Darkness

While I was preparing this sermon two words jumped out at me from the readings: darkness and light.

When you look around at the world today, there is a real sense that we are in a time of darkness.

Many of us feel in the dark about the future of this country as the Brexit decision to leave the EU is a step into the unknown. Whether you are for or against the decision, despite all the economists and experts opinions, we are on unchartered territory so we don’t truly know what the outcome will be for the UK, and for all of its citizens and non-citizens, until it happens.

Over in America, we see a divided society in the dark about what a Trump presidency will mean for them.

Every day we see news bulletins about people shrouded in the darkness of extremist religious ideas – the darkness of ISIS that convinces young men, women and even children that strapping on a suicide vest and killing innocent civilians is somehow performing a service to God. Closer to home we see the darkness of racial hatred that led a father and son not too far from Stanley to manufacture a deadly poison that they planned to distribute among ethnic minority civilians in the North East.

We see darkened hearts – people who allow their view of the world to be so fearful and angry that they lose their sense of compassion when seeing desperate people drowning in the sea as their dingy capsized. The hateful comments under a newspaper article showing the video of the sinking boat just before the people on board drowned, were so distressing because these were everyday people, who had allowed their hearts to be empty of sympathy towards their fellow human being. In their darkened view of the world, the refugee or illegal immigrant status of the people on board stripped them of any human value.

There is the darkness of wilful ignorance. Choosing to stay in the dark about a subject and sticking to our own opinion. Not allowing our way of looking at things to be challenged by seeking more information.

Finally, there is the darkness we use as a hiding place. Choosing to keep and nurture the wrong behaviours in our lives in the dark and presenting our “good” side to the world; The darkness of hypocrisy.

In times of darkness there is often a lot of fear because we can’t see clearly. We can’t see if there are dangers or predators ahead of us. When we are in darkness we need light.

In our Gospel reading Jesus says to His followers: “You are the light of the world” and tells them not to cover it up. Because, like salt that loses its saltiness, what good is having a light in the dark if it is hidden or switched off?

In Isaiah we hear God’s message to his people. It is a Father telling off his children, a King chastising his subjects. He tells Isaiah to “shout out and do not hold back”. He is angry at his people for not shining. They are going through the ritual of fasting physically but with no spiritual or behavioural transformation. They are following a tradition that has become meaningless to them.

He calls them rebels – people who are resisting and opposing his leadership. They claimed to be his people but in their actions they were doing the opposite of His will. They were oppressing their workers, living selfishly, quarrelling and fighting, pointing judgemental fingers at other people but not repenting from their own sins.

Yet these people were seeking him every day. Attending services regularly, keen to know God’s ways but not practising his way of righteousness in their daily lives. And they were outraged that when they did their traditional fasts and prayed for God to right the wrongs done to them by other people, He didn’t answer.

So now God answers them and tells them why the fast they are doing is not making a difference. Why they still are not able to shine and reflect his glory.

He tells them that the fast that he has instituted is only an outward symbol for something that should be happening inside. The fast itself – giving up rich food or chocolate – is meaningless if it doesn’t honour God. The fast will only honour and glorify God if it is accompanied by a change of heart and behaviour away from things that displease Him and towards things that do. A movement away from oppression and towards justice; a step away from seeing people as labels - “them and us” “working class”, “shirker”, “striver”, “black”, “white”, “gay”, “straight”, “migrant”, “conservative”, “liberal” – and a step towards seeing them as “kin” fellow humans created, loved and valued by God.

God tells them – and I believe as we are approaching the season of Lent that God is also telling us today – that rather than the period of fasting being just a ritual or tradition that we have always done, we need to get to the heart of it. The heart of the fast is turning away from darkness and towards God.

And if they – and we – do that, something transformational will happen. “Your light will break forth like the dawn. Your healing shall spring up quickly. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall repair the breach” between humanity in darkness and our God of light. “You will be the restorer of streets to live in.”

Jesus, the Light of the World, says to his followers: “You are the light of the world.” Looking around the world today, it’s an impossible task. Us flawed followers, how can we possibly make an impact on the chaos in the world?

As Paul explains, we have received God’s Spirit – because Jesus became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This is how our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. We are not the source of our righteousness, - and I am thankful for that every day – instead we have received Jesus. He fulfilled the law and the prophecies and has given us His righteousness, His light.

The light of the world has shone into us and opened our eyes. We have His Spirit, we should have His mind. Rather than allowing this light to be dimmed by taking on the world’s darkness – the world’s views about people and actions that are not God’s views or how he instructs us to behave – God is asking us to strip away all the things that hide the light He has given us.

When those things are stripped away we will be able to see God’s light and love more clearly and reflect it outwards so that others will have their eyes opened too and see God and then they too will remove the veils that blinded them, receive His light and reflect it outwards again and again until the world is a brighter place.

Jesus says to us and all his followers, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven”, who is the source of our light. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.