{"id":5174,"date":"2020-01-15T07:06:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T14:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=5174"},"modified":"2020-05-31T13:45:28","modified_gmt":"2020-05-31T20:45:28","slug":"epiphany-3-john-15-the-light-shines-in-the-darkness-but-the-darkness-has-not-overcome-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=5174","title":{"rendered":"Epiphany 3: John 1:5 \u201cThe light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Please click here for a pdf version of this document<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(The basic line for a sermon on God hidden and revealed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGod works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably know this line? But maybe not where it is\nfrom. It is the first line of a hymn written by an eighteenth century Englishman,\nWilliam Cowper, who struggled with mental illness much of his life. Even so, he\nwrote: \u201cGod works in mysterious ways his wonders to\nperform.\u201d Ways beyond his understanding. Ways that none of us can understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prophet Isaiah wrote: \u201cTruly thou art a God who\nhidest thyself\u201d (Isa. 45:15 KJV; see 45:1-15, especially verse 7). When life\ntakes a tragic turn, where is God? In dark times \u2013 whatever they may be, this\nword from Isaiah strikes home.  Why does the\nLord permit this tragedy, this illness, this disability, this horror?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prophet Habakkuk asks: \u201cOh Lord, how long shall I cry\nfor help and you will not hear? Why are you silent when the wicked man swallows\nup the one more righteous than he?\u201d (Hab. 1:2, 13)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When evil swallows up the good, where is the Almighty? Is\nhe really Almighty? Perhaps we got the wrong idea about God long ago in confirmation.\nWe got the idea that God is all powerful, and therefore when bad things happen,\nit must mean either that God isn\u2019t all powerful, or that God is a fool who is\nno help in the face of evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we make of the apparent absence of the Almighty\nOne? First, he is inaccessible in his almightiness. As in the hymn, \u201cImmortal,\nInvisible\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immortal, invisible God only wise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In light inaccessible hid from our eyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most gracious, most glorious, the ancient of days,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of God hidden in blinding light is a very\nbiblical one. When Moses came down from speaking with God on Mount Sinai, his\nface reflected God\u2019s light so brightly that he had to wear a veil over it so as\nnot to blind the people (Exodus 34:29-35). When Moses asked God to show him his\nglory (shekinah<\/em>), God placed him in a cleft in a rock and covered him\nwith his hand to protect him from seeing the glory directly (Ex 33:21-23). You\nknow the hymn based on these verses: \u201cRock of ages, cleft for me, let me hid\nmyself in thee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of God hidden in blinding light sends the\nmessage: Do not tamper with the Almighty! He does not want to be known as he is\n\u201cin heaven,\u201d in his blinding \u201calmightiness.\u201d As Isaiah 55:8-9 goes on to say: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018For my thoughts are not your thoughts, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither are your ways my ways, say the Lord. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So are my ways higher than your ways<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And my thoughts than your thoughts.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord is hidden in inaccessible light \u2013 light that we\ncan\u2019t directly look at. His holiness is something beyond our understanding. We\nare mere mortals. We can\u2019t see God from a human point of view at all. We can\u2019t\nsee him with our eyes; you cannot look around the world and see him. We can\u2019t\nsee him with our mind\u2019s eye, that is our brains and imaginations. Even the\nsmartest, brightest scientists, or smartest, brightest theologians among us,\ncan\u2019t see God. No one can see through the universe to God beyond. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord hides himself. He is almighty, all knowing, Lord\nof all. He has done, is doing, and will do things that we cannot begin to\nunderstand. \u201cTruly, thou art a God who hidest thyself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He hides his almighty power in blinding light as if to\nsay: \u201cDon\u2019t look for me here.\u201d Look elsewhere. The blinding light of his\nalmightiness drives us to the place where his will is<\/em> revealed. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God\u2019s will is revealed in his down to earth action, in\nthe cross and resurrection. The cross and resurrection is the promise that the\nLord is still Lord, in spite of sin, death, and devil. In spite of the evil that\nthreatens to undo us and this world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Almighty One hides himself in blinding light to drive\nus away in fear to a place where he, as revealed <\/em>God, wants to be known.\nIn the cross and resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, in the face of tragedy and sorrow, we can boldly\nconfess: \u201cI believe in God the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.\u201d In\nother words, we say: Let God be God. We can let God run the universe. The\nFather Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, is in charge, in control, in spite\nof how things might look. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, this is not a solution to the problem of evil.\nIt doesn\u2019t explain where evil came from, or how it started, or how evil is\nrelated to God\u2019s almighty power. We don\u2019t have answers to the problem of evil.\nIt remains a deep mystery. But God\u2019s way of working in our world, that is, God\nhidden and revealed, gives us a way to talk about the problem of evil, a way to\nhandle it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can look evil in the eye and still say: \u201cI believe in God\nthe Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; I believe in Jesus Christ, his\nonly Son, our Lord.\u201d Apart from Jesus Christ, God remains hidden. We have,\nultimately, no means for penetrating that hiddenness. We cannot see God. We\ncannot say: Here is God; there is God. We really don\u2019t even have a basis for\nmaking an absolute separation between evil and good. Many things we think are\ngood turn out to be evil in the end and vice versa<\/em>. But this\nimpenetrable hiddenness drives us to the place where the hiddenness is broken\nthrough: the cross. Because of the cross we can say: \u201cI believe in a good God,\ncreator of a good earth.\u201d There God has come down to earth and revealed his\nwill for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The thing to do when you become worried about God\u2019s\nalmightiness is to go to the cross, to his Word and sacraments, there to\ndiscover what his almightiness has accomplished and will accomplish. God alone\ncan solve the problem of evil and his almightiness. And he has done so on the\ncross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hymn, When Peace, like a River, expresses this well:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let this blest assurance control, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And hath shed his own blood for my soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He lives\u2014oh, the bliss of this glorious thought;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My sin, not in part, but the whole, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is nailed to his cross, and I bear it no more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(As Luther writes: \u201cWhatever is attributed to the Spirit\napart from the Word and sacraments is of the devil. For even to Moses God\nwished to appear first through the burning bush and the spoken word\u201d (Smalcald<\/em>\nIII\/VIII\/10-11, Tappert, p. 313).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 1:5: \u201cThe light shines in the\ndarkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.\u201d There is a struggle between\nthe darkness and the light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\u201cGod works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

You probably know this line? But maybe not where it is from. It is the first line of a hymn written by an eighteenth century Englishman, William Cowper, who struggled with mental illness much of his life. Even so, he wrote: \u201cGod works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.\u201d Ways beyond his understanding. Ways that none of us can understand.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The prophet Isaiah wrote: \u201cTruly thou art a God who hidest thyself\u201d (Isa. 45:15 KJV; see 45:1-15, especially verse 7). When life takes a tragic turn, where is God? In dark times \u2013 whatever they may be, this word from Isaiah strikes home.; Why does the Lord permit this tragedy, this illness, this disability, this horror?<\/p>\n

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