Advent 6 - Walking in the Dark

“Even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.” – Psalm 139:12

Advent is a time to walk through the darkness, the wilderness, the desert – as we wait for the birth of the holy. For me, the events of the news of the past couple of weeks have left me feeling battered and heart sore by the events of the past couple of weeks. It seems very much a dark, desert time in our world. But I have been convinced of the need not to rush to jump and turn on all the lights. I think the events of Ferguson, and Cleveland, and Staten Island have many things to teach us – if we are willing to set aside our discomfort, our anger, and our fear – and explore for a while in this wilderness. And remember that God is with us just as much in the darkness as in the light.

I think one of the things Advent teaches is that we have something to learn from the dark. After all, the lectionary readings for the first Sunday of Advent always bring us back to apocalypse -- so we might experience it in all it's dark brokenness, be able to recognize it, but also to learn it's landscape and how God is working in it and through it. "Apocalypse" means "revelation" -- and so we are reminded of what can be revealed to us not just by the light, but by the dark. So if we take the time, do the work of Advent, the waiting and preparation, then we can explore the dark, and ourselves in the dark; learn it’s shape, it’s dimensions, its revelations, and use that learning in a way that opens us up for the true light to be born in us and our world.

I am encouraged in this by the words of Barbara Brown Taylor in her book,  Learning to Walk in the Dark, which echoes my experience:

“Learning to walk in the dark is an especially valuable skill in times like these – or maybe I should say remembering how to walk in the dark, since people of faith have deep pockets of wisdom about how to live through long nights in the wilderness. . . .

            The remembering takes time, like straightening a bent leg and waiting for the feeling to return. This cannot be rushed, no matter how badly you want to get where you are going. Step 1 of learning to walk in the dark is to give up running the show. Next you sign the waiver that allows you to bump into some things that may frighten you at first. Finally you ask darkness to teach you what you need to know. . . .

            Meanwhile, here is some good news you can use:  even when light fades and darkness falls – as it dos every single day, in every single life – God does not turn the world over to some other deity. Even when you cannot see where you are going and no one answers when you call, this is not sufficient proof that you are alone. There is a divine presence that transcends all your ideas about it, along with all your language for calling it to your aid, which is not above using darkness as a wrecking ball that brings all your false gods down – but whether you decide to trust the witness of those who have gone before you, or you decide to do whatever it takes to become a witness yourself, here is the testimony of faith:  darkness is not dark to God, the night is as bright as day.”