Darkness
Good morning! And welcome to the first Sunday of Advent, 2020. About three weeks from now, we will experience the shortest day of the year. You all know that, right? The Winter Solstice—December 21: that’s the day with the least amount of sunlight, and the longest amount of darkness. So we’re almost there, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but this year it feels darker than usual. Is anyone else feeling that way? Like, when it’s 4:30 or 5:00 in the afternoon, I look outside and I say, “Man—the sun is down already!” I’m sure this happens every year, but for some reason, this year it just feels darker.
Maybe it has something to do with everything else going on in our world: the pandemic; the political anger; the isolation and loneliness so many people are feeling. A few months ago I mentioned a new report released by the CDC about the mental health of Americans. And this really shook me: The number of people with symptoms of anxiety disorder is more than three times higher than this time last year. Symptoms of depressive disorder are about four times higher than last year. So if you are like most people, you have some dark things happening in your life right now. Things that are discouraging and painful and confusing. So if you are feeling like that, right now, you are not alone.
So here’s my point: the darkness is real. And that would be completely depressing…except for one thing: when the darkness is the deepest, that’s when the light shines the brightest. Have you ever been shopping for a diamond? If you go to a jeweler, what kind of background do they normally put diamonds on? Black. Why? Because against that darkness, the diamond shines most brilliantly. Have you ever tried to look up and see stars in the daytime? Good luck, right? You can’t see any stars. But what happens at night? The stars come out…or do they? I’m pretty sure the stars are always there! (Scientists can check me on that). But you can only see them when it gets…what? Dark. When the darkness is the deepest, that’s when the light shines the brightest.
So as we begin the Advent season in this very strange year, here’s why I’m excited: I believe that because the darkness is so obvious, the light of Christ is going to shine brightly. Isn’t that an awesome thought? Some of you are thinking, “Oh, Christmas isn’t going to be the same this year; everything’s ruined.” No, no, no! You are going to notice and appreciate things about Christmas this year that you’ve never noticed before, because of the darkness. John chapter one is talking about the arrival of Christ, and it says “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” And this Christmas—if you open your eyes—you’re going to see that light more brightly than you’ve ever seen it before. And that’s what this Advent series is all about: Light in the Darkness.
So today we’re going to start about 700 years before the birth of Jesus, in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a Hebrew prophet who lived at a time of deep darkness. But he gives a vision of hope. So…let’s read the Scripture: Isaiah chapter one, the first twenty verses. Hear the Word of God…
1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
2 Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the LORD has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.”
4 Woe to the sinful nation, a people whose guilt is great, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption! They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him.
5 Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. 6 From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness— only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.
7 Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. 8 Daughter Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a cucumber field, like a city under siege. 9 Unless the LORD Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.
10 Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah! 11 “The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. 14 Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!
16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. 17 Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land; 20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the LORD has spoken. This is the Word of the Lord.
I see three main things that God was communicating to his people: Darkness is Growing, Religion isn’t Helping, and God is Inviting. Darkness is Growing, Religion isn’t Helping, and God is Inviting.
So, first: Darkness is Growing. When you start reading the book of Isaiah, it is bad news right from the start. It’s addressed to the nation of Judah—if you remember your Old Testament history, in about 900 BC, Israel divided into two nations: one kept the name “Israel,” and one was called “Judah.” So this was written to Judah, whose capital was Jerusalem. And this was clearly a dark time for Judah. Verse 6: From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores… Apparently, they had been invaded and attacked by a foreign nation, and they were just reeling from it. Verse 7 says Your country is desolate, your cities burned with fire; your fields are being stripped by foreigners right before you, laid waste as when overthrown by strangers. So just like we look around and we see the devastation of packed ICUs,
and shootings, and riots, and racial unrest, and heroin addiction, and broken marriages, the people of Judah looked around and saw chaos all around them.
And the obvious question is: why? Why was this happening to them? We still ask that question all the time, don’t we? Why would all these dark things be happening in our world? I mean, is it just random, or is there a cause? And Isaiah has a very blunt explanation—look at the second part of verse 4: They have forsaken the LORD; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on him. At the most basic level, the darkness in the world is a spiritual issue. Look at that last phrase: they “turned their backs on him.” When we see darkness in our world, the most basic cause is that people have turned their backs on God.
He talks about this same concept up in verse 3: The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.” In other words, even dumb animals know who their master is. They instinctively have a sense of trust and dependence on their master. But God says, “My people don’t even have that basic sense of trust and dependence on me. They’ve drifted that far away from me.” And when a person or a family or a society drifts away from God, listen: that distance will be filled by darkness. That’s what Judah was experiencing in very painful ways, and I don’t think we are much different.
So you would think the solution would be to get more religious! Right? But the reality is, Isaiah was writing to some of the most religious people who ever lived. Which brings us to the second point: Religion Isn’t Helping. The people of Judah couldn’t understand how Isaiah could say they had turned their backs on God—because they felt like they were doing everything God had asked them to do. It says they were bringing sacrifices to the temple…they were burning incense…they were praying…they were observing the Sabbath Day and the other religious holidays. They were devoutly religious!
And yet…God was clearly not happy. Verse 13: Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—I cannot bear your worthless assemblies. So Isaiah’s message to the people was this: “Despite all your religion, God is disgusted with you.” Why? I mean, isn’t that what God wants—for us to be devout, religious people? Apparently not. Listen to what God says at the end of verse 15: When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. (And here’s why…) Your hands are full of blood! In other words, what they were saying in their worship in the temple didn’t match up with how they were living outside the temple. They thought God would be satisfied as long as they did the religious rituals; but God was just as interested—in fact, God was more interested—in how they lived in their actual lives.
Jesus talked about this all the time. In Matthew 15:8, Jesus was addressing the Jewish religious leaders of 1st century Israel, and look what he says: “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” That’s exactly what Isaiah said about the people of Judah, right? In fact, Jesus was actually quoting from Isaiah, when he said that, and applying it to his time. And we need to hear those words, too. Listen: it is very possible to attend church; to pray prayers; to listen to Christian radio; to read the Bible; to give generous offerings…to post pictures of sunsets with Bible verses on our Facebook and Instagram page…and still God could say, “You’ve turned your back on me. Your heart is far from me.” It’s called hypocrisy. Speaking words that aren’t aligned with our lives.
And you know what? It’s not just religious people who are guilty of that. A few years ago, there was a movement called “Save Darfur.” Remember that? Darfur is a region of Sudan, and there were
terrible atrocities going on there, so they developed a Facebook page called “Save Darfur,” and over a million people liked the page, indicating that they cared. So there was a researcher from UNC Chapel Hill, who wanted to find out how social media campaigns like that actually help. To his surprise, he discovered that 99.8% of the people who liked the page had never donated a penny to the cause. Isn’t that amazing? And he said the problem is, supporting things on social media makes you look good to your friends, but it doesn’t cost you anything. And therefore, it doesn’t do much good. These people honor me with their “likes,” (*click*), but their hearts are far from me.
So God says, “I don’t want your words; I don’t want your Facebook likes; those are cheap. I want your love. I want your heart. I want you.” And here’s where it gets really interesting: God says the condition of your heart is actually revealed by something very specific. Look at verse 17—this is how God defines a heart that’s aligned with His heart: Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. See, we don’t have the first clue about God until we realize that He is passionate about the oppressed…the fatherless…the widow. God loves all people, but he has a special place in His heart for people who are culturally and socially weak. God hates it when wealthier towns get more attention and more investment by the government than poor towns. God hates it when fatherless kids in Paterson and Newark and Camden go through their childhood without the affirmation and the discipline of a dad. Toward the beginning of the pandemic I was talking with our friend from New City Kids, Jeremy Jerschina. And I asked him, “How are the elementary school kids in Paterson handling this? I know in my town, the kids are doing school online, and that’s really been challenging.” He said, “Well, in Paterson, the kids have to go to the school once a week and pick up a packet—an actual paper packet of assignments to work on during the week. I said, “They don’t have online instruction?” And he said, “So many of these families don’t even have computers, or they don’t have good internet. So they get packets.” That broke my heart, and it breaks God’s heart too.
Look at verse 17 again, and notice the verbs: Defend them. Take up their cause. Plead their case. Those are all actions, right? So God was saying to the people of Judah, “You come to the temple, and you do the religious stuff. But you’ve got blood on your hands! Because you’re guilty of neglecting the very people I’m most concerned about! How can you worship me, and say how much you love me, when you’re ignoring the very things I’m most interested in?”
A few years ago, Christopher Hitchens wrote a book called God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. And in the book, he speaks for a growing number of people who believe that the reason for the darkness in the world is religion. So he gives examples of how religion has caused oppression and violence and racism and wars. Religion is the problem! More and more people believe that. And you know what? They’re right. If you define religion the way the people of Judah were practicing it—ceremonies and rituals and going through the motions—if that’s how you define religion, then religion does poison everything! It is making the world a darker place.
See, here’s why—here’s what will happen: when I practice that kind of religion, I will start to feel superior to people who aren’t like me. In extreme forms that might look like Jihad—kill all the infidels! But we have our own ways of doing this. We can easily begin to look down on others who aren’t from our religious tribe. Right? So instead of caring for people and serving people—especially the weak and marginalized people that God feels so strongly about—religion makes me self-righteous and self-absorbed. And the more self-righteous and self-absorbed people there are, the darker the world will be.
Thankfully, in this opening chapter of Isaiah, God isn’t just confronting the people with their hypocrisy; God is Inviting them to something different. Look at verse 18: “Come now, let us settle
the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” That sounds hopeful, doesn’t it? That despite the terrible darkness around them, which was caused by them turning their backs on God—despite that—God wanted to forgive them. These are words of hope.
So here’s the invitation—here’s what the prophet was calling the people to do—verse 19: If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the good things of the land. “If you are willing and obedient.” Willing and obedient…to what? To come to the temple and say prayers? No; they were already doing that. He’s talking about a willingness to care for the oppressed and the orphan and the widow the way that God cares about them. Right? He’s not calling them to stop coming to the temple. He’s calling them to bring alignment between the faith they profess and the life they live.
This makes so much sense, doesn’t it? Hypocrisy is bad; integrity is good. We should practice what we preach. Those who are more blessed should take care of those who have less. It all makes so much sense. You know what the problem is? It’s hard to live this out! Even if we agree on paper that it’s good, there’s something in us that pulls us back to apathy and self-absorption. See, the residents of Judah in the 7th century BC weren’t such horrible people; they were actually a lot like us. And we humans have a hard time living the way we should. Let’s just admit that.
And that’s why this next part is so important: when you read Isaiah, God doesn’t just call us to something; he prepares us for Someone. Let me say that again: 700 years before Christ, God wasn’t just calling people to something, he was preparing them for Someone. Someone who would come, and not just tell us how to live, but would actually change us on the inside so we would have the power to live that way.
A few chapters later, in Isaiah chapter 7, it says, “The virgin will conceive, and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (which means God with us).” In chapter 9 it says that the people walking in darkness are going to see a great light, and on those living in the land of the shadow of death (I think that’s talking about us!), a light will dawn. See, that’s what the book of Isaiah is all about: yes, there’s a lot of darkness around us, but the Light is coming.
And over the next few weeks, we’re going to talk more about that light. But let’s just think for a minute about how knowing Jesus enables us to bring light into this dark world. In fact, let’s think specifically about the kinds of people that Isaiah mentioned in this chapter—remember who they were? He said, “You’re not caring for the oppressed, the fatherless, and widows.” I want to ask you to do something: would you write those three words down? If you have your phone, make a note on your phone. Or write it on a piece of paper. Just those three words: oppressed, fatherless, widows. Keep that list close to you this week.
When you look at the life of Jesus, isn’t this exactly the kind of people he spent his time with? Jesus didn’t hang out much with the rich and powerful and influential. He preferred poor fishermen and despised tax collectors and disgraced divorcees and sick widows. So let’s allow Jesus to be our example. This Christmas, let’s open our eyes to the oppressed and the widows and the fatherless around us. Because they’re all around us. Let’s notice them and value them like Jesus did.
But Jesus isn’t just our example; he’s also our empowerment. He actually gives us the inner power to live the kind of life that Isaiah called the people to live. See, the ultimate reason Jesus came was to go to the cross and pay for our sins. And that’s a humbling thing. The fact that we need a Savior. See, religion makes us proud and self-righteous. But the gospel makes us more humble, and more compassionate and more sacrificial. It moves us to treat others the way God has treated us. The gospel empowers us to truly love the oppressed and the widows and the fatherless around us.
Two years ago, the Nobel Peace Prize was given to a doctor from the Congo named Denis Mukwege. He has dedicated his career to treating victims of rape, and over the past twenty years he’s treated tens of thousands of women, many of whom were gang-raped by militants in the midst of his country’s war. Dr. Mukwege is the son of a pastor, and he was inspired to become a doctor after traveling around with his father to pray for the sick—he felt like God wanted to use him to help answer his father’s prayers. And I want you to hear what he said, because it’s so similar to what Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter one: “As long as our faith is defined by theory and not connected with practical realities, we shall not be able to fulfil the mission entrusted to us by Christ. If we are Christ's, we have no choice but to be alongside the weak, the wounded, the refugees and women suffering discrimination.” What an awesome example of shining light in the darkness, in the name of Christ.
So this week, would you carry that little list with you? Oppressed, fatherless, widows. For those people, the world can be a very dark place. So carry that list with you, and pray about it. How might God be calling you to bring the light of Christ into their darkness?
As a church, we’re working hard to provide opportunities to do this…Boxes of Love…Street Hope Alive…Operation Christmas Child…NCK care packages at Christmas Village. But I want to challenge you to take it personally as well. How is God calling you to bring light into the darkness this Christmas?
During this Advent season, let’s dream together about how we can so align ourselves with the heart of God, that the world will become a brighter place. Amen?
