WHAT LIGHT IS THAT?

A sermon by George Pasley

Jeremiah 31:7-14; John 1:(1-9) 10-18

One very severe winter back in Maryland I was charged with tending a small flock of sheep that belonged to a woman who had Alzheimer’s. Her family was trying to get her into a nursing home, but she was on a wait list. So they asked me to check in on her daily, and tend to her flock twice a day.

The first three months of winter went by smooth, but something happened in late February and early March. Every weekend there was a blizzard, and every blizzard brought afoot of snow, and each snowfall melted just enough to freeze the top of the snowfall.

It took that snow a long time to melt, and until it melted the sheep were trapped in the barn. The sun was shining brightly in the sky, but there was no heat, not enough to melt the snow, not until well into April.

But one day the snow had melted enough so that I could open the gates, and my goodness you should have heard the hullabaloo and pandemonium! There were only a few dozen sheep in that barn, but it sounded like a hundred as they charged through the gates, every last one leaping in some sort of fashion, twisting each end of their body in an opposite direction as they flew through the air on their way out the door. They were, in the words of Jeremiah, “radiant for the goodness of the Lord.”

There are plenty of people around town looking and praying for a break in the weather. I can’t say that the recent weather bothers me much, but I can certainly see why others may be bothered.

There are some people around town who have not ventured out since before Christmas.

There are some folks out working in this weather who have been working all night.

There are plenty of people who are reasonably worried about someone they love getting hurt out there on the snow and ice.

There are some parents who are truly ready for their kids to go BACK to school, and they are probably terrified of a snow-day being called tomorrow!

But the weather will break, sometime, and I’m certain that when it does there will be plenty of rejoicing. But Jeremiah was talking about a much darker situation than a few weeks of inclement weather.

Jeremiah was talking about a nation, a whole race of people, taken captive, removed from their homeland, and forced to live among strangers who practiced a strange religion, forced to live as less than whole citizens.

They missed their home, missed it terribly, and they missed all the joys they had known.

I remember Erma telling me about how she felt when she moved away to Sitka as a young girl, away from her home and family, and being told not to speak her native tongue any longer. That feeling of despair she felt was extreme and devastating.

Jeremiah was speaking to such as her, and there are millions of people around the world today who know worse horror than what she felt. They live in Gaza and Darfur and Somalia and Congo and Zimbabwe. They live in American neighborhoods ripe with violence. They live in what appear to be nice American homes, but they live subject to abuse. They go to good schools, but they are victims of bullying and intimidation. They live in Ketchikan, and they are hungry and ashamed and afraid of what today might bring. There are very, very few corners of the modern world where there are no “huddled masses yearning to be free.”

Even as Jeremiah once spoke to Israel, his words now speak to such as them and say, “God is searching the hinterlands for all those who have been forgotten and neglected, and God will bring them joy.”

But there is more, because Jeremiah spoke to a nation who knew they had sinned against God. Jeremiah spoke to a nation who knew they were being punished for their idolatries and injustices. So when Jeremiah spoke, he was saying, “Your sins will be forgiven. God will no longer look on you with scorn. Instead, God will look on you with pleasure, and you will dance for joy.”

Now I know there are plenty of people in town who think that church is for good people, who think that they are so bad that God cannot love them, who think that God is out to get them. To them, Jeremiah is saying”Yes, God IS out to get you, so that God can bless them.

There are plenty of people in this world who live in some sort of physical or spiritual darkness, for whom a good day is simply a day that they are somehow able to hang on one more miserable day.

There were plenty of people like that who met Jesus.

A man whose daughter was dead came to Jesus.

A man whose son was epileptic met Jesus.

A man who was insane, and who lived in caves among the dead was found by Jesus.

A woman who suffered for years from a hemorrhage of blood went looking for Jesus.

Lepers, blind men, men who could not walk- they met Jesus.

A woman who was caught in the act of adultery, a sin punishable by death- she met Jesus in her hour of need.

There was a Samaritan woman who made her daily trip to the town well at a time of day when nobody else would be there. But Jesus was there, waiting for her.

To everyone who was forgotten, neglected, put down and walked over, Jesus said, “I am looking for you, the way a shepherd looks for a lost sheep, the way a father looks of his long gone son, the way a poor widow looked for one tiny little coin.”

Jesus was looking for them, and he found them, and to them- well, it was like a shepherd had opened the gate after months of captivity. It was like someone had turned on a light and they could suddenly see how beautiful the world was. But more than that- the old ruined world they knew was long gone, and a new, incredibly beautiful world had taken its place.

Jesus turned their grief into joy.

Jesus gave them happiness in exchange for their sorrow.

He was light in their darkness, and that light still shines.

We need to be clear- Jesus changed their lives. The dead came to life, the blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed. But there are believers who suffer in incredible ways, in ways that seem unbearable to us now, and their suffering is not always changed.

So what can we say?

We can say that Jesus is not a magic genie.

We can say that in heaven all that will be changed.

But we must say this: whoever has received Jesus has received a treasure worth holding. We must say, and we must repeat it often that receiving and holding that treasure changes the believer, no matter the circumstances.

Not too long ago Erma stood up in our midst and described what she felt when she heard the news of her husband’s death. “That’s when I found out what my faith was for!”

Your faith is a treasure, and you’ll hold on to it.

You’ll hold on to it because you trust Jesus.

You’ll trust because of where he’s been.

He’s been where you are.

He’s been worse places than that.

He’s been crucified, dead, and buried.

But he rose again.

So no matter what happens, no matter how bad that might be, no matter how dark it gets, you’ll hold on to that treasure.

And when people ask, “What light is that, which shines so brightly in your life?” you’ll answer- “Why, it’s the light of Christ which shines in the darkness- here, won’t you have some?”

If they receive, it they’ll soon see that darkness WILL NOT overcome it.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.