Reflections of Light in the Darkness
Reflections of LIght in the Darkness by Rev. L. John Gable
December 12, 2021
I don’t know if you are counting down the days or not, but if you are we are 13 days to Christmas; but those are not really the days I am counting. I am counting down the days until December 21, the shortest day of the year, and we are down to 9! In a very real sense we are living in the darkest part of the year; the season of the year when we wait for the light, or at least for more of it! December 21st was Kris’ grandmother’s favorite day of the year because she knew, every day thereafter the days would begin to lengthen and there would be more light!
Do you happen to remember our Christmas celebration here at Tab last year? Don’t overthink that because there wasn’t one. We had our usual Christmas Eve services but they were both virtual. On the evening of the 23rd we stood in the parking lot and handed out candles and bulletins as people drove through so they/we could celebrate together remotely. On Christmas Eve the few of us gathered here sang and prayed and preached in an empty sanctuary while you were nestled at home. We were very much still in the darkest months of the pandemic and the light we were hoping for came in the form of vaccines, and even now, a year later with the emergence of multiple variants, we still feel as though we are walking in the darkness.
The season of Advent is appropriately placed in this season of the year, and its message may have particular meaning for us given the particular circumstances we find ourselves in. Admittedly, there is much darkness around us (atmospherically, socially, medically and spiritually), so it is only natural for us to look for reflections of light in the darkness. Advent appropriately then is the season of darkness in which we anticipate and prepare ourselves for the coming of the light.
The prophet Isaiah speaks a word of hopeful promise as he anticipates the coming of the Messiah. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in the land of deep darkness, on them the light has shined.” Without identifying exactly who the child to be born might be he announces, “A child has been born to us, a son given to us.” Clearly Isaiah was anticipating the coming of the light that shines in the darkness.
When John writes his Gospel, his Good News telling about Jesus, he doesn’t begin with His birth as Luke does or even His genealogy as does Matthew. Each of them seemingly wanted to emphasize His humanity, asserting that He is one like us, but not so John. John wants to emphasize His divinity, so in the Prologue to his Gospel he goes back to the very beginning. Biblical scholar Raymond Brown writes this: “If John has been described as the pearl of great price among the New Testament writings, then one may say that the Prologue is the pearl within this Gospel.” The verses we look at this morning and again next Sunday morning are the Prologue to John’s Gospel, the pearl within the pearl.
Embracing the imagery of the opening verses of Genesis John writes, “In the beginning”. Pause there for a moment, these are perhaps the most familiar words in all of Scripture, perhaps in all of literature. Imagine the audacity he must have had to write those words. Surely his first readers must have been stunned, thinking to themselves, “Who does he think he is? He must either have a very high view of himself as a writer OR of the subject about which he is writing; which indeed he did, the latter, not the former. He writes, “In the beginning was the Word”. Remember in the creation story how God spoke all things in to being? The Word, the Greek word Logos, the creative energy of God was from the very beginning, before even the creation. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”! What John is describing is the mystery of God! And then goes on to write, “He” (this Logos, this Word which was from the beginning, who was with God and was God) has revealed Himself as a human being, a person, a man! John won’t tell us His name until verse 17, but we know already Who it is he is talking about and he is making a radical claim about Him! “He was in the beginning with God. And all things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being.” What John is describing here is a second act of creation! An act of rebirth and renewal! This Gospel, telling the Good News about Jesus, is the story of new beginnings!
He goes on to write, “What has come in to being in Him was life and that life was the light of all people.” There are two words for life which John could have used here: bios which describes physical life and zoe which describes spiritual life, eternal life, rather than mere existence. This is what Jesus the Logos of God came to bring us, zoe, real life, as He would later say, “I come that you may have life and have it abundantly”. This is the new creation Jesus offers to us, then and now. This is His invitation, “Come to me and I will give you life, not just mere existence, but new life, real life…abundant and eternal.”
John goes on to say that “the light (Jesus the Logos of God) shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it”. Some translations say “and the darkness did not comprehend it or did not understand it.” Either translation works. To say that Jesus is the Light that the darkness did not overcome is the testimony of Scripture. Jesus is the Light that came into the world to reveal and illuminate the nature of God: His love, His grace, His mercy, His justice and righteousness. He is the Light who came to show us the way back into a right relationship with God. Jesus is the Light that cannot be extinguished by all the darkness of sin and disobedience in the universe. As he wrote these words, John surely must have been thinking about the crucifixion when it looked as though all the forces of evil and darkness had won, but then, remembering the glory of the resurrection, he writes the Good News that the darkness could not overcome the Light. Even today, as we consider all of the darkness that surrounds us still, which by all indications seems to being winning the day, we can, in confident hope, lay hold to the promise that the Light still shines and nothing will overcome it.
To say that Jesus is the light which the darkness does not comprehend or understand, also makes good sense. We live in a world of darkness in which people simply do not understand or accept who Jesus is or what He has done for us, nor can they understand how it is that we confess Him as Savior and follow Him as Lord. Jesus is the Light that shines in the darkness that gives life, new life, eternal life. The ways of Light: peace, love, joy, mercy, forgiveness simply do not make any sense to those who walk in the darkness; yet we hold fast to the promise that the darkness did not, does not and will never understand, comprehend or overcome the Light.
In his book, The Return of the Prodigal, Henri Nouwen writes, “When Jesus speaks about the world, He is very realistic. He speaks about wars and revolutions, earthquakes, plagues and famines, persecution and imprisonment, betrayal, hatred and assassinations. There is no suggestion at all that these signs of the world’s darkness will ever be absent. But still, God’s joy can be ours in the midst of it all. It is the joy of belonging to the household of God Whose love is stronger than death and Who empowers us to be in the world while already belonging to the Kingdom of joy.
“Cynics seek darkness wherever they go. They always point to approaching dangers, impure motives, and hidden schemes. They call trust naïve, care romantic, and forgiveness sentimental. They sneer at enthusiasm, ridicule spiritual fervor and despise charismatic behavior. But in belittling God’s joy, their darkness only calls out more darkness.
“People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they chose not to live in it. They claim that the light that shines in the darkness can be trusted more than the darkness itself and that a little bit of light can dispel a lot of darkness. They discover that there are people who heal each other’s wounds, forgive each other’s offenses, share their possessions, foster the spirit of community, celebrate the gifts they have received and live in constant anticipation of the full manifestation of God’s glory.
“Jesus lived this joy in the Father’s house to the full. In Him we can see His Father’s joy and He wants us to share the same joy He enjoys, so He tells us, ‘I have loved you, just as My Father has loved Me. Abide in My love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.’”
We who know the joy of the Lord, we who walk in the light, we who have come alive in the new life Jesus offers us, are reflectors of the Light in a darkened world. Just as Jesus said, “I am the light of the world”, so He also said to His followers, “You are the light of the world, so don’t put that light under a bushel basket!” We become bearers of that Light, reflectors of His Light, when we walk in the Light of Christ’s love and mercy.
An old rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun. Several ventured possible answers until one of the students asked, “Could it be when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it is a sheep or a dog?” “No” answered the rabbi. “Then when is it?” they demanded. “It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see that it is your brother or sister. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night.”
Look around you. Look at all the light, at all of the candles burning. We light candles in this season of the year, not simply because of their beauty, but because they are reminders to us of the Light which God sent in to the world in the birth of Jesus. They are also reminders to us that we who have received His gift of new life are reflectors of His light; we are bearers of the light and hope of Christ. Just as all the darkness in the universe cannot extinguish the light of a single candle neither can all the darkness which surrounds us extinguish the true light of life which we reflect.
I close with this beautiful poem by Helen Frazee-Bower.
Burn, candle, burn
Across the Christmas night:
Say to a darkened world that there is light.
Shine through the gloom
Where trembling figures grope;
Say to each burdened heart that there is hope.
Burn, candle, burn
God is not high and far,
He dwells where cattle crunch,
Where children are:
Down every path that weary mortals plod,
If you but listen, look, you can find God.
Burn, candle, burn
Until all strivings cease,
Say to troubled world that there is peace:
Once angels sang that all the world might sing,
Let every heart be bowed
Remembering…
In this season of Advent, this season of darkness, let us reflect again on the coming of God’s light in the world which gives us life. Let us remember and give thanks that:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in Him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Rev. L. John Gable
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN