“Walking in the Light of the Lord”

Rev. Nancy Dunn

November 27, 2010
Isaiah 2:1-5

First Sunday of Advent, Year A

Every year at Thanksgiving, my family would travel to my grandparents’ house for dinner. We would pile into the our suburban for the 30 minute drive , and go over the streams and through the woods, and drive by all of the rural farm land in flat eastern North Carolina. We’d have good hearty meal of turkey, collards, sweet potatoes and other good traditional food. Some of us would watch the football game in the family room while, in the parlor, others caught up on the family news and gossip. Then, late in the evening, the 6 of us would climb back into the suburban for the return trip home in the dark.

Real dark. You know, something like the darkness on the rural roads south of here towards Amish country. Dark, because there were no street lights. And, with tall pine trees lining the roads, only bits and pieces of the night sky would shine through. It was dark. And, that’s when the GAME would begin. The Thanksgiving Christmas tree game.

We would count the number of homes we saw with Christmas trees, newly erected and decorated that day. Of course this was back in the day when stores didn’t decorate before Halloween and most people waited to put their tree up closer to Christmas. So, we often pass many homes before we’d see one.

Then, off in the distance, out of the darkness, we would see the first glimmering light of a Christmas tree. “Look, I see one over there.” Then, another. “Hey is that one?” Over and over again, the cry would go up, “Look, here’s another tree!” For once, my seat in the front between my parents wasn’t so bad. (Yes, this was long before air bags, seat belt laws, and back seat requirements.) It provided me with a vantage point those in the back seat did not have. I could see the lights first! Actually, I could see a glimmering of light off in the distance, a possible tree sighting on the horizon, and I’d say, “Hey there might be one coming up.” I was the lookout. For me, this game used to be the first sign that Christmas was near. The few lights we saw that night would begin to multiply as the days grew closer to Christmas. Those lights we saw on Thanksgiving meant it was now time to prepare for Christmas.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. And, the excitement of seeing those first Christmas lights go up on houses still exists. Now I get to HEAR that excitement as my own girls cry out with delight as we ride through town in the darkness. They squeal with laughter as they say, “Here’s one on my side.” “Look there’s one over there.”

And, look there’s a light over there! It’s the light of HOPE and it too shines in the darkness, the darkness of our world to give light and HOPE to the world. On this first Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of HOPE to begin our journey towards Bethlehem. As we travel down this dark road, this candle of HOPE leads the way. It guides us to a baby in a manger that brings HOPE to the world. To the people of his time and to our time as we await his coming again.

Our text from Isaiah today is an example of a light shining in the darkness to give HOPE to the world. The author of this scripture was writing in a time of great confusion, great turmoil. The land we know as Israel, then called Judah, had become a territory of the Assyrian empire. And, threats to Jerusalem abounded on all sides, even from within their own land. Peace was nonexistent. Violence and war were all too common. And, for the average Judean, the future was bleak.

Most people made their living off the land as shepherds and farmers. Plows and pruning hooks were tools of the trade needed by almost everyone for survival. When Isaiah speaks of taking the equipment of war and refashioning them, reusing them for farming, he speaks of the impossible, the unimaginable. It is a hope, a dream, something that gives the people comfort during their days of despair.

Ah, to be able to fashion the tools of war into implements of peace. It is a dream we all long for. This text has been used for centuries to give HOPE to a world of violence. As he gives the people HOPE, Isaiah also calls the people back to reality and reminds them that they are called to “walk in the light of the Lord!”

Isaiah reminds us that we, too, even though we live during uncertain times, we too are called to walk in the light of the Lord. While God is the one who will bring about the time of peace, we are called to work for it, to strive for it, to live for it, and to HOPE for it. We are called to live just and righteous lives. We are called to look for the light of HOPE in our lives and to follow it.

Psalm 119: 105 reads, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” The author of the Gospel of John builds upon these texts for us when he writes:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What 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. (John 1:1-5)

The light that shines in the darkness is Jesus Christ. The baby born in a lowly manger. The one who came to give us HOPE for our lives as we continue to live in a world that is still full of violence and brokenness. Yet, because of his life, his death and his resurrection, we know that violence and darkness does not have the last word in this world. And, as we wait for the coming of Christ, we know that peace and wholeness will reign on earth when he comes again.

Yet, as we wait, we can choose to follow Christ’s teachings, his ways of peace and justice, his life of service to others to help usher in that kingdom we long for. When we choose to let the ways of this world lead us, then we contribute to the darkness and we allow it to overwhelm us.

We can choose to live our lives differently. We can choose to make a difference in the world. When we have HOPE, it is something we long to share. And we rely on it. We rely on HOPE to be the bedrock for our lives. It gets us up out of bed on the darkest of days. And, it permeates our souls. If we are walking in the light of the Lord, Jesus Christ becomes the focal point for all that we say and all that we do. And, we become beacons of the LIGHT to others.

How are things in your life right now? As we move towards Christmas, are there relationships you long to restore? Words you wish you never said? Or, words you wish you had said? What are the things in your life that are broken, those wounds which need to be healed?

Bill Muehl, who was the professor of preaching at Yale Divinity School, tells the story of a child in preschool who had made a ceramic figure to be taken home as a gift for his parents on the last day of class before Christmas. When the child sees his parents in the hallway, he runs toward them and accidentally falls. The ceramic figure crashes to the ground and shatters into a hundred tiny pieces. The father takes the sobbing and frightened child up into his arms and attempts to console his son with a disclaimer, "Don't cry. It's all right, it doesn't matter." But the child's mother, wiser in such things, quickly intervenes. "Oh, no," she says. "It does matter." And she wept with her son.

On this first Sunday in Advent, the prophet Isaiah is trying to tell us that God has set a beautiful vision before us, but life is short, and along the way to that vision we have broken some things. Sometimes we did it intentionally, and sometimes we did not. Some relationships have been broken, responsibilities messed up. And the brokenness is at all levels...in our families, our churches, our communities, our nation, and our world. And it matters. It matters that we can make it right again. It matters that we acknowledge it before God and each other so that we can begin to bring healing again where brokenness lies.[1]

When we stop groping around in the darkness and we walk in the light of the Lord, HOPE takes a hold of us and helps us to reach out to others to heal the brokenness. And, we each individually become beacons of HOPE to this dark world. Look, there’s the light of HOPE over there showing us the way to Bethlehem. And, look there’s another one over there, and over there, and over there. [Point all around the sanctuary and various people.] See! It is time to get ready for Christmas. Advent is here. And, HOPE is all around us. Let’s walk in the light of the Lord together. Amen.

[1] Stephen Montgomery, “Closer Than You Think,” Day 1, 2010.