SPECIAL DAYS: Second Sunday of Advent: Peace

December 9, 2001 - Lesson: Matthew 4.12-17

Sermon Title: Sonrise

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Now I sit me down to sleep,
The speaker's dull, the subject's deep.
If he should stop before I wake,
Give me a poke for goodness sake.

My Bishop's eyes I've never seen,
Though light from them may shine;
For when he prays he closes his,
And when he preaches, mine.

Lets play a little word game. I will give you a word and you shout out its opposite

Up - Down
In - Out
Right - Wrong
Man - Woman
Day - Night
Light - Dark(ness)

1. Darkness is a metaphor for many aspects of life.

It's no wonder that Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:14b (NRSVA) Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

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MAIN BODY:

1. The lesson for today cries out for understanding
1. It cries out for one to understand the difference between darkness and light.
1. ¹⁶the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,
2. for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."
   
2. We are informed, are we not, on the source of darkness.
1. Martin Luther in A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, captures the essence of it.

And tho' this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim--
We tremble not for him.
His rage we can endure,
For, lo, his doom is sure;
One little word can fell him.

2. One little word might fell him.
3. He can do a great deal of mischief of which we ought to be sensitively aware.

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3. The prince of darkness creates darkness, and the darkness consists of the following categories:
1. Ignorance, Romans 1:21 (NRSVA)

²¹for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.

1. Beware of biblical illiteracy.
2. Beware of being taken in by those who would use the scriptures for their own reasons and for their own purposes.
3. Unless you have a learning disability or are suffering from mental disease, there is really no excuse for ignorance, neither is there any rationalization for it.
   
2. Add to Ignorance, Intellectual Blindness, John 11:9 through John 11:10 (NRSVA)

⁹Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. ¹⁰But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them."

In Mukwonago, Helga had made a large six-pointed Christmas star.
Each year I would climb up on the roof and attach it to the tall TV antenna.
It could be seen for blocks.
One year a visitor to worship asked, "Why do you have that Jewish star on your roof?"

1. Was it Jewish?

2. Wasn't Jesus Jewish?

3. Who decides how many points a star ought to have?

4. Is this a case of intellectual ignorance?
5. It is not uncommon.

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3. Add to Ignorance and Intellectual Blindness, Moral Depravity 1 John 2:8 through 1 John 2:11 (NRSVA)

⁸Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining. ⁹Whoever says, "I am in the light," while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. ¹¹...whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.

1. The last few months have highlighted human ability to hate and to commit crimes against others who do not look or speak or worship like us.
   
4. Add to Ignorance, Intellectual Blindness, and Moral Depravity, Misery and Suffering, Romans 13:12 through Romans 13:13 (NRSVA)

   ¹²the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; ¹³let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.

   1. Is there any misery or suffering that is greater than this?
   2. Is this a very satisfying life?

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5. Add to Ignorance, Intellectual Blindness, Moral Depravity, and Misery and Suffering, Trouble and Affliction Matthew 6:22 through Matthew 6:23 (NRSVA)

   ²²"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light; ²³but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

   1. There is a story about a blind person who attempts to walk through the living room which has just been rearranged by a helpful friend.
   2. The blind person had the bumps and bruises to prove it.
   3. If you are living in great darkness, how full of trouble and affliction life can be.
      
6. Add to Ignorance, Intellectual Blindness, Moral Depravity, Misery and Suffering, and Trouble and Affliction, Nothingness Acts 26:18 (NRSVA)

   ¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

   Nothingness is hinted at in the poem I'm Nobody! Who are you? (288), by Emily Dickinson ⁽¹⁾

   I'm Nobody! Who are you?
   Are you--Nobody--Too?
   Then there's a pair of us?
   Don't tell! they'd advertise--you know!

   How dreary--to be--Somebody!
   How public--like a Frog--
   To tell one's name--the livelong June--
   To an admiring Bog!

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7. Add to Ignorance, Intellectual Blindness, Moral Depravity, Misery and Suffering, Trouble and Affliction, and Nothingness, Living under the Shadow and Certainty of Death, John 3:19 through John 3:21 (NRSVA)

   ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

8. And perhaps worst of all add Indolence.

   There is an old Story of three devils attempting to find a way to seduce human kind. One said, I will tell them that there is no God, but that wouldn't do. Another said I will tell them there is no heaven or hell, but that wouldn't do either. The third one hit on exactly the right seduction when he said, I will tell them it's all right there is plenty of time. Don't worry take your time, you have plenty of time..

9. We are not people confined to the darkness, but are people of light.
   1. Use the light
   2. Why should we go stumbling around in the darkness of this world when there is light to be had.
   3. Jesus is the light of the world.

      Isaiah 42:16 (NRSVA)

      ¹⁶I will lead the blind
      by a road they do not know,
      by paths they have not known
      I will guide them.
      I will turn the darkness before them into light,
      the rough places into level ground.
      These are the things I will do,
      and I will not forsake them.

      John 1:9 through John 1:13 (NRSVA)

      ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

      John 8:12 (NRSVA)

      ¹²Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."

   4. We can live secure in the light with utter confidence that we will ultimately be victorious.

      John 1:5 (NRSVA)

      ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

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CONCLUSION:

1. Jeremy Maas, in Holman Hunt and The Light of the World ⁽²⁾ has written these lines:

To him who opes his dwelling dim,
I will come in and sup with him,
And he with me that both may be
One throughout all eternity!

Light of the World, come in-come in!
Chase from our souls the night of sin,
No longer wrapt in slumber deep
Shall we thy footsteps waiting keep.

Enter our hearts, O welcome Guest,
And ever dwell within our breast!
Light of the World we would be thine,
Within our hearts forever shine!

1. Light of the world we would be thine
2. Within our hearts forever shine.

   1. Poetry used by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, Ralph W. Franklin ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1998 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. Copyright © 1997-2000 by The Academy of American Poets

   2. Jeremy Maas, Holman Hunt and The Light of the World (London & Berkeley: Scholar Press, 1984), 161.

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