The
Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has
anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that
captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He
has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has
come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give
a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive
praise instead of despair. In their
righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted
for his own glory. Isaiah 61:1-3
If there was a poster child
for the year 2020 it would have to look somber, depressed, hopeless, cynical,
frustrated, broken, homeless, jobless, penniless, and wearing a mask to cover
it all.
The first century was much
like our year in 2020. It was a dark
place which held little righteousness; evil seemed to rule the day. The whole idea of goodness and a life of joy
seemed to be on lockdown. The
restaurants of hope and joy had the doors locked and windows barred. And it seemed to grow darker by the moment. And then, to Mary and Joseph, Shepherds, Wise
Men, and even Herod the Great, the heralds of Heaven, bathed in thunder, and
clouds of light announce: Good
News!
Isaiah predicted it seven
centuries before Jesus was born. Then,
when Jesus stood in the synagogue
reading that same prophecy of Isaiah, He concluded his reading, not with, the
word of God for us the people of God; rather He said, He who stands before you right now, is
the fulfillment of every bit of Good News you could have hoped for – I Am is
here.
What Isaiah predicted Jesus
offered to the small group gathered at the synagogue in Nazareth. The kind of Good News Jesus held forth would be
like a miraculous cure for all diseases, including COVID-19 and old-age. It would be complete pardon for every prisoner. It would be recompense for every loss,
sorrow, or fear. This Good News is release,
freedom, life, and abundance of joy. It
is blessing, rather than mourning, and praise instead of despair. It was Good News because it was God’s promise
of a crown of beauty given in exchange for the ashes of our grieving.
He seems to be
looking in different directions at the same time, both forward to the coming
new year, and backward to peruse the events of the year just past. Those who are more cynically-minded perceive
Janus as
In just a
few days we will turn another corner.
Some will want to trash their 2020 calendar; some might want to blow it
up with a stick of dynamite. I think I
will treasure mine. I say this because I
want to be a little like Janus, the mythical god for which January is
named. Janus has two faces, one looking
East, the other West.
He seems to be looking
in different directions at the same time, both forward to the coming new year,
and backward to peruse the events of the year just past. Those who are more cynically-minded perceive
Janus as two-faced, unable to truly speak his mind, only
offering mixed messages. Those who would
see this in a more positive sense would see the backward-look as learning the
lessons of the previous year, while looking forward is a better hope for next
year. Lessons learned, and wisdom applied
for life. I will choose that for my
memory of this year’s legacy.And that may be the whole issue for the spirit
of heaviness in which 2020 has been bathed; how will we see it, and how will we
choose to remember what to do with it?
Is there anything positive that we will take from this year’s hard
lessons? Well, apart from pop-psychology
hackneyed phrases, the truth of one such cliché does come to mind:
It
is always darkest before dawn
I have no idea where that
saying comes from, but I know (on a first-name basis) some people who could
testify to the truth of its message.
It’s a long list, but let’s just share several:
Adam…must have experienced a
deep valley of depression and questioning the 2020 kind of darkness when he and Eve were
expelled from the Garden of Eden. He’d
never really been on his own before, and now the produce came from the ground
only by the sweat of his brow. Adam’s darkness revealed life can be tough!
Noah…spent the better part of a
year in a dark, smelly boat, cooped-up with fifteen thousand animals that made
the ark smelly. Genesis (Ch 8,9)
tells us that after it was over Noah stepped out into a world without people. He and his little family were totally alone. That’s a good simile for living in the
quarantine of 2020 darkness.
Abraham …had several periods darkness. God had promised an heir. But Abraham kept getting older and
older. He was approaching 100, and his
wife was no spring chicken either. What
was God up to? You don’t have children
when you’re in the old folk’s home! Didn’t
God know there are no nursery websites to help with giving Senior Adult baby
showers? And then, when Isaac was finally
born, God told Abraham to take the boy to the mountain and kill him for a
sacrifice. Talk about darkness! (you usually don’t think about sacrificing
kids until they’re teenagers!)
Jonah…was disobedient about
fulfilling his prophetic ministry role.
He got a holy submarine ride
and several days in the darkness to think about his vows.
Israel…(Joshua 7) the
whole nation kicked back in shock after being whipped at Ai. They didn’t know
Achan had sinned. They only knew they
were out in the dark.
Moses…was no stranger to the darkness syndrome. After being raised in a
king’s castle he spent forty years as a convicted murderer, working for his father-in-law,
tending sheep on the back-side of the darkness of nowhere(Exodus 2).
David…(1 Sam 22) the
boy-king slept in the caves of Adullam while King Saul hunted for him. He had spent his life trying to serve God and
king…now the king wanted him dead, and God seemed nowhere in sight; it was all
darkness.
Solomon…spent a lifetime searching
for ways to get past the darkness of a life of affluence. He couldn’t do it. In frustration he recorded Ecclesiastes, the
definitive key to how to live a frustrated life in the darkness of materialism.
Elijah…had his darkest moments after defeating the false prophets of Baal
on Mt Carmel. He was outnumbered 850 to
1, and God gave him the victory over the wild bunch. It was one of the greatest spiritual victories
of his career as a prophet. The next
instant we find him sitting under juniper tree pondering suicide (1 Kgs
19).
John the Baptist…found himself in a dark pit too; John 11 tells us he
was wondering if he’d made a mistake in baptizing Jesus. Was He really the Messiah? He
needed to know; John was living in the darkness of doubting his entire
ministry.
Judas…was a bad guy to us (who
names his firstborn Judas these days?)
Nevertheless, Judas was chosen to come alongside Jesus with the other
11. Judas had his toughest moments
trying to understand Jesus’ motives. As
a zealot, waiting for the kingdom to be established, Judas must have been
severely frustrated, proving that fighting God tooth-and-nail is the darkest of darkness.
The Disciples…(bless their little
misguided hearts) spent seven long weeks in the upper room after the
resurrection. Jesus told them to wait,
and then he disappeared in the clouds.
What a wonderful way to change the world, eh?
Waiting – doesn’t that describe the darkness of 2020?
Peter… was the original action figure, always acting
(especially before thinking). Toy makers of action biggies like G.I.
Joe, Power-Rangers, and The Hulk, could make an Apostle Peter doll and market him to
Christian parents. The only problem is
he’d have his foot in his mouth. MatthewCh26
has Peter denying the Lord three times the night of Jesus’ arrest. That had to have eaten-away at the walls of
his stomach. His darkness was from trying to figure out why it didn’t
go like he thought it should. His darkness was clothed in the
question, why? And every time he heard a rooster crowing it was
like somebody locked on his midsection with a set of vice grips.
John Mark…left to go on the Great
Adventure with Paul & Barnabas, an exciting mission trip to establish
churches, and preach the gospel. But
John Mark chickened-out when the going got tough; he went home to Momma. John Mark had a heart for God, and I am
certain there were many times he awoke in the middle of the night in a cold
sweat, remembering his failure. It would be many years before light came to
put away that darkness and he would write his Gospel.
John…was the Apostle whom Jesus
loved, and who leaned on Jesus’ side during the Last Supper. He became the beloved Pastor at Ephesus. He preached the Word with boldness and
effectiveness. At age ninety he got to
retire, but not to a condo in Miami beach!
John was imprisoned, exiled to a rock quarry on an island off the coast
of Greece. He spent his golden years hauling lime rock for the emperor.
Darkness hardly describes this agony!
And then, there was the New Testament Jeremiah……
Paul…who, when converted,
immediately began to experience opposition – from within the church. He spent 14 years in the desert seminary
learning about God’s plans for the church.
Then came times of severe darkness
·
He was beaten (as Jeremiah).
·
He was called a traitor (as Jeremiah).
·
He was imprisoned and died for the cause (as did Jeremiah).
Paul’s life was spent on
mission, filled with times of battling the darkness.
Now, I do not consider
myself worthy of even being mentioned with the previous bunch. However, all the guys in that previous bunch
lived two thousand years ago, and I’m still breathing, standing here before you
as an appendix to what I’ve been trying to say about this exchange of beauty
for ashes. I want to share with you that
there is meaning in what all of us have been forced to focus on this past year;
it is the exchange of 2020 darkness for God’s Heavenly
Blessing!
I’m not Peter or Paul, but
here’s my darkness:
I’m simply a pastor, having
served 9 churches in the last 4 decades.
None of those churches were even remotely perfect; it’s a good thing,
because each of those churches also had an imperfect pastor. It’s like that in all of life. Life is exceedingly NOT PERFECT…it is messy,
fun, disorderly, exhilarating, and painful, and you hardly ever know what it’s
going to be when you wake up in the morning.
It was that way twenty years
ago when we moved to North Carolina from Florida. We were called to serve a church in
Thomasville (messy, fun, exhilarating, disorderly, and, at times,
painful). That ended 15 years ago
shortly after Christmas.
My season
of darkness started shortly after because I was a pastor without a church. If you’ve ever meet one of those creatures,
be kind, because they’re treading dark waters. (I
could add, be careful…they may bite when disturbed).
Months into seeking God’s
will for where (and if) I would ever serve again, the problem was evident
and predictable; each time a place seemed to open-up, it closed faster than a
slap in the face.
I was living in the darkness of questioning, wondering if I’d ever pastor
or preach again. Russell felt like
Jeremiah in the pit, and I wanted some answers.
I wanted some sense of purpose during what seemed like wasted time. (Can we say 2020?) Give me some rhyme and reason, Lord!
I must confess that may have
been one of the darkest times of despair in my soul. When a person has been assured time and again
that the calling upon your life is to serve God, having no place to serve is
like drinking sand when you’re dehydrated.
Now, I never got to Elijah’s pity party…never wanted to end it all…but
the darkness did make me wonder if God was just ready to bring me home.
And then, a spiritual
version of 6° of separation kicked in.
Elizabeth had a position as Administrative Assistant to Pastor Don Lloyd
in High Point. The D.S. was a frequent
visitor to that church, and, six-months into my blackout of darkness, the dots began
connecting. God provided a place for me
to serve…and here we are in the 16th year of being a recovering Baptist-now-Methodist.
Helen Steiner Rice sometimes
connects with what ails my soul in times of darkness:
And Oh! What a blessing
To know there are reasons
And to find that our soul
Must, too, have its seasons.
"Bounteous
Seasons"
And "Barren Ones,"
too.
Times for rejoicing
And times to be blue.
But meeting these seasons
Of dark desolation
With strength that is born
Of anticipation
That comes from knowing
That "autumn-time
sadness"
Will surely be followed
by a "Springtime of Gladness."
Considering all the Biblical
examples of the darkness-turned-light in the lives of David,
Paul, John, and others, it would be difficult not to see how it
is always darkest just before light.
And, so, to the point…what
is there about the darkness of 2020 that suggests what the light of 2021 might
be like?
Is it just that, in the darkness of so much COVID-19
sickness and death, injustice, hatred and fear, it can’t get any worse? Is that the light? I trust that’s not the case; hanging-on to
shaky ground is not moving towards the light; it’s just another kind of darkness.
Is the light of 2021 that,
in the darkness of evil, we might be compelled into
the light of world-wide revival? Could be!
Is it that, in the darkness
of days like Noah, it might be time for the light of the coming of Jesus Christ’s
return
to finally set everything that was wrong…right?
None of us is prophet-enough
to predict what will happen next; only God knows when Christ will come. But, like understanding the fields white unto
harvest, we can say this: we
are ready for a little light…and when it’s been so dark, that light God gives
will be one beautiful exchange for the heaviness of our grief, a crown of
beauty for a garment of ashes!
Let’s give Isaiah the last
word to this moment:
The people who walk in darkness will
see a great light. For those who live in
a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.
Isaiah 9:2
It’s been dark for far too
long; are you ready for a great light?
Our Prayer
Father,
God of Heaven’s Armies, we are a people walking in great darkness for far too
long. Come, shed light on our spirit of
heaviness; grant us a garment of praise, exchange our ashes for your crown of
beauty.
We
wait upon you, O Lord,
If
you tarry so that the darkness must prevail for a little longer, our lives are
in your hands; may You fill up the darkness until the dawn breaks.
If
it is that your light will begin to reveal renewal and revival, let our lives
so shine that others may see.
If
your holy Child, Jesus will return now, so the entire world may be clothed in
your glory and splendor, and darkness be ever banished, then, with the
Revelator, the Disciple you loved, we cast our petition, even so, come, Lord Jesus.
For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord,
we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt
the Majesty of the Father.
Let
it be so in each of our lives…Amen!
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