Season of Light

So, I wake up and go to work in the darkness.
I drive home from work in the darkness.
It feels like 10pm at 6pm.


But today we celebrate Epiphany, the season of light to the nations.
It begins the season of Epiphany.


In this time that psychologists call "the dark night of the soul" because of heightened Season Affect Disorders and Depression along with post holiday despair... we celebrate the LIGHT to ALL people.  I like that.


Putting Vitamin D aside for a moment, I believe the real shot in the arm for folk at this time of year is to focus on the LIGHT in the Darkness.  The light is most pronounced in the deepest darkness.  The light illumines one's path and is a beacon for direction in some cases and a warning of danger in others.  The light is what we make it to be for us, and it is most necessary in our lives.


Light is hope.  It is the hope of a people who have not only "walked in darkness" but who "dwell in deep darkness", that darkness will not overcome them or the light.  It is the hope that the despair of being occupied and oppressed by whatever persons or groups, systems or forces will not ultimately triumph, but that the God of all peoples and nations will bring justice and peace to all people and nations.


Light is truth.  It is the illumination of what is true in the face of lies.  It exposes what lies in the darkness for what it is and by doing so allows people to see clearly and name those things of darkness that occupy and oppress them in their lives.  It represents a refusal to give in to the darknesses of relativism, alternative facts, corruption, abuses of power, victimization, exploitation and propaganda designed to create new norms based on falsehood and hatred.


Light is goodness.  It is the healthy, caring way that counters the harmful, hateful and destructive ways of darkness within the heart and in community.  It draws from the truth and hope that lead us to do what is good for all people, as opposed to those things done in the darkness in order to benefit only the few at the expense of the many.  It is an expression of "the better angels of our nature" that would be liberal in sowing well-being for all, instead of inequitable benefits among us. 


I embrace the darkness and its calmness, reflection, rest and centering at this time of year.  I am able to embrace it because of the warmth of the light that represents for me the presence of well-being and wholeness, completeness and peace.


I believe that we HAVE the Light given to us in order to BE the Light for others around us.  I am not called or empowered to hold the light within, which maintains and promotes darkness around me.  I am called and empowered to let my light shine in the world so that it may illumine the lives of those around me and promote light in community around me. 


So, I strive to put HOPE and TRUTH and GOODNESS out in the world around me, for that is the world in which I live, along with others who God loves.  I shed with the darkness the things that lead to despair and destruction for some as I live HOPE for all.  I shed with the darkness the things that lead to hatred and division for many today as I live TRUTH with all.  I shed with the darkness the things that lead to exploitation and discrimination for the most as I live GOODNESS with all.


When we focus on the light, the darkness is of no consequence.  I pray for the day when the darkness of despair, lies and bigotry will be of no consequence because we are all focused together on the light of Hope, Truth and Goodness.  Then we will be "the Light of the World" that we are called to be, the light to all nations and all peoples in Agape Love.


Pastor Jamie