12-15-19

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS

December 15, 2019

Scripture: Isaiah 9:2

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.

Thought for the Day: This is the opening verse of our scripture this Third Sunday of Advent at Cypress Creek. First, the repetitive nature of the verse should be noted. It is a restatement of the same basic idea. Was this because readers were a bit clueless? There might have been a few who, like me, require stuff to be repeated more than a few times to actually soak in, but in this case, I do not believe that was the purpose of the author. It is poetry, a sort of parallelism that demonstrates importance and emphasis. The Prophets, like Isaiah, were skilled artists and communicators. Think about the great voices in recent history — Abraham Lincoln, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., Alice Walker — people who not only had a message, but a gift for communicating the message. Too often we have people who have a flare for communication, but a weak or even empty message. God’s Gift of Light enfleshed in the Christ Child is the perfect example of God having both a solid message and a spectacular form by which the message was expressed.

Prayer: O Light of Light, shine upon me and within me. Allow for your amazing message of hope to embed itself within me so that I too might know the message and be the message. Amen.

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