Arise! Shine! For your light has come

Rev Anita Venter (Bethlehem Bible College)
Sermon – January 6, 2019

Arise! Shine! For your light has come

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, our redeemer. May your words find entrance in our hearts, take root and grow to bear the fruits of your life. Amen
Imagine 65 consecutive days of darkness. 65 days of not seeing the sun and daylight at all. Actually there really is such a place on earth. As I currently preach, this place is in darkness. The last time they saw the sun was on the 18th of November and will only see it rise again for a short time on the 24th January before it will set again. I am talking about the little town of Barrow located on the farthest northern tip of the state Alaska, above the Arctic Circle.
The earth is tilted in such a way that the sun never rises for over two consecutive months out of the year. Thus it should not surprise us that when the sun eventually rises the whole town comes out to celebrate, because finally there is light again.
Off course the prophet Isaiah is not speaking to the people of Barrow, when he writes: “Arise, shine, for your light has come!” He talks about a different kind of light, and a different kind of darkness.
When this special light begins to shine through the awful darkness, the results are much more spectacular and joyful than anything one could even experience in northern Alaska.
Today is the last day of the Christmas season. In the Christian church year, tomorrow is the official beginning of the Epiphany season. As most of us know an “Epiphany” is when something reveals or shows itself. After 65 days of darkness in Alaska, the sun finally reveals its glory for everyone to see. The purpose of the Epiphany season is to reveal the Son of God, to reveal his glory for everyone to see. For the next two months, every sermon, every Scripture reading, every hymn and every prayer in our worship services will serve the purpose of revealing to you, to show you, the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ.
“Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.”
This is Isaiah who pictures you and me and the rest of the world as a people living in darkness. People who have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the sun to rise.
Most of all God sees our world as a very dark place. A spiritual dark place. You can see evidence of this spiritual darkness by looking around you. We see senseless killings, destruction of the earth, racism, rejection of the other, child abuse, domestic violence, corruption and so the list of evil just goes on. I do not have to tell you to look around you, to watch people, to listen to them talk, to see what they do, for it to be clear to you that our world is thick with darkness.
But please allow me to tell you that the most frightening place to look, my friends, is within ourselves. Some people will tell you that there is an incredible amount of good, and an incredible amount of strength inside yourself, that if you would only reach deep within yourself, you would see how good you really are. But, this has not proven to be the case.
Again and again, when we look within ourselves for strength to stand up for what is right under trying circumstances, to stand up against oppression, to stand up against any form of injustice, very often the strength is not there. The more we look within ourselves, we do not find the desire to live in peace, to take care of our earth, to look out for our neighbor or to feed a hungry. When we honestly search our souls we find a greed to only serve self. The more we look within ourselves the clearer it becomes that there is nothing but selfishness and materialism and more selfishness and more materialism. And so God sees our souls as a very dark place, full of sin.
Yes, “thick darkness is over the peoples, but…” God says, “… the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”
The birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ, is described in the Bible as the rising of the sun on a very dark place. When the sun rises, surely the darkness disappears. When Jesus rises in your life, he shines his forgiveness and grace into your life and the darkness of sin disappears.
When we feel guilt in our lives, guilt from committing sin after sin, guilt from trying to make things right with God, even while knowing we can never do enough, then we are also trapped in gloom.
But then light bursts into the blackness of the night when we learn that Jesus Christ was born into the world for the sole purpose of doing what we could not do – making everything right between us and God.
This is Epiphany – when we, trapped in sin see and believe in the glory of Jesus Christ. When we finally stop trusting in ourselves for salvation, and start trusting in Christ.
This is what happened to the magi, the wise men from the East. These gentiles came from a far away land where no one knew about the Christ. No one knew about the true God who was sending a Savior. But when they saw his star, somehow they knew that something highly significant happened. Willing to go on a very difficult, long and sacrificial journey, they left their land of spiritual darkness because they wanted to see and worship the new King of the Jews, the Messiah.
Finally, they found the Messiah. There, in the form of a little child, they saw the light of the world, the glory of God, and this is what filled them with a spirit of awe and worship. They had gone from darkness to light. They rejoiced, and gave this child who now was their God their gifts from afar.
Epiphany is also known as the “Christmas for the Gentiles,” because one of the main themes of the season is that Christ is a light for all. He is not a light just for the Jews or a group of selected people alone, but for all people, all over the world. He is a light and salvation to King Herod who sadly rejected it and he is the same to the wise men, who joyfully accepted.

The Epiphany or the revelation is that anyone living in the darkness of sin can come to Christ. It is when people like you and me, people like those wise men from the east – anyone – can come and see the love and the glory of God, as he reveals it through the person of Jesus Christ. Just as the sun rises on every nation, on every kind of people, no matter who you are or what your background is, just as the sun, every morning, rises on you, so it is with Christ.

His grace, his forgiveness, his salvation rises and dispels the night. It abundantly shines on the Jews in Bethlehem, but also on King Herod and the wise men from the east. It rises on the drug addict, the homeless person in the gutters, on the prostitute, the orphan, the inmate, people of all race, color and religion, on a powerful and greedy leader, on the corrupt … it also rises on you. Every person is given the choice to believe in the love of the almighty who gave his son so we can live in the light, bask in his glory, find the strength and joy needed to live in this earth in his presence, and also have eternal life.
Do not feel too sorry for the people of Alaska. It is true that right now, the sun never rises there, but six months from now, the earth will tilt and then the opposite will happen, the sun will never set. From the 10th of May until the 2nd of August, the sun will not go down in Barrow. It is called “the area of the midnight sun.”
So it is with your soul. Once the grace and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ rises in your life and you accept it, it will never stop shining until his 2nd coming. No matter how dark the world gets around you, no matter how hopeless you might feel right now, Christ’s love will always shine in your life. Spiritually, right now, you live in the “area of the midnight sun.”
May this season be for you a time when you see more clearly the glory of your Savior, Jesus Christ. May you not follow the path of King Herod trying to kill the light, living in endless darkness, but may you follow the sacrificial path of the wise men seeking, finding and accepting the light that will bring all joy and everything you need to live this life.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” Amen.

Imagine 65 consecutive days of darkness. 65 days of not seeing the sun and daylight at all. Actually there really is such a place on earth. As I currently preach, this place is in darkness. The last time they saw the sun was on the 18th of November and will only see it rise again for a short time on the 24th January before it will set again. I am talking about the little town of Barrow located on the farthest northern tip of the state Alaska, above the Arctic Circle.
The earth is tilted in such a way that the sun never rises for over two consecutive months out of the year. Thus it should not surprise us that when the sun eventually rises the whole town comes out to celebrate, because finally there is light again.
Off course the prophet Isaiah is not speaking to the people of Barrow, when he writes: “Arise, shine, for your light has come!” He talks about a different kind of light, and a different kind of darkness.
When this special light begins to shine through the awful darkness, the results are much more spectacular and joyful than anything one could even experience in northern Alaska.
Today is the last day of the Christmas season. In the Christian church year, tomorrow is the official beginning of the Epiphany season. As most of us know an “Epiphany” is when something reveals or shows itself. After 65 days of darkness in Alaska, the sun finally reveals its glory for everyone to see. The purpose of the Epiphany season is to reveal the Son of God, to reveal his glory for everyone to see. For the next two months, every sermon, every Scripture reading, every hymn and every prayer in our worship services will serve the purpose of revealing to you, to show you, the glory of our Savior Jesus Christ.
“Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.”
This is Isaiah who pictures you and me and the rest of the world as a people living in darkness. People who have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the sun to rise.
Most of all God sees our world as a very dark place. A spiritual dark place. You can see evidence of this spiritual darkness by looking around you. We see senseless killings, destruction of the earth, racism, rejection of the other, child abuse, domestic violence, corruption and so the list of evil just goes on. I do not have to tell you to look around you, to watch people, to listen to them talk, to see what they do, for it to be clear to you that our world is thick with darkness.
But please allow me to tell you that the most frightening place to look, my friends, is within ourselves. Some people will tell you that there is an incredible amount of good, and an incredible amount of strength inside yourself, that if you would only reach deep within yourself, you would see how good you really are. But, this has not proven to be the case.
Again and again, when we look within ourselves for strength to stand up for what is right under trying circumstances, to stand up against oppression, to stand up against any form of injustice, very often the strength is not there. The more we look within ourselves, we do not find the desire to live in peace, to take care of our earth, to look out for our neighbor or to feed a hungry. When we honestly search our souls we find a greed to only serve self. The more we look within ourselves the clearer it becomes that there is nothing but selfishness and materialism and more selfishness and more materialism. And so God sees our souls as a very dark place, full of sin.
Yes, “thick darkness is over the peoples, but…” God says, “… the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you.”
The birth of the Lord, Jesus Christ, is described in the Bible as the rising of the sun on a very dark place. When the sun rises, surely the darkness disappears. When Jesus rises in your life, he shines his forgiveness and grace into your life and the darkness of sin disappears.
When we feel guilt in our lives, guilt from committing sin after sin, guilt from trying to make things right with God, even while knowing we can never do enough, then we are also trapped in gloom.
But then light bursts into the blackness of the night when we learn that Jesus Christ was born into the world for the sole purpose of doing what we could not do – making everything right between us and God.
This is Epiphany – when we, trapped in sin see and believe in the glory of Jesus Christ. When we finally stop trusting in ourselves for salvation, and start trusting in Christ.
This is what happened to the magi, the wise men from the East. These gentiles came from a far away land where no one knew about the Christ. No one knew about the true God who was sending a Savior. But when they saw his star, somehow they knew that something highly significant happened. Willing to go on a very difficult, long and sacrificial journey, they left their land of spiritual darkness because they wanted to see and worship the new King of the Jews, the Messiah.
Finally, they found the Messiah. There, in the form of a little child, they saw the light of the world, the glory of God, and this is what filled them with a spirit of awe and worship. They had gone from darkness to light. They rejoiced, and gave this child who now was their God their gifts from afar.
Epiphany is also known as the “Christmas for the Gentiles,” because one of the main themes of the season is that Christ is a light for all. He is not a light just for the Jews or a group of selected people alone, but for all people, all over the world. He is a light and salvation to King Herod who sadly rejected it and he is the same to the wise men, who joyfully accepted.

The Epiphany or the revelation is that anyone living in the darkness of sin can come to Christ. It is when people like you and me, people like those wise men from the east – anyone – can come and see the love and the glory of God, as he reveals it through the person of Jesus Christ. Just as the sun rises on every nation, on every kind of people, no matter who you are or what your background is, just as the sun, every morning, rises on you, so it is with Christ.

His grace, his forgiveness, his salvation rises and dispels the night. It abundantly shines on the Jews in Bethlehem, but also on King Herod and the wise men from the east. It rises on the drug addict, the homeless person in the gutters, on the prostitute, the orphan, the inmate, people of all race, color and religion, on a powerful and greedy leader, on the corrupt … it also rises on you. Every person is given the choice to believe in the love of the almighty who gave his son so we can live in the light, bask in his glory, find the strength and joy needed to live in this earth in his presence, and also have eternal life.
Do not feel too sorry for the people of Alaska. It is true that right now, the sun never rises there, but six months from now, the earth will tilt and then the opposite will happen, the sun will never set. From the 10th of May until the 2nd of August, the sun will not go down in Barrow. It is called “the area of the midnight sun.”
So it is with your soul. Once the grace and mercy and forgiveness of Jesus Christ rises in your life and you accept it, it will never stop shining until his 2nd coming. No matter how dark the world gets around you, no matter how hopeless you might feel right now, Christ’s love will always shine in your life. Spiritually, right now, you live in the “area of the midnight sun.”
May this season be for you a time when you see more clearly the glory of your Savior, Jesus Christ. May you not follow the path of King Herod trying to kill the light, living in endless darkness, but may you follow the sacrificial path of the wise men seeking, finding and accepting the light that will bring all joy and everything you need to live this life.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come. And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” Amen.