Generally we like to think, you know, let your light shine! Be a good example. It is interesting that that image, as Paul wields it, particularly that Ephesians 5 passage we just read, kind of cuts two ways. There are people… All of us have some parts of our lives that we seek to conceal, that we do not want the light to shine into, that we want to keep hidden because maybe they are shameful or… John talks about that, too, in a passage from John 3. We talked about how so many crimes happen under the cover of night when no one can see. It is not just that they are kind of ignorant or they are mistaken, but they love the darkness, as John says, because their deeds are evil. Right you know, one of the messages of that story…of that miracle in John 9, the healing of the man born blind, is that people who are blind, ironically, this guy is the one who actually sees the truth about Jesus and people who think they see everything, they see so clearly because they are experts in the law and they are Pharisees, and all that, they are actually blind, and that irony, that kind of role reversal… Do you think you see, do you think you know so much? If you do not see Jesus, you are blind but, there is also the idea in John…another light/dark theme…that sometimes people actually prefer the darkness to the light.
So again, this pervasive idea of light versus darkness and actually it goes even further back then that in the Bible. They came first to the area in northern Israel, and then they threatened, and cast darkness by fear over all the people but God would reverse that by bringing the light of the Messiah into the world. Right so we have this idea first kind of coming here in connection with the promise of the Messiah, in Isaiah 9, where he begins by talking about the people walking in darkness and actually, there is a verse just before that that sort of introduces this poem, that talks about the land of Zebulon and Naphtali-Galilee of the Nations-and it says in the future the light will start there the gloom will be overcome there beyond the Jordan by the way of the sea and actually, if you look at the Gospel of Matthew, it says that when Jesus appeared, he first appeared in Galilee so, what is going on there is a little bit of a historical reference to the idea that the enemies who were coming down-the Assyrians-came through the north. Talk of light is all over the place in the Bible and we will walk into that light today on Groundwork. So, in the same chapter where he promises a mighty Messiah to come, he speaks about light and Isaiah is not alone. Isaiah knew that the people of Israel had been enduring a very dark time in their history.
Well, humor aside, we are all attracted by the light. Oh, no, the farmer replied, it’s the light that attracts them. Well, the farmer was a bit shaken by this, except then the doctor cried out: Hold on, here comes another one: it’s triplets! At this, the farmer began to leave the room, causing the doctor to shout: Wait, come back here with that lantern. The farmer stood in the room holding a lantern aloft so that the doctor could see what he was doing, and soon the child was born but then the doctor said: Wait, hold up that lantern! Another one is coming and sure enough the woman gave birth to a twin. The farmer sent for the doctor, who arrived in time to assist with the birth. It was a dark winter’s night when the farmer’s wife went into labor.