LIGHT OF THE WORLD 1 Genesis 1:1-5 David Eck
12/01/10
I. The three meditations I'm offering
---During our Advent Midweek worship services
---Continue our reflection on what it means to shine our light.
On Sunday mornings we're looking at how to shine our light
---On ourselves, our families, our work places,
---Our neighborhood and our world.
During the midweek services we're going to explore
---A three step process that occurs may times in our lives
---As we move from darkness, to letting the light in,
---To reflecting that light outward.
Everyone who is here tonight
---Will identify with one of these three stages of illumination.
Some of us may feel like we're walking in darkness.
---Feeling overwhelmed, depressed,
---Or in a period of mourning.
Others are in a place where we're finally
---Letting the light of Christ into our lives and our hearts
---And are soaking up as much of that light as possible.
Still others are so filled with the light of Christ
---That they cannot help but shine brightly
---In our broken and troubled world.
Where are you tonight?
---Are you walking in darkness?
---Are you letting the light of Christ in?
---Or are you reflecting that light outward?
We'll get to all three of these during the season of Advent
---But tonight we're going to explore
---The most difficult stage of the three: darkness.
None of us likes to walk in darkness.
---It's not a fun place to be.
However, we also know that everyone
---Will go through dark times at ome point in their life.
---There are no exceptions to this rule.
And if someone tells us that their life
---Is always filled with sunshine and rainbows
---We shouldn't listen to them. They're lying! It's simply not possible.
---Everyone will experience dark times in their lives.
---It's unavoidable.
II. As we reflect upon how it feels to walk in darkness,
---The first chapter of Genesis is very helpful to us.
The word picture it paints is rich and insightful.
---It brings us a word of good news
---When we find ourselves walking through dark times.
Let me read the text to you again:
---"In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth,
---The earth was a formless void
---And darkness covered the face of the deep,
---While a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light.
---And God saw that the light was good;
---And God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
---And there was evening and there was morning, the first day."
The NRSV names the darkness and calls it
---"A formless void" that covers "the face of the deep."
The Hebrew here is actually a lot more complex than this.
---Several English translations bring out the full meaning of the text:
---The NAB calls the darkness "a formless wasteland"
The CEV says it is "barren, with no form of life,
---Under a roaring ocean covered with darkness."
The Living Bible calls it "a shapeless, chaotic mass...dark vapors."
Finally, The Message brilliantly calls the darkness
---A soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness...an inky blackness"
Many of these phrases describe how we feel
---When darkness surrounds us.
We feel like we are in a barren wasteland
---As we face losses of many kinds:
---Loved ones, jobs, health, the death of dreams.
Life can become a shapeless, chaotic mass
---When the difficulties and challenges we face
---Leave us feeling overwhelmed and confused.
If this kind of darkness continues for a long period of time,
---We are prone to depression, constant anxiety,
---And even self-destructive behaviors.
Life lived in darkness can truly feel like
---A bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness.
III. I don't need to name this darkness any further.
---We know it well in all its familiar forms.
The good news that Genesis brings us tonight
---Is that God does not intend for the darkness to last forever.
God moves in the darkness and begins to stir things up.
---Genesis 1 says that "a wind from God
---Swept over the face of the waters.
Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light.
---And God saw that the light was good;
---And God separated the light from the darkness."
Those of you who have studied this passage with me before
---Know that the Hebrew here is quite beautiful
---In its striking imagery.
The word "wind" in Hebrew is RUAH
---It is translated simultaneously as "spirit, wind, and breath."
---We can think of it as the New Testament's Holy Spirit
---Which in Greek is also translated as "spirit, wind and breath"
One image we get from this is the Holy Spirit
---Blowing over the dark waters of our lives.
---As waves and ripples are created in this dark, chaotic sea
---Light is born in its midst.
The second image we get is based on the Hebrew word for "swept"
---Which means more than just "blowing."
---It also means "to flutter, to hover, or to brood."
Therefore, the second image we get is the Holy Spirit
---As a giant bird hovering over the darkness.
---It flaps its winds, creating a disturbance,
---The waters begin to move and pulse
---And even reorganize themselves
---Until light is birthed in its midst.
IV. Depending upon how we look at it,
---This disturbing of the waters can be seen
---As both a good thing and a bad thing.
We do not like our lives to de disturbed,
----Even if we are walking in darkness.
We don't like our waters to be troubled,
---Where they rage and foam all around us,
---Like a spiritual tsunami.
However, if Genesis is correct,
---And I believe it is,
---It is in the midst of these turbulent, dark times
---That light is being birthed.
God is creating something new
---In the midst of our dark times.
---This can cause us to have great hope.
Let's think about this for a moment.
---I think most of you would agree with me
---That the dark times of our lives
---Often produce the most growth.
They cause us to be more self-reflective.
---They make us listen to God more closely.
They give us perspective,
---And teach us what is most important in life.
In we can walk through these dark times,
---We will find that they can produce a lot of light.
Now, I'm not saying that it's fun to walk through dark times.
---But life has taught me that God uses
---These dark seasons to teach us important life lessons.
I don't know if we could learn those lessons
---In any other way.
---You may agree or disagree with me.
---This has been my experience.
What I want you to take with you this evening
---Is the hope of the first chapter of Genesis.
---Dark times will come. They are a part of our lives.
---However, God promises that these dark times
---Will not last forever.
---The Holy Spirit is blowing and moving all around us and in us,
---Giving birth to light and life
---In the places where we least expect it.
Amen
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