Light Upon the Way

Isaiah 9:2-7

Rev. Monte Marshall

I’ll be honest with you: I love Christmas lights!  I love lights on trees, lights on buildings, candlelight at Christmas Eve—I love it all!  However, there is a limit.  For example, a promotional announcement for a school Christmas program included these words: “All of the cast will be played by members of the eighth grade, except for the baby Jesus, who will be played by a concealed 40-watt light bulb.”[1]  That may be going just a little bit too far for me!

Nevertheless, I still love Christmas lights.  They touch something deep in my soul.  I guess the lights remind me of the stars that are visible in a clear night sky.  Those tiny pin-pricks of light that penetrate the darkness fill me with awe and wonder at the vastness of the universe.  Christmas lights evoke similar feelings, at least for me. 

And there’s another thing:  Christmas lights trigger wonderful childhood memories of time spent with my family around a lighted Christmas tree opening gifts and experiencing the joy of being together during this amazing season. 

I’m also thinking tonight about one of the most spectacular displays of Christmas lights that I’ve ever seen.  In Johnson City, TX at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative building, they cover everything with lights—hundreds of lights on the buildings and in the trees.  It’s incredible!  There’s so much light that it appears to be daytime even in the darkest night. 

And I have one special memory of those lights inJohnson City.  It comes from Christmas, 1994.  My dad had been battling cancer for several years.  In 1994, he felt well enough to travel with my mom from my hometown in Beeville, to Fredericksburg where Laura Jean and I were living with our two boys.  While mom and dad were visiting, we took an evening and drove over to Johnson City to see the lights.  The sight was breathtaking for all of us.  I’ll never forget that night because as it turned out, that was my dad’s last Christmas with us.  He died the following April. 

So for all of these reasons, I love Christmas lights—but there’s more to be said here.  Christmas lights point us to a deeper meaning, rooted in ancient memories and powerful images of light piercing the darkness to bring hope to desperate people. 

A case in point:  Thousands of years ago, a Jewish prophet wrote these words contained in the book of Isaiah: 

“The people waking in darkness

are seeing a brilliant light—

upon those who dwell in a land of shadows

light is shining!” 

 

Now in my view, the prophet was not foretelling the coming of Jesus Christ.  Instead, the prophet was addressing the concrete historical circumstances of his time. 

And those circumstances were difficult.  The prophet addressed a people conquered by the Assyrians—a people subject to brutality and violence—a people hungry and living in poverty.  The prophet addressed a people living in fear.  The foreign conquerors had usurped their every asset.  The oppressive Assyrians had snatched away their every hope for the future.  So for the prophet, God’s people were “walking in darkness” and living “in a land shadows.”      

But in these circumstances, the prophet proclaimed good news:  a brilliant light shining in the darkness to dispel the gloom and doom from this “land that was in anguish.”    

And this light was shining because God was at work to shatter the yoke, break the rod, and lift the burden from the backs of the people.  God was acting—just as God had acted in the past to liberate Israel from domination by another ancient people, the Midians.  And God was bringing peace to the people so that the blood-soaked boats and cloaks of every warrior would now be used “as fuel for the fire.”

And the one in whom God was acting was a new crown prince in the line of David.  Some scholars believe that the language about the birth of a child and an heir to govern God’s people was used at the coronation of a new king, perhaps Hezekiah in 715 BCE.  The collection of royal titles that follows seeks to establish the ruler as an adopted child of God with high expectations for governance.[2]  

According to the prophet, all of these liberating acts revealed the brilliant light of God’s glory and aroused the people to celebration because there was once again cause for “abundant joy.”

But as the story goes, darkness once again fell over God’s people.  The Assyrians faded into history, but along came Rome—another conquering and oppressive power that dominated God’s people.  It was then that the prophet’s word of hope from an earlier time was remembered, reframed and reapplied to interpret a new historical context including the life and ministry of Jesus the Christ—God’s liberation light in the flesh. 

A gospel writer named Luke wrote about a royal birth in a stable in the days when Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome and Quirinius was the governor of Syria.  It was a royal birth announced to shepherds with acclamations of glory from “a multitude of the heavenly hosts.” 

Another gospel writer named John never once mentions a birth, but he saw the light nonetheless.  John wrote: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

And God’s light still shines in the darkness even to this day.  The lights of Christmas are but a reminder.  In our own historical circumstances, we experience the darkness in all kinds of ways.  There’s the darkness of hatred and bigotry, for example, but the light still shines upon the way, dispelling the darkness: 

 

On the screens you will see a picture from several years ago of a young man named Darsh Singh playing basketball for Trinity University here in San Antonio.  Darsh is a Sikh.  In fact, he was the first Sikh-American basketball player allowed by the NCAA to wear his turban while playing.  His jersey and this picture are now hanging in Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C. as part of an exhibit highlighting the contributions of Indian-Americans to our nation.[3]

Back in March of this year, a meme surfaced on social media featuring this picture with a caption added: “Nobody at school wants to guard Muhammad, he’s too explosive.”  The photo and the caption spread via the Internet.  No one seemed to care except Darsh’s wife.  She posted a tweet that read: “Actually my husband @darshpreetsingh is a kind and nice man.”  As a blogger named Matt Worthington noted: “Her tender post did not go viral.  No hashtag campaigns were sparked.  It was not Facebook trending.  It only had six retweets, and for the most part, the collective reaction of the Internet was most akin to the drop of a pin.”[4]

But then, on December 5 of this year, Matt Worthington’s brother, Greg, circulated this post in response to the picture and caption:  “Let me tell you why this…isn't funny. I know this guy and his name's not 'Muhammad.' He's not Arab, he's Punjabi. He's not even Muslim, he's a Sikh. His name is Darsh Singh and he's a US citizen, born and bred…..he's a really nice guy…and he's a great friend.

“People need to understand, this stuff hurts people. You might think it's funny but that's mainly because you don't know the guy. Perhaps if you did, then you would see this differently. But even if I didn't know Darsh, I still wouldn't think this was funny. Why? Because things like this pic teach people to be afraid of those who are different than you. What you might not know is that Sikhs have a history in the US and abroad of being mistaken for being Muslim and thus being accused of terrorism. This usually leads to them being attacked and even killed because someone stupid thought they deserved to be beaten, injured, or killed because of their religion. But even if he was a Muslim or if he was Arab, this still doesn't make the joke okay and it still doesn't give you reason to believe that person is inherently evil….

“Do the world a favor and educate yourself. Get to know people who are different than you and learn about them as much as you can.”[5]

Can we see God’s light—the same light that shines in Christ—shining through Greg Worthington’s words?  I can.  And the light that Greg shared has become even more brilliant.  It became a source of healing for thousands.  Greg’s post in support of Darsh accumulated almost 40,000 likes, more than 14,000 shares, 3,000 comments, a viral hashtag campaign on Twitter, and attention from a host of media outlets.  The light still shines to push back the darkness of hatred and bigotry.[6] 

Now I love Christmas lights and I guess I always will.  But the best of all is when God’s light shines in the darkness—through Christ, through people like Greg Worthington, and through people like you and me.  So let the light shine!  Thanks be to God.  Amen.   People need to understand, this stuff hurts people. You might think it's funny but that's mainly because you don't know the guy. Perhaps if you did, then you would see this differently. But even if I didn't know Darsh, I still wouldn't think this was funny. Why? Because things like this pic teach people to be afraid of those who are different than you. What you might not know is that Sikhs have a history in the US and abroad of being mistaken for being Muslim and thus being accused of terrorism. This usually leads to them being attacked and even killed because someone stupid thought they deserved to be beaten, injured, or killed because of their religion. But even if he was a Muslim or if he was Arab, this still doesn't make the joke okay and it still doesn't give you reason to believe that person is inherently evil or that they deserve harm.