Believing in the Light While Sitting in the Darkness

Isaiah 52:7-10; John 1:1-14

The late Dr. John Claypool, one of the great voices of Baptists from the south, used to say that hope is essential for the human species.  “What breath is to the body, hope is to the human spirit,” he wrote in a wonderful little book titled The Hopeful Heart (p. 6).

            He recounts this story from when he was a young pastor in Louisville, Kentucky.  He befriended a gracious older rabbi. The rabbi’s family had been through the Holocaust, so he was familiar with the dark side of life.  Claypool, on the other hand, acknowledged his own naivete.  He had not yet been initiated into “the fraternity of the suffering,” though, if you know his story, that would come later. 

            During the Civil Rights Movement, Claypool and the rabbi were working on a project with several African American clergy.  They had a very tense meeting, and the African American clergy stormed out of the meeting, accusing their white colleagues of having no courage.

            Claypool turned to the rabbi and said, “I think it is hopeless.  This problem is so old, so deep, so many-faceted, there is simply no way out of it.”

            The rabbi stopped Claypool and invited him into his study.  The rabbi lit his pipe, and when the smoke cleared, he said, “I need to tell you something, young man.  To the Jew, there is only one unforgivable sin, and that is the sin of despair.” 

            Despair is presumptuous, he explained.  It is assuming something about the future that we don’t know.  We don’t know because we haven’t been there. 

            The Advent and Christmas season remind us year after year of the necessity of hope.  The world may be enveloped by darkness.  It may appear to be hopeless.  You may be sitting in darkness yourself.  But we can still hope in the power of light to overcome darkness.  Claypool was right.  Hope is essential to the human species. 

            I have mentioned before that I enjoy listening to podcasts.  My favorites are historical.  One is a series by the historian Jon Meacham.  It is titled, “It Was Said.”  He analyzes some of the famous speeches of history and their impact on society. The speeches were often given during a time of war or some other occasion of national insecurity.  Like Winston Churchill’s 1940 speech titled “The Finest Hour.”  It was delivered to the House of Commons and later broadcast to the nation.  Nazi forces were closing in on Allied forces.  France was under German military occupation.  It looked like all of western Europe might fall.  Churchill stood before the House of Commons to reassure the British government and people that there was still hope that they might win the war.  He ended by saying, “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

                Franklin Roosevelt’s “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation” is another.  Some of you remember it.  It was a time of grave uncertainty for our country.  On December 7, 1941, the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan suddenly and deliberately attacked U.S. forces at Peral Harbor.  The U.S. sustained extensive damage to our naval forces, and 2,403 U.S. personnel, including 68 civilians, were killed.  President Roosevelt declared it was “a day which will live in infamy.”  He originally wrote “a day which will live in history,” and at the last moment selected the word “infamy.”  He ended with this message, “With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph—so help us God.”

            One more.  This one is from recent history, and most of us remember it.  It is President Obama’s eulogy of Rev. Clementa Pickney in Charleston, South Carolina.  You may remember a twenty-one year old white supremacist slipped into Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, affectionately called Mother Emmanuel, during a Wednesday night Bible study.  He was there “to kill black people,” he said.  He opened fire, killing nine people including the pastor, Rev. Pickney.  The president began his eulogy with these words, “The Bible calls us to hope.  To persevere, and have faith in things not seen.”  You may remember that he then broke into a solo of “Amazing Grace.”

            Most of the speeches Mecham presents in this series were given during a time of serious uncertainty.  We could call it a time of darkness.  They were messages of hope.  They were messages that lifted the spirits of the people.  Hope is what gave the people of Europe and this country the will to fight.  Hope is what gives those who grieve the desire to move forward and rebuild their lives. Hope is essential.  Claypool was right: “What breath is to the body, hope is to the human spirit.”

            That is the message of Christmas Day.  Countries go through periods of darkness.  Families go through periods of darkness.  Of course, individuals do too.  Some of our members and friends are sitting in darkness this day.  Maybe you are.  It can be difficult to believe in the light while sitting in the darkness.  But that is the message of our faith.  That has always been the work of God, from creation until now.  God brings salvation out of despair and hope out of nothingness.  God did it with Moses, an unlikely prophet chosen to lead the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt.  The odds were stacked against Moses and the people of Israel.  It was a very dark time.  Until Pharoah finally relented to Moses’ demand, “Let my people go.” 

God did it with Abraham and Sarah.  They would be the father and mother of a great nation, a people so numerous they would outnumber the stars of heaven, God promised.  But Abraham and Sarah were too old to bear children.  It seemed like a cruel joke, and Sarah laughed.  God nevertheless gave them a son, Isaac, who was the progenitor of the people of God. 

God did it again with a courageous young shepherd named David.  He had only a sling and pouch of stones.  What was that up against the Philistine giant Goliath?  It was enough. 

God’s message of hope was embodied in the life of the baby whose birth we celebrate today.  Jesus was a light shining in the darkness, the Gospel of John says.  John calls him “the true light, which enlightens everyone.”  So this year and every year we hold before the world this powerful message of hope.  Let us continue to believe in the light, even while sitting in the darkness.

While we celebrate Christmas, our friends in the Jewish community are celebrating the festival of Hanukkah, which is also called the Festival of Lights.  It is an eight-day observance that began on December 18 and will last through tomorrow night.  It commemorates the dedication of the second Temple in Jerusalem.  According to tradition, the Jews who participated in that dedication witnessed a miracle.  They had enough pure oil to burn the candles for one day.  However, the oil burned for eight days, giving them time to find more consecrated oil. 

So to this day, Jewish families light a candle in a menorah each night of Hanukkah until all eight candles are burning on the last evening.  Hanukkah comes during the darkest part of the year.  The lights of the menorah grow brighter and brighter each day, until they dispel the darkness.

Hope.  That, I believe, is essential to the human species.  The world may be enveloped by darkness.  It may appear to be hopeless.  You may be sitting in darkness today.  But let us still hope.  Let us continue to believe in the light, even while sitting in the darkness.

Closing Prayer 

Lord, we thank you for the hope that was born this day.  May it ever live in our hearts.  Amen.