where is the light? a sermon for advent

I was invited to guest preach again at a Presbyterian church in central Utah for the fourth Sunday in Advent.  The two texts for this Sunday’s message were:

• The prophet Isaiah’s declaration that the “people who walked in darkness have seen a great light… [because] a child has been born for us” (Isaiah 9:2-7), and
• The prologue of the gospel of John that speaks of the “light [that] shines in the darkness” (John 1:1-18).

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I found myself grateful that these were the two texts for this final Sunday in Advent—not only because they talk about light and life and the “child to be born,” and all the things we celebrate at Christmas, but also because they both name why those things are necessary in the first place:  the people of God needed light because they were walking in darkness.
 
Sound familiar?
 
Advent is a season of peace and hope, but this year—particularly because of COVID—it has felt (at least for me) like walking under a dark shadow.  I imagine each of us could name a way we’ve been affected by it in these last few months.  I know I’ve been sad not to go back to Washington to see my family for the holidays… FaceTime and Zoom are helpful, but certainly not the same.  And I would guess I’m not the only one missing family and friends this year.    
 
So much has been different… darker. 
We’ve had to adjust to wearing masks and not seeing one another’s smiles, not being able to hug one another or sit around a dining room table together like we’re used to.  Families have had to quarantine, kids are missing school, people have lost jobs, and too many are grieving loved ones who have been hospitalized or have passed away.  I can only imagine that these times feel for many of us like the text in Isaiah—like a land of deep darkness. 
 
And it’s not even just COVID (as if that weren’t enough!).  This year we had a brutal presidential election, and there has been so much division over politics, race, healthcare, the environment.  There were several months I couldn’t stand to get on social media because of the hateful things people were saying to each other. 
 
We have known darkness… and I find myself asking God, “Where is the light?”
We desperately need it.

Isaiah must have thought it had come… or was coming.  He says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.”  

So where was the light?
 
Isaiah was a prophet who lived in Judah, and in that time, the nation was ruled by a king named Ahaz, who was a terrible king.  There are some who thought that this child that Isaiah spoke of who would bring peace was Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah.  And Hezekiah did grow up to a good king, for the most part.  But by the time John wrote his gospel hundreds of years later, he had another perspective on the child Isaiah was referring to—the light that was to come—because even after King Hezekiah died, the people of God still walked in darkness.
 
In Isaiah’s time, the entire nation of Israel was conquered, and had since been ruled over by Assyria, and then Babylon, and then Persia, and then Rome.  They went for seventy years without a Temple, and even longer without a King.  They still waited for a child to be born… a Messiah… someone who would break into the darkness and bring peace.  They waited for a light.  And that light was Jesus... a child born in a stable.  Jesus himself confirmed this in John chapter 8 when he said, “I am the light of the world.”
 
But John does a curious thing at the start of his gospel.  He doesn’t just tell a birth story like Matthew and Luke.  He says, “In the beginning.”  In the very beginning.  These first words of John’s gospel are the first words of Genesis: “In the beginning.”  He writes about the good news of Jesus’ coming, but he doesn’t just link Jesus back to when Israel had a king.  He starts Jesus’ story all the way back when God created the heavens and the earth, when darkness hovered over the waters and the first words of God were “Let there be light.”

John refers to Jesus as the Word, and says,

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

This means Jesus was with God in the very beginning.  And where was the light?
It was spoken into existence by God through Christ. 

“What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not extinguish it.”

 
John knew that Jesus was Israel’s new King.  But he wasn’t just a child born in that time and that place, he was the Word of God Himself.  He was the light from the very beginning… the light that brought all life into existence… the light that would not be overcome by the darkness of the world.  And then he came into that world himself.  John wrote this gospel almost seventy years after Jesus was born, and this was a bold claim to make, because Christ was, in a way, overcome by the darkness.  His life was extinguished.    
 
The world crucified the light. 

And the world still tries to crucify the light.
 
Darkness still bears down around the people of God.  Pain and anxiety and loneliness and grief still exist.  The Kingdom of God has not come to completion.  So where is the light? 
 
I think there’s no point in pretending that this is a typical Advent.  It would be unfair to approach the coming of Christ this year without acknowledging that the darkness still exists… many of us are facing it every day.  But it’s precisely in that moment of darkness that Christ shows up.  He didn’t banish the darkness or make it go away… he came into it with us. He became human and endured the worst of the darkness, which was death, and he still could not be overcome. 
 
This is good news.  This is why the shepherds and the angels celebrated on Christmas:  because Christ, who brought life and light into the world, had come to be with the people he loved.  He had come to bring peace in the darkness.
 
So where is the light now?  John says that the Word, this light, is life and grace and truth.  Isaiah said that this light brings joy and peace.  That means that wherever we see these things—life and grace and truth and joy and peace—there is the light.  It shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not extinguish it.
 
Sometimes it shows up in unexpected ways.  Just this week my husband brought home a Christmas card from one of his coworkers.  I’ve never met or talked with this person before, but she wrote part of it directly to me, thanking me for the ways I’ve indirectly (i.e., through Matt) influenced their workplace and her life.  I was so surprised and so humbled by it.  It was this small, but incredible point of light in my week.
 
Have you had any moments like that this year?  Surprise gifts or words of kindness or memories that made you laugh?  Maybe you’ve seen someone go out of their way to help someone else or heard a song that made you smile.  That’s Christ… breaking in with light and grace when we least expect it.  And just like a little child in a humble manger, a small light can have a big impact.    
 
Perhaps the biggest grace of all is that through this Son that was given to us, we have been invited to become children of God, born, John says, “not from blood nor from human desire… but born of God”… not of the darkness, but of light itself.  God has adopted us so that we can witness to the light, just like John the Baptist did.  Jesus said, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

 
So where is the light now?
 
It’s in all the acts of kindness and love that people show to one another… and it’s also in us.  We carry the light of Christ wherever we go.  It’s what allows us to see through this darkness, to help enlighten the world with the peace of Christ until he comes again.  It’s what we celebrate this Advent, and all the days after, and it will not be overcome.