"The Light Shines in the Darkness.."

 Through the years I have taken great comfort in the word’s of Isaiah:  “A light shine in the darkness and the darkness has not over come it.”

     

There is a truth in those words that helps me have hope in the impossible -- in the darkest of times.

In my eighty some years I have live through the Korean War, Vietnam war, the destruction of divorce, our unfortunate four years with a destructive president in our own country, and now the Russian atrocity in the Ukraine.

In all the darkness I have held close to the truth of this Light that overcomes the evil that lurks in an otherwise good world.  This morning I read Isaiah 42:1-9, the assigned reading for the Monday of Holy Week.

And my mind is struggling with all kinds of wondering.

^{Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
   my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching.} 

^{5 Thus says God, the Lord,
   who created the heavens and stretched them out,
   who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people upon it
   and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
   I have taken you by the hand and kept you;
I have given you as a covenant to the people,
   a light to the nations,
7   to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
   from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord, that is my name;
   my glory I give to no other,
   nor my praise to idols.
9 See, the former things have come to pass,
   and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth,
   I tell you of them.}

The one who came to transform the world did not speak against the powers to be.  He didn’t cry out in opposition.

^{I have put my spirit upon him;
   he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2 He will not cry or lift up his voice,
   or make it heard in the street;
3 a bruised reed he will not break,
   and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
   he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4 He will not grow faint or be crushed
   until he has established justice in the earth;
   and the coastlands wait for his teaching.}

I read that passages and thought — how can anyone bring justice?

And then I remembered  how Jesus stood silent, before Pilate, when asked to defend his case.  He said nothing to change his fate.

As Willian Goettler writes: ".... Jesus, the one who would not cry out with a warrior's call, the one who would not grow impatient with a people who failed to understand, the one who would refuse to harm those he knew to be weak....the Servant will be a witness, a light, to the nations. Light to a people who have grown accustomed to the gloom...." (p. 187 Feasting on the Word Year C, volume 2)

And now I sit silent wondering about it all and how it is all suppose to work. 

Does the Light shine thorough the darkness of awful? 

And how much good does that light do in the midst of power like Russian troops who disregard any form of human need?

^{9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.} 

Has God done a "new thing?"

Craziness is messing with my faith here.

Then I stopped my crazy making mind and tried to look away from larger picture.  A picture that doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of Light shining through all the crap going on in our world today -- a truth that cannot be ignored

I am thinking, I -- we -- need to stop looking at the larger world view and start noticing the way God is working in the more ordinary daily picture.  

About all of those men women and children who bravely face the terror occurring in their country.  The strength God has given them to fight back.

I am thinking about all of those silent servants that move about our world doing silent kindnesses without notice.

Or the small tiny way that justice happens without riots and loud yelling on the TV.

I am thinking about strangers, sitting around the dinner table, sharing a meal, having Communion together; then talking about their faith in an easy comfortable  manner.  In some way brave enough to share their hope and confessions.

All little ways that ordinary people share the Light with each other.

And, know the Spirit's Light still moves all these centuries later. 

It is just that we aren't able to perceive how God is moving about is such awful.