Walking in the Light of the Lord

Advent I; December 2, 2007

Isaiah 2:1-5

What light do you walk by? That is, what light shines upon your daily road, giving you direction and helping you find your way?

There is the light of consumerism, with its motto: “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” There is the light of machismo, with its motto: “That person or nation is best who is most able to beat up everybody else.” There is the light of peer pressure, with its motto: “You have to be cool.” I understand that, at least in some communities, doing your homework but failing to hand it in is the thing you have to do to be cool.

Every Sunday during Advent, as the candles on the wreath are lighted, the leaders say, “Let us walk in the light of the Lord.” That line, you probably just noticed, comes from our reading for today from the Prophet Isaiah. It replies to another one of those wonderful visions the prophets frequently had, with their high promise and outlandish images.

In this case, the high promise is “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” My youth was spent just a few miles from the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. My nephew was graduated from West Point not long ago and is now serving in Afghanistan. At Northwest, where I teach, one of my classes follows right after a class on military geography. Where would we be as a nation if we did not learn war any more?

And in this case the outlandish image is of Mount Zion raised higher than any other mountain on earth. The image sees the people of all nations abandoning their gods, their loyalties, their commitments – the lights they have walked by – and streaming to Jerusalem, to worship in the Lord’s Temple. Imagine six billion of us all trying to get into Jerusalem to make sacrifices at the Temple and learn from the priests.

As challenging as the promise and the image are, I am persuaded that God means for us to take them seriously. God intends for us to be committed to a world in which peace studies overtake the study of war, in which industry can be turned from making weapons to making agricultural implements. God intends for us to be eager to learn the ways of God, to learn how to live daily as those who follow God just as we learn English, history, math and science.

Last Sunday Kathleen and I worshiped with the faculty and students of a Christian school in eastern Iowa. The Pastor was away for Thanksgiving and so one of the teachers gave the message. During his message, he asked a question from the Westminster Shorter Catechism: “What is the chief end of man?” One of the students – she appeared to me to be in about seventh or eighth grade – quickly replied, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” (Q. 1 and its answer) It’s too bad that they’re still using the old sexist language, but it is good to see young people learning their catechism and their Bible as the Prophet Isaiah foresaw.

About thirty years ago I applied to be received as a candidate for the ministry. On the application I had to say something about a Scripture text that was important to me. I chose John 12:35-36: “Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’” I wrote on my application that I found that Scripture text meaningful because it said that following Jesus was not just something for after death, pie in the sky by-and-by, but that Jesus is light for us in our daily lives right now.

I still find that text meaningful and for the same reason. God provides us light for our living, especially through the teachings, the example, the stories and the presence of Jesus Christ, yet we American Protestants tend to treat Jesus as a “get out of hell free” card. If we do not study the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, and the other teachings of Jesus in order to try to live each day in the light of Jesus, what is the point of calling ourselves his followers? “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

This week my philosophy students will be discussing an essay by the Dalai Lama.* The great Tibetan Buddhist leader is discussing how different religious traditions should get along in the modern world. One of his principal points is that those who claim to belong to a religion should study that religion and practice that religion’s teachings in our daily lives. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus will all get along better if we strive to be more faithful Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus. Think about it: those Christians who think they should scold and attack people of other religions – where do they get that in the teachings of Jesus? Would the Prophet Muhammad rally thousands of people into a city square to demand the death of a school teacher who permitted her second-graders to name a teddy bear after him? Are those of us who claim to follow a religion actually studying that religion and living each day according to what our Leader teaches us? The Dalai Lama says that “even if we are fervent believers in our own faith, it will avail us nothing if we neglect to implement these qualities [of our faith] in our daily lives. Such a believer is no better off than a patient with some fatal illness who merely reads a medical treatise but fails to undertake the treatment prescribed.” (p. 539)

One of the many things I look forward to at Christmas is the time during our service the evening before, when the lights are out and you all are holding lighted candles, and I recite the Prologue to John (1:1-5, 10-14). It includes this wonderful line: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (v. 5) The light God gives us is our Lord Jesus Christ, whose teaching and whose life of sacrifice and resurrection are light for the daily walk of our living. “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.”

Oh Lord, your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; give us grace and eagerness to walk in your light. Amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Clarinda, Iowa

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* “The Role of Religion in Modern Society,” excerpted from Ethics for a New Millennium (1999), in Gary E. Kessler, Voices of Wisdom: A Multicultural Philosophy Reader (Thomson Wadsworth, 2007), 534-539.