2101AFC010121 – Head for the Light
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Isaiah 60:3-5 – 3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4 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. 5 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.
Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This is the first post of 2021. We’re going to consider the Epiphany of the Lord. However, first I will begin today’s post by referring you to the post for Epiphany in 2020 called 2001AFC010320 (↔ Click Link) – A King-Size Dose of Reality. There’s a full description of what Epiphany means, why we celebrate it, who the magi were, and what significance is attached to their gifts. This post will be helpful in understanding the Responsorial Psalm for Sunday, January 3, 2021, especially Psalm 72:10-11 – 10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. 11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. The short interpretation is that this passage signified “the whole world and every nation in it.” In fact, let me suggest that you read Psalm 72 top to bottom; David did an amazing job of describing today’s world. There’s more about today’s world in Isaiah chapter 60 – the source of our Key Verse.
Isaiah 60 prophesies the gathering together of the dispersed Peoples of Israel in terms of its future glory. Lost in disobedience, sin, division, and war for an era, Israel hears that now Light will dawn and the majesty of the era of David and Solomon will return. This passage is part of the “Third Isaiah,” chapters 56-66, probably written by Disciples of Isaiah during the period after the Babylonian exile (598-538 BC). The entire book of Isaiah is a compilation of prophetic poetry, mostly composed by the Prophet himself, and the section here mentioned, 56-66, is notable for the contrasting hopes of the families who have returned from exile and the condemnation and destruction of the corrupt leaders of Israel.
The warnings God had given to King Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7 include the oft-quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14 where God states that the nation who repents and calls upon him will be saved. As Paul Harvey used to say, “Wait ’til you hear the rest of the story.” In that same chapter there is a very blunt, stark, and (frankly) scary Word from the Lord. Take a look:
2 Chronicles 7:19-22 – 19 “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you*, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck you up from the land that I have given you; and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And regarding this house, now exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord the God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them.’” * In Hebrew this pronoun is plural – the Nation. It is a central theme throughout the entire Bible – if you fail to love God and neighbor, you must repent. If you do not repent, the consequences will be very unpleasant. If you do repent, the consequences will be wonderfully splendiferous. Now, doesn’t that seem like a no-brainer? Well, that’s pretty much how most of us handle it – with no brains. That’s easier to spot than you might think. You’ve heard this one many times: “by their fruits you will know them.” We have all heard about the deeply faithful Catholic who carries a rosary in his pocket but still won’t follow the teachings of the Church. We call people like that “good for the country.” That’s like calling elephant scat “milk.” We rename someone/something bad as something/someone good.
That is precisely where we run into trouble these days because there’s a lot of fake fruit on the table. The fake fruit comes to us through the tireless work of the Prince of Lies, the devil, and he uses a few seeds of Truth and a ton of manure to raise a crop of bad advice. He wants us to change the names of things because it suits his purposes and not God’s. Anything that does not suit God’s purpose is, well, wrong; but Satan tries to convince us it is right to make these changes because “it is right to do this; you will be like God when you do.” Does that sound familiar, something you might have read recently in Genesis? And so we take something we know is wrong, call it by something we know is right, and PRESTO! What was wrong is now right. Marriage is no longer sacred, family is no longer a community of love, amorphous “spirituality” is true religion, and God is me because I am God. Beloved, there are seeds of truth in what the world is telling us about these things, but to believe them, one must overlook the ton of manure that comes along with them. So some of you are going to take umbrage at what follows. Consider these passages for example.
Wisdom 2:23-24 – 23 for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity,24 but through the devil’s envy, death entered the world and those who belong to his company experience it.
John 8:44 – 44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
2 Corinthians 11:3 – 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Some folks believe that once we have obtained God’s favor by accepting his gifts, his favor and his gifts cannot – indeed will not – be taken from us. As gramma said, “‘Tain’t so, I know.” We once wrote about Shebna. You might recall this:
Isaiah 22:22 – 22 I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. In this passage from Isaiah (see Isaiah 22:15-25 for context), the prophet declares that the Head Steward of King Hezekiah, a man named Shebna, will be replaced because his is a self-seeking corrupt official whose corruption betrays the purpose of his office. Isaiah tells Shebna that he will be “hurled away violently” and whirled round and round, and then thrown like a ball into a wide, empty space. His fancy chariots will be wrecked, and – stripped of the official powers of his office – he will die disgraced. God tells the prophet Isaiah to establish Eliakim, the person he has chosen to replace Shebna, and to place on Eliakim’s shoulder the badge of office: The Key of David. Eliakim’s authority – which comes from God – will be placed firmly in the kingdom so that Eliakim’s actions all carry the authority of Hezekiah. If Eliakim speaks, it is as if the King himself is speaking. Whatever he opens, no one can shut; whatever he prohibits, no one can permit; whatever he permits, no one can disallow. As declared by God, he has full authority in the Kingdom. From that moment forward, Shebna did not. He rejected God, and thereby rejected the Gifts of Stewardship God had provided. He discarded Spiritual Light and embraced Spiritual Darkness.
Spiritual darkness is a term used by people to describe what happens when there is no Light present. Spiritually, though, there is 1 Light and that Light is our Triune God who is a living God of Power and Might. Spiritually, there is also a being who is darkness because in him there is no Light. Returning to the Letters of the Apostle John, we come to 1 John 1:5 – 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Satan is darkness and in him is no Light at all. And yet, we have many people – thousands upon thousands – swearing that light is darkness 
and evil is good (See Isaiah 5:18-23, especially v. 20 which reads in part 20 Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light). There is 1 light and there is 1 darkness in the Spiritual War we act against, but that darkness is not merely the absence of Light, it is also the presence of evil and every bit as real as the Light we follow and eventually become. They are headed away from the Light. WE are headed for the Light, which is to say we are moving toward Heaven for and because of the Love of God.
God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is our Light: 1 Timothy 6:16 – 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Let us therefore be followers of the Light described by Isaiah 2:5 – 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! If we are in that Light, we are of the Light, and we will share the Light as we carry the Light. Light grows by giving it to others, just as grain multiples by being sown and nurturued. Jesus spoke of his life as a grain of wheat in John 12:24: 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. The “fruit” of Light that is shared is much more light just as the fruit of the grain is much more wheat. Choose Light and choose Life. Then, when we are transformed at the end of the Age, we will know what John meant in Revelation 21:23-27– 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Those who choose darkness will have it for the rest of Eternity. Those who choose Light will have and be Light in Heaven with God and his Angels and Saints. The judgment of this world has come; the ruler of this world will be driven out into everlasting darkness. It is now the time for Light to drive out Evil; the Light has come. John 3:19 – 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. (Use the link to see the full context) God has blessed us with the Light of Love, as well as his friendship, and all of Creation. When we reject God over and over, when we refuse to honor the Giver by accepting the Gift, eventually all we have left is … nothing but the dark emptiness of eternity without God.
This weekend as we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, we commemorate the coming of his Light into the World, a Light for all nations, a Light for all Creation. God’s people are drawing together, Israel is like a hill on which a beacon glows, corruption is being challenged, evil is being confronted and fought off, Light is dispelling Darkness, and Light is growing as it is shared. In the “showing forth” we commemorate, we have the fulfilling of a promise and the continuation of a blessing: The Light of the World is Jesus. Belovéd, let us head for the light! – yep, that one at the End of the Tunnel – because that is where Eternal Light dwells.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
