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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
University of Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, one of the creators of modern black‑hole theory, is generating headlines, as a paper Hawking presented at a meeting last August was published online Wednesday. Hawking’s paper makes the statement “There are no black holes”, though it does not do away with black holes as much as redefine them. The subtleties of Hawking’s change in black‑hole theory probably elude most of us; we have enough trouble with the black holes that sometimes are our lives. For us, today’s Gospel Reading, as it tells of Jesus’s fulfilling the prophecy of today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 9:1-4), brings good news that for this morning I have themed, “A Great Light for the black holes of our lives”.
To better understand this “Great Light for the black holes of our lives”, a little background helps. Zebulun and Naphtali were two sons of Jacob, who was also known as Israel. When the Israelites under Joshua finally inherited the Promised Land, Zebulun and Naphtali were assigned its northernmost territory. There, from their neighbors further north, they were subject both to negative influence and to cruel conquering. Once, the judge Gideon freed the tribes from the Midianites, by means of a “great light” (Judges 6-7), and centuries later, when an Assyrian king took the tribes again, God through Isaiah prophesied of their deliverance, again by means of a “great light”. That prophecy through Isaiah, Jesus fulfills, St. Matthew says.
As St. Matthew tells it, right after Jesus’s baptism and temptation, Jesus journeys into Galilee and ministers there, preaching and calling disciples. Jesus’s fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy is not so much about His living in Capernaum in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali as His fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy is about His being the great light that dawns upon the people in the territory Isaiah describes. For, by the end of today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus’s fame had spread throughout that area, and from that area great crowds were following Him. The geography is important, but perhaps more important for us are the descriptors of the people as dwelling “in darkness” and “in the region and shadow of death”.
Here in East Texas, most days we would hardly say we are dwelling in literal darkness. Sure, we have overcast skies from time to time, but even in January we still have quite a few hours of daylight every day. But, the darkness of which the Holy Spirit speaks through Isaiah and Matthew is not literal but figurative: a spiritual darkness. The people of our Readings and we ourselves are corrupted by negative influence and conquered by cruel foes. By nature, they were and we are in darkness, lacking the divine truth of salvation and being under the power of evil, especially when it comes to spiritual matters and religion. They were and we are in the region and shadow of death, like the valley of the shadow of death in Psalm 23 (v.4). On account of our sin, we deserve to die now and for eternity. Unable to find our way or help ourselves out of the black holes of our lives, we need the Great Light of the Messiah—the Christ, the Savior—to dawn and shine on us and so to deliver us.
Before being arrested for condemning Herod Antipas’s adulterous divorce and remarriage (Matthew 14:1-12), John the Baptizer preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 3:2). As we heard in the Gospel Reading, from the time that Jesus lived in Capernaum, He began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Still today, Jesus’s Church preaches, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Capernaum itself may not have repented (Matthew 11:23), but we do: we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, and want to do better. When we so repent, then God forgives us. His “Great Light” shines into “the black holes of our lives”.
In short, the big change that Stephen Hawking has made in his theory of literal black holes is changing the old inescapable “event horizon” to a new “apparent horizon”, from which he says energy and information eventually can escape. Illumined by today’s Gospel Reading, we realize that by means of the Great Light Jesus Christ, we are delivered from the black holes that sometimes are our lives. In the beginning, from the darkness over the face of the deep, the Word’s “Let there be light” brought forth light (Genesis 1:1-4). In the Word was life and that life was the light of all people, light that shines in the darkness and is not overcome by it (John 1:4-5). That Word—that life and light—became flesh and dwelt among us, showing forth His recreating light and illuminating us (John 1:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6). The God-man Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and whoever follows Him will not walk in darkness but have the light of life (John 8:12; 12:35).
The prophecy through Isaiah described the Great Light as a Child born to us, a Son given to us, whose Name is Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). John the Baptizer’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and in the Benedictus sang prophetically of Jesus as the Sunrise Who would “give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:78-79). Holding the Child Jesus in his arms, Simeon in the Nunc Dimittis sang of Jesus as “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to [God’s] people Israel” (Luke 2:32). Jesus’s miraculously healing all the sick demonstrated that He was Who He said He was, and it gave a foretaste of the ultimate deliverance He gives from disease and death. Jesus proclaimed that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, that it had come in Him, that it was received by faith in Him, in His death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, for us and for our salvation. As we heard in today’s Epistle Reading (1 Corinthians 1:10-18), “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
We find that Word of the cross with its saving power of God preached and administered to us by those ministers God calls to preach and administer it in all its forms. In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus called to the ministry Simon, who is called Peter, and his brother Andrew, and Jesus likewise called James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John. He graciously made them to be fishers of men, for the sake of the people they would “catch”. As with the ministry of John the Baptizer and the ministry of Jesus, so with ministers today: the message is the same—Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—and the means are the same, too, especially Holy Baptism, baptism with water for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). But also included are individual Holy Absolution and Holy Communion. In the Gospel Reading, Jesus was present in the people’s synagogues teaching, preaching, and healing, and so He is present in faithful churches today, doing the same. From this altar, at this rail, He heals us with bread that is His body and wine that is His blood, given and shed for you and for me for the forgiveness of sins and so also for life and salvation. Having received Him in our hands and mouths, we sing Simeon’s words confessing Him to be the Light Who reveals God to the nations, that is, to us Gentiles.
In the Gospel Reading, the future ministers are the only ones Jesus “called” who left nets, boats, and father to follow Him, but the future ministers are not the only ones following Jesus: great crowds followed Him, too. All of you, who believe but who are not called to Word and Sacrament ministry, are called to other vocations in which you live and serve and, by your lives of service, you in your own ways are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14). In the Gospel Reading, Jesus’ fame spread, and it presumably spread because believers like you were spreading it and bringing to Him others who needed His healing. In the black holes that sometimes are our lives, it may seem as if no light can reach us in our difficulties with work, friends, and family; in our depression or despair; in the declining health of others or ourselves, but the Great Light dawns.
You may know that Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (or A-L-S) and, as a result, he is paralyzed, confined to a wheelchair, and able to communicate only through a voice‑generating device. He and all of us who suffer physical afflictions (or who know people who do) could easily hear today’s Gospel Reading and be frustrated that Jesus is not healing our every disease and every affliction the way He did then. Such miracles are not, in fact, worked “for all people, everywhere, at all times”. But, the greater miracle to which such miracles pointed is worked for all who believe, everywhere, at all times. The Great Light has dawned and shines on us in the black holes of our lives, in darkness and the shadow of death. He shines forth from His Word and Sacraments and forgives our sin and therefore gives us eternal life with Him. After a black and deadly night, the glorious sunrise promises us resurrected and glorified bodies free from disease and affliction. Classical or quantum theory about literal black holes will not matter, but living our lives with daily repentance and faith will. In today’s Collect, we ask Him to mercifully look upon our infirmities and stretch forth the hand of His majesty to heal and defend us, and He does. In the words of our Old Testament Reading, He multiplies the nation; He increases its joy. We rejoice before Him as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +