Walk in the Light of the Lord

It’s hard to believe, but it is already the first of December.  The year has gone by very quickly, and now everyone seems to be hurrying to prepare for the Christmas holidays just three weeks away.  What are we to make of all the frenetic energy of this time of year?  People everywhere are rushing to buy presents in stores or on-line, planning holiday travel, buying wreaths and trees, and ordering their Christmas ham, turkey or goose, whatever is part of their tradition or custom.

There is a certain darkness to all this.  It is not that the days are short and the nights are long; the problem is that so much of our energy consumes us with things that have little or no ultimate meaning.  We are so preoccupied with playing the materialistic and consumerist game that we fail to ask what this new season we call Advent is really about.  We need to reclaim this season of the Christian year for what it means.  It is all about waiting, watching, and preparing with expectation and hope for a new day for us and for all people everywhere.

Advent not only marks the beginning of the Christian year, it is a time of watching and waiting for the coming of the Messiah, God as a human person, born as we are into life on this earth, born to live, grow, love, suffer and die just as we all do.  It is the incarnation of God, Christ’s birth among us; and we are to prepare for it with a sense of joyful anticipation.

Advent is the season of the shortest and darkest days of the year.  Outside it is more often dark and gray than it is shiny and bright.  We adorn our church with the dark purple colors of Advent.  We hear the gospel account of Jesus telling the disciples and us to be awake and ready, "for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming."

This coming will be a source of light and hope.  As Paul stated in his Letter to the Romans, “Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light."  To dramatize the coming new light, we light an additional candle on the Advent wreath each week.

The Prophet Isaiah said that in the days to come all nations should be prepared for something extraordinary.  “Let us go to the house of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths…. Nations shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.”  Peace, nonviolence, and justice will reign. “Let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

Isaiah’s is an amazing proclamation calling for an end to fear, war and terror.  Our world is filled with divisions, both secular and religious, social and economic, so that any possibility of peace and justice seems remote and unlikely.  Isaiah’s is an audacious and revolutionary claim.  Yet, in the midst of all this, Isaiah’s words are prophetic, “let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

We are, however, living in darkness when it comes to hearing these prophetic words and then acting on Jesus’ statement to his disciples that we must prepare and “be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.”

Paul echoes this theme telling us that we should “lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”  He elaborates on what this means: “let us live honorably…not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy.  Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”

The Rev. Catherine A. Caimano, Canon for Regional Ministry in the Diocese of North Carolina, has written, “Our faith is about how Jesus Christ, born into this world as a small spot of light in the darkness, helps us to believe… that love and forgiveness and redemption and hope have a part in every choice we make…. To put on the armor of light is to rejoice that we have marched right into this darkness and found that we are not alone.  We will not be left in our suffering; we will be met with hope and peace and love in the moments that we dare to take off the kinds of armor that the rest of the world seems to demand that we wear -- cynicism and defensiveness and isolation and fear.

“The moment that we bare our true hearts and true souls is the moment that we find we are suddenly clothed with the kind of joy that all the other sparkle of this season can’t even begin to imitate. That’s when we put on the party that is Christmas -- not before our time to truly prepare.

“So for these four weeks, we put on the light, one small candle at a time. We remind ourselves to take off those things that we do not need and wrap ourselves in the warmth of what is coming -- the light of the world, slowly, appearing when we most need it.”

Isaiah’s vision of peace and justice is a wonderful image to sustain our hope for the community of nations.  We can ponder the events of this time of year and reflect upon the source of reconciliation among all people including ourselves in unity with God.  The possibility for reconciliation is always present, and Isaiah's time-honored instruction transcends time and space.  We can hope for justice when we allocate funds for education, health care, and the welfare of the poorest citizens in our midst.  We are to be ever vigilant, watchful, and full of expectation and hope for the days to come.  So let us walk in the light of the Lord.  It is the Incarnation of God.  Amen.