DARK CRIES OUT FOR LIGHT

There are parts of the nativity story, truthfully, I want to skip over.  Verses 13 through 20, in Matthew 2, describe Herod’s murderous fear of a child born in the Bethlehem area.  People are whispering that there is a boy who is going to sit on the throne of his ancestor, King David, and so Herod goes on a rampage.  He sends his troops out to kill every male child under the age of two in Bethlehem and the surrounding area.

I would always rather jump over that part of the story because it is heart-breaking.  A deep, ugly, violent intrusion into this story of the birth of Mary and Joseph’s child, angels, rejoicing shepherds, and visitors from the east.  Scholars refer to this moment in history as “the Slaughter of the Innocents.”

That portion of the story is difficult to ignore in light of the recent shootings in Connecticut.  The Biblical story seems so relevant, so timely, that it takes my breath away!

It is all a reminder that the world needs saving.  Without God, without the way of grace and truth we discover in Jesus, we are lost.  So deep darkness calls out for light.  Our brokenness speaks to the need for healing… a Healer.  Paul, in Romans 8:22, says “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.”  Even creation aches for saving…for healing…for a new birth.

So we find our way towards Bethlehem hungry for a better world…a better way.  Dark cries out for light!

Last Sunday, at the beginning of three of our worship services, I shared the following statement about the shootings in Connecticut.  It was my attempt to put into words how our hearts were broken and what might be our response as God’s people.  I know it is inadequate, but I share it with you here…

Dear Friends,
 
We gather on this Lord’s Day as we do each week to worship the One born in Bethlehem, crucified on a Roman cross, and raised in glory as proof God’s love has the last word. Before we begin our worship we must stop and name the horror that took place this past week in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
 
The Jews were in exile when the psalmist wrote Psalm 137. He says that their captors mocked them and demanded that they sing some of the songs of Zion, of their homeland, and all the Jews felt like doing was hanging their lyres, their musical instruments, on the willows and weeping.
 
That is where I have been most of this week.
 
You’ll not hear any quick or easy explanation for all of this. Evil is a mystery, we live in a broken world, and I wouldn’t presume to offer an explanation for all of this.
 
I know God loves the world. Jesus is the proof of that. And I know God is shattered by every act of human violence, the taking of every life. So God meets us here and God brings to this moment God’s own broken heart.
 
The scriptures tell us God is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. So I know God is working to surround those who grieve with God’s love and God’s support. Your prayers and mine for those in Newtown are important. Our prayers and love make a difference.
 
What can we do in response to this?
 
First, we can pray.
 
Second, we can not only prepare to welcome the One who we call Prince of Peace, but begin to take seriously God’s call to be peacemakers in our homes, communities, schools, and nation.
 
Third, we can remind the world that God has another way. People will ask you where God was in all of this, and you can say God went to a cross and died to wake us up and turn us away from the way of the sword, but we insist on doing life on our terms.
 
Fourth, we can state over and over again our belief that, as Paul says in Romans 8, there is nothing that can separate us from God’s love in Christ. God, even when evil has done its worst, has the last word.
 
Fifth, we can worship. What we are about to do is a radical act. It is a corporate act testifying to our belief that God is still God; that God calls the world to a different kind of future, and that evil must not be allowed to shatter us into silence. God will not be defeated. We will not be defeated. Love will not be defeated. We will not let violence or evil silence us! We worship as God’s people and say we trust the One born in Bethlehem to lead us towards a better way… towards life.
 
Yesterday I kept thinking of the lyrics to It Came upon the Midnight Clear. The writer tells us how the angels bring a message to a weary world, and how God prays the world will embrace God’s peace as our way of living together:
 
And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.
 
O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!
For lo! the days are hastening on, by prophets seen of old,
when with the ever circling years shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the son which now the angels sing.
 
Will you pray with me?
 
Loving God we come today not sure what to say. We are shocked. Angry. In deep grief. We can’t run fast enough to leave our tears behind. We come this morning broken hearted for every family whose child or parent or friend was taken away this week by the mad actions of a gunman. Our prayers pour up into the sky and race east to bless and surround and lift those in deep need and unbearable sadness. We want answers but what you have for us today is your love, and your promise that there is a better way. What you have for us is the truth that you continue to reach out to love and save the world -whether in the violent days of Herod or these violent days.
 
Be with us, God.
 
Help us to be your witnesses to the world that love is your way and that your love has the last word.
 
Give us enough faith today that we can find the strength to sing and worship as an act of radical protest against evil and violence. Use our songs and prayers to push back the darkness and point the world towards a better way…towards the One who is Prince of Peace. Amen.
 
Mark

Dark cries out for light!  Come, Lord Jesus!

God has the last word,

Mark