AtomIn the Darkness of Despair - Hope
Isaiah 9:2-7; Matthew 4:12-16
You know the song. You may not know its story. It was written by an Episcopalian pastor in Boston who had worked himself to near exhaustion. Depressed and in despairing about his own situation and that of many of his congregation, he was on the verge of a complete breakdown. He had to get away. So, he did. He traveled to a place where he had never been before, a small town. By night he walked its streets, saw its lights glowing strong against the darkness, and in those lights found hope again. He wrote a song that you know,
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.
Yet in they dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
The Hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
His name was Phillips Brooks and his song has retained its power because it yet speaks to the hearts of so many of us. Phillips Brooks is not the only one to know despair – even in this season of bright lights and Christmas cheer. This can be a most difficult time for many in our community. Darkness comes a bit earlier in the North Country at this time of the year, the nights are longer. Especially if you are alone…your spouse with whom you have shared so many years and memories, now confined to a nursing facility…or maybe even gone. Or if your health is not so good, making it harder to get about in the winter time. Your contact with friends and neighbors is limited. And your family is back to their regular routine, no longer coming up to Lake Country for vacation or weekend visits.
And if you are lonely, if your marriage has been broken, or a friendship you counted on has ended, all the happy people moving about, sharing Christmas joy makes you feel just a bit lonelier. If that is where you are in this season, if that is where you have been or someone you know has been, even someone who most people would never dream was walking in darkness, like the preacher, Phillips Brooks, this reading from Isaiah is for you. In fact most of the Old Testament readings for this season are for you.
They speak to a people wrestling with life. Perhaps with more difficult issues than our own. Again, these were an oppressed people. Army after army had marched through their land, burning their homes and their crops, claiming their resources and their children for foreign powers. Their capital city, Jerusalem, the dwelling place of not only their king but their God, was overrun, its walls torn down, its temple destroyed. And the people despaired, wondering if they had any kind of future to look forward to, wondering if God saw or heard or cared.
And in that moment of darkness came a singer, a teller of good news whose name was Isaiah. He sang,
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.
You might remember that throughout the ages light and dark have often been equated with good and evil. Darkness is evil. Light is good. Darkness is despair. Light is hope. Ancient folk even spoke of the “powers” of darkness and the “powers” of light. We do not think of such “powers” in our modern age and yet in our poetry and song, we use images of light and dark and they carry their own power:
“It’s a dark a time for me,” we might say. “It was my dark night of the soul;” Or, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel;” or “I think I’m beginning to see the light.”
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in darkness, on them has light shined.
O Little town of Bethlehem, how still see thee lie,
Above they deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
We know the same yearning as did the ancient people of Israel. We know the same yearning as did Phillips Brooks. We yearn for hope and deliverance. And the message of the season is this: God has seen. God has heard. God will deliver. Christmas is a message of hope intended precisely for a dark time of life. Even the early church understood this in celebrating the birth of Jesus.
I don’t want to spoil anybody’s Christmas this year, but you need to know that December 25th is the day we celebrate Jesus’ birth, but probably is not the exact day of his birth. No one in fact knows the exact date of his birth. But the early church wanted to proclaim to a world looking for hope in all kinds of other things, all kinds of other gods, that this was the one – the son of God – who brought true hope for peace with God and life in the future. So they made the celebration of his birth to coincide with not only the darkest week of the year in the northern hemisphere, the time of the winter solstice, but also an ancient pagan festival held during this dark season that looked forward to spring and worshipped the sun as the giver of life and light. Worship of the Sun, S-U-N…was replaced with worship of The Son, S-O-N. For it is God’s Son that brings real hope and light; it is God’s son that brings not life to the soil, but life to the soul – to the deep need in our being.
We may easily miss such a message in the brightness of Christmas decorations and brightly light shopping malls, so hear it again: if you are having trouble identifying with all the happy celebrations going on around you this year, if your world seems more dark than light, the message of Christmas is particularly for you. God does hear. God does care. God does deliver. “Those who have lived in great darkness have seen a great light.” The Child is born for you.
I have often said it at funerals in this season…when I die, I could only hope it would be at Christmas or Easter, one of the two high celebrations of our Christian faith – not to dampen the celebrations of my family in this season, believe me, but as a reminder that into the darkness of death comes the light of God’s Son and the promise forgiveness and resurrection. In the darkness, light: In our season of grief, great hope, as the Apostle Paul said in his letter to Christians in the church at Thessalonica: “We grieve, but not as do those who have no hope.”
The light of Bethlehem, the light of hope has shined on us.
And that light shines through us – and from us.
I have had the privilege of already attending two marvelous Christmas concerts this season. On Friday I was at Concordia’s; I will be taking a bus back this afternoon as we experience in word and song and community God’s story of creation and recreation in Jesus. Each year it is more than a concert; it is a worship and faith experience.
But for the first time this year I had opportunity to witness the Christmas telling at Luther College in Decorah, IA. Luther is one of the colleges on my daughter’s radar as she tries to figure out what comes after High School. So we went for a senior visit day on Thursday and part of that visit was an invitation to attend the concert on Thursday night. Again, word and song and instrument told the story, and I found it interesting in light of our focus today, that Luther College’s theme was light: “Arise; shine, for your light has come!” And the highlight of the concert for me, as it is at our own Christmas Eve worship, was the candle-lighting. A tiny light is introduced to the large, dark auditorium and then that light is passed, one by one until the whole room is filled with glorious light. And there is a message in the lighting that is greater than the warm, peaceful glow of candlelight. A dark room has become bright because of the lighting of many individual candles. “Arise, shine, for your light has come.” Candle-lighting is the reminder that as the light of Christ has lit your world, now you light the world of others. From your candle of Spirit borne faith, other candles are lit.
Those of you who visit our senior centers in this holy season bearing cookies and sweet breads in the name of Jesus are lighting the candles of those whose faith may be dimming. Those of you who tirelessly rehearse our little ones so that they might know their Bible verses and sing their songs of joy are lighting the candles of young faith. Those of you who sing and gladden the hearts of the weary, whether in the choir or in an impromptu chorus at the nursing home are lighting the faith light of those yearning to believe again. Those of you who send a warm note of encouragement to a friend or neighbor who is grieving light the candle of hope for one who is despairing. Those of you who share a gift from the angel tree or through any other agency of help and good cheer light the candle of love for those wondering if there is a God who loves them.
“Arise, shine for your light has come.” Jesus brings the light of hope to our lives and bids us light the lives of others.
Let us pray…
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