From the Pastor
Please read Exodus 20: 18-21
GOD AND DARKNESS
I think there is a very interesting verse found in Exodus 20:
“And the people stood afar off, while Moses drew near to the
thick darkness where God was.” (Verse 21)
I would have you think about that for just a few moments: “Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was!”
On the surface, there appears to be something wrong with that verse, doesn’t there?
Not that Moses would draw near to God, but that God would be in “the thick darkness.” For some reason the concepts of God and darkness do not seem to fit together. After all, the Bible boldly affirms: “God is the light, and in God is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5)
Then Jesus Christ, who IS God, walked this earth and proclaimed, “I am the Light of the world; those who follow me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life.” (John 8:1)
Furthermore, the Apostle John urges us to walk in the light as God is in the light (I John 1:7)
How, then, could Moses have found God in the darkness when God is pure light? Surely God does not dwell in thick darkness!
Surely the verse should have read “and…Moses drew near to the brilliant light where God was!” Brilliant light, blazing presence, radiant glory…anything but “thick darkness.”
However, you and I did not author the Holy Scriptures. The record does not speak of flashing lights but of thick darkness. Moses moved into it as he ascended Mount Sinai, and there…in the blackness so heavy you could have cut it with a knife…he found God.
Is there a word for us in this passage, as we stand at the beginning of a new year?
Indeed there is! For as we stand at the threshold of still another year, we are looking into the darkness, too. It is a darkness to us because we cannot see what lies ahead, and we wonder: what do the next twelve months hold in store for us?
Will it be a year of material prosperity? Will we face financial disaster and bankruptcy? Will health and strength and vigor be our lot for the new year? Will we find ourselves in the antiseptic surroundings of a hospital? Will we be standing beside a lonely grave? Will it be a year of blessings?…or what???
I remember being at the very beginning of this last year of 2011 and thinking that it would probably be a bad year financially and statistically for our church. The economic outlook was very dark and statistically I was pessimistic about our growth. But in dark times God is with us. The congregation gave the most to our monthly missions of any year in the twelve years I have been here giving around $12,000 in cash and donated Christmas and food pantry gifts. Also we made our budget for ministry and mission beyond what the church has ever given before. We also took in the 4th best number of new members in the last twelve years. I could go on and on about all we have done together to make this one of the greatest years of ministry and mission we have ever had.
We could look at 2012 as another dark year with the economy at an all time low for modern times, as well as all the chaos on the national and world scenes. The pledging for our 2012 budget is the lowest it has ever been, although last year was not far behind. However, God is with us in the darkness of those times.
In a sense, we like Moses, are climbing up into the thick darkness; yet Israel’s greatest prophet would be quick to say, “But remember, God is in that darkness!”
That I think is the great truth that emerges from this passage: The truth that we are not alone in the darkness of life; the truth that when we feel the most alone, God is most near us; the truth that what is blackness to us is brightness to God.
The one who is absolute light can see the beginning from the end, even though it is thick darkness to us.
I am sure this great truth is what prompted someone to say, “it is better to walk a mile in the darkness with God than to take one step in the light without God!”
This whole concept of God and darkness can best be expressed by the story of a young boy who hung over a dangerous cliff. As the story goes, some scientists from Scotland needed a rare flower for research, and they found that flower growing on a ledge far below the mountain top.
For a reasonable price, they secured a young boy to go over the edge on a rope to gather samples of the rare plant.
After the flowers were picked, one of the scientists asked the boy, “weren’t you afraid as they lowered you over the edge of the cliff? Didn’t you tremble with fear as you looked down from that great height?”
The boy quietly replied, “No.” And when the scientist asked why he was so brave, the young lad responded, “I was not afraid of falling because my mother and father held the rope!”
There you have it, dear friends! Maybe at times in the year to come, you will feel as if you are dangling in the darkness but remember:
Your Heavenly Parent, your God, holds the rope just for you. And, I might add, your hand as well!
In closing, I would pull out a line from Charles Dickens’ famous A Christmas Carol. It is stated simply, but profoundly, at a toast before Christmas dinner, by the crippled Tiny Tim. I have a picture of Tim and his famous line etched in my mind and heart where it has remained for some years now. My many outings to see “A Christmas carol” have etched it even deeper. I state it again as my New Year’s wish for you ”God bless us, everyone!”
Happy New Year!
Your Pastor
Duane E. Andrus