SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2025 - "YOUR LIGHT HAS COME"
January 5, 2025
Deborah Laforet
“Your Light Has Come”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Arise, shine, for your light has come! Christmas has come and gone. We’ve celebrated
the birth of the Christ child, the light in the darkness. Epiphany is a day when we celebrate that
light. Like any royal birth or significant beginning, the event is celebrated with bells ringing and
songs sung, lifting our glasses to a brand new start, but after that initial marking of the moment,
people begin to respond: they bring gifts, they visit and offer their best wishes, and they might
ponder how their own lives will change in light of this event, in light of this birth.
The four weeks before Christmas we call Advent. It’s a time of waiting. It’s a time of
anticipation as we move slowly towards Christmas Eve, when we celebrate the birth of our
Saviour. It’s a ritual we re-enact every year, knowing we will soon reach that day of celebrating
the birth of a child. We know it arrives every year on December 25th. We know we don’t have
to wait long. We know our wait will soon be over.
The passage Candy read for us this morning is from the prophet Isaiah, from around 538
BCE, less than five hundred years before the birth of Jesus. The book of Isaiah is often split into
various parts, with most scholars believing it was written by various authors during different
time periods, from condemnation of an unjust and corrupt people, to lament of their temple being
destroyed and folks being exiled in Babylon, to offering comfort and assurance to these people
who struggled to keep their faith in a strange land, and finally to celebration when they are
released from their exile, allowed to return and restore their precious home.
And of course, this cycle of events would have taken many years and generations of
people, of people feeling grief, loss, desperation, despair. They would have felt far away from
the light, as maybe many of us feel today, as we hear about plain crashes, bombings, people
driving vehicles through crowds, attempted arrests of world leaders, political divides and the
spread of disinformation, the climate crisis, and so much more. We might be feeling like the
light feels very far away. Mental illness is on the rise as we attempt to make sense of it all and
find our own place and direction in the world.
During Advent, while lighting our Advent candles, we heard some quotes about light.
I’m going to share these four quotes again, coincidentally all by men, throughout this sermon, so
you have a chance to hear them again, and by way of celebrating the light and its power over
darkness.
Here is the first one: “There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in,” by
Leonard Cohen. This acknowledges the brokenness in our world. It acknowledges the pain and
suffering so many experience, but through our struggles, light can shine forth, and in fact,
sometimes we need these struggles in order for the light to shine. How many stories of adversity
do we read that end with a story of triumph? That’s the plot of most superhero movies. We are
the superheroes, my friends. I don’t know who or what the villain is in your life, but I’m sure we
could name some common ones amongst all of us like greed, abuse of power, selfishness, and
more. We are the superheroes and we can triumph over these villains and our own personal
villains. The light will shine through the cracks.
By Francis of Assisi, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single
candle.” We’ve all been there, right? Where the grief and despair feel so big, it feels like it
might swallow us whole? Then we get a phone call or a note. We get a visit from a friend. A
child smiles at us. We see the biggest, most colourful sunrise or sunset. All of a sudden, there is
a small glimmer of hope within us. We feel just a touch lighter. Tears may come to our eyes,
which I see as a release of some of that darkness, and we might even smile. Small actions can
have big consequences. Just those small flickers of light might not extinguish the darkness, but
the darkness will never vanquish small flickers of light.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, in his book, “Crime and Punishment,” said, “The darker the night,
the brighter the stars.” Have you ever tried turning the lights on at dawn or dusk? A little light
won’t do. Have you ever tried just a single, small light when it’s pitch black. That light shines
so bright! I think this is what happens when life seems the most difficult. During the pandemic,
we started offering our thanks and praise to health care workers. They’ve always been
important, but during the pandemic they seemed so much more so, which goes for all the
essential workers during the pandemic that I now have a difficult time even naming now that the
pandemic is over. During the worst of times, what we hold most dear shines so bright, whether it
be health care workers, our favourite foods, a favourite song, our favourite people, a good run or
walk, an unexpectedly good book or movie. When in need, look for those bright stars and may
they give you the light you need.
Lastly, from Martin Luther King, Jr., "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can
do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” An important one to hear as the
divide in our world seems to grow wider and as people’s anger, fear, and yes, even hate, towards
one another becomes stronger. More hate is not going to solve this problem. Telling people they
are wrong, calling them names, and trying to force them to think think differently, is not going
solve this problem. Only love will do that. Love for our neighbour. Love for the stranger. Love
for our enemy. Only love can drive out hate.
I thought I’d try an experiment. What happens if I do what Martin Luther King, Jr. did,
replacing the words darkness and hate with love and lights, with all our quotes? “There is a
crack in all hate, that's how love gets in.” “All the hate in the world cannot extinguish the love
of a single moment.” “The stronger the hate, the the more powerful the love.”
Is light just a metaphor for love? Our scripture from Isaiah reads, “Arise, shine, your
light has come!” Could we read it as, “Arise, shine, Love has come!” Love, born in a stable,
born of a young, unmarried woman, love visited by shepherds and magi. Love has arrived.
Love is in our midst. Love has come to vanquish hate.
May that light shine bright. May it shine within us and may we share that light with
others. May Christ be our light and our love, bringing hope in a world of darkness and hate.
May you be the Christ for others, sharing your light and love and bringing hope to world
desperately seeking peace. Amen.
Isaiah 60:1-6
(Introduce yourself. - Do not move or tap microphone.)
The gospel of Matthew often references prophets from the Hebrew Scriptures, in
an attempt to connect Jesus with his Jewish roots, and to show a fulfillment of the
scriptures in Jesus, the long awaited Messiah. The passage I’m reading this
morning comes from the prophet Isaiah. See if you can hear the connections made
to the magi who visited Jesus. I’m reading from the first six verses of chapter 60,
from the book of Isaiah.
1 Arise, shine, for your light has come!
the glory of Yahweh has risen upon you!
2 Though darkness still covers the earth
and dense clouds enshroud the peoples,
upon you Yahweh now dawns,
and God's glory will be seen among you!
3 The nations will come to your light
and the leaders to your bright dawn!
4 Lift up your eyes and look around;
they’re all gathering and coming to you -
your daughters and your sons
journey from a far, escorted in safety;
5 you’ll see them and beam with joy,
your heart will swell with pride.
The riches of the sea will flow to you;
and the wealth of the nations will come to you -
6 camels caravans will cover your roads,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
everyone in Sheba will come.
bringing gold and incense
and singing the praise of Yahweh.
May the Spirit guide our understanding of this holy scripture. May the Spirit guide
our understanding of this holy scripture.