Let there be light

from my message on Dec. 8, 2nd Sunday of Advent, from Gen. 1:3-5 and Eph. 5:8-14

(sanctuary is dark)  Let there be light! (lights come on with laughter)  I have always wanted to do that.  What joy God must have felt in creating light.  Our Hebrew ancestors in telling the story of creation made sure that the very first thing God said, the very first thing God created was light. Even before there was sun or moon or stars, there was light. And God said it was good.

Light is good.  I bet you have been camping, way out away from civilization.  You spread your sleeping bag out.  When the sun goes down, it gets really dark.  Imagine all of those thousands of years of human beings living without artificial light.  No electric light, no kerosene lanterns, no candles, no olive oil lamps, no campfire.  When the sun went down, it was dark.  What a gift sunrise was.  What a gift light was.

Light is good.  You don't step on that child's toy on the den floor in your bare feet.  You can go to bed and read a book by that bedside lamp.  Light to explore the Marianas Trench, some 7 miles deep below the Pacific Ocean.  Light to explore a blockage or tumor in your body.

Light is good.  Yet light is not always welcome.  I have been listening to a series on National Public Radio on sleep.  Before the invention of the electric light, we used to average 9 hours of sleep a night.  After the invention of the electric light, do you think the average went up or down?  Down!  We now average 7 1/2 hours per night.  I want that extra 1 1/2 hours back!  Some of you have trouble with florescent lighting.  It causes you to have migraine headaches.  And what if you stay out in the sun too long without protection?  You get sunburned.  Light is not always welcome.

In Hebrew thought, light is good.  Light was a symbol of life, blessing, peace, knowledge, understanding.  The scriptures were called in Psalm 119, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path."  The light of God enlightened us.

Light is good.  In the New Testament, Jesus says in John's Gospel, "I am the light."  In Matthew's Gospel, he says about us, "y'all are the light of the world."  In today's scripture from Ephesians, we Christians are called no longer darkness, but "you are light."  Not just "in" the light or "of" the light, but light.  We are called to live as children of the light.

Light is good, but not always welcome.  We have blind spots. They are unintentional.  Our staff and church leaders went through a Partners in Ministry workshop recently that taught about communication, conflict resolution, visioning, and trust building.  One exercise showed how we all have a part of us that is know to ourselves and others, a part that others see that we cannot see, a part that is know only to ourselves, and a part that is not known by ourselves or others, but only know by God.  That part that others see that we cannot see is our blind spot.  I know that when some at the workshop pointed out to me some of my blind spots, my first reaction was "ouch, that hurts."  Only later, as I came to understand the depth of trust that took for those persons to share with me did I come to say, "Thank you."  That takes a lot of love to shine a light like that.  Light is good, but not always welcome.

We as a church may have had some blind spots pointed out to us in the Healthy Church Initiative.  A group of consultants visited us 6 weeks ago and offered us 5 prescriptions to become a healthier church.  Our first reaction may have been "ouch."  Who are these people to tell us these things?  Why are they so abrasive?  I am hoping now we can say, "thank you.  That took a lot of courage for you to tell us those things."  Light is good, not always welcome.

Some of our hiddenness is intentional.  We want it to remain in the dark, not bring it to light.  I saw on the front page of our newspaper this morning, where the story of our D. A. driving under the influence  of alcohol was there for all to see.  This is not the kind of thing you want brought to the light.  The next column over on the front page was of the city official in Jonestown caught in fiscal malfeasance, skimming money off a wind turbine project there.  You don't want that brought out into the light.

Light is good, but not always welcome.  However, there is no healing without the light.

For 16 years, I served on our board of ordained ministry.  We were the group that qualified candidates for ministry.  We read papers, we interviewed, we supervised.  We also dealt with problems with ministers.  For 8 of those 16 years, I served as the one responsible for clergy sexual ethics.  This is an office that no one wanted.  I was to insure that our clergy got training to keep them from acting out inappropriately.  We had to intervene  a couple of times.  I remember one workshop I attended to get my guidance.  A bishop in our church kept going back to this passage in Ephesians when it came to how to deal with incidences of clergy misconduct.  We have to bring things to the light. Evil cannot exist in the light.  Light cleanses and heals.  Light is good, but not always welcome.

I need to gently bring some things to light for this congregation.  We are too busy.  We are trying to do too much.  Instead of witnessing to the culture that we are saved by grace and not by our works, we look like the culture by being overfunctioning.  I confess to you, I fall easily into this trap. On the scale from depression to mania, I lean on the manic side.  I never met a need I didn't like!  We need to slow down, we need to pare down.   We need to focus on worship and doing a few things well.

Our Jewish friends may help us with the coming of light.  Jewish sabbath begins 18 minutes before sundown on Friday evening with the lighting of candles by the woman of the house.  It is time to slow down, to rest, to remember who God is.  Being busy all the time is not the way to salvation.  We need to welcome the light of sabbath.

Our Jewish friends just finished celebrating the holiday of Hannakuh, the festival of lights.  The story goes that over 2,000 years ago, the Greek Syrians oppressed the Jewish people.  They went so far to profane the Jewish religion that they sacrificed a pig on the altar of the Temple in Jerusalem.  The Maccabean rebellion was born to overthrow the oppressors.  When they reclaimed the Temple, they found a cruse of oil for the lamp, with only enough oil for 1 day.  A miracle happened in that the oil lasted 8 days.  Hence, the menorah has 8 candles around the one central candle.  We need to remember that God still does miracles through light today.

My hunch is that all of us have blind spots where the light of Christ needs to shine.  My hunch is that all of us have darkness that we intentionally hide that needs the light of Christ.  I believe that you were not made for darkness, but for light.  I believe the light of Christ can overcome any darkness.  A key verse for this Advent season comes from John's Gospel, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."
Where does the light of Christ need to shine in your life bringing hope and healing.  We may not always welcome it, but the light is good.

You may not have gotten anything out of the message to this point, so I want to share with you a song.  It was written in 1948, by a man of the name of Hank Williams, Sr.  You may have heard of him.  The song was I Saw the Light.  It was not a commercial success when it came out.  Hank often closed his concerts singing this song.  He suffered from alcohol problems.  He was a follower of Christ.  This is our situation too, I bet.  We all have struggles with darkness.  We all try to live in the light of Christ.  Sing with me now.

I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin,
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in.
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

I saw the light, I saw the light.
No more darkness, no more night.
Now I'm so happy, no sorrow in sight.
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

Just like a blind man I wandered alone.
Worries and fears I claimed for my own.
Then like the blind man that God gave back his sight,
Praise the Lord, I saw the light.

I was a fool to wander and stray.
Straight is gate and narrow the way.
Now I have traded the wrong for the right.
Praise the Lord I saw the light.

Light is good.  May you welcome it this Advent.