Isaiah 60:1-5
“Arise and Shine”
By: Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
“Arise and Shine!”, are the cheerful words of my mother that I remember from my youth.
This is what she would say as she came into my bedroom in order to wake me up.
And this is what God is saying to us through the prophet Isaiah, “Arise, shine, for your
light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”
Today is the first Sunday in the season of Epiphany.
The word epiphany means: appearing, bringing something to light, making manifest or
visible what was once unseen and hidden.
The season of Epiphany is about light.
It’s about the coming of the true Light into the darkness of this world.
A few weeks ago, we celebrated Christmas--the birth of God in human form.
Our light has come through the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
Now it’s up to us to decide whether or not to Arise and shine in that light, or to remain
in the darkness.
I am not a morning person. As far back as I can remember, it has always been
tremendously difficult for me to jump right out of bed when the alarm goes off or when my
mother has entered my room saying, “Arise and Shine!”
My natural tendency is to close my eyes and pray for a little more sleep, but if I were to
do this--to keep on sleeping--I would miss out on the beautiful light of the day, and I would get
nothing accomplished.
The same is true with the light of God. Our natural tendency is to do everything we can to
ignore that light, and go back to sleep--or return to the darkness.
But if we were to do this, we would miss out on the beautiful experience of living as sons
and daughters of God, and ultimately we would get nothing accomplished.
Even though it is a struggle to get out of bed...as soon as I get up I am glad I did.
By the time I have put on some clothes, taken the dog for a short walk, and returned to
the house for a shower I am wide awake, in a good mood, and ready for the new day--happy
that I did not decide to stay in bed.
The same is true in our experience with God.
When we allow the Light of God to shine upon us, when we Arise in that Light ...our
lives begin to shine and we are eternally grateful.
Because this is when life truely begins---our spiritual lives---this is when we become
born again or born of God.
And it’s only natural that in order to be spritually alive, we must live in the spiritual light
of God.
Darkness means disorientation, and despair.
We associate darkness with death.
We speak of ‘dark moods,’ or the ‘dark side’ of someone’s personality, or ‘the dark
underbelly’ of society.
Total darkness would be intolerable.
We were created to live in the light.
In fact, total darkness is probably one of the most frightening things we could
experience.
We never really expereince total darkness in this life.
God is too gracious for that.
He’s given us the sun to light the day, and the moon and stars to give light to the night.
And we add our own light--candles and oil lamps, fluorescent and incandescent.
Many of us keep the light burning down the hall so that we won’t stub our toes in the
darkness.
Only at the judgement, on the Last Day, is there utter darkness for those who absolutely
refuse to have the light of God’s love shine upon them.
Sin loves darkness and uses darkness as its cover.
More crimes are committed at night than in the light of day...just ask a policeman who
patrols the streets at night.
Sin draws us into the darkness. It tries to blot out the light--to kill the light.
Sin hates the light and refuses to come out into the light.
As the Bible says in John chapter 3, “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, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”
Adam hid from God in the darkness, and so do we.
We hide in the darkness when we close our ears to God’s Word, when we make ourselves
absent from the Lord’s table, when we turn away from the Church, and when we choose to go
with the flow of the world rather than deciding to go against the grain with God--choosing to
do what is right.
Verse 2 of Isaiah chapter 60 says, “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is
over the peoples.”
Without Christ there is only thick darkness.
No light, no heat, no life.
And there is nothing we can do about this thick spiritual darkness that sin has put us in
without the light of Christ.
Darkness may envelop much of the earth, but the glory of God shines upon God’s people.
The question is: “What is our position in reference to the light?”
Are we hiding from it or are we absorbing it, and letting it shine through us?
A colleage of mine recently told me about a woman who was burdened under the deep
conviction of sin.
She sat night after night--the picture of dejection and distress.
One night she gave her life to Christ, and the burden of sin fell from her heart.
She became radiant!
On the way home that night, she stopped at a store to do some shopping.
A clerk who had known her for some time said, “Why you look as if someone had just
lighted a candle inside you!”
“That’s right,” she said.
“What I mean,” said the clerk, “is that you look as if you have just fallen in love!”
“I have!” exclaimed the woman.
“I have fallen in love with the One who loved me when I didn’t love Him--Jesus!”
God is speaking to the darkness of our souls and saying, “Let there be Light.”
And Christ is that Light.
Christ is the Light who has defeated the darkness by dying in the darkness.
Christ is the Light who has filled the grave with His life.
Christ is the Light who absorbs the darkness into Himself, and fills us with His light.
He is the one who enlightens us with the gifts of His Spirit.
Once we recieve the light of Christ, it is our duty and priviledge to glorify and praise the
Lord in our worship and in our witness.
We are in this dark world...nothing can change that, but as the prophet Isaiah declares:
“the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”
Isaiah is speaking to the Church today.
In verse 3 Isaiah declares, “Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of
your dawn.”
And in verse 4, “Lift up your eyes and look about you.”
We can see! We are in the light.
“Look around you,” Isaiah says. “See how all assemble and come to you, your sons and
your daughters. Look and be radiant!”
God is gathering His Church, a people for Himself, a people born of the Light--who live
and walk in the Light--a people who have seen the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
God has assembled our congregation to proclaim the praise of the Lord. He is calling all
people into His priesthood, calling them out of darkness-- into His marvelous light.
And we are to be used for this purpose.
We didn’t follow a star to church this morning. We are here because someone else spoke
the Word of God to us and pointed us to Christ.
We are here because a friend or a parent, or a co-worker, or a neighbor spoke a Word of
Christ to us saying: “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”
As the prophet Daniel says, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the
firmament; and those who turn many to righteousness, like stars forever and ever.”
We are called to be stars, guiding others to the place where Christ is.
Once I was talking with a young Christian girl who was finding it difficult to be true to
her Christian principles where she worked.
“Where do you put lights?”, I asked her, “In bright places?”
“Why, no,” she replied, “We put lights in dark places, in order to make it light.”
Then she saw that the Lord had put her in those difficult surroundings so that she could
let Christ’s light shine through her to those she worked with.
Pretty soon, she had invited several of her co-workers to come to church with her....and
you know what?
A couple of them actually came, joined, and became radiant Christians themselves.
Isaiah reminds us that the wonderful Light of Christ scatters the darkness.
It is not something to be horded as our own private possession.
“You are the light of the world,” Jesus said to His disciples, and to us, His Church.
We are a city set high on a hill.
We are a beacon beaming out into the streets and alleys and homes of our
community--reflecting the Epiphany light of Christ, called to draw all people to worship the
one true God in the light of His Son.
We are like a light-house set in Newport News, Virginia--small yet bright, guiding
people through the fog and the storm--shining into the darkness, guiding the nations to where
Christ is located to save them.
Jesus says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
We are called to be transparent so that the Light of Christ can be clearly seen through
us--Because Jesus is the Light who has come to dispel people’s deepest darkness--to scatter the
darkness of sin, and to destroy the darkest depths of death.
A.W. Milne labored as a missionary in a section of New Guinea where there were
cannibals.
There he died--preaching the gospel of Christ.
His converts, some of whom were former cannibals, asked permission to place a marker
on his grave on which they inscribed: “Here lie the remains of A.W. Milne. When he came to us
there was no light. When he died there was no darkness.”
In this Epiphany season, let’s bask in the Light of Jesus’ love for us!
Let’s allow Him to enlighten us anew with His Word and Spirit.
Let’s learn to walk even more strongly and confidently in the Light of his forgiveness.
Let’s trust Him even more to be our Light!
And through doing this, we will be fulfilling our task to be the light of the world--used
by God as a magnet to a piece of steel--drawing those who are living in darkness to God’s most
wonderous salvation that is found only in Christ Jesus our Lord!
People of Parkview United Methodist Church: “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you!
Be Radiant---and allow God’s light to shine on all those around us!
Thanks be to God, Amen.
