New Light
“Nations shall come to your light, and
kings to the brightness of your dawn” Isaiah 60:3
There is a story about a father speaking to his young child.
He says to the child; it’s time to go to bed and the child starts up the stairs
and realizes it is dark and can’t reach the switch. The child runs back to Dad,
but Dad says, goes back up to bed, don’t fear for God is with you. The child
realized that Dad had spoken and this was his final answer, and started back up
the stairs. On the first step the child stopped and said, “God, if you are
there, please don’t move, ‘cause you’ll scare me to
death.” We can all relate to this child’s fear, we’ve all been unable to reach
the light switch. We may be unable to reach that light switch today.
Isaiah tells us that the light is coming to us. Isaiah
prophesies that the darkness of this world will be
overcome by the Light of Israel, the light that was prophesied for the Jews,
the promised Messiah. However, the Light
of the World was meant for all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. The Messiah was
to have a powerful attraction for the Jews, an attraction that was not to be
manifested. The Jews expected a warrior king, a king similar to David; they
didn’t get what they expected. God sent them forgiveness and eternal life, in
the form of Jesus. We heard last Sunday, in John’s Gospel that “…God did not
send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but, in order that the world
might be saved through him.”
God
sent His only Son, to be born in a manger, to melt the darkness away, to be the
Light of the world, to be the sunshine after a dark night. We have glimpsed
this light before, when Moses faced the burning bush. When
the Jews were led by a pillar of fire through the desert. When the shepherds were frightened by a great light.
We are being pointed to that light, the light that is
glowing in the manger, the light that is streaming from the Cross and an EMPTY garden tomb. It is ours, our
light switch to light the darkness. It is God’s love for each and every one of
us.
Marty Haugen says it well, let us pray the hymn:
“Here in this place…new light is streaming, now the darkness
vanished away; see in this space our fears and our dreamings
brought here to you in the light of this day. Gather us in, the lost and
forsaken…” Amen
Arnie Hansen