DRAWN TO THE LIGHT

Dr. Richard J. Henderson January 27, 2008

click for printable version

Isaiah 9: 1-4
Matthew 4:12-23
Psalm 27:1, 4-9 (responsive)

Introduction

Imagine this: you are out in the woods at night with your flashlight. You walk along a path in the thick woods making your way toward home. For some reason your flashlight quits and you are in total darkness. There is no moon; you can't see a thing. You stumble forward but you don't know if there is a tree in front of you or the path. You don't know if you are walking toward a steep cliff or just in the woods.

How would you get home? Can you feel what that would be like?

But you knock the flashlight a couple of times and suddenly it begins working again. The beam of light shines bright and strong. You can see the path clearly, so you go to the path and follow it all the way home. How lost you were in total darkness. What a difference that light makes.

I

At one time or another we are all in darkness like that. I don't mean that all of us get lost in the woods, but we lose our way in life. We question if anything is true. We have been hurt by circumstances or our own actions and life seems bleak or empty. Maybe shadows seem to be building in our lives, and the lights feel like they are gradually dimming. We're afraid.

In the sixteenth century St John of the Cross, a Spanish poet and Carmelite priest wrote a book called, The Dark Night of the Soul. It's about the times of struggle, pain, and questioning that often happen to people. Have you ever been there?

II

The good news of Christ is often referred to as the "Light of the world." The light of Christ overcomes the darkness of the soul. The light of Christ shines to show us the clear way. His light lets us see the path that will take us home.

The light of Christ puts the many options around us into perspective. It speaks to us of solid truth, gritty reality, and profound hope. One of the things that keeps convincing me that Jesus is the Christ is that his word makes sense, and it makes better lives, better people, and a better world.

III

Jesus comes to us as light in our darkness. Christ's light brightens our world with hope that there is a way out of the mess we're in. That light offers grace; it provides care beyond what we thought was possible. The light of God attracts us.

The well-known memoirist and poet Mary Karr says that the light of God draws us like a plant is drawn toward the light. Have you ever put a plant in the window and left it there in the same position? In a matter of weeks the plant will turn toward the light so that it will be full and green and hearty on the side toward the light and weaker on the side away from the light.

You may have read Mary Karr's memoir, The Liar's Club, which was on the bestseller list for more than a year. She was raised in very philosophical home and grew up to be what she calls an "undiluted agnostic." She had very difficult home life, and both she and her mother were alcoholics.

In mid-life she became a Christian and joined the Roman Catholic Church. She says it was the Holy Spirit and the grace of God that drew her to faith. She talks about how God's grace was light in her life to help her overcome the chaos that was going on, and help her turn toward God. She says:

"It's true that many of us are battered, abused, hurt. Some people continue to flinch, and become monsters - but on the other hand, if you shine a light on a person, she'll grow in that direction, just like a plant. Love, mercy, grace, the Holy Spirit - all of those things are a natural to us as leaves are to a tree. And no matter how deprived of them we are, given the chance to grow in that direction we will. Grace really does banish darkness the way turning on a light does in a room. It's not that I didn't have to do a lot of work to overcome things from my childhood, but I also believe that to a large extent, I was healed." (1)

Notice that Karr says that grace really does banish darkness the way turning on a light does in a room. And yet we still have to be involved ourselves in moving toward the light. God heals, but we have to help in the healing process.

IV

During the healing process God stands beside us. God's support surrounds us when we face difficult times. The presence of God is with us. Sometimes, amid all the confusion and anguish of our experience, we don't sense God's presence, but it is still there. We have a calligraphy plaque in our house that says, "Invited or not, God is present." I like that. God is involved in our lives whether we ask God to be or not, and even if we aren't aware of God's involvement.

The God who suffered on the cross stands with us when we're suffering. God is present in our time of need. Sometimes we know that presence clearly, sometimes only vaguely; sometimes not at all.

Some of you may remember a few years ago a member of our church was facing surgery. She was a down-to-earth, older woman, and she had a lot of anxiety about this surgery. I talked with her a couple of days before her surgery and she was very upset - afraid something was going to go wrong. I went to see her the day before her surgery in the hospital (she had to come in for tests before they operated). She was in her bed and she was calm.

"How are you feeling today?"

"I'm fine. I'm ready for the surgery and I'll be glad to have it over."

This was not the panicky woman I had talked to the day before. "You don't seem to be worried now."

"No the most wonderful thing happened. They took me downstairs for tests and the nurse left me in the wheelchair while she went to get some paperwork. As I was sitting along the wall in my wheelchair, Jesus appeared right in front of me. He was as real as you are standing there beside the bed. He said, 'Don't be afraid. Everything is going to be fine.' I haven't had a worry since then." Her surgery went fine and she recovered beautifully.

Not many people have that clear or dramatic of an assurance of Christ's presence. Whether Christ's presence is clear to us or not he is with us in our times of trouble. God's light shines in our darkness.

Conclusion

We all face bleak times in our lives. All of us are afraid sometimes. God's promises to us, from the Old Testament Psalms to the New Testament words of Jesus, are that we can be assured of God's love and presence with us in our times of need. Christ suffered on the cross; he knows what it is to suffer. He stands with us in our times of suffering.

Call on God, and God will respond to your need.

Amen

1. Mary Karr, interviewed by Brennan O'Donnell in Image, Winter 2007-08, number 56.

© Richard J. Henderson 2008