"The Darkness Is Scattered"
November 27, 2005

The New Testament Lesson: Hebrews 11: 1 - 3
The Old Testament Lesson: Isaiah 9: 1 - 7

To encourage people with the Power of Hope as a reality rather than wishful thinking.

Light is one of the primary symbols that says Christmas

     Decorations are filled with light: candles, stars, even halos shouldn’t be a surprise when we’re in the darkest days of the year people want to be reminded of light. But it’s even more important than that.  John’s Gospel uses the image of light to describe Jesus.  He is the true light.  His birth is the true light, that illuminates everyone, entering the world  As we move through the Advent season, we will use this theme of light.  We will look at the way light describes the gifts of Christmas.  Those gifts are brought to us by Christ!

I.  The darkness of evil which fills our world batters at our belief
    A. A few years ago, I took communion to a blind man and his wife.
        1. After chatting, I began with prayer calling to mind God’s promises
            a. The imagery was of the promised new kingdom.
            b. I thanked God a time would come when all ills would be healed
            c. specifically mentioned his pain would be eased and sight restored.
        2. After we finished, his wife looked at me with a wistful gaze.
            a. “Is that time really going to come?” she asked.
            b. She knew it was the promise of God, but she struggled to believe.
            c. At that point, everything looked so bleak.
    B. Things often look so bad that it’s hard to imagine it ever changing!
        1. We gotten so used to evil coming suddenly upon us.
        2. Just pick up any paper and see the bad news in black and white.
            a. The motto of the NY Times is “All the news that’s fit to print”
            b. It might just as well be “All the news that’s bad enough to print.”
        3. The string of terror attacks fill the world with senseless violence.
            a. The come at bus stops and at hospitals.
            b. They occur at weddings and funerals.
            c. One ought to be wary of standing nest to anyone!
        4. No less are people’s personal stories filled with tragedy.
            a. Young lives are loss to accident and disease.
            b. People with everything to live for just stop living.
    C. As bad as it is, in Isaiah’s day people experienced the same trouble
        1. The poor were often hungry and cold while the rich had luxury
        2. The government was oppressive and unresponsive to people’s needs
        3. Leaders were weak and corrupt: too busy lining their own pockets
        4. New taxes placed a larger burden on already bowed backs
        5. People seemed to ignor God and the commandments.
        6. In short, darkness covered the land of Judah!

II.  During such immense darkness, it is difficult to feel hopeful: the paradox is that is when we need hope the most!
    A. When we become bound to our troubles, our pain only increases
        1. We seem to be unable to see how things will ever change.
        2. We are sapped of the strength to break out of the cycle
        3. Depression and finally despair settle upon us like an inversion haze
    B. We need hope then because that is how we see our way out!
        1. It is the light of hope that illuminates the potential of the future.
        2. Chesterton defined hope “Hope means expectancy when things are other wise hopeless.”
        3. Hope breaks the chains that bind us to our present difficulty.
        4. Hope empowers us to lift our eyes away from the trap.
        5. Hope frees us from our debilitating despair and energizes us.
        6. And that kind of hope comes to us as a gift of God.
    C. Isaiah described it as God’s order being founded.
        1. This is the promise that all Israel banked on.
        2. He said that it would be a reign of righteousness and justice.
            a. It would fill all the Earth.
            b. make it, or re-make it, into the paradise God intended.
        3. There would no longer be the disorder of war, pain or oppression
        4. All this when God’s messiah arrived and took over!
    D. The burning question: “Were is it?  Why has it not come?”
        1. That has always been favorite question among God’s people
        2. What’s taking so long?
        3. We could add our plaintive questions to theirs
            a. After all , we stand on the other side of Christmas.
            b. The Messiah has actually come in the flesh.
            c. The reality of the promise should already be ours.
    E. It is very difficult to wait.
        1. We are eager to see God’s promise in all its fulfillment.
            a. We’d like to live in this renewed world.
            b. The description of the prophets sounds so inviting.
        2. We are tired of suffering: our own and other people’s
        3. Our ability to hope gets stretched near to the breaking point.

III.  The light of Hope sustains us because promises have real substance.
    A. Here’s God’s plan: He wants his people to learn to live on hope.
        1. By not having the fulfillment, we become practiced in promise.  We learn to live on hope.
        2. were we to see and feel and touch reality, hope wouldn’t be possible.
        3. And it is hope that empowers our faith
            a. our ability to trust in the one who gave the promise.
            b. And that’s what leads us into faith.
    B. Hope’s power is to make a spiritual promise and dependable truth.
        1. The future becomes real to those who live in the present.
        2. The promise becomes tangible to people before its fulfillment.
        3. The invisible God becomes perceptible to those who live by faith.
    C. Hope then, can carry through our difficult situations.
        1. Without hope, we quickly are filled with despair.
        2. Without it we lose the ability to truly live.
        3. “It is said that we can live for 40 days without food, only 3 days without water and only 8 minutes without air.  But we can’t live a second without hope.”
        4. The promise of God and the power of hope gives us new strength.
    D. A young friend displayed the power of hope a few years back.
        1. He came home from college at Thanksgiving not feeling well.
        2. Parents took him to Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh and it was cancer.
            a. It was fast developing.
            b. Even the tests were going to be dangerous for him.
        3. He watched his carefully plotted future crumble.
            a. His college degree was supposed to lead to  a PhD in Marine bio
            b. Settle down, raise a family.
            c. He knew he could count on none of that.
        4. But even facing that darkness, he was an example of hope.
            a. he knew that his life rested in God’s hands, not his.
            b. Whatever happened, he felt he could trust God of the future.
        5. That knowledge transformed his illness into a time to learn and grow.
        6. Light scatters the darkness—the light of hope.

     This Christmas season, let the light of God scatter your darkness, whatever it is.  It may be the fear of losing a person you love.  It may be the burden of unpaid bills.  It may be the loneliness of life.  It may simply be your anxiety over the uncertain future.  Whatever you darkness is, God has made promises to you with guarantee a resolution to your trouble.  Let the Hope of Christmas light your way so that you can see the future of God'’ promise coming toward you.  Release your fear and anxiety and pain to the one who has promise to care for you.  And may the hope which is God’s gift through Christ lift you to new joys.

And as you go from this place, may you walk in the way of Christ Jesus and May God always find you faithful!