❖ Video
❖ Audio (Message)
Shining in the Darkness
(John 1:1-13)
Guest Speaker: Wayne Jansen
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
I grew up in a local area in Wisconsin where both of my grandfathers were dairy farmers. In the 1960s, dairy farms were rather simple compared to today. Now when we visit farms in Wisconsin, or in the Netherlands from where my ancestors came, a dairy herd on a single farm may number up to several hundreds of cows. My Grandfather’s herd numbered between 10 and 15 cows, and each cow was easily recognized by its individual appearance. There was no need for a number tag on each cow since each one was known intimately by the farmer.
One thing that hasn’t changed on most farms is that cows need to be milked twice a day―once every twelve hours. My grandfather milked his cows at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Cows spent most of their time out in the pasture, and only came to the barn for milking. One of the jobs did a few times was to go out to the pasture to round up the cows. I had to go out 30 minutes before milking time to get them. That is not such a big deal in the afternoon. But in the morning before 6 o’clock, it is pitch black outside before sunrise, and you literally cannot see where you are going without a flashlight.
I learned, at that time, the power of a flashlight. I couldn’t see the cows, and unlike the bell-bearing cows of Switzerland that we often hear about, my grandpa’s cows had no sound producing objects hanging from their necks. The only way I could find the cows was to point my flashlight around until the eyes of one were lit up. When this happened, the cow would lethargically rise to its feet, and that contagiously coaxed the other cows to get up and start moving, and after shining my light on the whole herd, we finally were able to make our way to the milking barn together.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent in the church calendar. Advent is a time when we wait for the light. Indeed, we long for the light. Most of us are probably familiar with Jesus being called, “the light of the world.” Jesus has been celebrated as the Messiah who brings light to the gentiles as well as the Jews, and we have been continuing this celebration for over 2000 years! But what kind of a world did Jesus come to? Was it different from the world we live in today? And how was the light that Jesus brought received by the world of the first century?
Well, Jesus’ world was under what was known at the time as “Pax Romana,” or “Peace of Rome.” From the Roman perspective, it was a good time. Rome ruled the world with absolute power, and challenges to the authorities was quickly squelched so that outwardly, it did appear to be a peaceful time. But there was a dark side to this world. Rome taxed the common people of its empire heavily in order to keep Rome vibrant. But naturally, that meant that the common people stayed quite poor. They saw Rome as an oppressor, and yet, they didn’t have any way out. So it was a dark world for many of the people. And then, when you ended up with a king like Herod the Great, the only way to survive was to please the authorities and keep your feelings and your personal beliefs to yourself.
We live in dark times too. We are often quite proud of our democratic systems of government, and tend to believe that by giving every individual a vote, those who are elected will honor what the people desire and need to have a healthy nation. But it doesn’t always work out that way. The person we elect may not turn out to be the one we needed to lead us, and political scandals continue to erode our trust in government and its institutions, leading us to become cynical or depressed.
Wars continue to be waged, and we long for peace. We also find it impossible to know how to interpret what is going on when countries face off against each other. We all agree that war is bad, and yet, we hear justifications for why a certain war is necessary, and see our governments choosing which countries to support, and which ones to oppose. And in this midst of this darkness, we witness tens of thousands of people losing their lives because authoritarian leaders are more concerned with projecting a strongman image of themselves than they are for caring for the people they send to war to kill and be killed.
Before our world was created, the Bible says, “the earth was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep.” (Gen. 1:2) Yes. That was the beginning. A totally hopeless mess, void of any shape, meaning or any sign of light from which comes life. It is important to note here that to the ancient Hebrews, the understanding of this dark, formless void was that it was an active, malevolent force that can best be thought of as absolute chaos. But this chaos can be challenged, because the next phrase says, “a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” The same word for “wind” can also be translated as “spirit.” And what is significant for us here is that God could have left the void, dark mass as it was. But that is not what happened. “God said, ‘Let there be light.’; and there was light.” At this point, everything begins to change. Darkness no longer has ultimate control over the universe as it did before God uttered the first command. Now the powerful “Darkness” had to deal with “Light.” And “God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.” Now there are two forces: light and darkness, good and bad, positive and negative, life-giving and life-taking. Here is where our story with God begins, and now we can see why the New Testament author of John’s gospel talks about the Word coming into the world as “the true light, which enlightens everyone.” (John 1:9)
So we are assured that the Light is coming into the world. And yet, the Darkness continues to raise havoc. We have a tendency to believe that people are basically good. We want to believe this about ourselves too. But no matter how good we want to be and try to be, we always find ourselves coming up short. We tend to think we would all choose the light because we want a good world and community, and we want to get along with one another. But the author of John’s gospel writes in Chapter 3, “that the light has come into the world, and the people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
We understand darkness as it is related to sin. When we sin, we are ashamed, and it is naturally tempting to cover that sin up rather than to confess it openly. In this way, people love darkness rather than light. And we are kind of taught to be this way. For example, do you remember writing your first résumé? How did your advisor instruct you to write it? Well, if your experience was like mine, you would have been instructed to emphasize the good and positive parts of your academic and work history, and point out positive things about your character. And how about the first job interview? You were definitely advised how to dress, how to act appropriately modestly while acting assertive enough to convince the interviewer that you have got what it takes. Through the rèsumè and the job interview, we intentionally project the person we want the company of the job we’re seeking to see. We’re not all that different from Hollywood after all, are we? Except, perhaps, that in Hollywood, people admit that they are acting.
What I am trying to illustrate here is that we do kind of like the darkness when the darkness acts as an advocate that helps us hide the real dark places that are inside of us. And when we vie with others in a world negatively competing to see who is less dark, we sacrifice the joy of positively working together combining the small amounts of light inside of each of us to bring a brighter light to the whole world, and put an end to mutual condemnation.
As I mentioned earlier, we all want to live in a good world, we all want to be good, and we want to be in community with good people. But we can’t achieve this on our own. So what do we do? John tells us this about the Light that came into our world: “to all who received [the Word}, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13) This isn’t calling for rèsumè preparation, or job interview coaching. This is a promise that if we believe in the name of Jesus, Jesus will enable us to become children of light. Bloodlines, the will of the flesh or will of the man cannot. And when we all shine our flashlights together, the light will be overwhelming, and we will be able to influence more than just cows to come with us. We will be a part of powerful light whose source is Jesus Christ, and will be able to show others how to overcome the power of the darkness that rules their lives.
I don’t intend to be petty about this. It isn’t easy to trust in Jesus and give up our addiction to darkness. But this is Advent―a season when we are promised that this light WILL come, as long as we keep believing.
When I went outside as a child into the dark, dark night in rural Wisconsin, The darkness seemed to be overwhelming. But a well know philosopher and poet shows us how there is a silver lining to that darkness. Ralph Waldo Emerson who lived in the 19th century wrote, “When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” He’s right! When I went outside, I was able to see exceedingly more lights in the sky than at dawn or dusk. In the middle of the black darkness, billions of lights were looking back at me saying, “The darkness cannot win!”
We live in a dark world, which makes us sometimes want to throw away our newspapers before reading them. But because our world is so dark, we are able to see the lights represented by believers in Jesus. Advent is a dark season, but when the season ends, the light of Christ’s birth is awaiting us. The stars and candles that we see around us during this festive time of year remind us each day that, indeed, the darkness will not overcome the “light of all people.” Don’t let the darkness of the world deceive you by telling you that there is no hope. We have been given the power to become children of God by receiving God’s gift of a Messiah and believing in him. Let us continue to shine in the darkness, believing the promise that the darkness will not overcome us.
Summary
We live in a dark world. The world around us sometimes seems to suggest that we should give up on the world becoming a better place.
Jesus came to a very dark world as well. The common people were oppressed by Rome, and they may have felt that they were in a hopeless world with no way out.
John’s gospel tells us that the Word (Jesus Christ) came into the world, and the Word was “the light of all people.” Jesus promises to make us children of God by receiving him as our Messiah and by believing in his name.
When we try to be good, we find the task to be impossible. We are unable to be good people even when that is our desire. What John is trying to show us is that even though we have darkness in our hearts that we love (John 3:19), by receiving the light of Jesus, we can overcome that darkness by believing in him. Then with Jesus as God’s children, we will also help to shine the light that Jesus brings to this world.
Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a season of darkness as we wait for our Messiah, but we are assured that he will come at the end of this season. The lights that we see around us at this festive time of the year remind us that the darkness will not ultimately win. The light of God will prevail!