But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
2 The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation,
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as people exult when dividing plunder.
4 For the yoke of their burden,
and the bar across their shoulders,
the rod of their oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
Year A
Third Sunday of Epiphany
February 22, 2017
Cross~Wind
Title: Light Late in Life
Introducing the passage
We have a portion of scripture here
from the Old Testament that comes from the time of Isaiah and Ahaz. We see part
of the story of Ahaz related in II Kings 16 and even Hosea 5-6. Hosea is well
aware that the Lord is using Judah to punish the sins of Israel. Isaiah
composed this poem at the beginning of a series of disastrous political and
military moves that took Judah from one precarious position to another. Ahaz
has aligned himself with the Assyrian king by taking precious stones and
carvings from the temple and offering them as tribute to the Assyrian king. He
removed a portion of the altar in the Temple to make room for an Assyrian
image. All of this was the result of worsening relations with the king of the
northern tribes, Israel, and with Damascus. He received the help he wanted from
Assyria. Yet, Assyria would eventually turn on him and invade. The picture is
bleak for Judah. Ahaz will die within the next few years. He will not receive
the typical burial with his ancestors, the descendants of David. Yet, in
response to the first invasion of Judah in 733 BC, Isaiah composed these words
of future hope and deliverance. His words offer new hope with a new Davidic
ruler after Ahaz. This passage promises a royal savior. It promises an heir to
the throne from David who will bring salvation and greatness to Israel. Consistent
with that theme, Matthew 4:14-16 quotes this passage. The point Matthew makes
is a good one. As Jesus begins his ministry in the region surrounding Galilee,
the territory that once belonged to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, he
fulfills the hope we find in the prophecy of Isaiah. Jesus also came in dark
times for the Jewish people, a time of Roman occupation and internal division. Yet,
hope came in the person of Jesus. He would offer light in the form of preaching
the nearness of the rule of God. He called some disciples to be with him.
Introduction
I am reflecting upon the image of the
light dawning on the lives of people. I have shared with you before that the
light dawned upon me at an early time in my life. Looking back, growing up in a
home dominated by an alcoholic father created confusion. I have come across
some stories in which light dawned upon the lives of people when times are
dark. The light may dawn late in life and even at the end of life. Most famously,
the light dawned with one of the thieves upon the cross. When the light comes,
it is always beautiful.
I came across an article about
Christopher Hitchens. He died in 2011. Before then, he was a well-known atheist.
He would state his opinion that the world would be better without religious people.
Yet, Larry Taunton, one who defends Christianity from such attacks, spent some
time with him toward the end of his life. He found Hitchens to be personable
and open to conversation on a personal basis. It seems unlikely that he had
what people refer to as a deathbed conversion, but I would celebrate if it
happened. Whenever the light dawns upon the life of a person, we can celebrate.[1]
Another man was a professor at
Emory University. Along with the rest of his colleagues, he was an atheist. He hosted
a visiting speaker. His atheism eventually came up. She said she used to be an
atheist, but that she converted late in life. That was the first time he heard
of a conversion moving that direction. He had always assumed atheism was an
advance. Her testimony made him re-think his position.
As the experiences piled up, the
atheists I had joined no longer sounded so disinterested and broad-minded. I
had accumulated several classic and contemporary statements of nonbelief, and
as I perused them again, they seemed more and more to contract life, not expand
it. I started to notice that they lacked the whisper of self-doubt that is more
or less necessary to both sound religious and irreligious belief.[2]
Over time, the light dawned in his
life.
Application
"Light" seems the right
word for all of this, for the light that God turns on is a means for us to
discern -- to "see" -- what is real
and true. Little wonder, then, that Matthew turned to this passage to describe
the impact of Jesus upon life in Galilee and in the lives of those who would
become disciples. For Isaiah and Matthew the “light” is the saving action of
God.
Christian preaching and teaching
makes a bold claim. It claims to point people to the meaning and purpose of
their lives. It attempts to help us see reality. In Christian preaching and
teaching, Christ is the center of reality. Some of us embrace that claim early
in our lives and live it out. It might even appear that they live it out
easily, although I doubt that is the case for anyone. Some of us embrace that
claim early in our lives but at some point reject it. Many of us have family
and friends who come to mind right now. I was talking with one youth pastor who
had his young people write on the wall in the youth room their names. He could
point to persons who signed their names ten or fifteen years ago. He could also
point to the young people who had embraced the faith in High School, but who
had now become atheists. It made him reflect upon what he was doing. The story he
could tell is the one we usually hear, namely, that of the movement from
believing to atheism. Yet, I want us to ponder for a moment the adult who moves
from atheism to faith.
Why does it take so long for the
light to dawn for some of us?
Perhaps we need to have enough life experience to become aware of the
darkness before we grasp the need for the light.
It is significant that some people
who have first come to Christ in full adulthood have done so while struggling
with certain darkness in their lives.
For example, Joy Davidman (d.
1960), an American poet and writer who eventually became the wife of C.S.
Lewis, was initially an atheist. After her first marriage broke down, her
resistance to God broke down:
"For the first time my pride was
forced to admit that I was not, after all, 'the master of my fate'... All my
defenses -- all the walls of arrogance and cocksureness and self-love behind
which I had hid from God -- went down momentarily -- and God came in."
Let us consider Mortimer J. Adler (d.
2001), an American philosopher, educator and popular author in making
philosophy understandable to the rest of us. He was agnostic for most of his
life and even described himself as a "pagan." During an illness,
however, he sought solace in prayer and accepted the grace of God. He professed
his belief "not just in the God my reason so stoutly affirms ... but the
God ... on whose grace and love I now joyfully rely." 
Sally Read, raised in an atheist
home, became a poet. She did not give God much thought until mid-life. Literary
critics considered her a rising star in the poetry world. She had been a psychiatric
nurse. She was pondering some psychiatric patients she interviewed when she
started wondering about the soul. She talked with a priest. She came to think
of God as the poet of the world and God was using her as an instrument in this
world. She then looked at the priest and said he would not convert her. His response
was that he could not convert her, but Christ could. A 
On the other hand, think of
Christopher Hitchens' brother Peter, who is an English journalist and author,
and whom people know in the United Kingdom as well as his brother was here in
the United States. He, too, was an unbeliever in his youth and early adulthood.
In fact, he says that at age 15, he actually set fire to a Bible his parents
had given him. Nevertheless, he explains that later, as he advanced in his
career, he lost his faith in politics and his trust in ambition and he became
fearfully aware of the inevitability of his own death. He says, "I was
urgently in need of something else on which to build the rest of my life."
Somehow, in that mood, he "rediscovered
Christmas," which, he says, he had "pretended to dislike for many
years," and he attended a carol service. He began to be aware of the
light.
He was also engaged to be married.
Something moved him to choose to have his wedding in a church service instead of
a civil ceremony. Of that he says,
"I can certainly recall the way
the words of the Church of England's marriage service, at Saint Bride's in
London, awakened thoughts in me that I had long suppressed. I was entering into
my inheritance, as a Christian Englishman, as a man and as a human being. It
was the first properly grown-up thing that I had ever done."
Conclusion
Here is the point. Sometimes, the
darkness of our own struggles creates a place where we become aware of the
light of God.
We have people here on who light
dawned late in life. Their testimony often includes the experience of confusion
that comes when stumbling around in darkness. Certainly not everyone who
chooses God and embraces Christ does so from a point of need or darkness, but
many do. It supports the truth of what Isaiah said so many centuries ago, and
Matthew said found fulfillment in Jesus Christ: "The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who
lived in a land of deep darkness -- on them light has shined."
So what is the point for those of
us who are already walking in the light of God?
First, let us be clear about the Christian mission and
message.
Second, atheists remind us to keep
Christ closely connected to real life.
Third, atheists also teach us to
offer thoughtful answers to life's
difficult questions.
Fourth, atheists also push us to
take the Bible seriously and invite
people to follow Jesus.
Once there was a grandmother,
struggling with a life-threatening illness, who had her little granddaughter
with her one Christmas. The granddaughter watched her as she lit a candle and
placed it in the window. "Grandma, why do we light candles on
Christmas?" "We light candles on Christmas, my dear, to tell the
darkness we beg to differ."
God has plenty of light for us as
we face our darkness.
Some people prefer to walk in
darkness.
God holds on to us, even when we
let go. God keeps drawing us and pursuing us.
Most importantly, followers of
Jesus need to reflect the light of Christ in the world so that others may see
it.
[Isaiah 9:1 is likely a post-exilic promise.]
But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
Isaiah 9:2-7 is a further sign for Ahaz. We see part of the story
related in II Kings 16 and even Hosea 5-6. Hosea is well aware that the Lord is
using Judah to the sins of Israel. Isaiah composed the poem at the beginning of
a series of disastrous political and military moves that took Judah from one
precarious position to another. Ahaz has aligned himself with the Assyrian king
by taking precious stones and carvings from the temple and offering them as
tribute to the king. He removed a portion of the altar in the Temple to make
room for an Assyrian image. All of this was the result of worsening relations
with the king of the northern tribes, Israel, and with Damascus. He received
the help he wanted from Assyria. Yet, Assyria would eventually turn on him and
invade. The picture is bleak for Judah. Ahaz will die within the next few years.
He will not receive the typical burial with his ancestors, the descendants of
David. Yet, in response to the first invasion of Judah in 733 BC, Isaiah
composed these words of future hope and deliverance. It offers new hope with a
new Davidic ruler after Ahaz. This passage promises a royal savior. It promises
an heir to the throne from David who will bring salvation and greatness to
Israel. Pannenberg points out that while even in the period sacral kingship the
Lord was the king, as Isaiah 6 makes clear, we see here that Isaiah regarded
the successor to Ahaz as the representative of divine rule. [3] Matthew 4:14-16 quotes this passage. The point
he makes is a good one. As Jesus begins his ministry in the region surrounding
Galilee, the territory that once belonged to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali,
he fulfills the hope we find here. Jesus also came in dark times for the Jewish
people, a time of Roman occupation and internal division. Yet, hope came in the
person of Jesus. He would offer light in the form of preaching the nearness of
the rule of God. He called some disciples to be with him.
Isaiah 9:2-4 (NRSV)
[Verses 2-3 are a general expression of joy.]
2 The people who walked in darkness
[These are the prophet’s compatriots, fellow Israelites — “both houses of Israel,” 8:14, collectively called “this people, 8:11, who have metaphorically lost their way, as evidenced by their desire for both forbidden religious practices and entangling foreign arrangements.]
have
seen a great light;
those
who lived in a land of deep darkness—
[The Hebrew word translated “deep darkness”
means literally “death-shadow,” Heb. tsalmaweth, whose first half, “shadow” is
from the same root as the word “image” as in “image and likeness of God,”
Genesis 1:26, and whose second half is from the root meaning “death,”
personified in the god Mot/Death, as in Job 18:13. Tsalmaweth conveys a fuller
notion of darkness than simply the absence of light; death-darkness includes a
palpable malevolence that is frightening in a way that the night’s darkness for
sleep is not.]
on
them light [referring
to the saving action of God] has shined.
3 You have multiplied the nation,
you
have increased its joy;
they
rejoice before you
as
with joy at the harvest,
as
people exult when dividing plunder.
[Ahaz
jeopardized the Davidic dynasty. A new king gives rise to new hopes. The
central thrust of the message of Isaiah is that Israel’s rulers need to remain
firm in their trust in their God, Yahweh, rather than in their own military
strength or international alliances. A concomitant theme is the denunciation of
false gods and religious practices, such as the reference to necromancy
(consultation with the dead) in 8:19. The word of the Lord that came to the
prophet declared that those who urged such consultations with the dead “will
have no dawn” (8:20), one of the thematic terms that opens this passage (see
also 8:22).]
[In verses 4-5,
future wellbeing depends on the defeat of the enemy, relating newness to the
realities of power. Thus, the community
has lived in oppression, but the new king comes to the rescue. It will be brutal and violent, as the Lord
breaks the rod of the oppressor.]
4 For the yoke of their burden,
and
the bar across their shoulders,
the
rod of their oppressor,
you
have broken as on the day of Midian.
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