January 5, 2020: Shine!
January 5, 2020 Rev. Rhonda Blevins, DMIN
Shine!
Isaiah 60:1-6
Arise, shine; for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look around;
they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
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I invite you to take a moment and look at the beautiful stained-glass windows that adorn our sanctuary. The eastward-facing windows are especially dazzling in the morning time—I’ve mentioned before how I marvel at the kaleidoscope of colors that land in different places in the sanctuary depending on the time of year, the time of day, and the weather patterns.
But have you ever been in here at night? If you only came into our sanctuary in the nighttime, you would likely find the stained-glass windows unremarkable. As it turns out, without light shining through the windows, you would never know their beauty.
Light.
Light is a metaphor Jesus often used. In the book of John we read of Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world.” (Jn 8:12) Father Richard Rohr suggests that “light is perhaps the best metaphor for Christ or God.”[1]
In today’s scripture passage from Isaiah, we find the Hebrew people having returned from exile in Babylon to a decimated Jerusalem, but they are not without hope. “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Like the sun rising in the east, shining light though these stained-glass windows, the prophet says the glory of the Lord will rise:
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you.
The world is like a stained-glass window in the black of night. It needs light to bring out its colors.
But before we go too far thinking about light, let’s first think about darkness. Martin Luther King Jr., in his final speech before his assassination, pointed out, “Only when it
is dark enough can you see the stars.”[2]
As bearers of the light of Christ, we are called to go into the dark places, bearing the Christ light. Sometimes we find ourselves in dark places we didn’t choose. Illness, relationship troubles, grief, loneliness, disappointment—dark places few of us choose. When we find ourselves there, we must remember that we bear the light of Christ in the dark places in our own lives as well as the lives of others.
Darkness.
There’s a huge place on earth called the “aphotic zone.” “Aphotic” meaning “without light.” The aphotic zone is 1,000 meters beneath the surface of the ocean. No light can penetrate that deep, so the creatures living there make their own light. They are bioluminescent. Marine biologists estimate that 80-90 percent of deep-sea creatures make their own light.
Did you know that humans are bioluminescent as well? Did you know that we create light? That we emanate light? All the time, 24-7, everywhere we go. We literally shine. All of God’s living creatures do. In 2009, a team of Japanese scientists discovered this.[3] The human body has internal chemical reactions going on constantly, emitting photons (light) but at a wavelength 1,000 times weaker than the human eye can perceive. The group of scientists found a way to capture this luminosity on a high-powered camera, and interestingly, the places on our bodies emanating the greatest light are different than the places emanating the greatest heat, which can be seen with thermo-imaging. Fascinating! You shine! Literally!
You may have heard of a man named Thomas Merton. He was a quite well-known modern mystic and Trappist monk. He wrote over 70 books, several considered among the great spiritual writings of our day. In one of his books, Merton recounts an encounter that forever changed him. I want to read to you what he wrote:
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness . . . This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.[4]
Merton saw the people literally shining. It changed him forever.
And I see you shining:
· I see how you welcome people with open arms into the church. Dr. Linda Pointer, our interim director of music coming into the church having served dozens of churches, remarked how remarkably un-cliquish you are. You shine the light of Christ’s welcome so brightly!
· I see how hard you work for the “least of these”—raising money through the Beachwalk to support victims of domestic violence and people facing food insecurity. You shine the light of Christ’s compassion so brightly!
· I see how eager you are to give up a Saturday each November to package meals for men, women, and children in some other part of the world through our Rise Against Hunger event. You shine the light of Christ’s care so brightly!
· I see how you generously support the work of this church, so that our message of hope, peace, joy and love can spread into the hearts of lives of people in this community and beyond. You shine the light of Christ’s abundance so brightly!
· I see how you care for one another—how you take care of each other in times of disappointment and crisis. You shine the light of Christ’s fellowship so brightly!
I could go on. The Christ-light shining through each person here is bright! Some of you are cool green, some are red-hot! Some of you are a peaceful blue, and some are a joyful yellow. And when you come together . . . when you live into your calling as the church . . . when you gather as a called community . . . YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RADIANT! Like the colors in a stained-glass window, made more beautiful by the diversity of size, shape, and color.
Chapel by the Sea, I’m not sure you realize how powerful you can be together. One little photon by itself can’t do much, but when it joins other photons all going the same direction, you know what that’s called? That’s called a laser. Think about the power and usefulness of laser light. Example: Has anyone here had laser surgery? The power of light to heal!
Today, on this first Sunday of a new year, I’ve got two questions for you—perhaps these questions can help illumine your path for the year ahead. Question number one: “What breaks your heart?” What breaks your heart will be different for you than for me. For some of you, your heart breaks for those dealing with crippling addiction—for others, animal cruelty. For some of you, your heart breaks when you think about the plight of refugees—for others, childhood lymphoma. What breaks your heart?
When you know the answer to that question, here’s the follow up: “What are you going to do about it?”
Chapel, because we carry the light of Christ, we have the power to “Arise, shine” the light of Christ into the dark places that break your heart. You can be a star in someone else’s darkness. Together, we can shine even more brightly.
If each of us could find the courage to go into the dark places to which we are called, think about the laser-like power we can have in the year ahead. That’s my great hope for Chapel by the Sea in 2020 . . . this church so full of light . . . so blessed, so poised for good work. That we would go bravely into the darkness and shine! Will you join me, and shine your green, your red, your blue, your yellow, and be the ABSOLUTELY RADIANT people of God you already are?
It’s 2020. A new year. A new decade. Full of possibility. Brimming with opportunity. What breaks your heart? What are you going to do about it?
Arise! Shine! I can’t wait to see how beautiful the light shining through you in the year ahead.
[1] Richard Rohr, “From Darkness to Light,” https://cac.org/from-darkness-to-light-2019-04-25/
[2] Martin Luther King, Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” https://www.afscme.org/union/history/mlk/ive-been-to-the-mountaintop-by-dr-martin-luther-king-jr
[3] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/phenomena/2009/07/20/photographing-the-glow-of-the-human-body/
[4] Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.