A Great Light – 22 January 2023
Matthew 4:12–23
When Jesus echoes the words of the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming that “the people who walk in darkness have seen a great light, ” he is speaking about . . . the darkness of despair and hopelessness. . .
God comes to us, Jesus comes to us, the Spirit comes to us every day, to pierce through what seems like impenetrable sorrow. Sometimes God uses the tenacity of the crocuses as they push their yellow, purple, and white heads up through the snow in a cemetery to remind us that hope has more gumption than despair. Sometimes Jesus inspires a friend to call and say just the right thing, and we realize that while we don't know why our loved one died, we are sure of why they lived. Sometimes the Holy Spirit opens the page of a book that helps us see our lives in a new way, or gives us the courage to seek the help that we know we need. And sometimes—sometimes we just wake up and realize that we are going to be okay. –– Daphne Burt
1 Corinthians1:10–18
Jesus' unusual and seemingly foolish choice of followers revealed Jesus' unusual message. “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
By God's grace, Jesus has called us to follow him and proclaim the foolish choice of fishermen to become apostles, the foolish and reckless love of God that led Jesus to battle death, the foolish message of a risen Savior who triumphed over the grave, and the grace of God that fools our senses coming to us in bread, wine, water and oil. Like the Galilean fishermen, we may be foolish choices for God's co-workers, but we have great bait. Now all we need is the patience of seasoned fishermen and fisherwomen. –– John Paul Salay
Isaiah 9:1–4
Matthew reinforces the meaning of light and the claim that Jesus is the Messiah by referencing Isaiah. He reminds the reader that Jesus spent most of his public ministry in the region of Israel where Isaiah had said the Messiah would bring the light of God to the people in the midst of darkness. Jesus is the one through whom “what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled…the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned” (Matthew 4:14, 16).
The power of any good symbol is that it speaks for itself. Words are not required to understand the meaning, beauty, and truth toward which a symbol points. In fact, trying to explain the symbol generally undermines it. A worship table or altar covered with lighted candles, or a sanctuary filled with candles, says far more than our words about the light of the world. Candles are a visual cue inviting us to silence, awe, and awareness of that light, a complement to the verbal word in the biblical text, sermon and song of Sunday worship. –– Diane Stephens
Daphne L. Burt, an ELCA pastor, has served in church and college settings as pastor or chaplain in Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, Illinois, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. She has a Dmin from the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago.
John Paul Salay is Loyola University’s Minister of Liturgy and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA).
Diane Stephens, an elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is a spiritual director and writer who has served as a retreat leader and affiliate faculty at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary.
Homily Service 41, no. 1 (2008): 111–120.