Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“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.”
NL Daily Devotion for Saturday, November 25, 2023
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
I remember the New York City blackout of 1977. I was six years old and living in suburban New York. We were watching home movies in the living room during a thunderstorm. And then… everything went dark. And I mean dark. It was unlike anything I had experienced before. It wasn’t like when I went to bed at night and there was a night light in the bathroom or street lights shining through the windows. There was absolutely no light—it almost felt like a physical thing, this darkness, resting on me. My parents sprang to action, feeling their way through the house, finding a flashlight, then pulling out candles and lighting them in every room. They brought a cheerful glow and a sense of fun to the whole thing, chasing away any fear of the total lack of visual sensation.
I think this is the kind of spiritual darkness Isaiah is talking about. Not a dimness or grayness, but a total loss of sensation, of connection to God. Not through any fault or design of God’s, but because of the perverse human need to be God, cutting ourselves off from God and visiting violence and oppression on ourselves and everyone around us. It is into this darkness that God shines God’s light of hope, like my parents lighting candles, taking away the fear, illuminating the way to the bathroom and then up to bed. Now and then, many of us still experience this sense of being cut off for any number of reasons in our lives. We live in the hope that God can, will, and does provide the light we need to lead us home.
What is the darkest I have ever felt? How did I find the light again?
