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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at Isaiah’s passage tonight and from Galatians as well,
please be seated. The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, but for Marsha and I,
and maybe some other people as well, it could be called Light Friday because that’s the day
we usually put up our Christmas lights. The scriptures many times refer to light
to symbolize or represent different things and for our three midweek Advent
services we’ll be looking at light in well three different lights. The guiding
scripture being from the Prophet Isaiah there if you’re not familiar with it
already after the next three weeks you you probably will be hopefully so and
let me reread that for you here and you can follow along if you wish that arise
shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you for
behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people’s but the
Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you nations will come
to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.”
Tonight’s focus from that Isaiah reading
is the light of time, the light of time.
Seeing Jesus through the light of time.
And these words of Isaiah,
they go back to the time of the captivity
and exile of the Israelites.
Israelites, when their land, their city of Jerusalem, the temple of the Lord, they were
all invaded and destroyed by the Babylonians and the Assyrians.
And many of the Israelites then were taken into exile, taken captive into exile into
Babylon and those were some very dark times for them, living away from home, not being
able to spend time worshiping in the temple. So what was the problem? What was
the cause of all of this? What was the cause of this darkness that had come on
them? Well the Israelites had turned from the glory of the Lord and they were
spending time worshiping false gods and idols despite warnings. Time after time
after time they continued in this dark practice and in time the darkness of
God’s judgment came upon them through the Babylonians. The problem? Sin. It
caused them to be in thick darkness and seemed like their entire world was
covered in darkness but God’s word through Isaiah was meant to comfort
them and give them hope that they would one day again live in the light of God’s
glory and when the time had fully come they were able to return to their land
now those these words of Isaiah are also meant for your comfort and hope in this
time. You too may have times of darkness that need the light of God’s glory. The
darkness of unemployment, of a lack of finances, the darkness of a bad
relationship, of health problems, trouble at work, trouble at school, the darkness
of pain caused by other people, the darkness of uncertainty about your
future or for the darkness of personal failure. And you too may turn from God’s
light and spend time in darkness worshiping yourself or your possessions
or any other idol or false God that takes you away from the light of God’s
glory. You may put yourself into darkness by ignoring the light of God’s Word and
the darkness of sin can seem so thick sometimes, especially sins of the times
of your past. Sins that you’ve done that are just downright dark and you may
feel captive and exiled because of them. Sin was the problem of the time of the
Israelites and it’s the problem in our time too. It causes us to turn from the
glory of the Lord and turn to ourselves and causes us to be in darkness and to
make our entire world seem like it’s covered in darkness. Truth be told
sometimes, maybe oftentimes, we cause the world to be a dark place. And although
the darkness of such times may weigh very heavy on you.” Again, the words of
Isaiah are of great hope and comfort for you today, as much as it was for the
captives in Babylon. The words of Isaiah for the Israelites and for you are,
arise shine for your light has come Jesus has come he invaded the time of
our world and sent his son when the time had fully come Jesus was born to bring
light to your darkness to bring light to your sin and yet there may seem to be a
thick darkness over you because of your sin, but now the Lord shines on you. God
shines on you with Jesus from his time in the manger, from his time of teaching
and healing. He shines on you from his time of trial, from his time on the cross,
and he shines on you from his time of resurrection, which is this time. It’s
now. The shining light of God’s grace through Jesus shines on you now in this
time. If you’re in darkness because of your sin, arise, shine. Your light has come.
Your forgiveness has come. The glory of the Lord is on you because of what
Jesus has done for you. And this light continues to shine on us in this time
through hearing God’s Word and through the sacraments, through baptism, through
the Lord’s Supper. It’s God’s light shining on you. Another prophecy of Isaiah
says this in chapter 9, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great
light all of us we’ve we’ve all walked in darkness but we’ve seen a great light
in Jesus the time has fully come for the light of the glory of the Lord to shine
on you right now in this time and all of this happened at just the right time see
that reading from Galatians there when it talks about the the fullness of time
Verse 4 says, but when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law
To redeem those who were under the law the light of Jesus
to forgive and redeem us sinners
Came at just the right time and whenever you’re feeling in darkness
when you’re feeling the weight of your sin and the terror of it and the guilt
and the shame of it the gospel the good news the forgiveness of Jesus comes at
just the right time every time the light of the glory of Jesus shined for the
Israelites it shine when Jesus came it shines for us now and it will shine when
he returns like his birth Jesus’s return will be at just the right time I know
our world seems like a pretty dark place sometimes it’s like we’re saying Jesus
right now would be a really good time let’s not rush things here maybe but
it’ll be at the right time when Jesus returns we heard it in the gospel in
Mark tonight reminds us we don’t know when that time is gonna be but we’re to
be looking for it, anticipating it, expecting it, being alert and on guard,
watching for it, watching with the same excitement and anticipation we watched
during Advent for the birth of Christ at just the right time. Sometimes when I
sing or hear the familiar Christmas carol,
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, I get a little confused with the words in the
second verse. There’s not a test, I’m not going to ask you what they are, but they go
like this, it’ll be familiar. Late in time, behold him come, offspring of a virgin’s
womb. Late in time. What does that mean? What does it mean to be late in time?
Well, whenever we’re waiting and watching with great anticipation for something, for
something wonderful, it always seems late, right? It just never seems to get here on
time like it seems like it’s never gonna get here well this this birth of Christ
we’re looking forward to an advent where we’re expecting it we’re wanting it it
just seems to take forever especially if you’re a kid right Christmas just takes
forever to get here well for all of the children of God it may seem like it
takes a long time but it’s at just the right time and the time has fully come
For the forgiveness and love of Christ, it is already here, shining on us now for our
forgiveness and for our salvation.
So may the light of God’s grace in Jesus that came at just the right time, may it shine
on you now until the time of his return, amen.
