The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. – Isaiah 9:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 14, 2013): Isaiah 9

I am struggling with some deep questions. The Christian community has been known recently for the practice of drawing lines. We seem to want to define who we are – and who are those on the other side of the fence. We are the ones who are holy, and we want the world to know it. Somehow, because we are on God’s side of the line, we think that God will speak both to us and through us. It is a logical thought. And yet I sometimes still wonder about our practice of drawing the lines. Is it possible that we are claiming to be a people that we really are not?

Isaiah prophecies to the people of Judah using some images that we have appropriated into our Christmas story. And we have done this with good reason. The prophecy is essentially about the day of the Messiah – which for the Christian is synonymous with the days of Jesus Christ, the very one that we honor every Christmas. But the coming of the Messiah is only part of the prophecy. Isaiah says that the Messiah comes specifically to the people walking in darkness – to the ones living in the land of deep darkness. If we had to describe which side of the line that we have drawn that the Messiah comes to, it would seem that he is coming to the ones that live on the other side of the line.

Matthew uses this very prophecy of (Matthew 4:13-16) to explain Jesus mission to Galilee. Some have interpreted this mission and the early mention of the Samaritan woman in found in John 4 to indicate that Jesus was first to be seen as the light, not by the Jews, but rather by the Samaritans, because the Samaritans were the descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Since the Northern Kingdom was the first to fall into darkness and be carried into exile by the Assyrians, they would also have to be the first to see the light. But even within Judah, Jesus made it clear that his mission was to the darkness – to the lost sheep of Israel (e.g. The Calling of Levi [Matthew] in Mark 2:13-16 and Zacchaeus in Luke 19.) The Messiah’s mission was never to the light, it was always to the darkness, the ones that needed the care of the Great Physician.

So my question, and maybe my problem, is what does that do to the lines between us and them that we like to draw. I wonder if our self-identification as the ones who dwell in the light are actually a hindrance to our hearing God. After all, we aren’t the light – Jesus is. Is it just possible that the response God wants from us is the same response that Moses gave to him - God, have mercy on us, all of us, for we are all your children (Exodus 32). Maybe it is time for the Christian Church to stop drawing lines and simply identify with the world in which we live. We need to recognize that we are the ones in darkness, and that is the real reason why we will hear the voice of God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 10