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Do you remember ever having the electricity go out during a storm, and you suddenly had to navigate in a pitch black house. It is so easy to trip over shoes on the floor or bump into the corner of a coffee table when you want to move but cannot see where you are going. But what would it be like to be trapped in an elevator for hours or for mine workers deep in the caverns of the earth if the lights suddenly disappeared!
We are used to generators and flashlights that function when the lights go out, but for ancient people when survival was at stake, darkness and light had different meanings than for us. For them it was all about survival. For us the interplay of darkness and light have more to do with convenience and easy solutions to discover light.
Long ago, light coming into darkness meant predators were kept at bay or the cycle of daytime warmth and life had returned. For us, it is less significant for we are so used to artificial light and warmth that we don’t always pay attention and miss the good news that this promise brings.
The gift of Light is a gift with many layers. It is so important it was the first of God’s creation! It attracts and it changes. It warms and it reveals. It shines out! It shines in! It is the power of creation, and yet sometimes it is under our control.
If we follow any light we will discover where it has come from. And when we learn of its source, we begin to understand its purpose. If we carry a light it will change the appearance of anything it touches. We can keep shadows at bay and darkness can be erased.
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One of the most powerful promises from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah says: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” That promise was filled full for people of faith in the gift of Jesus, light of the world.
In Jesus, God brought light into the darkness of disappointment, selfishness, shadowy fears, and even death itself. Jesus’ mission was to be like a light that leads us to God himself. His life was an example, his teachings brought illumination, and his defeat of the greatest darkness of all when we filled Easter’s tomb with light brought us face to face with the perfect love of God. This is a gift, not by our wisdom or by chance, but by solely God’s grace. Jesus has bridged the darkness of an imperfect world with the light of his presence and love.
If we open our darkest fears and uncertainties to the gifts Jesus reveals, the shadows of a broken world don’t seem so scary, and every darkness (even death) is chased away. Embraced by the light we are blessed to reflect that Light.
In a few days we will bump into a cultural festival called Ground Hog Day. It assumes groundhogs surprised by light will return to the darkness they are more comfortable with. If there is no light a groundhog will leave its hole in the ground and remain outside. Now, there is no science to this predicting an end to winter but what a parable for how a world used to darkness has been changed by the light of Christ. Like groundhogs, sin causes many to be more comfortable living in the shadows than confronting the light.
However Christ has changed the script, and now because of his light, there is nothing to frighten or overwhelm us, and we are confident to move forward into each new day … whether the sun is shining or the clouds are overwhelming.
That is what Easter has done for us – in a perfect way – chased the shadows away. What good news this is.
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Many philosophies and religions teach one can find God if we try hard enough. They promise we can wake up we can find the wisdom and truth of what we call god, and that awareness will automatically lead us into perfect living..
A priest named Anthony de Mello attempted to use that concept in his missionary work in India. His contact with Eastern religions influenced his own writings on Christian spirituality. He compared faith to waking up from the darkness of sleep. He said people outside of faith, “even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up.”
Easter religions talk about such enlightenment as the goal of waking us up. However, like most human efforts, it depends on using one’s own reason or strength to wake up, and make sense of life. But humanity has its limits and the shadows of selfishness and death, can never put Humpty Dumpty back together.
As Christians, we believe God has come to us like an alarm clock. He wakes us up. He shines light into our tightly closed eyes. He chases away the shadows. He wakes us up and leads us into the dawn of a new day. He doesn’t wait for us to find the light, He is the Light and he comes to us!
Easter morning was the greatest wake-up call ever. Death, the eternal sleep, became the first morning of an eternal day. Despite the shadows and darkness of a broken world, Jesus has brought power to life and darkness to light.
Faith opens our eyes to that Light and follows to its source. Faith is taking the light of faith. given as a gift, and making that Light OUR light, intentionally shining it into the darkness around us as, Jesus has done for us.
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You know what it is like to have to wake up when you are tired. Or when it is cold outside. Or when you don’t want to face a new day. You know how grief can wrap you in a cloak of heavy darkness, and selfishness brings shadows into moments that should be full of excitement and joy.
Waking up can be hard to do. And that (unfortunately) is a reality for the many people around us who think they are awake, but in fact are walking in their sleep or trying to get through life on their own. And no matter how faithful we tryk to be anyk of us can be challenged by the darkness that surrounds so much of life
No wonder there is so much fear of the darkness and such frustration at not being able to chase shadows away. No wonder there is so much anger, resentment, and blindly stumbling in the darkness. And our frustration increases as no matte what we try, there are times when no light is helpful enough.
As a child I spent three days in a hospital bed with my ejes covered by patches. An injury to one eye meant complete rest in the darkness, and most of that time was also filled with the darkness of silence. I didn’t know how it would end, or if I would ever see light again. But when the eyepatches were finally removed, I was healed and would never take the light for granted again!
Our gathering in the cold and darkness of winter can serve as a great illustration of what this all means. Our wait is all about seeing what the light will bring! We can look in neighborhoods or nations, in the eyes of children and adults, and we see two things – either darkness or light. In the same powerful love that began cration with the words, “Let there be light” God has come to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to change what we cannot.
On a cross at Calvary, everyone saw only darkness. But the end of the story reveals that the shadow of the cross is where the spark of Easter’s bonfire began. God accomplished then and now what we cannot do on our own, and his loving promise to carry us through any darkness is a gift we certainly haven’t earned and cannot accomplish on our own. This is your gift! It is God’s promise. And it is his love that opens eyes, keeps shadows at bay, and can fill our living with the sparkle and glow of a baby in a manger and a Savior escaping the tomb.