Date: Epiphany 3a
Text: Matthew 4:12-23
Theme: Light in the Darkness

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the great German poet and playwright, was an agnostic. He wasn't an atheist. He simply couldn't decide what to believe. As he grew older he lived in constant fear and insecurity. His indecision affected his whole life and even his death. As Goethe lay on his death bed his final words were, "more light." The people attending him lit a lamp so there was light in the darkened room but Goethe again said, "more light." The people frantically ran to the windows and pulled up all the shades so that the bright sunlight flooded the room but even this didn't satisfy the old man as he again repeated, "more light."

As the darkness of death enshrouded him, Goethe craved light; but the light he craved was not physical; it was the spiritual light that floods the soul and brings us from this life into the next. This problem is not unique to Goethe; it is not even unique to agnostics and atheists; it is a problem that can even afflict believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. More light; I need more light; I need the light of Christ to flood the darkness of my despair; I need the light of Christ to shine in the darkness of my fear; I need the light of Christ to shine in the darkness of my sin; I need light; I need the light of Christ to shine in my life.

Today's Gospel lesson tells us of the light, the light of Christ that shines in the darkness of our despair, that shines in the darkness of our fears, that shines in the darkness of our sins, the light that shines in our darkness and chases away the fear and the foreboding that strike and terrorize us. This light is our Lord Jesus Christ.

The light of Christ shines in our despair. The darkness of despair is horrible. Despair is the loss of all hope. The shades of despair close around us and snuff out any hope that we might have. My most despairing moment was the time that the doctors told me that my first wife was dying and there was absolutely nothing they could do about it. When you slip into the shadow of that despair it's like a sledge hammer hitting you square in the face. Your only reaction is to go into denial and yell, "No, no, this can't be true." And you turn and try to run, to run away. But you can't because despair has you in its grip and it won't let you go.

The people in Isaiah's day lived with the reality of this despair. Today's Old Testament lesson occurred in the historical context of Tiglath Pileser invading the region of the Galilee, conquering it, destroying it, and sending its inhabitants into exile, an exile from which they would never return.

God's hand of judgement turned against Israel because Israel had abandoned its loyalty to Yahweh and now they paid the price. The people were conquered; the people were uprooted; the people lost all hope of ever returning home. But Isaiah, by inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, promises that the people living in darkness will see a great light; on those living in the shadow of despair a light will shine. And Matthew, by inspiration of the same Spirit, tells us that Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. He is the light of whom Isaiah spoke.

In the midst of the darkness of our despair, in the midst of the loss of all hope, Matthew also proclaims to us that the light shines in our darkness, our own personal darkness of hopelessness and despair. When all our hope runs out; when all our earthly resources are depleted; when there is no hope at all, St. Matthew promises that our light still shines; it shines in the midst of our despair.

When we have no hope our God comes to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth and fills us with light of his presence. He fills us with the light of the knowledge that our God is with us and he will never leave us. The light shines in the darkness of our lives. It shines in the darkness of our lives with the Good News that our God is with us. We join our voices with that of Micah the prophet who proclaimed, "But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Do not rejoice over me, o my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the Lord is a light for me"!

This is the light that breaks into the darkness of our fear. Fear is a horrible feeling; it is horrible because we can't put our finger on exactly what scares us. We now live in a time of fear and anxiety. In the past week AT and T announced that they would lay off 40 thousand workers. All day long the radio told of AT and T employees going to work in fear for they did not know who would lose their jobs. We live with the reality of that fear day to day. It is the fear of the unknown. It is the fear of the future. Will my company down size? if it does will I have my job? It is the fear of the reality that my company has down sized and I am the one who lost my job. Who wants to hire me at my age? Will I ever have a job again? The fear and anxiety gnaw at us; and this is the worst type of fear because the threat is ever before us and we don't know if and how it will work out. The darkness of fear is real; it enshrouds us; it holds us in its grasp and will not let go. It is real because the future is uncertain. Peter, James and John must have felt some of this fear as our Lord called them to follow him. They must have felt this fear as they left their safe, secure and successful businesses and followed him, followed him where ever he went. But they laid aside their fears; they laid aside their anxieties; they laid aside their apprehensions and they followed their Lord, they followed their Master.

In our time of fear and apprehension we too follow our Lord and Master. We follow him knowing that God's promise in Isaiah 54 is true, "`For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but my lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and my covenant peace will not be shaken,' says the Lord who has compassion on you."

We may not be able to conquer our fear but we sure can handle it; we can handle it and not let it turn into despair. We can do this by remembering our God and his promise; our God is with us in our fear; he is with us and won't leave us; he is with us and he keeps us; he is with us and always will be. When we fear what lies ahead, when the unknown beckons, when uncertainty reigns, remember your God and his promise to stay with you and never leave you. Remember Paul's promise in Romans 3, "What shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? In all of these things we are more than conquerors in him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither angels, nor archangels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation shall separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord."

The light of our Lord's presence shines; it shines in our lives and chases away the fear, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the future, for we know that our God goes with us into the unknown. He goes with us into the future. We do not go alone. Our God goes with us and the light of his presence dispels the gloom; it comforts us in our uncertainty and strengthens us when we wonder and question whether God is with us; when we wonder whether God really loves us.

The light of Christ's presence shines in our lives. It shines in our lives because we know that our God loves us. We know that our God loves us because he entered our world and died on the cross in order to forgive all of our sins.

This past week the enormity of God's love increased a billion fold as I looked at some of the pictures from the Hubble Telescope. With that telescope we now know that there are millions, if not billions, of galaxies in our universe and all of those galaxies have billions of stars, and many of those stars have planets. In this wide, vast, multi-faceted universe my God cares about me. He cares about me as an individual; he cares about me as a singular person; he care so much that he willingly laid aside his godly might and power to become truly human to die on the cross for my sins. That is the depth of God's love for me.

And that love shines in my life through the waters of holy baptism. For it was in baptism that God came to me personally and entered in a covenant of grace with me. In the waters of baptism God made me a promise, "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." My God continually renews that covenant with me in the Sacrament of his body and blood where he comes to me to reassure me that I belong to him and that the sacrifice he made on the cross he made for me--"given for you, shed for you, for the forgiveness of your sins."

The light shines in my life as God comes to me in his holy Word, the Bible. He comes in and through his Word to strengthen my faith in him when the darkness of doubt and unbelief close in around me. My God comes to me and assures me that he is with me and won't leave me in darkness and despair.

"More light. More light." So cried Goethe. And with the Psalmist this morning we proclaim, "The Lord is my light and my salvation--whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid?" The people walking in darkness have indeed seen a great light. We have seen the great light of God's love and presence given to us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

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