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SENT TO TELL ABOUT THE LIGHT

Lots of light but.
I like the lights that are so plentiful this time of year. The many, many outdoor decorations. The lit up, blown up snowmen and Santa Clauses in the front yards. One place in our neighborhood has over 10,000 lights in its front yard-several nativity sets, reindeer and Santas on the roofs, candy canes, lighted trees-flickering, following, static lights, even on the front of the pick up parked in the drive way with its glowing wreath.

As I began to think about this message, the shadows of the not-so-late afternoon are cutting down on the warmth and the strength of the sun.
It is almost winter, almost cold, almost.

We would like to think that the lights of trees, outdoor displays would do away with the darkness that surrounds us. It seems for a while to cause us to want to be helpful to the needy, the present-less, the homeless. More than coins hit the kettles of the Salvation Army collection tripods. Yet we know that next year the same problems, well, you don't have to wait until next year at Christmas, by January the old, the homeless, the hungry, the needy, the present-less will still be there.

The many lights do not make us any more cheerful as we struggle to be nice to the family members we really don't like or agree with, as we try to balance gift giving with credit card paying, as we want to provide warm homes and the tax bills need to be paid before the credit card bills arrive.

If we put on more lights at this time of year to cheer us and get us in the proper spirit to empty our wallets and max our credit cards (if not there already!), is there really any point to it all? After all, all too soon we'll be storing them all away. Is there perhaps a light that really can take away permanently, I think we would like it to be permanently, permanently gloom, the sadness, the clouds that surrounds our lives that never seems to end?

The Necessity for Light Then
There was a man, sent by God, a contemporary of Jesus, a man named John. It seems that even 2,000 plus years ago, darkness covered the land and deep darkness the people, known as God's people.

There was periodic droughts which produced killing famines. There was the aggressively heavy hand of the Romans which brought peace by killing every terrorist insurgent which dared to challenge its power and taxation. There was the lack of any leadership in the land, particularly spiritual leadership. That drought had gone on for over 4 centuries. A dark malaise, a spirit deadening routine of worship which left you drier after all that trotting to the temple in Jerusalem than before you went.
A man sent by God to tell everyone about God's Light. He was to witness to the Light, proclaim that Light had arrived. That again you would be able to see the road, the surroundings, the event of life in their proper and true perspective. Not just to see events but to get the proper interpretation of events by the Light that only God can provide.

He wasn't found in the seat of religious power, in Jerusalem. He wasn't in Rome, our Washington, D. C. where all "wisdom" is provided to the rest of human beings. He was in Bethany beyond the Jordan River.
He was in a place so insignificant that nobody knows where that place is today.

He wasn't there to create a new sect of Judaism. He didn't last very long. He was gone, executed actually by the civil authority (we'd call it capital punishment today), by around 30 years of age.

His Defining Moment
He is asked to define himself. Who is he? Is he the Messiah? Is he going to be the special Ruler God was sending? His answer: No!
Everyone knew that a special person would come before this promised King would come, is John he? Again the answer is: No! Well, who are you, the Prophet, if you're not the King, perhaps you are that promised Prophet? Again it's "No" for the answer.

Well, who are you, you claim to be sent by God, and we've been sent by our bosses to figure out who you are, so tell us.

John tells them and us, using the words of the Prophet Isaiah of many centuries earlier. He is a voice, shouting in this arid, spiritual waterless, a dark as night place of your hearts and lives. He is shouting get ready for God is arriving soon! Make it easy for God who is coming right after me.

The God he was speaking about is Jesus. The promised King, the Spokesman Prophet for God and to God for us, the Light which would forever, and I mean forever, make sun, moon, stars, candles, electric lights, and all sources of illumination obsolete. He is the Light that casts no shadow; the Light which exposes all we are; the Light which evaporates all the ways we try to cover our shame, our sin, our indiscretions, the Light which burned most brightly in the eclipse of all other light on a Friday afternoon; the Light which purifies and sanitizes our stench and its cause-the death we live as we live in the darkness of sin, death, and its consequences.

Jesus is the Light which finally invades every, and I mean every sarcophagus, every mausoleum, every graveyard, every place of death and bring immortality to light for all those who love this Light and his appearing again.

The Coming Light
Yes, the Light will show up again. Soon? Wish I could tell you exactly when, but, yes, soon as we see the days and the years gather momentum in proportion to the remaining time of our existence. Prepare for the Light coming!

Get the baking done! The presents wrapped! The decorating finished!
The mental and spiritual preparation going on as it should! For the guest whose name is Light is coming!

Our Defining Moment
So who are we today? Of course, people are constantly asking us that,
sizing us up to determine who we are. Remember that the Light which came and is coming again has said "You are the light of the world until I return."

He says that to every one of you. Every one! Too young? Out of the mouths of babes! Too old? Your old men shall dream dreams! Wrong sex? No glass ceiling or any other obstruction. Not very smart? The wisdom of the Light begins where the wisdom of men has reached its zenith. Too poor? You all are just looking at bank accounts, not at the treasure of heaven which is yours for sure.

What's this Light said to everyone? "As the heavenly Father sent me, so I send you."

Sent by God. Sent as John was sent. Sent to tell of the Light. Sent to tell of this same Jesus, John was witness to. You, yes, you, and me also are sent by God.

The Light Defines Fellowship
If part of the gloom that surrounds us is that we often seem rudderless in the sea of life, then we should know that we are sent, as John was sent. When we were united to the Light in Baptism, when we confess Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are united into the family of God. We are sent by God into the family. As such we are to be loyal and faithful to the family. We are not sent as individuals, but as those called out from others to be united into this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. It is in the church that the Light shines on us week after week. It is here that the spectrum of our lives is seen in the dark colors of sin as well as the bright colors of our witness to Jesus in our love and service, our words, our prayers, our love of the Word who is Light and Life.

A casual attitude toward the gathering of the saints denies the mission
on which we have been sent: to bear witness to the Light. For where
else shall we find support from fellow witnesses, renew the Light through his coming to us in Bread and Wine/Body and Blood, and seeing again the Light in all its glory and meaning now and when It comes again.

The Light Defines Our Purpose
We are like candles, we are to burn brightly, on a lamp stand, where we are visible. We are not the Light and our "oil" of existence is
limited. A candle does it job when it gives light, so we are to give
light, until we can no longer give light.

We are today surrounded by attitudes which are hostile to our light.
Our light of witness is derided, looked down upon, as though we were freaks. We are considered prejudiced by people, because we insist that there is only one Light to lighten the world.

We are perhaps even slighted because we put witness to the Light above the pursuits that this world holds as ultimate. Even the Light himself said, that thieves break in and steal and moth and rust corrupts even the shiniest ornaments in our lives. They quickly dim and lose their luster when problems in our relationships develop. They fade into rotten cloth when sickness pales our own or the face of a loved one.

The Necessity of Our Witness to the Light Unless we, the people sent by God give witness to the Light, the gloom of war, the darkness created by pandemics and the failure of even the latest drugs to cure, the inability of people to face the darkness in their lives will continue to grow.

We are not much in this world. But we are all God has. He does not send us into this world to be witnesses to the Light with no power.
God the Holy Spirit lives in us, gives our word and service wisdom and power beyond what we imagine.

"This Little Gospel Light of Mine"
I may not be a prophet, and you may not be one either. We may not be a great spokesperson. We may not have many of the doctrines of the church down well enough to feel comfortable in theological debates. We may not even be very literate.

But we are sent. Sent by God. Sent by God to give witness to the Light.

We may not know how we got to be so important or why "I" am important.
John himself sometimes had doubts, but he gave his life to be witness to the Light.

The Light is among us! The Light has come! The Light will come again!

It's powerful in its persuasion. It is the driving force in life. It gives us mission, and purpose. Yes, we are sent to tell about the Light! Amen.

Walter W. Harms, retired pastor
Austin, TX, U. S. A.
Comments: waltpast@aol.com