Scripture
John 1:1-5
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (NRSV)
Devotion
Since today is Epiphany, I was originally going to talk about the Magi and the gifts that we can bring to the Christ child. Alas, today's events in Washington D.C. have forced me to go in a different direction.
It's often hard to find the right words to utter in the first few hours of these kinds of moments. People I've spoken to since the news of angry people storming the Capitol building first broke have said that it reminds them of Kennedy's assassination, Reagan being shot, and even 9-11. These people have different political beliefs and live in different places, but they are all deeply upset that things have come to this. And they are also deeply concerned about how angry and divided the United States has become. One person described feeling like we are surrounded by a deep darkness. The more we try to find our way forward, the darker and more impenetrable it seems to get and the more lost we seem to become.
That image of being lost in the dark is particularly striking on Epiphany. On this day, the Church remembers a star that shone in the night and the people who followed that star through strange lands filled with unknown dangers. That star brought them to the cradle of the Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. Scripture teaches us that Christ's light is a light of grace, truth, justice, mercy, and love. It shines forth to show us how to live as God wants us to live: to do justice, to act in loving-kindness, and to walk humbly with our God.
So how do we witness to Christ's light when our world is full of anger, division, and despair? One of my former pastors Rev. Woody Berry once said "I
have learned things in the darkness that I could have never learned in
the light." You see, it is when we seem surrounded by darkness of human sinfulness that we learn some hard lessons about ourselves and experience anew our need for God's presence. The darkness inspires us to seek out Christ out so that we can see our paths forward and follow his ways more closely. And when draw near to Christ's light shining through all that darkness, we experience his unfailing love in a way that we hadn't before.
John wrote, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." For over 2,000 years, Christ's light has shone through every danger, every moment of distress, and evil imaginable. I challenge people of faith to keep looking for Christ's light of grace and truth shining even in today's dark and disturbing events. His light shines not not in each person who speaks the truth in love. Each word of challenge said with care. Each act that heals instead of hurts and spreads justice in an unjust world. When we find that light, we must share it so that others can come to see its goodness. For it is when we come together to seek the light shining in the darkness of our current moment that we will learn things that we couldn't have learned in an easier time.
Prayer
Today's prayer is Samuel Barber's setting of the Agnus Dei, which is a Latin chant asking Christ to let mercy and peace shine upon us.
Translation:
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.
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