Epiphany - "Wisdom Uncovered"

That’s a wake-up call if ever there was one. Whether it be at boot camp or at kids’ camp, those words ring out loud and clear. They proclaim that the night is over, a new day has come. It’s time to move from sleep to action, from rest to work.

Throughout the Scriptures, from beginning to end, the tension between the two opposites—night and day, darkness and light—is always there.

In the beginning, in that moment after God spoke his first creative word, the world was still formless, and a deep darkness covered the surface of the earth.

Into that deep darkness, where no life was present or possible, God sent the gift of his light, and by his creative command, life began. God has been sending his life-giving Light into the darkness ever since.

That’s really how the plan of God reaches its climax. In the final chapter of the Bible we are given a vision of the holy city—heaven itself. It is a place beyond our dreams in its splendor.

There the servants of God are free from fear and death.

And there’s more: “There will be no more night. They will not need a light of the lamp or the light of the sun for the Lord God will give them light” (Rev 22:5).

That’s the way it will be forever and ever.

But that is not the way it is now. The darkness is still with us, all over the world.

It’s a deep darkness, a spiritual brooding force that threatens to inundate and snuff out all of life.

It’s into this dark world, for such a time as this, that God sends his people with the power of Epiphany.

To those who see the Light, his call to action comes.

I’m counting on you not only to see the Light but also to be Light.

Today God rouses us to hear his wake-up call and to receive his power to rise and shine.

Darkness Covers the Earth!

“See, darkness covers the earth!” Isaiah said it, and it was so.

Those were dark days in which he and his people lived. The darkness was so deep that you could almost cut it with a knife.

The morals of the people had plummeted.

God had been pushed to the perimeter of their lives, and they had plunged headlong into a dark day of judgment.

They had been given the light, but had chosen instead to live in darkness. The result was disaster. They had forsaken God, and for a time it appeared as if God had forsaken them.

Many years have come and gone since Isaiah’s days, yet it is not much different today.

While some have called this an “age of enlightenment” with progress being made by quantum leaps, the truth is that we are not light-years ahead of where the people were in Isaiah’s day.

To be sure, if we are to measure enlightenment by the strides of science and technology, we have come a long way. At the present pace, the fund of human knowledge and information is doubling each decade.

We have developed supercomputers capable of performing a trillion calculations a second.

We have satellite communication systems that allow us to talk to people almost anywhere in the world.

It’s a wonderful world of TVs, fax machines, and cellular phones.

In the field of medicine our enlightened age has produced miracle drugs, chemotherapy, laser surgery, and brilliant diagnostic devices that see into the darkest and deepest corners of our bodies. Isn’t it wonderful to be living in this enlightened age?

There’s another reality, however: the darkness in this world is stubborn stuff.

While we may be able to push it back to the edges of life for a while, it is always lurking, waiting to move back in and to overpower the light.

There are lingering problems that simply refuse to go away. We are discovering that our best efforts to bring light through education are not enough.

Billions still do not have enough to eat.

Our own cities too often are not safe for human habitation.

Many people are afraid to go out at night.

Gang warfare invades even our suburbs and towns.

Drug abuse robs people of their wits and will.

Health care costs are excluding increasing numbers of people from the healing they seek.

The worldwide pandemic — COVID-19 — threatens to rival the darkest days of the bubonic plague.

In this so-called enlightened age, the “slaughter of the innocents” by means of abortion goes on at a rate that makes what Herod did to the children of Bethlehem pale by comparison. All the while our institutions, which are supposed to provide solutions and solve our problems, seem powerless to do anything.

On the personal level, many people are living what one author calls “lives of quiet desperation.” They are living without light and without hope. All around, the darkness gathers and threatens to take over. Isaiah said it, “Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.” And it is true.

Great Light for This World’s Darkness

In the middle of all that darkness, a search is going on.

People are looking for light that will give them comfort, security, guidance, and hope. If someone claims to have seen the light, people come running.

We like light.

Think of the homeless man crawling on his knees under a street lamp, looking for something. A policeman asked him what he was doing. “I’m looking for my keys,” came the response. “Did you lose them under this street lamp?” “No,” said the man. Pointing into the darkness he said, “I lost them out there somewhere.”

“Then why in the world are you looking for them here?”

“Because this is where the light is,” said the man.

For all such searchers and seekers who are looking for the key to life, for a world groping in darkness, there is good news.

It is the message of Epiphany.

Old Simeon saw it and said it with simple passion as he held the little Child in his arms,

Luke 2:30-32 “My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”

Cradled in that grateful old man’s arms is the same light which Isaiah had proclaimed centuries before when he said, “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”

In this world of deep darkness, there is a God-given light which brings new life and hope and security to those who live in that light. There is no mystery here.

This light is the one who is proclaimed to be the Light of the world. It’s Jesus Christ. The Scriptures say it in so many ways. Here’s just one example:

2 Corinthians 4:6 “6 For the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” is the same one who made light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.”

While Jesus walked the dark pathways of this world, he went about his work of being the Light of the world and shining into the deep darkness.

In him people saw things that they had never seen before. They saw things about God and about themselves that had remained obscure and hidden.

God has given us that power and light to see ourselves as he sees us.

In his light we see ourselves as we really are: fallen and flawed creatures.

But in his light we see more than that; we are also forgiven and favored children of God, redeemed, restored, renewed.

It was in the darkness of that Friday which we call “Good” that the voice of the Light of the world called to his heavenly Father and brought bright light into that darkness.

His cry was not for vengeance and punishment on his tormentors;

rather it was a prayer of forgiveness.

It is in that light that we can see into the mind and heart of God. Jesus Christ is the needed light that has come. It is in his light that we see the light and the truth about ourselves and our gracious God.

Living in his light not only reveals things to us about ourselves and about our heavenly Father, it also enables us to answer God’s wake-up call, “Arise and shine!”

The spotlight is not just on Jesus but also on us as his people.

The utterly amazing thing is that not only does Jesus call himself the Light of the world, but he also calls us the light of the world.

He really does; it’s right there in his Sermon on the Mount. Listen:

Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. No, they put it on a stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. In the same way let your light shine in people’s presence, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

“You are the light of the world!” What a glorious description of God’s people. That’s what he calls us to be, here and now in this dark world.

But how do we arise and shine? How do we let our light shine before men? And where does the power come from to accomplish it?

In the 1960s, Egypt built the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. The structure included a 12–turbine hydroelectric plant which produces over 12 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. At the dedication ceremony in 1971, President Gamal Abdel Nassar pushed the button that started the power generation plant. But the power which lit homes all over Egypt that night was not found in the finger of Nassar. It was found rather in the 200 billion cubic yards of water stored behind the dam.

What is the source of our power? It is not something which we generate ourselves.

The power to be a light in the world is not ours naturally; it becomes ours supernaturally.

One of our hymns describes the source: “Holy Spirit, light divine, Dawn upon this soul of mine. Let your word dispel the night, Wake my spirit, clear my sight” (LW 166, stanza 1). The Spirit of God working and living within us is our power source.

When I was a child, my Sunday school teacher—Mr. Carl Libermann—made of wood some beautiful crosses, and gave one to each child in his class.

I still have mine, somewhere. He pasted a blessing on each of the crossbeams. It said, “God Bless Thee.” And on the base of each one was a child’s name.

That cross does not have any power in and of itself. But, it always sat atop of dresser, and I saw it everyday when the light shined through the bedroom window, or when a lamp was turned on.

It is so with us. Our light is borrowed, absorbed—from the Source, from the Light which has come: the Light of the world.

It is in close connection with him by our meditation on his Word,

by our drawing on his power in the hearing of the Word in Worship and in the Lord’s Supper; through these means we receive power to answer his wake-up call, to be what he calls us to be: light in the world.

This is no empty promise.

John 1:12 “But to all who did receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” To those who live in the light of his love and mercy, he gives power to be suns and lights in the world.

That is our call from God. Hear it again: “Let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and praise to your Father in heaven.”

How do we let our light shine before men? What does that really mean?

There is an old story of a child standing at a window gazing out as night falls. All of a sudden, with great excitement in his voice, he calls out, “Mother, come quickly! Look, I see a man poking holes in the dark.” Of course, he was watching the lamp-lighter making his rounds, igniting the gas street lamps.

In this world of darkness, that is our assignment.

Our task is not to curse the darkness; it is to light a candle!

We are to poke holes in the darkness. We don’t have to look far to find the dark corners around us that need to see the light of God’s love shining into them. There is a verse from a mission hymn that calls us to see the world with the eyes of Isaiah, and especially through the eyes of Jesus:

The vision of a dying world is vast before our eyes.

We feel the heartbeat of its need, we hear its feeble cries.

Lord Jesus Christ, revive your church in this her crucial hour.

Lord Jesus Christ, renew your church with Spirit-given power.

—Anne Ortland, World Congress of Evangelism, Berlin, 1966

First we need to catch the vision of that dark and dying world. Look at the people who inhabit it.

Numbered among them are the lonely widows still in grief;

Those who are in seclusion due to COVID, along with those dealing with it’s affects.

Then there are those who have watched a prodigal son/daughter wander off into rebellion.

In that dark world are the homeless, the helpless, the drug addicts, the people in prison, those in despair, those dying without hope.

Let your mind catch the vision of that deep darkness; then hear God’s wake-up call: “You are the light of the world.” You are called to poke holes in that darkness. How?

By letting your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and bring praise to your Father in heaven. Surely one way to begin is by being ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you to anyone who asks.

Share your faith with a friend or a co-worker, someone in your neighborhood. That’s letting your light shine.

Here are some other ways:

Do your best to mend a quarrel.

Forgive an enemy.

Be gentle and patient with an angry person.

Express your appreciation to someone.

Speak kindly to a stranger.

Apologize when you are wrong.

Pray for someone who helped you when you hurt.

Give a soft answer even though you feel strongly.

Encourage an older person.

Live purely in an impure world.

Let your speech reflect your faith.

Make a sacrificial gift for the cause of world missions.

Reach out to help the homeless and the hungry.

All of those are ways to let your light shine. The world around us is dark indeed. The darkness is so deep that you can almost cut it with a knife. But you and I, by God’s grace, have seen the light. And you and I, by his power, can be the light. God help us to rise and shine. Amen.

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