[Machine transcription]
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; if you’re not familiar with it already, after the next three weeks, you probably will be, hopefully. So let me reread that for you here, and you can follow along if you wish: “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 peoples; 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. These words of Isaiah go back to the time of the captivity and exile of the Israelites. The Israelites, when their land, their city of Jerusalem, and the temple of the Lord were all invaded and destroyed by the Babylonians and the Assyrians. Many of the Israelites then were taken into exile, taken captive 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 worshipping 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 it 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.
When the time had fully come, they were able to return to their land. Now, 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 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. 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 it 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 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 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. 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 shone 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; it reminds us we don’t know when that time is going to 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. It seems like it’s never going to get here. Well, this birth of Christ we’re looking forward to in Advent, where we’re expecting it, we want it, it just seems to take forever, especially if you’re a kid. Right? Christmas just takes forever to get here.
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 shine on you now until the time of his return. Amen.