Darkness and Light
John 1:1-18
Several years ago, we visited the Lost Sea Adventures in Sweetwater.
It’s a big cave that also has a body of water that you can take a boat ride on.
But it also has a number of rooms, and you can take a tour with a guide.
The tour includes turning off the lights, to show how dark darkness can be.
And boy, it is dark!
There was a little boy on the tour with us, and he had obviously been there before, we could hear him, in a quiet voice say to his sister, “Don’t cry. Someone here knows how to turn on the lights.”
Verse 5 of our Gospel Lesson for this morning affirms that there truly is Someone Who “knows how to turn on the lights.”
We could go so far as to say that the true power of the Christian faith is grounded in this Truth.
“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
This past Wednesday morning, on the first day of the New Year, we woke to the news that a truck had been driven through a crowd of people on Bourbon Street killing 15 and injuring many more.
It was a reminder that darkness still permeates our world as we enter the New Year.
It’s sad and it can truly cause us to lose hope.
What kind of darkness are you dealing with in your life?
There are two broad categories of darkness in this world.
The first is moral darkness; the second is what we might call situational, relational, emotional darkness.
We know moral darkness; we saw the results of it on New Year’s Day.
We also see it in mass shootings and in selfish acts that hurt others.
We feel it in circumstances that, again, leave us feeling hopeless.
There is the darkness we’re drawn to take part in when we are tempted to do things that will harm ourselves, our relationship with God or others.
The Bible talks about a good path we’re meant to walk on.
Our New Testament Lesson for this morning from 1 John calls this “living in the light,” and it has to do with whether or not we love others.
When we are living without love in our heart we are stumbling around in the darkness.
The battle between good and evil, light and darkness, is one of the major themes in human existence and it’s captured in history, literature, the arts and life.
And it’s not only a battle outside of us, it is a battle that is fought within us as well.
There is another kind of darkness found throughout Scripture: it’s situational darkness.
It’s associated with grief, sadness, despair, or the feelings of being lost or unloved.
People have told me: “I’m feeling overwhelmed by darkness right now.”
Folks who have lost loved ones have described the grief they are feeling as “deep darkness.”
We know what that means because we’ve all been there, in that darkness.
The Incarnation of God or the Word becoming a human being and living among us is God’s response to both forms of darkness.
John Chapter 1 is rooted in the creation story and aims to show us the cosmic significance of Jesus’ Incarnation.
Jesus is God’s Word to us; I’m not talking about the Bible—the Bible is a word about God—Jesus is God.
In Jesus we not only see the love of God but the light of God illuminating our darkness.
When I think about darkness and light I’m reminded of my the first apartment I lived in after college.
It was a single room in a very old building, and I slept on my boss’s army cot.
One night, after I had turned out the lights and had gotten into bed, I remembered something I had forgotten to do so I got up and turned the light back on.
What I saw was, shall I say, very illuminating.
The walls of the apartment had turned brown and were moving as thousands of cockroaches were quickly scurrying back to the dark cracks and crevices they stayed in when the lights were on.
John Chapter 3 tells us: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come to the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.
But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
Our job is to accept God’s light, to allow it to illuminate our lives, to walk in this light and share it with others.
It’s not surprising that some people have described their conversion as a moment when they “saw the light.”
John Newton, drawing from the stories of Jesus opening the eyes of the blind, would describe his conversion from darkness to light by saying, “I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
We move from darkness to light when we say “Yes” to Jesus and yield our lives to Him.
We continue to live and walk in the light as we love others by what we say and do.
(pause)
So, what about the continuing darkness in our world?
God knows about the terrorism and the wars.
God knows there are thousands of children in our country who go to bed hungry most every night.
God sees the millions who have no bed of their own.
God sees the evil that people do to one another and how that evil causes injury and pain.
And sometimes we might ask why God allows so much suffering and injustice.
Why didn’t God do anything to stop it?
Here is God’s answer: “I did do something.
I sent Jesus to be the light so you could see what to do.”
Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, to set the prisoners free, and to unfasten every yoke that burdens us and holds us down.
He came so that we might walk in God’s light and that we might incarnate God’s love, light and justice for the world.
We are God’s plan for changing the world.
We are God’s strategic plan for addressing poverty.
We are God’s plan for addressing injustice, for healing the wounds of injury and suffering.
We are God’s plan for including and welcoming every person into this community of faith.
We aren’t just passive recipients of God’s love and grace.
As we become children of the light, we can’t keep the light hidden within us.
It is meant to spill out from us naturally and touch the lives of others.
And every time it does, the light extends just a little farther, the darkness recedes bit by bit, the kingdom of God expands, and the world is changed.
A couple of years ago on Christmas Eve, a teenager named Karla felt called to a nearby nursing home.
She went from room to room, offering to read the Christmas story.
After reading, she prayed with the residents and then moved on to the next room.
She came to a room that was dark; the were lights off and the shades were drawn.
She hesitated to go in but then noticed a woman sitting on the edge of the bed in the darkness, her hands folded in her lap, as though she were waiting for someone or something.
Karla asked if she could come in and read the Christmas story, and the woman whispered, “Yes.”
After reading about the birth of Jesus, Karla prayed with the woman and then invited her to join in the Lord’s Prayer.
Karla wished her a Merry Christmas and slipped out of the room.
As she left, Karla heard the woman weeping quietly.
She turned and stood at the door for a moment and heard the woman praying: “Lord, you didn’t forget me. I prayed that you wouldn’t forget me, and you didn’t.”
There in the darkness the light of Christ had come.
Centuries before Jesus, the Prophet Isaiah said: “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom will be like the noonday” (Isaiah 58:10).
A member at another church I served has struggled with depression most of her life.
She’s been on a variety of antidepressants and seen a variety of psychiatrists.
These all have played a part in her healing.
But one day she told me that the most healing thing she does is helping to provide food for food-insecure families and individuals in Chattanooga.
When she talks about this her face lights up.
As St. Francis said, “It is in giving that we receive.
Jesus is the Word of God incarnate—God’s desire to be known, to speak to us, to be heard by us, made flesh through us.
And He is the Light of the world.
May we hear this word, accept His light and reflect His light to others.
Will you pray with me?
Jesus, I trust in You. Fill me with Your light. Give me Your hope. Help me to walk in Your light, to share Your light, to live You light, to give Your light.
Use me, I pray, to push back the darkness.
In Your holy name I pray.
Amen.
