Becoming All Flame

In this time of growing darkness, many people decorate their homes with festive lights—trying, it seems, to hold back the “gathering gloom.” In this Advent season of waiting for the Lord, as each week we light a new candle on the Advent wreath, I am reminded of the interplay of light and darkness imagery in the Bible. Take, for example, the first words God speaks: “Let there be light!” (Gen 1.3), followed by the declaration, “And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness” (Gen 1.4). Sometimes it seems God still hasn’t finished separating the light from the darkness—or, is it that God is relying on us to help him do that?

Jesus unambiguously announces his role in the interplay of light and darkness in our world: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8.12). Paul connects Jesus’ role as the Light of the world with God’s initial act of creation, calling light into being out of nothing and separating it from the darkness. According to Paul, it is the same “God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4.6).

John the Evangelist editorializes: “And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil” (John 3.19). Nevertheless, whatever the shortcomings in our human response to the first Advent, “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1.5).

God’s light continues to shine across the ages for those with eyes to see, and the persistence of evil does not overcome it. Isaiah foretold the coming of this light in one of the most beloved of Advent readings: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined” (Isa 9.2; cf. Matt 4.16). Despite appearances to the contrary, Christians continue to affirm that “the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2.8).

How, you may ask? It is true that “God is light and in him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1.5), but this is not so for us humans. Even those who try to follow Paul’s advice to live “as children of light” must grow into this calling anew each day, working over a lifetime toward the perfection promised us in eternity. Nevertheless, the Bible testifies that these human actions of goodness in the world function as part of the light God shines in the darkness for others.

The Old Testament has many laments about human injustice. Job complains: “When I looked for good, evil came; and when I waited for light, darkness came” (30.26). Isaiah echoes him: “Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa 5.20). “Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and lo! there is darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom” (Isa 59.9).

These laments find counterparts in prophecies of impending judgment against wrongdoers. Micah warns, “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me” (Micah 7.8). Job affirms that, by God’s light, he has walked through darkness (Job 29.3), and the Psalmist offers thanks to God for being his light: “It is you who light my lamp; the Lord, my God, lights up my darkness” (Ps 18.28).

The prophets’ voices are unanimous: God does not leave his faithful helpless. In the midst of the darkness of human injustice and oppression, God sends help—a light in the darkness so that we will not stumble, for “‘if you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going’” (John 12.35). What are these lights, you ask? They are you and me. We are the lights. God asks us to be lights to each other.

Isaiah teaches Israel: “If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday” (Isa 58.10). Jesus exhorts us: “Let your light shine!” (Matt 5.16). We are made children of light for a purpose—not to hide our candle under the bushel-basket, but to set it on a stand so that “it gives light to all in the house” (Matt 5.15). God has called us “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2.9) to live as children of light so that we can “lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13.12).

Living as children of light means taking on the properties of Christ, the one true Light. How do we do that? Jesus was clear enough in his instructions: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13.34–35). “Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness” (1 John 2.9).

Angelic tidings of “Peace on Earth” are on many lips this time of year. It is a welcome message conveying a heartfelt desire that the whole world cherishes with eager longing. Yet this season is also a time when it is worth remembering what the prophets tell us about the Advent to come. Amos, for instance, warns, “Alas for you who desire the day of the Lord! Why do you want the day of the Lord? It is darkness, not light. . . . Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom with no brightness in it?” (Amos 5.18, 20).

The prophets anticipate the pain of a judgment of condemnation because too often we do not hold fast to the ways of the Lord. Perhaps few people today actually think about that ultimate judgment, when we will see God “face to face” (1 Cor 13.12). Yet the testimony of Scripture is clear enough: If the day of the Lord is to be a welcome and joyous event for us, we are called to live as children of light here and now—feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, healing the sick, and visiting those in prison. We are to respond to the needs of each of these, “the least of our brethren,” realizing that, in doing so, we are responding to Christ himself. There is more than a little of Ebenezer Scrooge abroad in our world just now. Our hearts of stone must become hearts of flesh so we can learn again the lessons of compassion for those naked children, Ignorance and Want.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers contains advice from Abba Joseph. A brother came to him, much like the man in the Gospel who asked Jesus how he could be perfect (Matt 19.21). The brother reported all that he had done to be a good monk: saying the daily office, fasting, praying, meditating, living in peace, and purifying his thoughts. The brother asks, “What more can I do?” Abba Joseph “stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, ‘If you wish, you can become all flame’” (7). May we, too, become “all flame.”