“Punching Holes in the Darkness”, A Sermon preached by The Rev. Canon Dr. C. Denise Yarbrough on Sunday, November 28, 2010 at Church of the Ascension, Rochester, New York
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not life up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:4-5.)
Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:12)
Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. (Matthew 24:42 )
When I was a child I had a book of poems by Robert Lewis Stevenson called “A Child’s Garden of Verses”. My favorite poem was called “The Lamplighter” and it was about a little child’s eager expectation each evening as he watched for the lamplighter to come around the streets of his town lighting the streetlamps at sunset. “We are very lucky, with a lamp before the door, and Leerie stops to light it has he does so many more” says the child in the poem. He speaks of his father’s job and what others do for a living and then of the lamplighter’s job. He says, “But I, when I am stronger and can choose what I’m to do, O Leerie I’ll go round at night and light the lamps with you.” Apparently, the poet wrote that poem reflecting on his own childhood days growing up on a hillside outside a small village in Scotland where he used to sit in his family’s kitchen each evening and watch the lamps come on one by one as the lamplighter made his way around the village. He once exclaimed to his mother, “Look, mother, there is a man down there punching holes in the darkness.”
What a wonderful image that is for Advent. “Punching holes in the darkness.” In this season of preparation for the coming of the Christ child in the manger on Christmas morning, we hear lections that speak of the coming of the end times, when God will bring all things around to God and God’s long awaited kingdom will reign on earth as it does in heaven. The images we hear during this season are apocalyptic and dramatic. The images of darkness and light are prominent images in our Advent season.
Other imagery that is characteristic of Advent is that found in the passage we heard from Isaiah and in the gospel reading from Matthew. These texts speak of the longing for peace, when people “shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks.” As we live through a week when the war in Afghanistan drones on, when peace in the Middle East seems as elusive as ever, when North Korea fires artillery at South Korea on a maritime military base on an island off the coast of both countries, causing everyone to hold their breath and pray that nothing more serious develops there, when the news is filled with stories about increased airport security screening measures, necessitated by our ongoing fear of terrorist attacks, these Biblical texts that speak of a longing for peace strike a chord. During Advent, as our secular culture celebrates Christmas, we in the church pause to live fully in the reality of our present moment, the almost-but-not-yet quality of the coming of God’s reign, the season of preparation we call Advent. We live in expectation of God bringing all things around right and we long for the time when that will happen.
The prophet Isaiah will be the source of the Hebrew Scripture readings for the next few weeks. These texts, penned almost 3000 years ago in the Ancient Near East, speak to us across the ages with an authenticity that is startling. Written in the early 9th century BCE, to Israelites living amongst hostile Assyrian neighbors, the prophet speaks of God’s promise of peace and justice to God’s people. The prophet reminds us that God’s kingdom is one where they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. During this season of preparation for the celebration of the birth of the one Christians call the Prince of Peace, the words of Isaiah bring hope into a war-torn world. The prophet Isaiah points to a world in which God’s justice reigns, not human injustice. The prophet reminds us that as people of God we are called to be about peace-making and justice, not war and violence. The psalmist echoes the theme of Isaiah as he sings, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and quietness within your towers.” (Psalm 122, vs. 6-7)
The prophet Isaiah speaks of peace, of nations not learning war anymore, not lifting up sword against one another. The Psalmist prays for the peace of Jerusalem. Jesus tells his followers to be alert, be watchful, to look for God coming like a thief in the night into their world. During Advent, we are reminded that the God we serve and love is a God who works in and through history, and is to be found in the very midst of the historical events in which we participate, through which we live. This is not a god that we seek by running away from the struggles and conflicts of our world, by trying to find some quiet place away from the fray where we can be safe and rest quietly with God, but rather, God will appear quite surprisingly when we least expect it – during the course of daily events like grinding the meal or working the fields, in the midst of political crises like the conflict off the coast of Korea and the war in Afghanistan.
St. Paul echoes these themes in his words to the church in Rome. “Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.” Darkness and light are prominent themes in Advent, during the time of year when the days grow increasingly short and darkness lengthens and the bitter cold of winter arrives. In poetic imagery our scripture calls us to be bearers of light in a world shrouded in darkness, to bring the light of peace into the darkness of war and terrorism, hatred and prejudice. Certainly these Advent texts encourage an engaged and active religious life, a commitment to making the reign of God a reality in the world in which we live.
To live a holy Advent is to go against the grain of what the rest of the world is doing and to be like the lamplighter, “punching holes in the darkness” of our world. We are called to be bearers of the kingdom for which we yearn. On Thanksgiving evening, CNN aired its annual CNN Heroes program, where it lifted up and celebrated the work of ten amazing, yet ordinary people who are punching holes in the darkness of their worlds to bring the light of God to their communities and neighorhoods. Anurada Kohlrala, a Nepalese woman who assists young girls who are being trafficked as sex slaves in Nepal near its border with India was the first place winner this year, and other heroes included Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega, a woman who runs a hospital in a very dangerous area of Mexico offering medical care for free to all who need it, Narayanan Krishnan who prepares meals for the poorest of the poor in India, and ministers to their personal needs, providing showers, grooming, clothing and other assistance, and Dan Wallrath, a home builder in Texas who builds homes that are accessible and handicapped equipped for US veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and provides the homes free and clear of mortgage indebtedness to the wounded veterans so that they can rebuild their lives. These are just a few examples of people who have taken seriously the call to “punch holes in the darkness” of the human condition by taking risks, by putting themselves on the line to care for those Jesus would have called “the least of these.” These CNN Heroes are true Advent people, as they bring the kingdom of God closer to lived reality in our day. When people like these do the work they do with the love and commitment with which they do it, God’s kingdom breaks into our world. That is Advent living and an Advent spirit. Ascension is catching that Advent spirit in our Gifts for Life campaign as we raise money to bring a gift of hope and life to a family or community mired in poverty through Episcopal Relief and Development.
Rather than focusing our energies on shopping, partying and overindulgence, we are called to be reflective, thoughtful and visionary in this special season. We are called to become bearers of light in a world shrouded in darkness and to be alert for the unexpected appearance of God in the course of everyday events. Isaiah, John the Baptist(next week) and Jesus direct our gaze outward, to the human family and the challenges we face trying to be compassionate members of a global community that is torn asunder by violence, poverty, oppression and disease. In the reading from the letter to the Romans from which today’s text was taken, Paul reminds the Christians in Rome of the commandment to love one another because “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Putting on the armor of light has a lot to do with being a force for love in the world because, as Paul declares, “love does no wrong to a neighbor.”
Thanks be to God it is Advent again. The days are shorter, the nights longer. The secular culture is celebrating Christmas, but we have the great gift of this season of Advent in which to concentrate our energies on watching for the inbreaking of God in our world in ways great and small and on becoming the means by which God’s kingdom becomes a reality in our own day. We prayed today for the “grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life.” Now in the time of this mortal life. In December 2010 in Rochester, New York we are called to be citizens in the kingdom of God sharing the vision of Jesus and the prophets. In the midst of a world torn by war, we must stand for peace. In a world that oppresses and excludes we will embrace all of God’s beloved children with respect and love. In a world plagued by treatable disease, we will do all in our power to stem the infection and treat the afflicted. In a world torn by conflict and violence we will become forces for reconciliation. Keep a Holy Advent despite the pressures of our culture pushing us to a secular Christmas. Remember the prayer Jesus taught us: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
