I don’t know if it is the post-Christmas blues or the fact that I can’t wear my new fuzzy Christmas slippers to the office, but this last week I found myself wanting to take a nap. And I don’t mean a close your eyes for a quick moment in the lazy boy nap, I mean a stoke the fireplace, close the blinds, and burry yourself under a pile of blankets kind of nap. As I sat unambitiously in my office this last week, I found myself jealously surfing the internet for the sleepiest creatures in the world. Ii discovered both the hamster and the squirrel clock in an impressive 14 hours of sleep a day. But they are outdone by the armadillo and opossum who each get 19 hours of sleep a day. (I wonder if all those armadillos you see along the road are really just grabbing some ZZZ’s.) The poster child for sleep is of course the sloth. The sloth sleeps an extraordinary 20 hours a day. But the sleepiest animal in the world is the koala. The koala sleeps a glorious 22 hours a day. I looked out my office window as Alexa droned out a depressing coffeehouse playlist, while I sipped my lukewarm chai tea, and imagined for a moment how wonderful it must be to be a koala.
The koala is a sleepy creature, but there is a creature that can rival even the koala in sleepiness. That creature is the Christian. It is not at all uncommon for the Christian to take a sanctification siesta, a spiritual slumber, maybe even slip into a holy hibernation. Have you ever noticed there are times when you are less Christian than others? I’m not saying from time to time you join up with a terrorist group and commit atrocities and other acts of terror, but there are times when you feel like you are in a spiritual lull, aren’t there? Times when your love for Jesus is more theory than practice. Times when that little light of yours does more flickering than shining. You might still come to church. But you are kind of going through the motions. You are here but you kinda aren’t here. You look at the preacher prattling on and all you hear is, “Wah wa-wa wa wa waah.” Do you know what I’m talking about, or did I lose you at koala?
I know I am not the only one that occasionally suffers from spiritual sleepiness because the prophet Isaiah is writing to the spiritual sleepy. Long gone were the glory days the Israelites enjoyed under King David. Outwardly the nation seemed strong and wealthy. But the prophet saw signs of grave danger. The strong and wealthy were using their power to harass the weak and poor. Men went around drunk; women cared more about their clothes than about their neighbors’ hunger. People gave lip service to God and kept up the outward appearance of religion but spiritually they were sound asleep. To the nation of Israel, and to me, and maybe to some of you, the prophet Isaiah commands, “1Arise, shine, for your light has come!”
This morning, through the prophet Isaiah, the LORD issues two striking commands, “Rise” and “Shine”. The first command seeks to wake us from our spiritual slumber. The second command tells us what to do once we are awake.
In verse two the prophet writes, “See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples.” There is little doubt as to what sort of darkness the prophet is referring to. It is the judgment of a holy God upon the curse of sin. This darkness covers the earth. Creation itself is stained with the residue of Eden’s rebellion: species go extinct, death and disease plague animals on land, in the air, and under the sea, thorns and thistles reach out to tear at the flesh of man who subjected the earth to such darkness.
This darkness is over the peoples. Here I can’t decide if the prophet is thinking of original sin, the sin all people inherit from their parents. The kind of sin that causes horrible things to happen all around us. The kind of sin that causes children to be abandoned, women to be violated, and men to be murdered. The kind of sin that fills our world with wars and rumors of wars and causes the love of most to grow cold. Or is the prophet talking about the sin that remains inside the Christian? The sin that seeks to drown our new man. The sin that prevents us from being the saints that we want to be and makes us think, say, and do things that fill us with shame. Maybe the prophet is thinking about the darkness that is over both unbeliever and believer.
The thick darkness that covers the earth and its people is depressing. It’s discouraging. It makes you want to take a nap. I mean a close your bible, stay home from church, take a break from that whole disciple making business for a while kind of nap. But before we settle in for a spiritual siesta, the prophet commands us to get up. He reminds us, “1the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”
The Old Testament generally means something special when it uses the phrase "glory of the Lord". It usually refers to the undeserved love God has for His people. It is often connected with God's saving activity on behalf of His people. When Moses asked to see the glory of the Lord, God “showed” Moses His glory by saying, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin."[1] . It was the glory of the Lord that led God's people through their wilderness wanderings with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Later “the glory of the Lord” filled the tabernacle at its dedication in the form of a cloud. But “the glory of the Lord” has most clearly been revealed in the babe of Bethlehem. Jesus is the human manifestation of “the glory of the Lord.” It is through Jesus that we see the undeserved love God has for His people; through Jesus we see God’s saving activity on behalf of His people. The glory of the LORD shines on all who bow before the babe of Bethlehem. It shone on the Magi from the east and by the power of the Holy Spirit it shines on you and me. We have just spent the last month talking about how much your God loves you. For the last month the glory of the LORD has shone on you as we have focused on our God who so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. At a time when the glory of the LORD shines so brightly upon us it hardly seems like an appropriate time to take a nap! Rise Christian! Rise! Because of Jesus, the darkness that covers the earth does not cover you. Rise! The glory of the LORD that shined so brightly on that first Christmas morning continues to shine on you. Rise from your spiritual slumber my friends. Rise, for Jesus your light has come.
Because of Jesus, you do not live under a dark cloud of judgement. Therefore, let us obey the prophet’s second command and shine. In verses 3-4 the prophet writes, “Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm.” It is easy for us to lift up our eyes and wonder where the nations have gone. We do not see large crowds filling our churches and confessing their faith in Jesus as their Savior. We know God grows His church where and when He wants. But we would much rather He grow it here and now. We would love for our membership here at Messiah to double every year with faithful worshipers, but that has not been the case, at least not since I have been here.
God makes believers one at a time and sometimes more slowly than we would like. But that does not mean that God is not gathering the nations. I have only been part of this ministry here at Messiah for 2 ½ years but in those 2 ½ years I have seen people from every nation stand in the glory of the LORD. Last Easter, 146 people (35 of which were guests) sat in these seats as the glory of the LORD shone on them from an empty tomb. As a result of the 2019 science camp, 169 people (95 of which were guests who very much represented the nations) sat in these seats while the glory of the LORD shone on them from creation. On Reformation Sunday 146 people (24 of which were guests) sat in these seats as the glory of the LORD shone on them through our confession. Finally, this last Christmas Eve, 209 people (110 of which were guests) sat in these seats as the glory of the LORD shone on them from a manger. I invite you to lift up your eyes and look about you. In the past year alone, the LORD has brought the nations by the hundreds to sit beside you in these seats and bask in the glory of the LORD. God makes believers one at a time and sometimes more slowly than we would like. But lift up your eyes and see, God is gathering the nations.
It is encouraging for us to lift up our eyes and see the nations who have been brought into the light of the Lord. The prophet tries to describe that feeling when he writes in verse 5 about a heart that “throbs and swells with joy.” But as encouraging as it is to see the hundreds who have basked in the glory of the LORD, let us also strive to be an example for them. The prophet writes, “5 the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come.” The prophet explains, those who have been brought into the light of the Lord let their light shine by giving generous offerings to the praise of God, for the work of his church, and the adornment of His glorious temple. The prophet speaks of the wealth of the seas and the riches of the earth being brought by those who have come to the light of the LORD. As I read about the light of others shining as herds of camels and livestock and shiploads of gold and silver are being brought to the LROD, I could not help but ask why should our light not shine as brightly? Have we not also been called out of darkness? Does not “the glory of the Lord” shine on us? Why should our light not shine as bright, if not brighter, than any other church in any other city? How great would it be my friends, If God sent an angel to a distant border and told the inhabitants there about the great light that is shining in Johns Creek Georgia; about how our wealth and riches are given to the praise of our Lord, about how our offerings are piled up on the altar, about how generously we adorn God's glorious temple! How great would it be if our light was used as an inspiration to encourage others? Is this not what Saint Paul instructs us to do when he writes in Ephesians 5:8, “you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light.”? All this time spent sitting in the glory of the LORD has made you radiant. So, shine Christians! Shine! Bring your wealth, bring your riches, bring them into the house of the Lord and shine! Shine, for Jesus your light has come!
Suddenly, I’m no longer in the mood for a nap. The days, weeks, and months that follow Christmas are no time to take a spiritual siesta. Rather, it is time for us to rise and shine my friends, for Jesus, our light has come. Amen
[1] Exodus 34:6-7