Walking in Darkness, Seeing Light

Isaiah 9: 1 – 7

 

Today we are putting on our walking shoes and launching a journey. Not just a journey – a pilgrimage.

 

A pilgrimage is a journey with a particular purpose. The purpose is often related to the destination – Christians go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, Muslims make pilgrimage to Mecca to seek forgiveness of sins, Elvis fans make a pilgrimage to Graceland to see where the King of rock and roll lived and died. For the pilgrim, the destination holds some expectation.

 

But beyond the destination, a pilgrimage involves some disciplines on the journey. I was wrestling with that word as I wrote it – I may use that work differently than you do.  By discipline here I mean specific practices or behaviors. For example, the journey might include intentional times of solitude, times of silence, times of reflection, times of celebration. Pilgrims to Chimayo in New Mexico sometimes crawl for a portion of the journey.

 

Pilgrimage is shaped by tradition – over centuries, people have set out from wherever they call home to do what others have done before them. On the Camino de Santiago, pilgrims attach a scallop shell to their bags and the greet one another with a traditional greeting – Buen Camino! 

 

As the worship team imagined how we might travel through advent toward Christmas this year, we saw a pattern in the scriptures that would guide our journey. We’ve already heard from some of the prophets this year – and our lectionary continues to focus on the prophets almost all the way up to Christmas.  That focus prepares our ears and our hearts to receive the gift of God with us, Emmanuel. 

 

It also prepares us to hear the story of the Messiah through the gospel of John, which will be our focus from Epiphany through Easter, a gospel story that is launched by the wilderness prophet John the Baptist.

 

Let’s remember that prophets are not fortune tellers. In scripture, they are those who are called by God, attuned to God, engaged with God, sharing God's will and desire with the people, and reflecting the people's responses back to God.

 

Today, we hear from the prophet Isaiah. Or one of them.

 

You see, the book of Isaiah in Hebrew scripture is not the voice of one prophet but at least three. Today's text comes from a part of the collection known as first Isaiah. 

 

The first part of Isaiah was was written in a time before the Babylonian exile, a time when the Assyrian warlords were wreaking havoc, when Judah felt deeply unsafe, when perhaps key leaders had been cast out from Jerusalem by foreign powers, but before the people as a whole were sent out of the land they knew so well.

 

I think it's important for us to remember that this large body of work called Isaiah, 66 chapters of which much is written in verse, was written by multiple authors and includes insertions from other parts of the Hebrew scripture. It is a living example of how these texts were adapted, combined, cited and edited to meet the day in which they were finally written down. 

 

There was value for the time in which these stories were told and heard and written down, AND there's been reason to read these texts again and again. And there is also reason to look to these texts today – something here matters for us now. 

 

Today’s text is often read on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day in our churches. I am unable to hear this particular text without Handel’s Messiah launching in my brain. 

 

And his name shall be called wonderful counselor, almighty God, the everlasting father, the Prince of peace. 

 

It is likely that the poetry in this text mimicked an Egyptian enthronement hymn. This sort of poetry would refer to the “birth of a King” at their ascension to power, not necessarily at their physical birth as an infant. 

 

The prophet is rooting his expectations for leadership in the line of David. He is talking about a real human king who will rise up among David’s descendants. He is talking about a human who will help to shape a time of peace.

 

Now…as I mentioned earlier, all of this is happening in a time of threat, historically.  The people have been walking in darkness. And the prophet envisions their seeing a great light.

 

In the chapter prior, the prophet has described a time of destruction. While the people have been turned away from God, caught up in their kingdom’s struggles for power and wealth, they have experienced hardship and they are beginning to blame the human rulers. Isaiah's audience is living in the midst of political and economic unrest. They are oppressed. They are surrounded by violence and the threat of war. All around them, kings are using power for threat and destruction. 

 

God suggests to the prophet that all of this hardship is because they have abandoned God. Soon, God suggests, they will turn their hearts and faces back to YHWH.

 

In light of the prophet’s exchange with God, the prophet proposes that the solution – in fact their salvation - will come in the form of a new human king. One who will break the yoke of their oppression, one who will destroy the tramping boots and bloody garments of warriors who have wreaked havoc on their lives. 

 

Now…we’ve talked about kings a fair bit this Fall. Kings are subject to human frailty. But the prophet is speaking with great hope of a different kind of king – a great king whom the Lord will bring forth from the North – from the land beyond the sea in Galilee.

 

I wonder, can you imagine the longing that people have if they are living amidst threat and warfare? If they are struggling to keep their families fed? 

 

I wonder, did the people dare to imagine how it might be better? Would they have found comfort in the promise of a human king? Would they, in fact, turn their faces to God with hope for what was to come?

 

This is where our pilgrimage begins – with people in darkness.  Maybe you can relate.

 

A pilgrimage always has a beginning. A launch point.

That beginning is physical and geographical.

It is also emotional and cognitive.

 

Like the people in darkness described by the prophet, we start in our hometown, with our particular circumstances and our particular worldview, and maybe even particular hopes for what might change for the better.

 

Isaiah is offering a hopeful vision. Out of darkness will come light.

 

This is where our pilgrimage begins – in a place where we may feel darkness, may feel unease, may feel a sense of longing. In a place where we might anticipate the need for changes. In a place where we begin to feel we need to leave so that we can discover something we need. In a place where we may call on God anew after a time of separation.

 

Today, from where we are (perhaps in darkness), we set out together walking toward light. We walk with hope, accompanied by Isaiah’s vision of how God moved others in different times and places and who will move us toward justice, righteousness and shalom.

 

From where we are, we catch a glimpse of the promised Messiah, a story told for thousands of years in our gatherings as Christians.

 

We walk with hope, accompanied by Isaiah’s vision of how God might, through flesh that dwells among us, interrupt the brokenness and remove the burden of violence and injustice.

With our anticipation, with our wonder, with our awakening to promised hope, we take the first steps into what Is about to happen.

 

And we do not do it alone. 

For God is with us in each step.

As God has always been.

Even in darkness.

 

May it be so.

Amen.