John 1:6-8, 19-28
Today on this third Sunday of Advent, we await the coming of the light.
It is a dark season. We are a week away from the darkest day of the year – the day when the sun is farthest from this northern hemisphere, making our day short and our night long. It is a dark season, yet we await the coming of the light.
It is a dark season for us in many ways. Day after day, the weight of this novel coronavirus darkens our land with sickness, want, loneliness, and death.
It is a dark season around the world where the numbers of the sick and the dead continue to rise, where leaders try, or do not try, to alleviate the suffering around them. In a world where powerful people behave as though they own the power, rather than that they are stewards of it. Where they might serve the lowly and the meek, some would rather use them for their own gain.
It is a dark season in which we are, strangely, quietly, waiting for the light.
Advent is a season of waiting. Yet as we read the news, look around us, and struggle through our own personal darkness we might wonder if waiting is quite enough.
Waiting for something, anything, means turning our attention toward it. It means focusing, staying awake, staying alert. As we wait for the light our attention must be heightened – heightened by hope.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light.” He himself was not the light, but he came to testify, to witness to the light that was to come. They came to John asking who he was, demanding that he identify himself and all he would tell them was that he was a witness, he was a voice, he was the forerunner of the one who was to come, making a way in the wilderness of this land for the light to blaze through.
And this one, John told them, is among you but you do not know him. The light of the world is in your midst, but you do not know him. I suspect this is as true today as it was at that time long ago when the camel-hair-wearing, locust-eating John confronted the messengers of the Pharisees: Among you stands one whom you do not know he told them.
The light of God is in our midst yet we fail to see.
This is a dark season. And here we are, on this third Sunday of Advent, waiting for the light.
Because the darkness feels so oppressive. We find ourselves pulled down into it, buried in it sometimes. We are dealing with “the devastations of many generations,” to use Isaiah’s words. Perhaps it is because we have lived in this darkness for so long.
Have our eyes become unable to see light?
We await the coming of the light, the light that is with us even while we do not know it.
I believe that the people who ran out to the wilderness to see John were starved for light. They were desperate to have some light in their lives. They may not have fully understood John’s message They might have thought that he was, himself, the light they were seeking. They might not even have known what they were doing, but they helped to make a way for the light to come. In responding to John’s message, they became instrumental in making a way for the light to come.
With their help, John stirred things up. He attracted a lot of attention, like a neon sign on a deserted highway. He drew the people out to the river, then literally drew them out of the river of their baptism; a sign of repentance and renewal – a readiness for new life. He drew the attention of the religious authorities, letting them know that things were stirring, new light was coming. John made a way in the wilderness.
The people were living in a dark season, not unlike ours; a season very much in need of light.
You know, the problem sometimes for a people who have been living in darkness is being able to recognize the light. It is a problem sometimes for us. When people have been seduced by commercial versions of light and love, they might not recognize true light and love when they see it. When people have had their best instincts beaten out of them by powerful forces that push their own version of truth – a version which might hold very little love – the people might not recognize true light and love when they see it.
These are dark days – yet we have an advantage, my friends. We come to this virtual place every week to light the light. We come together each week to listen to the Word and be filled with the Spirit of light and life and love. We come here every week to be equipped to testify to the light.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.” John’s witness lit the way for others to come, to carry the light, to carry the message of love and life. And as descendants of those witnesses, we too bear witness to the light that is to come.
Let us not lose our ability to see the true light. Let us walk close to this light so we will have the power to discern lies from truth, evil from goodness. Let us carry the light of truth into the world, without fear, without bitterness. As we wait for the light in this season of darkness let us remember that, of this light that is to come, we hold the embers in our hands.
