While my
family and I were relocating from Havertown, PA to El Dorado, AR we received
word that our moving truck had broken down and that our delivery date that had
been “pre-planned” and “scheduled” got put-off and rescheduled. Imagine the scrambling if Christmas were
actually put back a couple of days to the 27th and there was going
to be one more week of Advent this year!
We greeted
this news about our move with a sigh and a shrug saying, “it was bound to
happen.” But more than that was the
opportunity to take advantage of the extra time to “see some sights.”
In the
Shenandoah valley of Virginia we stopped at one of the famous “caverns” and did
an underground tour. Turns out we ended
up at the place were tours have been going on for about 200 years. And it was in the midst of being underground,
with no outside light, that our tour guide turned off all the electric lights
and then lit a single candle.
I was reminded that "one
candle-power"—amidst total darkness—is incredibly powerful!
Our Christian
season of Advent begins every year with one-candle-power. I was thinking of this recent experience as I
anticipated the lighting our Church’s advent wreath this past Sunday. One candle-power. That’s all.
Advent
begins with the flick of a bic, or a click of the lighter, or the strike of the
match, and the flame is touched to the candle wick. And for a week, that single candle burns by
itself.
One candle
power.
Is that
what it was like when God said, “Let there be light?”
And for
those first few moments, the light burning away the darkness revealing
chaos!
I’m almost
afraid to ask what that one candle power reveals in our world as that light
chases away the darkness! What’s been
lurking in the shadows that we haven’t seen?
What new things are revealed to us about our world that the light
suddenly reveals? A light that seems so
fragile amidst the darkness.
Sometimes
it seems that the darkness is always more powerful than the light. One candle power hardly seems enough to hold
back the darkness—at least not for long.
I suppose this is why we light a second candle, and then a third, and a
fourth after that.
And this
year, the congregation I’m serving has a tree that stands at least two stories
tall, adorned by light and chrismons.
The light of one candle, easily dwarfed by the light blazing in the
corner of the sanctuary, full of the reminders of Christ! A reminder in light that we are not
alone. That we walk with Christ among
us. That one candle power now only
chases the darkness to the corners, but that one candle has backup!
This
Advent, I’m trying to think of the one candle power not revealing the darkness
of the world, but exposing Christ in the world.
One candle is enough to reveal Christ at work, or Christ’s work. And that is another light. Now there are two lights, revealing a third
and a forth. Now for lights, spreading
to six more.
If each of
us had a light…. Oh wait. We do!
I was
reminded online last week of this quote attributed to Karl Barth:
“The time
is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. We must hear this in the same way we hear the
news of the daily headlines.”
For those
of you who call the world dark, or who keep revealing the darknesses, the dark
places, or the power of the “dark side”—I raise you one candle-power.
How can we
greet these days with the grace with which they are given? An opportunity to bask in promises that are
real—rather than as unwanted setbacks?
© Rev. David Stipp-Bethune; Teaching Elder
and Pastor, The First Presbyterian Church of El Dorado, Arkansas
