“The End Of Darkness”

“The End Of Darkness”

Text: Colossians 1:9-20

© November 25, 2007 by C. Edward Bowen at Crafton United Presbyterian Church.

Whenever a baby is baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church, they have a rather unique custom. After the priest pours water on the child to baptize him, the priest then takes a rather large metal cross and strikes the child on the chest with the cross three times. And priest strikes the child hard enough to inflict some real pain so that almost always the child cries.

Why do the Greek Orthodox do that? Usually we think of a baptism as a gentle time, a happy time. But the Greek Orthodox Christians believe that it’s important for the child, and for all those witnessing the baptism, to be reminded of the fact that when we’re baptized, when we become a part of God’s family, that doesn’t shield us from pain. When we’re baptized, when we become a part of God’s family, that doesn’t mean that suffering and hardship are going to be prevented from coming into our lives. Instead, when the Greek Orthodox strike the child with a cross when they’re baptized, what they’re trying to communicate is that even in the midst of suffering, or perhaps especially in the midst of suffering, God is there for us, and God will see us through.[1]

Some years ago psychologist M. Scott Peck wrote a best-selling book titled The Road Less Traveled. And his book begins with a simple three-word sentence that expresses a profound truth. His book begins with this sentence: Life is difficult.

Life is difficult. In so many ways, we know that life is difficult. From floods to fires to unemployment, we know that life is difficult. From marital problems to loneliness to depression, we know that life is difficult. From injuries to disease to even death itself, we know that life is difficult.

And since life is difficult, we can’t help but wonder at times: Is there any help? Is there any hope? Well, as this passage in the Bible tells us, and as many passages in the Bible tell us, Jesus is our help. Jesus is our hope. But even though we hear the Bible telling us that, sometimes we are left to ask: If Jesus truly is our help, our hope, where is he? We’re looking for him, but where exactly can we see him?

Back in 1978 a woman in New Mexico by the name of Maria Rubio said that she saw Jesus. While she was making dinner one day, the skillet burned one of the tortillas she was cooking, and the pattern the skillet left on tortilla, she said, looked like the face of Jesus. And apparently a lot of people agreed with her. Because pretty soon thousands of people flocked to her house to see the tortilla, with many people doing so apparently believing that if they saw Jesus’ face on the tortilla their diseases would be cured.

Or in 2005 a man in Laredo, Texas, said that he saw Jesus on the tailgate of his truck. It seems that the man hadn’t washed his pick-up for some time, and one day when he looked at his tailgate he said he saw dirt in the shape of Jesus’ face. And when word got out, all kinds of people flocked to take a look. In fact, at least 150 people made a pilgrimage to see the tailgate and to light candles and pray.

Or a few years ago a family in Toledo, Ohio, announced that Jesus had made an appearance in their home. In this case, the family said they had found a pierogie that looked like Jesus. And eventually someone offered to buy it from them for over $1700. And the list of places where people say that they have seen Jesus appearing goes on and on.

What are we to make of all that? I think all that goes to show us that deep down inside most people, there is a real desire to see Jesus, to know that he’s real. In fact, many people have such a desire and yearning to see Jesus that they end up believing that they’re seeing him in the weirdest of places – like in their tortillas and on their truck tailgates and in their pierogies.

And while we might shake our heads and chuckle at people who think that the Lord of the universe is making a guest appearance in their tortillas and pierogies, I believe what’s going on is that many people are all too keenly aware that there are things in this world that aren’t what they should be. Many people are all too keenly aware that at times it looks like almost the whole world is out of control. And so many people, including many of us, I would imagine, just want to be reassured, in some way, that God hasn’t abandoned us. Amid all the chaos and turmoil that we see in our lives and in the world around us, we just want to be reassured, in some way, that God is still with us, and that God will see us through.

Recently physicists made what I think is a rather remarkable discovery. What they found was that if you have an atom, and if you remove a piece of that atom and take it over here, even though those particles are separated from each other, if you do something to the piece that you removed – say, you touch it and cause it to move – immediately, at the same time, that other piece of the atom will move as well. And scientists suggest that would be the case even if you were to take a piece of an atom and put in on a rocket and send it a billion miles away. Because even from a billion miles away, if that piece of that atom is acted upon and made to move, the rest of the atom that it came from, no matter where it is, will immediately move in the same way.[2]

In some mysterious way those pieces of atom maintain a relationship with each other as though they’re anticipating the day when they’ll be reunited. Physicists admit that they don’t really understand why or how that happens – but they agree that it does happen.

I believe, in a way, what goes on there with those atoms, symbolizes the way that God is at work in the universe. There are times in our lives when things just seem to be falling apart. There are times in our lives when, like those atoms, it just seems that things are getting ripped apart. And quite often when those sort of things happen, we’re tempted to think that it’s all over, that there’s no hope – that the loss we’ve suffered is permanent, that what’s been taken from us is something that is gone from our lives forever.

But the good news that God offers to us, the good news that we hear in this reading that we listened to from the letter to Colossians, is that even when we feel that our lives are getting ripped apart into pieces, we can trust that that’s not the end. Instead, even when we feel that our lives are getting ripped apart into pieces, we can trust that God still has those pieces in the palm of God’s hand. And the day is eventually going to come when God is going to bring those pieces back together and make things the way they are meant to be.

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves: that’s not always an easy thing to believe. It’s not always an easy thing to have faith that the pieces of our lives are in God’s hands. When a relationship with a lifelong friend or a family member gets torn apart, it’s not always an easy thing to have faith. When the doctor comes into the room with a concerned look and tells us that there’s a problem with our health, it’s not always an easy thing to have faith. When a spouse or a parent is lying there in a hospital bed, dying, it’s not always an easy thing to have faith.

But even though it’s not always easy, Jesus himself stands before and says, “You don’t have to be afraid. Put your trust in me. Because those times of darkness aren’t going to last forever. No, the day is surely coming when the light of God is going to fill the whole world, the whole universe – and pain and suffering and even death itself are going to be brought to an end. The day is surely coming when the sick will be healed, and the wrongs will be righted, and the dead will be raised. And when that happens, all that will be left is life – life the way that God meant it to be.”