the sky will wander during the night in their location, only the North Star stays fixed in the north. That is why for tens of centuries sailors have used the North Star as their primary navigational aid. So, those too, whose lives have been rocked by change, have as their life's North Star Jesus, who does not change. While everything else in your life might change, the one thing that remains constant is the love, comfort, strength, and guidance of Jesus.

There is a light that floods a room and reveals that which is hidden, which is Jesus whose light shows us God. There is a light that shines as a fixed reminder of eternal truths, which is Jesus who is the one unchanging truth in our lives. And there is a third kind of light. It is the search light of compassion and concern, which is also Jesus. It is the light that moves out into the darkness to seek the lost. This is the light of the shepherd who leaves the ninety and nine and goes out on the hillside to find the one lost sheep. It is the light a woman shines looking for a precious coin. It is the light of a loving God who will not let us go.

Medical science has made great advances in treating the hurts of the body, but far less success in healing the hurts of the soul. People who are feeling very low describe themselves as being "in the pits." A pit, in the Bible, is a dark and dingy place where one even feels estranged from God. Depression is a dark mood. When life circumstances turn against us, we talk about living under a cloud. There is even a depressive disorder related to winter when sunlight is absent for weeks at a time called SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder. It seems that the lack of sunlight can, for some people, actually cause or increase depression.

If any of that darkness sounds familiar, then the words from Isaiah 9:2 will take on special meaning: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined." (Is. 9:2)

Here is the light of Christ that pierces the storm clouds of depression and life's hurts with a beam of warmth, and comfort, and healing. It is a searchlight that seeks you out in your emotional pit to chase away the darkness. Here, in the words of John 1:5 is the light that shines in the darkness that no darkness can overcome.

When the Bible speaks of Christ as the light of the world, it attributes to him the ability to transform the world from one of darkness and despair to one of hope and joy. He is the revealing light who shows us God. He is the constant light who guides our way. He is the healing light who overcomes our darkness. The Lord is our light and our salvation. We shall not fear. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.