the reading
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
the sermon
Close your eyes for a moment. And I’ll let you know when you can reopen them. I want to talk for a moment about darkness and light. So close your eyes and just think about darkness.
Darkness is good when it’s time to sleep. (Don’t do it yet!) As the sun goes down at the end of the day and darkness comes, it triggers our circadian rhythm and the release of the natural melatonin in our bodies that helps us sleep. In fact, as we start winding down at the end of the day in our house, I start turning off and dimming many of the lights so that the kids can feel the darkness settling in, and they start getting more tired and ready for bed.
But some studies have explored prolonged exposure to absolute darkness. After a little while the darkness starts impacting your sensory abilities and has some psychological effects. You begin to lose the ability to process things like time… 2 days can feel like 5 minutes, and 5 minutes can feel like 2 days. Things like depression and hallucinations can start coming in.
Now with your eyes closed, picturing that complete darkness, imagine the light of a single candle [snap] appears.
That light pierces the darkness.
Other studies show that the light from a single candle can be seen from over a mile and a half away. A single candle!
Now imagine another candle, and another, and another, and another. And then before long there are hundreds, even thousands of candles, or more… lighting up the world!
You can open your eyes now.
isaiah to the nation of israel
Our Old Testament reading for today is from Isaiah speaking to the nation of Israel, and would have been particularly meaningful for those who would be coming out of exile. And, this is one of those passages that has several layers of prophetic meaning. And we’ll get to that.
Overall, the book of Isaiah is written to the people of Israel with both warnings for disobedience and messages of hope and redemption.
It calls out sinful behaviors, and promises forgiveness and blessing.
He prophesied darkness, and a coming light.
When Israel went into their captivity in Babylon due to their disobedience, it would have been a dark time. And in the same way, their release and return home would have been full of hope and promise and prosperity. Look at what it says…
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
After this time of being forced to live in a foreign land under rule that didn’t jive with their beliefs, things would turn around and they would experience times of prosperity and favor again.
But this is where it gets really cool. Not only does this help that original audience have hope that when dark times come, clinging to God’s Covenant means that they will see good things beyond the bad.
The sun always rises.
Speaking of that, this is where we see the Messianic promise in these words too. Another layer to the prophecy.
prophesying the Messiah
Isaiah refers to a savior coming through the line of David often through these writings, and it’s not difficult to see that here.
He speaks of the coming Light…
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Jesus referred to himself as the light as we see in the Gospel of John (8:12)…
“Then spoke Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’”
Isaiah continues by talking about how many nations, including Gentile nations, will come to them because of this light.
In fact, we see prophecy about the Magi (or Wise Men) who visit Jesus bearing gifts, which we remember on this Feast of the Epiphany…
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
The Gospels tell us about the wise men from the East. Where is Midian? To the East of the Jordan River.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
What did the wise men bring Jesus? Gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
The book of Isaiah is giving the people of Israel a glimpse of their coming hope, and how it will draw all people to this Light.
But he also tells them something very specific that they must do…
isaiah’s call to arise and shine
He tells them to arise.
Darkness is for sleeping. Light is for getting up.
When the Light comes, they are to get up and do something. Do what?
Shine.
the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Look, they aren’t being asked to produce their own light, merely to reflect the Light of the Lord that’s shining on them. And these reflections help make that light visible for all to see. Like thousands of candles shining and piercing through the darkness in the world around them.
It’s this reflection of the light that draws all people together.
Here’s where it gets really cool with the prophecy stuff…
our call to reflect the Light
Not only does this have more immediate impact in speaking to a time of coming out of the darkness of exile, and then the impact of the arrival of the future Messianic King, but it also points to us (the Church) even today.
Like the Israelites, we too are to arise, and shine, and reflect the light into a dark, lost, and dying world around us.
We are the reflections God uses to draw people to Himself.
Here we are on the Feast of the Epiphany, the first day after the end of the Christmas season, the time when we remember and celebrate and reflect on the birth of Jesus.
We take a short pause from our busy schedules and we recognize the [snap] moment that the Light entered the world.
And like the Magi, we are drawn to this Light, and we recognize Him as the Savior of the world.
And this Light changes us, in the same way the Magi marveled at the child before them and walked away from their encounter different.
We become reflectors of the Light. When people look at us, they should see the glory of the Lord upon us, as Isaiah puts it.
I love that our church building has these glass walls, so that the light can shine out onto the street.
And one of my favorite responsibilities as a deacon in the church is to do the dismissal. When we stand at the back of the sanctuary by the door and make an announcement like, “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,” it’s a short way of saying, “Hey everyone, you’ve just been filled up with the Word of God, and we’ve come to this altar and received Holy Communion together, now follow me! Let’s go out there into that dark world and take this Light everywhere we go!”
When we walk out those doors into the world, we should be shining bright, reflecting God’s Glory all around us.
I think it would be cool if someone standing in front of the library (which is about a mile and a half away) could see the light from one Christian walking out those doors…
Followed by another, and then another, and then another.
Imagine how the whole mass of us walking out of a worship service together could change the meaning of “Light Up Mount Dora!”
final thoughts on this epiphany
So as we take this time today to celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, may we encounter Christ in this place tonight. May we recognize God in the child who was born among us to be our Savior. When we see that Light, may we be changed forever by it. And I pray that we reflect that Light to those around us, wherever we go.
Arise, church! And shine! For your Light has come. The glory of the Lord has risen upon you!
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