Psalm 27 (NIV)
1 The Lord is my light and my
salvation - whom shall I fear?
The Lord is
the stronghold of my life - of whom shall I be afraid?
John 1:1-4,
9-13 (NRSV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God… 3bWhat
has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of
all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did
not overcome it.
Darkness is a familiar and engulfing experience. It
is also one of the world’s oldest religious symbols. Darkness is the place
where truth is distorted and denied, and where fear rules supreme. Darkness is
also a place of security. It is a place where we do not have to face the
shadowy side of our life. It is a place where we believe we can avoid having to
make any changes in our life.
John says, in
him was life, and the life was the light of all people. Jesus shed light on
what real life looks like. All the distortions that we fall prey to in the
darkness are corrected when we put our life in His Light. Where we have been as
pre-occupied as the priest passing by on the other side of the road, He gives
us compassion. Where we have been the prodigal, He makes us hungry for the
pleasures of home. Where we have become the harassed victims of a driven life,
He is at work giving us peace and poise amid our daily pressures.
The light
shines in the darkness. The darkness still wages war against the
light, and it appears sometimes as though the darkness is winning. We see the
darkness making a mess of our lives, blowing us off course. But, the moral
corruption of the first century world could not overcome the Light born on
Christmas night, nor could ninth century superstition, nor the shallow optimism
of the 19th century, nor the ever with us blinding darkness of
people rich in things and poor in soul. Once we have seen the Light we keep
coming back to it. Through some moment of beauty or of pain, through some word
rightly spoken or some act of compassion we glimpse the Light that blinded the
shepherds.
The Light shines in your darkness and in mine. We
see the truth that sets us free and will set us free again. Having seen the
Light, we start making choices to build our life on the solid ground of this
reality. Once that decision has been made, we are never the same again. Light
and darkness are both present in our world, but they are not equal in power. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness did not overcome it. Amen.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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