December 11, 2005

Testifying to the Light

by Julianne Stokstad

A simple act can be extraordinarily significant, if we come with the intention of being present and aware of its importance. Saying thank you before a meal or lighting a candle can be profound prayers to God. This morning the Smith family lit a rose candle in our Advent wreath. The rose candle comes from an old custom providing a little relief from the austere and somber nature of Advent, a little joy in the darkness. It seems archaic, doesn't it? While the long nights bring the dark early this time of year, austerity is not a part of our culture, especially in the holidays. We seek joy and do all we can to keep away the gloom.

Isaiah's inspiring message for all people: the oppressed, the prisoners, those mourning and the brokenhearted brings hope and joy. There is so much in our news about prisoners; this scripture has brought Stanley Tookie Williams and all the prisoners just down the road in San Quentin as well as all the prisoners in secret prisons abroad to my mind.

It is hard for me to feel joy when I read the newspaper and think about injustices in our country. Don't get me wrong, I love my country but I am angry and sad about so much of what is happening. Yesterday, I read that the U.S. has become isolated at global warming talks as our top negotiator walked out of session on reducing emissions. I am furious because I care so much about sustainability and leaving a beautiful world for our children including my newly conceived grandchild. Mind you, I'm not naïve and I know there are no simple answers, but we all have to try to do something. I am beyond distress that our government defends the right to use torture and seems to have outsourced torture of some prisoners.

It is wrong. When I was a teacher, I thought deeply about how explain to students what was wrong, particularly why they should not cheat. For most students, it was just breaking of a rule, not a big deal. When I caught them, they would get a zero or at worst fail the class. I sought a better reason to give them besides doing what I told them. What I arrived at was quite simple but a basic truth. I told them they shouldn't cheat because when they do, they become a cheater. They are forever changed. In a like manner, if our government uses torture, then all Americans are tainted and to some degree implicated. That is a dark reality, indeed.

This morning we also heard of John the Baptist testifying to the coming light. John the Baptist always appears this Sunday right in the middle of Advent. Although he is found in all four gospels, in John we don't hear any details about his ministry. All we hear is that he is a witness, sent by God, to the coming light. Like a Zen monk pointing his finger to the moon, John points to Jesus, the light of the world. With this darkness surrounding us, we surely need this light now more than ever in our world, in our country and in our own lives.

John came as a witness testifying to the coming light. Do we really believe that light is possible for us? We modern folk are very cynical. We know about how unreliable witnesses can be. Our tendency is to doubt even as we hope for simple answers to our complex questions. We know we are manipulated by sophisticated psychological techniques. Yet we yearn for the real thing, for authentic experiences, for real joy that lasts. We yearn for the light of God's presence.

John's gospel has a starkly dualistic reality - of darkness and light. Heaven is afar and full of light and goodness while the world is below and a dark place. Taken to extreme, it can lead to a rejection of all material objects including our bodies and the earth as places of evil and darkness. To be sure, if unconsciously, most of us associate darkness with bad things---cold, despair, danger, death while light is associated with life, health, joy, and creation. Light is understood as a metaphor for God's illumination of our journey.

Jesus' birth story we celebrate at Christmas is the story of incarnation, of God's coming to be in human form. It is the story of light coming into the darkness. But as light comes into the darkness, the way I see things there also comes a great deal of shadow and of ambiguity. While Jesus was perfect light and good, the rest of us humans are neither all good nor all bad. There resides in even the worst criminal, a place of light and goodness and there resides even in the saints, a potential for doing great evil. We humans are a complex mixture of light and dark. There is much more in each of us than we present to each other or even admit to ourselves.

All religions say we can find this light of God in a variety of places. Many people find God's handiwork in nature. We can sometimes find it in community. An example I find here is that wonderful holy moment at the end of communion after we join hands and sing Shalom. Wise teachers can instruct us, but no teacher can actually give us this light. Each person must find the light of Christ for himself or herself. Another way it is revealed to us is through our self-knowledge. To become aware of our own darkness is to face it. Once we are aware of it, we can choose to move into the light, feeding the light and not the dark qualities within us.

The trouble is most of us aren't aware of who we really are. There is a story about an old duck named Charlie that lived in a farmyard pond. A woman, a singer, passed Charlie and he called to her, "quack, quack, quack." She answered him, "Why Charlie, how nice of you to sing me a song." After a while another visitor who was overweight came to the farm. Charlie called out, "quack, quack, quack." The visitor answered him, "Always quacking for more food---it's about time you got serious about your diet." That day, the last visitor was an intellectual and Charlie called out, "Quack, quack, quack." He responded, "Questions, always questions, how about some answers for a change?" Meanwhile to this day, Charlie is still quacking about anyone who comes by. Each of us sees the world, not as it is, but as we are.

As Meister Eckhart, 13th century Christian mystic, said, the coming of Christ doesn't matter at all, unless it is born within us this year. The coming Christ offers a new way to understand ourselves. We might just miss this light if we do not look deeply within ourselves.

I began this sermon speaking about my difficulty experiencing joy. We need to understand that our rejoicing this Advent not just as a superficial happiness but is a deep call to radical action towards the salvation and justice to which God is calling us all. We are all witnesses to the fact that God is still in the world and that transformation is still happening. The light is here.

I have my whole life never before moved out of passivity into action on a deep belief I have and now I must. Tomorrow night, I will join the Dominican sisters Interfaith Prayer Vigil to affirm in prayer the sacredness of all life. Simple acts can be quite profound.

Isaiah promises the transformation of our present reality. Are we open to that happening? I wonder how is our imagination limited? Is it just more and more of the same that we want? Let us look to our children and youth and I ask you what seeds are being planted in them by our witnessing? The fertile ground of their minds and hearts are the best reason I can think to witness to the light, to the best within us.

As Isaiah said centuries ago: For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing;

I say: Let us speak out and act against injustice and teach our children by our witness.

Isaiah said: I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

I say: Let us tell our children about the sacred covenant we have been entrusted with as Christians. Let us teach them about our faith.

Isaiah said: Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed.

I say: Our children are our descendants; let us witness what it means to live in the light of God. They are watching us.

Isaiah said: For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,

I say: What seeds has God planted in us?

So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations. Let us rejoice in our salvation as we nurture the seeds of compassion, justice and peace. Amen