“Getting Ready for Christmas: Walking in the Light”
Isaiah 9:2, 6-7
One weekend, author Paul Tripp allowed his teenage son to spend the weekend at a friend’s house.
But during the weekend Paul got a call from the friend’s mother informing him that Paul’s son was not at her home.
Her son had felt guilty about covering for Paul’s son and told his mom.
Paul writes: “I went to my bedroom to pray for God’s help, and it hit me that, because of His love, God was the one Who pressed in on the conscience of my son’s friend, causing him to confess to his mom.
God was the One Who gave her the courage to make that difficult call to me.
And God was the One giving me time to get ahold of myself before my son came home.
Now, rather than wanting to rip into my son, I wanted to be part of what the God of grace was doing in this moment of rebellion, deception, hurt, and disappointment.”
So, after giving his son a couple hours to relax when he got home, Paul asked him if they could talk.
“Do you ever think about how much God loves you?” Paul asked his son.
“Sometimes,” he answered.
“Do you ever think how much God’s grace operates in your life every day?”
His son looked up but didn’t speak.
“Do you know how much God’s grace was working in your life even this weekend?”
“Who told you?” his son asked.
Paul said, “You have lived your life in the light.
You’ve made good choices.
You’ve been an easy son to parent, but this weekend you took a step toward the darkness.
You can live in the darkness if you want.
You can learn to lie and deceive.
Or you can decide to live in God’s light.
I’m pleading with you: don’t live in the darkness; live in the light.”
Paul continues: “As I turned to walk away I heard my son’s voice behind me saying: ‘Dad, I want to live in the light, but it’s so hard.
Will you help?”
Our Scripture passage from Isaiah announces that “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light…”
In the Bible darkness is a metaphor for evil, sin, suffering, distress and death.
It’s what we see on the news: wars, famine, greed, mass shootings, suicide, drug overdoses, racism, the abuse of power and it goes on and on and on and on.
We also see it in our personal lives: broken marriages and friendships, anger, rage, bitterness, apathy, a lack of love.
Light, on the other hand, is a metaphor for the Presence of God.
In it we find love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
We have such a wonderful Pre-School here at Red Bank United Methodist Church.
Every Tuesday and Thursday, Jordan and I lead the children in Chapel.
Of course, with 2, 3, and 4-year-olds it can be hard to tell if they are listening to what you are saying or really “getting” any of it.
Every time, at chapel, we pray the Lord’s Prayer, I read some Scripture, give a very brief devotion and we sing “This Little Light of Mine,” and “Jesus Loves Me.”
Of course, you know “This Little Light of Mine.”
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
…hide it under a bushel—No! I’m gonna let it shine.”
So, two weeks ago I was reading to the kids from Matthew where Jesus says: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and hide it under…”
And at that the children all screamed out “a bushel”!
It was really cool how they connected the song and the Scripture.
In any event, during the Advent and Christmas seasons we especially celebrate that Jesus Christ has come into the world—to bring light into our darkness—to save us from our sins, our lostness, ourselves.
And we are also to remember, that, Jesus instructed those who have experienced the Light to also BE THE LIGHT.
“YOU are the light of the world.”
Wow, that’s startling when you think about it.
That’s you; that’s me.
That can be scary.
That’s a big responsibility.
And to be quite honest, there are a lot of times when I don’t feel like “a light.”
There are a lot of times that I feel like a part of the darkness.
Can you relate?
When we look at our Scripture Passage for this morning, we see that there is one thing that human beings do: they see a great light.
They have a vision of the righteous reign of the King Who is already at work in the world.
And yet, when we look out at the world we see that it continues to be corrupt, cruel and confusing.
And we might look at our own lives and see the brokenness, the secret sins, the struggles, the heart-ache.
But still, in the midst of it all the light of God’s goodness and grace continues to shine.
And we are invited by God to approach Jesus Christ with whatever darkness that is within us.
We can choose to do this.
We can choose to walk in the light or remain in the darkness of sin and sadness and death.
In John Chapter 3 we are told: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
But everyone who lives by the truth comes into the light…”
And that’s what it’s about, isn’t it?
Coming into the light, living by the truth.
The truth is that we are all sinners.
We all fall short.
And walking in the light is not always easy, and God knows this.
And we can come to Him with anything.
And He will help us.
For He came not to condemn, but to save!!!
Do you know that?
Do I?
I think we sometimes have a very wrong view of God.
We might think of God as an angry judge Who is not on our side—Who is out to get us, just waiting for us to step out of line!!!
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
God is cheering us on.
God bandages our wounds when we fall.
God picks us up, if we allow Him.
God even causes us to fly on wings like eagles, if we so choose.
We don’t have to hide from God.
We don’t have to lie and try to deceive God, in order for God to love us.
God loves us just the way we are.
God’s grace is operating in our lives every day.
And God is pleading with us to trust Him enough to walk in His light and, thus, to be a light ourselves in this world of darkness and sin.
And there is nothing greater.
There is no greater privilege.
It’s not a burden.
It is pure freedom.
“Come to me,” Jesus beckons, “all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest…learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Isn’t this what everyone needs, but very few find?
We live in the darkness.
But we are not called to be part of the darkness—we are called to be part of the Light!!!
In John 1:5 we are told that “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness [does] not overcome it.”
In a recent book Phil Cooke and Jonathan Bock ask significant questions such as: “Why did the Early Church succeed where we are failing?
How did they transform the Western world in such a relatively short time?”
And their thesis is this: “They did it because they did things that baffled the Romans.
The early Church didn’t picket, they didn’t boycott, and they didn’t gripe about what was going on in their culture.
They just did things that astonished the Romans.
They took in their abandoned babies.
They helped their sick and wounded.
They restored dignity to the slaves.
They were willing to die for what they believed.
After a while, their actions so softened the hearts of the Romans that they wanted to know more about who these Christians were and who was the God they represented.”
Every Sunday we sing: “They will know we are Christians by our love.”
In John 13 Jesus says: “A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Do people know we are Jesus’ disciples?
Do they know it by how we love…
…not by how we quarrel or complain or condemn, but how we love???!!!
Light is such a good thing.
We can’t live without it.
In February 1954, a navy pilot set out on a night-training mission from a carrier off the coast of Japan.
While he was taking off, his directional finder malfunctioned, and he mistakenly headed in the wrong direction.
To make matters worse, his instrument panel suddenly short-circuited, burning out all the lights in the cockpit.
The pilot “looked around…and could see absolutely nothing.”
In near despair, he looked down and thought he saw a faint blue-green glow trailing along the ocean’s depths.
His training had prepared him for this moment, and he knew in an instant what he was seeing: a cloud of phosphorescent algae glowing in the sea that had been stirred up by the engines of his carrier.
It was the “least reliable and the most desperate method” of piloting a plane back onto a ship safely, but the pilot—future Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell—knew that was precisely what he needed to do.
And so he did.
Jim’s life was saved because of light.
Isaiah declares that “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light…”
Those “people” are us—you and me.
We have been saved by the Light which has come to dwell in our hearts by faith.
And Jesus calls on us to “let [our] light shine before [people], that they may see [our] good deeds and praise [our] Father in heaven.”
This is the job of the Church.
And we are the Church.
We are the Church which God has planted at 3800 Dayton Boulevard in Red Bank Tennessee in the year 2018.
And surrounding us is a vast darkness; a sea of people who do not know the Light.
Who will tell them?
Who will show them?
Who will love them into the Kingdom?
We can decide to live in the darkness or we can decide to live in the light.
The decision we make will not only affect us; it will also affect those around us.
I want to live in the Light.
God will help me; He always has.
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given…”
…He is “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace.”
Praise the Lord!!!
Amen.
