Sermon: The Prophet’s Light

Sermon: The Third Sunday of Advent, Year B 2008
The Community Church of Wilmette
December 14, 2008

The Prophet’s Light

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 
He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 
He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

I’m not sure how to talk to you about Light.
How do you talk about something that is both a wave and a particle?

They say that religions are about institutionalizing mystery! Talk to the Physics department at the University of Chicago. They make a living discovering things they cannot explain. Beautiful.

How do you talk about something that has a constant speed…or doesn’t depending on which mathematical genius you are talking to? Einstein said some important stuff about Light. And he loved to remind us that he knew almost nothing about Light…only that he knew he did not know.

Praise God that I’ve no such illusions as mathematical genius!

Some days all I seem to know about Light is that there simply isn’t enough of it go go around. 
I’m simply too aware of the darkness. I’m too aware of what creeps in under my none-too-vigilant watch. I think I am doing the right things and then…click, someone turns off the light and I am standing in the darkness with no clue as to how I got there.

As a wise friend once said to me, “Some days just be like that.”

Some days just seem dark and there’s no way around them. We simply have to get through them somehow. We have to stand up in the darkness with our eyes wide open and move onward, or forward…or something. Heck, it might be in circles. We simply have to walk in the hope that the darkness will give way to light and that we will be able to see again. We know we aren’t blind. We just can’t see. It’s a tough spot to be in.

I always feel just a little stupid, like somehow I had something to do with the darkness, like if I had just been more, I don’t know, aware or something then perhaps the light would have never gone out. Somehow I am still convinced that I keep the lights on in my little universe. I am convinced that all the darkness must be of my own doing…I am the lowest common denominator in all the equations that make up my life after all. It must be me. Right? It has to be me. I can control this. I can fix this.

Maybe I should just stay away from mathematical metaphors. They just get me in trouble. But I have one more to offer up to you. It’s a story really.

Several years ago I was attending a lecture at the Lutheran seminary in Hyde Park. The Zygon Center for Faith and Science had brought in some Nobel Laureate in Astrophysics to talk about Red Shift Theory and an Old Testament Scholar to talk about Genesis. We were going to witness a conversation about the creation or beginning of the universe and the age of the universe.

This kind of conversation brings some interesting people out of the woodwork. Incredible. I mean, there were more geeks in this room than you can imagine…geeks of all stripes: math geeks, science geeks, church geeks, Hebrew language geeks, Lutheran geeks, Baptist geeks, and even a couple of music geeks who must have come for the free food.

So, the scripture stuff I had heard before. There’s more than one creation story found in Genesis. It’s not really science. One should try very hard not to approach it with a scientific expectation. In terms of literary structure or style it’s more like poetry or mythic language. It’s talking about true things, but it is not presenting factual information. It’s an important nuance to understand. Truth and fact are not the same thing. We asked the scholar what we hoped were insightful questions and then the Astophysicist spoke.

To his credit he tried to explain Red Shift Theory to a bunch of people who likely never successfully completed a basic Calculus course in High School. Truly, this guy is a Nobel Laureate. I don’t remember his name, but I do remember that. And I guess it’s all that mattered to me in the moment. You see, the more he tried to explain this thing called Red Shift Theory which involves measuring the movement of the stars and planets by tracing the red end of the light spectrum…One can guess at the age of the universe through several complicated mathematical computations…the darker my mind became, the greater my awareness of my own ignorance grew. Oh, it became very dark. When he was done with his 30 minute explanation and history of the development of the theory, he looked up at us and smiled. “Any questions?” He asked.

I am not ashamed to tell you that many of us laughed at that moment. Questions? You have got to be kidding. So some intrepid scripture geek asked “So, do you think this theory is true?”

“Do you mean do I think it’s right? Well, I don’t know. I’m pretty smart and I work with some pretty smart people, but we’re still not sure we know what we’re talking about.” He then waxed poetic and mythical about how little we know and all that people like him ever discover is that we know less and less all the time and not more and more. But (and this is what struck me as the most profound thing that was said all night) he still seeks Light and tries to understand the universe by virtue of the qualities of Light. As little as we know, as little as we understand, we still seek Light, we still seek God.

We still seek Light. 
We still seek God.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

We still seek Light. 
We still seek God.

From this point on in the scriptures, the Gospel writer tries to tell us something about John the Baptist and what John had to say about Jesus. Who was he? In the end, after telling us who he was not, he simply tells us that he is one proclaiming in the wilderness, “crying out” as we heard last week. He stands in the darkness of wilderness and cries out “Here is Light!”

Here is Light. Here is salvation. Here is hope. Here is your Salvation, a Messiah. His name is Jesus.

And he stands in the darkness to do it. He stands in the wilderness. It’s the civilized mind that speaks of wilderness as darkness. I think of Joseph Conrad and his book The Heart of Darkness. The wilderness for us is uncivilized and dangerous. There are crocodiles and head hunters in the wilderness. Yet the scripture writers like our gospel writer today want us to understand something about the wilderness: The wilderness always leads to the Light. It is way out of slavery, the way out of Exile. It is the path to freedom for all God’s people.

I know that Christmas is not an easy time for everyone. I know it is not all happiness and joy punctuated by colorful decorations and spiced cider. Last year I confessed some of my own struggles with the holidays. This year is no different than any other. Some of us struggle with our griefs new and old, some of which seem heavier this year than any other year. We mourn and we may not even know why.

We’ll take on the burden…convincing ourselves that the darkness is of our own making, something we can control… in order to convince ourselves that the darkness is not real. But it is real. It is. That’s the problem with trying to deny the wilderness or the darkness. That the trouble with trying to own it all ourselves. We create an illusion.

Darkness is bigger than that.

This is why John the Baptist stands in the wilderness to proclaim the Light. This is why John calls all to participate in a ritual calling people to Holy Honesty: Baptism. Jesus, too, will be Baptized in this Holy Honesty.

This year is like any other year. There is Darkness in the heart of a season of Light. Some of us are in the wilderness while others of us are celebrating the light. There are those of us who need to hear about the darkness, to be told it’s real, and to be offered Light…a little salvation, a hand to hold, a shoulder to cry upon, and friendship.

We are all called to be Baptists, Light-proclaiming prophets who will stand in the wilderness, the heart of darkness.

John the Baptist is actually present for us in such moments. I know that must surprise many. He stands in our wilderness and proclaims Jesus. The darkness is real. And so is the light. He stands in darkness and says “No. Here there is light!” It’s a place of servitude and humility. We have to look to the example of people like Einstein and the Nobel Laureate of my story.

I am present in the Darkness.
I will stand in the wilderness with you. I will join you in the darkness.
And I will say, “There is Light.”

God is Light and desires us, loves us, and wanders with us in the darkness…in circles if need be.
God suffers no illusions…no illusions about the darkness and our culpability, real or imagined. 
God knows the truth about our darkness…the truth about the wilderness.
And God wants you to know about the Light. 
God wants you to know about the one who comes to save us in the midst of the wilderness…
…He knows the way through, the way out.

Light-proclaiming prophets…all of us Baptists.

The more I learn the less I know. But I do know that there is Light. I don’t always know what it is, but I know what it isn’t. In such a prophetic message is hope and joy for all creation.

Thanks be to God.