[Sermon for Epiphany III, January 26, 2020, delivered at The Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Phoenix AZ]
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Since the Feast of the Epiphany we have been treated to the passages in the Gospels where Our Lord is jump-starting his ministry. Two weeks ago we read of His baptism in the Jordan by John the Forerunner;[1]last week we heard the Forerunner proclaim Him the Lamb of God.[2] Now we hear St. Matthew expound on Jesus fulfilling the prophecy in Isaiah that those in darkness have seen a great light, which ties Jesus to the land of Galilee and the beginning of His great work.[3]
For those of us familiar with the cadence of Jesus’ life and ministry, we tend to sleep through this. We’ve heard it a lot and frankly the meaning may have been a bit obscured by the fog of leftovers from Christmas and New Years’ and the stress of trying to shed all those pounds of Christmas cookies. Also, there is a growing segment of our population, either because they are not from a Christian tradition or because they or their families have fallen away from a Christian tradition, who have not heard this message before. Many of us hear the passage from Isaiah, the passage from Matthew, go, “Huh, well, what do you know?” and go on with our lives.
Not so fast, let’s look closer at what Isaiah tells us. “Those in darkness have seen a great Light, and on those living in the land of darkness Light has shined.”[4] I’m going to pair with it this little snipped from the Gospel of St. John, “In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men. The Light shone in the Darkness, and the Darkness did not overcome it.”[5]
Light. Darkness. Those who heard me preach Transfiguration Sunday last October on the Uncreated Light may remember that. The theme bears repeating. God is Love,[6]God is Life,[7]God is Light.[8] It stands to reason that in the absence of or separation from God there is no Love, there is no Life, there is no Light, otherwise known as Hatred, Death, and Darkness, that horrible little condition we call Sin.
“Oh dear God,” I can hear some say now, “There he goes off about Sin AGAIN.”
Well, it IS kind of all around us. Anyone with a Facebook feed can see that. We are surrounded by the planning, commission, and byproducts all the time. It’s on the news, in our social media, it’s everywhere. The only difference between now and the “Good Old Days” is we report on it better and it’s harder to hide. It’s always been a part of us. Who doesn’t remember St. Paul telling us, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,”[9]or the psalms saying, “There is no one who does any good, no, not one,”[10]or Jesus saying, “There is no one good save God.”[11]
That means we’re all living in the Darkness. These days that’s not hard to believe, is it?
I’m not here thought to beat us about the ears about our sins. I’ll leave that work to the Holy Spirit. I’m here to emphasize to you the Good News for today, “we have seen a great light.”
Not just ANY light. The Light of Light, the Light shining in the Darkness, the Light which Darkness cannot overcome, the Uncreated Light, God the Word, Jesus of Nazareth.
St. Symeon the New Theologian, a mystic from tenth century, wrote extensively on this Light. About this very passage of Isaiah he stated, “You must learn and be convinced that, ‘those who sit in darkness will see the great light shine,’ if only they look toward it.”[12] That is the whole crux of Sin and Salvation. As we turn from God we turn from Light and Life and all we then see is Darkness and Death, but if we turn our hearts and minds back to Him, the Light and Life shines upon us.
John Newton, a man once involved in one of the most wicked enterprises humankind has ever invented in the Darkness, was convicted by the Holy Spirit in extremis, and so he abandoned his career of Death and Despair and later went on to be priested in the Church of England. His most well-known writing was a short piece of theology we know as the hymn “Amazing Grace.” In it one of his line states, “I once was blind, but now I see,”[13]a tribute to the illumination that the Light brings to the human soul. And like the Apostle Paul he clearly attributes that illumination to grace, the action of God to a creature incapable of turning to God.
The whole Christian message is about deliverance from Darkness, from Sin and Death. St. Paul writes that, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”[14] This was to deliver us from Death and in His Resurrection bring us to Life in Him. Because He is the Light, because He is Life, when he died, he confronted Death and Darkness directly, and neither can exist in His Presence. Because He destroyed death, He broke the yoke of our burden, He broke the bar across our shoulders, He broke the rod of our Oppressor as God broke Midian for the sake of Israel during their sojourn in the wilderness.[15] No one has seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made him known.[16] This is what St. Symeon the New Theologian and John Newton were writing about. It’s that grace that if we turn bursts on us in the sunrise of the eternal daylight of God’s presence. It is Jesus that allows us to see God and live.[17]It is Jesus that makes the Father known to us. It is Jesus that has destroyed Sin which would permanently separate us from the eternal love of God. This same Jesus, who had both the nature of God the Word and the nature of Humanity perfectly united in Himself, unites us in his being to the love of God. This same Jesus, who offered Himself up as the eternal Passover sacrifice so that He could bring the penalty of Sin on Himself and in so doing destroy it, brings us out of our Death in self-will and separation from God back to God’s love. This same Jesus who taught us to love each other, to be forbearing with each other, to forgive each other enables us to turn to see the great Light, IS the great Light.
Isaiah today tells us beholding the light to have great joy.[18]So let us who see this great Light rejoice. As we chanted today in the psalms, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?”[19] Why? Because He has destroyed Death and eliminated Sin and dispelled the Darkness. Let us all turn and behold Him and rejoice. As we took on that illumination at Baptism, so let us fully immerse ourselves again in it in His Body and Blood. This is our Light, this is our Salvation, this same Lord Jesus who rose again from the dead.
Through the prayers of the All-Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary and the prayers of Holy Father Dominic, Saviour save us.
[1] Mt. 3.13-17
[2] Jn. 1.35
[3] Mt. 4.13-17
[4] Is. 9.2
[5] Jn. 1.4-5
[6] 1 Jn. 4.8
[7] Jn. 1.4
[8] Ibid.
[9] Rom. 3.23
[10] Ps. 14.1-2; 53.1-2
[11] Mk. 10.18; Lk. 18.19
[12] St. Symeon the New Theologian, Discourses, 34.12, Sources Chrétiennes, Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 113:298-300
[14] Rom. 5.6
[15] Is. 9.4
[16] Jn. 1.18
[17] Ex. 33.20, Rev. 22.4
[18] Is. 9.3
[19] Ps. 27.1
