Light
/Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light.
- From this Sunday’s Collect
I’ve always considered it a spiritual advantage to live in a more northern part of the northern hemisphere as a Christian. As advent approaches and the scriptures, prayers and hymns all talk about about a light shining in the darkness, the whole world around us provides a visceral experience of darkness as the sunset gets earlier and earlier and the sun rises later and later. When we light our advent candles in the evening, they literally light up the darkness. What would it be like, I’ve often wondered, to live in Australia or South America or Africa, where it’s currently the summer season and the days are getting brighter and brighter during advent?
But this year, the whole world round, there is so much darkness. The pandemic continues to move and spread and take things from us. It continues to keep us isolated and apart from those we love, and from gathering in church. It continues to rob loved ones and good health. So, this year, even more than in others, putting on the armor of light seems more important than ever. The light of Christ.
What does it mean to be a light in the darkness? I know it doesn’t mean being a sunny Pollyanna when people are suffering. It’s a lot deeper than that. It has something to do with having a long term hope in the things that are good, even when the shorter term moment seems very dark indeed. It has something to do with being present to things as they are, not as we wish them to be. It has something to do with abiding with our pain and the pain of others instead of pretending it’s not there, and trusting in God more than in our own despair - trusting in Christ’s cross and resurrection.
Advent is the season in which we boldly proclaim that Christ is coming into this dark world. Yes, once again as a little baby in a manger, but also as the cosmic Christ, who is continually coming into the world and continually shaping it, re-creating it, redeeming it. Advent is a season to welcome the savior of this world into our midst, and to glow with the anticipation of the savior’s ever-impending arrival.
We enter into this particularly dark 2020 Advent with many ongoing losses, griefs and traumas. Things are simply not as we’d wish them to be. But it is nonetheless in the season of darkness that we can sometimes see a glowing light that was not discernable to us on the sunny days - the powerful light that enlightens everyone - the sustaining light that no darkness can ever overcome.
