Tag: Darkness

Contrarian Light

I don’t know if I was born a contrarian, or if I was nurtured into one. Like in most of these situations the real answer is probably a little of both. I don’t remember a time where my natural inclination wasn’t to go in the opposite direction of the hoard. At the same time I don’t exactly remember a time that my mother didn’t go her own way.  Maybe my favorite story of that involves a water park.  We had been begging all summer to go.  This is extreme Northern Illinois, so June and July are the warm months.  Early August would be fine, but you get a touch of fall in late August.  Mom’s response in June and July and even early August was “the hottest time is the end of August.” Daughter of Southern Illinois that she was.  Now I don’t exactly know what was on her mind, whether it was the last week of summer vacation, an empty park, or if Mom truly believed that August 29th in Northern Illinois would be the best weather for a water park. But that is when we went.  And when we set out the temperature read 59 F. I think it maxxed out about 73 F.  And by shortly after noon, three bluish boys were asking, “Can we go home?” To which mom said “It’s perfect, enjoy the day.” We left shivering about 3:30 PM.

Our lectionary texts this week all hinge on light and darkness, on blindness and sight.  And of the many biblical metaphors for justification, these are the one that I am least comfortable with. I also think they tend to be the ones that a lot of preachers instinctively reach for. And I don’t know if this is an example of my contrarian streak, or something more meaningful.  But let’s walk through some of my hesitance with these metaphors.

First, light and darkness are absolutely good metaphors for what God has done in Christ. “For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the World (Ephesians 5:8).” I think my contrarian take is rooted in the next verse.  “Walk as children of the light…and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord (Ephesians 5:9).” I just have little confidence in our ability to discern light and darkness. There are lots of things that get sold as light, that turn out to be deep darkness. Our world is awash in them.  It certainly doesn’t help that Satan can “disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthian 11:14).” Discernment is something that takes a sanctified lifetime to build.  And when and if you develop it, you probably find yourself surrounded by blind people who won’t listen.

That leads to my second misgiving. Isaiah 42 from which our Old Testament lesson comes from starts out with one of the servant songs. It is a song about the justice and rightness of what the servant of the Lord will accomplish and one of praise – “Sing to the LORD a new song (Isaiah 42:10)” – for the zeal with which he will accomplish everything. And the pinnacle of this is “I will turn the darkness before them into light (Isaiah 42:16).” But what does Israel do when this servant is sent?  They remain deaf and blind. “Because he is righteous, the LORD has exalted his glorious law. (Isaiah. 42:21 NLT).”   But, “who among you gave ear to this, will attend and listen for the time to come? (Isaiah 42:23).”  And the answer is not many.

If I’m preaching in the metaphor of light and darkness, it is only on the most sure things.  The starkest law where discernment is not exactly needed.  “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. (Ephesians 5:11).”  The unfruitful works of darkness like murder, adultery, theft, false witness, envy. You can find other lists like the one in Ephesians 5:3-7, interestingly cut off by our lectionary reading.  Or preaching the opposite, the clearest light as from the resurrection tomb.

And it is that resurrection light that anchors this metaphor. “Awake O Sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14).” The light is not our work.  We are more like the moon in that we only reflect the light of the Son. It is God’s work to enlighten, the Spirit’s specifically. God has raised his Son that we might see him clearly.  We might not see everything clearly, but we can see the Son.  

Light and Darkness

As I’ve been hobbling around with a bit of gout this week, one theological idea became clearer.  Just how scary the darkness can be. Swing your gouty toe into a carelessly discarded school bag or a dirty laundry basket taking up most of the space between the bed and the wall, because you refuse to turn on the lights, what seemed melodramatic in the prophets – “the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there (Zephaniah 1:14)” – can feel appropriate.

Both Zephaniah and the Apostle Paul pick up the metaphor of darkness and light for the Day of the LORD and the gospel.  And the theme of darkness and light might be the oldest one in the bible.  The first act of creation was “let there be light…and God separated the light from the darkness and it was good.”  Biblically the theme of darkness and light is part of creation and the created order. What does it mean when Zephaniah says that the Day of the LORD is “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and think darkness. (Zephaniah 1:15)?’ I think there are three groupings of the darkness.

The first grouping is simply the unknown.  Life is full of things we don’t know.  From the day we are born we are learning things, but the horizon of knowing always seems to expand faster.  Maybe somewhere in your 20’s, when you safely know it all, you can feel like you are on the cutting edge living in the light by your own efforts.  The other not-so-effective strategy is often making your world so small that you know all of it.  Just hope that you never get thrown outside of it where there is darkness, the wailing and gnashing of teeth. This might be the hardest lesson.  We will never know everything, because we are not God.  But the Apostle sheds light on this area.  “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:9).” The unknown is rightfully scary, but living in the light is faith that the Father cares for us and intends good for us because of His Son.  We need not fear.

The second grouping of darkness I call intentional ignorance. It is me stumbling around on a gouty toe knowing full well that the kids have dropped school bags and laundry baskets are in the way but refusing to either go to bed earlier, clear the path before hand or turn on a light.  I can convince myself that I’m helping others already asleep by not turning that light on, but that doesn’t mean much when I’m screaming out because I’ve hit something. Likewise there are lots of things that we like doing, like eating fish, that bring on things like gout.  Paul address this type of darkness saying, “We are not of the night or of the darkness.  So let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. (1 Thessalonians 1:5-6).”  The law is given as a light to our feet and lamp for our path so that we might walk in the light.  Yes, we can convince ourselves that we are helping other by staying in the darkness.  The darkness can even feel good for a time.  But slamming a gouty toe into a box because you like the darkness, is a pretty good metaphor of sin.

The last grouping of darkness is simply evil.  The evil in our own hearts that likes the darkness. But also simply the evil that wishes to bind us in the darkness perpetually.  Why is the Day of the Lord one of darkness?  Because the LORD comes not as savior, but as judge. “At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamp, and I will punish the men. (Zephaniah 1:12)…I will punish the officials and the king’s sons…those who fill their master’s house with violence and fraud. (Zephaniah 1:8-9)” The judgement comes upon all. The light of God – those lamps in Jerusalem – brings all evil into the light that it may be known before it is cast out eternally.  The Apostle Paul’s words here are both complex and easy.  The easy part is “For you are all children of the light, children of the day. (1 Thessalonians 5:5)” As God separated the light from the darkness as the first of creation, at the end the children of the light are separated from the darkness. And in Christ you have been made children of the light.  The hard part? The separation comes not like the moon and the sun.  The separation comes “like thief in the night.”  Until that Day of the LORD, the light and the darkness live side by side.  Often within the same heart.  “But since we belong to the day having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5:8)” we need not fear the evil one. The faith, hope and love of God armor us for the fight.   And even death has no claim on those in the light, for He has dies and is risen “so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:10).”