December 17 Evening Meditation: On Them Has Light Shone

As the winter's chill sets in, it can often bring feelings of despair and darkness. Yet, the beacon of the divine light of Christ dispels our gloom. In our evening Candlelight Service meditation, we see this move from darkness to divine light and consider how the light of Christmas calls us to action

Consider these questions as you listen to this meditation:

1. How does the imagery of darkness and light in this passage from Isaiah resonate with our human experiences of darkness, both in the physical world and in our spiritual lives? How does the coming of Jesus as the "light of the world" bring hope and comfort to those living in spiritual darkness?

2. The passage mentions the idea of passing on the light of Christ, symbolized by the candlelight service. How can believers effectively share the light of Christ with others in a world that often feels overwhelmed by darkness and despair? What practical steps can be taken to spread the message of hope found in Jesus?

3. The text highlights the promise of the Messiah as a source of great joy and hope. How does the celebration of Christmas serve as a reminder of this promise and the fulfillment of God's plan to bring light into the world? In what ways can the joy of the Christmas season be shared with others to point them toward the true source of joy, Jesus Christ?

Transcript:

As we planned the service for this evening. There were a lot of factors that we considered over the time and the conversations about what we were gonna do this evening actually started more than a year ago. We knew that we wanted to do something with candlelight, some sort of candlelight service. What we would do with the service we weren't sure about. We had some ideas. Should we have the children sing at the service? Do we have the choir sing? What kind of candles do we want to have? Probably the smartest thing we did was we decided to order the candles in February so we wouldn't be competing with other people with them for October and November.

We thought ahead and the topic of the service came up several times over the course of the last year. And other than the general service order, which we just kind of finalized in the last few days, perhaps the final question we really had was what time should we start this service Now? We discussed a few different options and we had a few different things that influenced our decision. We talked about people and their meal schedules. We thought, you know, we don't want it to get too late, because we have young kids involved and bedtimes are an important thing to consider, because tomorrow is a school day and there were probably some other considerations that we talked about as we thought about what time to have this service. But I can tell you one thing that didn't come up Will it be dark enough in an evening service for the candlelight to have an effect? Right, we know that this time of year it gets dark early. We know where we live, we are aware of this, and just the other day, for some reason I think it's because my brain dislikes me I paid attention to where the sun was in the sky at 3 pm. Have you paid attention to that? If I have to be depressed about it, you have to be depressed about it. Look at it tomorrow, right? Honestly, it's kind of depressing because the day light is basically done at that point, and the other thing I noticed was that really the sun never got to a very high point in the sky at all.

Now, a little bit later, I decided to do myself a favor and make myself feel better about it by thinking about the misery of somebody else. You ever do that. So I have a friend from seminary. His name's Al and he lives in Athabasca, alberta, canada. That's about 900 miles further north than us. It's west, but straight north and south. As far as latitude goes, it's about 900 miles north, and I thought you know what? I'm gonna check what time the sun goes down for Al. That'll make me feel better. It didn't? We only beat Northern Canada by 35 minutes, folks. But then my brain again, which I'm pretty sure dislikes me it actually did me a favor. I had an image of a calendar in my head. December 21st is gonna be here soon, pretty soon. The days will stop getting shorter and they can only get longer. Light is going to be more pervasive very, very soon. So as I was considering what to say tonight for this short meditation that we're having, my mental games came to mind as I considered our text from Isaiah this evening.

Now, as I often mention, I think the use of darkness and light in Scripture are some of the most powerful images that God's Word gives us, because we can understand them very well. We know light and its importance, and we also know darkness and how that makes us feel. Darkness is depressing động. Darkness causes fear. Darkness creates feelings of helplessness in us. Darkness can be dangerous. Darkness makes everything unknown, and darkness can cause things that should be obvious to be hidden from us. And there are times when you and I look at the world and it feels similar to my thoughts about winter and darkness, right that it's just gonna keep getting darker and darker. We're descending into further and further darkness. Eventually it feels as if there will be no light in the world, and the passage that we read from the prophet Isaiah this evening lets us know that those kind of feelings about the state of the world aren't exclusive to us. They're not exclusive to our time.

In the time of Isaiah, the people of God had forsaken the law of God. They had turned their back on him. In fact, just three chapters prior to what we read this evening, we have the call of Isaiah in Isaiah, chapter six. And when Isaiah comes face to face with the absolute holiness of God, what is this confession? Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips. In a land, in a people of unclean lips, isaiah tells us that it was not only the people around him that were in darkness. He was in darkness of sin himself. He was unclean too.

And scripture makes it very clear for us that a world of darkness isn't a right now thing and it isn't just a back then thing either. The darkness that is so pervasive in this world is a result of our first parents plunging the world into sin. The world is broken, the world is dark. But even back at the garden, even back when the darkness became a reality for us, god spoke a word of light in that situation. He made a promise that day to send the seed of the woman, the one who would one day come and crush the head of the serpent. He made a promise of the light, the promise of the Messiah. And it's that coming light that would come into a world of darkness that has spoken of.

When we read this passage from Isaiah, the prophet, isaiah is speaking with a messianic expectation, with a messianic hope of the coming of this one who is promised all the way back when the darkness began in the garden. And what does Isaiah say? He says that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light, those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness. On them has light shown. And the season of Advent has us living an expectation of our celebration of the coming of the light of the world. We're waiting for Jesus right now and, as I said, this is a season where we also find joy in the midst of the darkest days of the year, we celebrate the joys of life, the joys of family, the joys of the coming of our Savior when the days are the darkest.

And our celebration of God the Son, taking on our flesh at Christmas shows us the great light of the gospel, how God himself stepped into the darkness of our world. He didn't shine a light from a distance and he didn't just flash a light for a moment. He came as one of us and stepped into our fallen and darkened world, a world filled with the darkness of sin, and in our place. He kept the law perfectly. He suffered, he died, he rose again so that we might know his light. All of humanity dwelt in deep darkness, but as the people of God, we know the light of our Savior.

And this, this is the hope that we celebrate at Christmas. It's the hope that pushes us forward with the message of the light. As we see the darkness in the world, we know that the Lord Jesus has come and he pushes out the darkness. He is the light and he has shined on us the light of his salvation. The call, then, as we see the light of the Messiah, is to pass that light of Jesus on.

In just a few moments we're gonna pass the lights of the candles around this room, a symbol of what we are called to do with this light that we have in a very dark world. We are called to pass on the light of Christ. We were in darkness, but now we are in light because of him. And so may the joy in this Christmas season go forth from us because, as we read in Isaiah, unto us a child was born, to us a son was given, and the government is upon his shoulders. He is wonderful counselor, he is mighty God, he is prince of peace, and in a dark and dying world, that is good news.

In a dark world, that is light. So, just as we will spread the light around this room in a matter of moments, may we spread his light by sharing his gospel that he might be glorified for the saving work that he accomplished for his people. Amen, let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God. We thank you for the gift of your word. We thank you that even at the beginning, when there was darkness that came into the world through sin, we had the promise of light, and we thank you that you are a God who keeps your promises that, in the fullness of time, you brought Jesus into the world to be the light that we so desperately needed. May you motivate us through your word and through the power of your Holy Spirit, to spread your light in a dark and dying world. It's in the name of Jesus that we pray, amen.