CHRISTMAS: Light of the World

Whatever else this season is, December of each year, it's a season of lights. I sit in my study this morning looking outside. It's a bright sunny day, but when the sun goes down, lights come on. On a couple of three trees, even three reindeer that Ruth really likes. And so it's all about lighting up things. It's symbolic of the season. This is Dick Voth with stories from the road, and this road happens to be the one, two, and from Bethlehem. The appearance of light means Christmas. There's this wonderful verse in Hebrew writing in the book of Isaiah, chapter 9, 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. That says this, verse 2 of chapter 9, the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. On those living in a land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. A light has dawned. It's interesting, and we are collaborating, if you will, with Tim Keller in these podcasts. Tim Keller, who has gone on to be with the Lord last May, but his little book, Hidden Christmas, has such wonderful nuggets, if you will, truths in it. So between Tim Keller and our daughter Susanna and I, we are working on just thinking through this Christmas time. Keller says this, no matter what you want to do in a room, you have to first turn on the light, or you can't see to do anything else. And he goes on to describe the fact that the world is dark. He says, well, that's kind of a downer. That's kind of a bad way to start a podcast. Yes, well, defining reality is a big deal. And all you have to do is look at your phone. All you have to do is look at the world in general, and you'll see there's stuff going on that's either promoted or fueled by evil or ignorance. The thought that Keller has is look at what was happening in the time of the birth of Jesus, violence, injustice, abuse of power, homelessness, refugees fleeing oppression, families ripped apart, and bottomless grief. Sounds exactly like today, he says. And our tendency is to say, well, it's dark, but we can overcome it. His thesis would be that you can't overcome it by yourself. Some look to the state, some more to the market. Everyone looks to technology, yet they share the same identical assumption. Things are dark, but we believe we can end that darkness with intellect and innovation. Some years ago, I was sitting at the old epic grill just down the block from the White House, sort of a watering hole for a lot of folks, a great luncheon, well, breakfast luncheon dinner place. It's an iconic sort of landmark in Washington, DC, talking to a good friend. His name was Harry, very bright. He's a renaissance man. I just like to hang out with him. And I asked him one day, I said, Harry, do you think that Washington, DC has some of the smartest people in the world? He said, yeah, how about the wealthiest? Yep. How about the most innovative? Yep. What about the most experience? Uh-huh. How about best connected? Yes. What about just a plethora of experience? Yes. And then I paused and said, why can't they fix it the world? I would submit that there has to be a deeper level of understanding in order to help fix the world and that comes when the light shines on things. Question is, in what shape does the light come? If we live in a dark world, what shape does the light come? I would submit to you, it's a baby shape. At least that's what scriptures say. This is that same Isaiah fellow, 700 years before Christ, that says this, for to us a child is born. To us a son is given and the government will be on his shoulders. And he'll be called a wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace, of the greatness of his government and peace. There will be no end. And we're all still waiting for that, aren't we? It's interesting because that first verse that I read where it says, in a land of deep darkness a light has dawned. Literally dawn literally is flash. It has the light has flashed. I was talking about light one time in a medical doctor approached me and said, Dick, do you know that light is released at conception? I said, I had no clue. But if you go online, you can see this, sparks literally fly when that moment of conception sperm penetrating egg happens. Back in 2011, Northwestern University team discovered the sparks of zinc, which is part of the egg I guess, exploded at the point of conception in mice. Took them a few years to figure out how to image this event, but by 2014 they managed to film the event for the first time ever and watched as billions of zinc atoms were released at the exact moment when a mammal's egg is pierced by a sperm cell. Using a new fluorescent sensor, they were able to track the movements of zinc in the life cells and found, you know, this is beyond my can, beyond my knowledge, right? But they found some 8,000 zinc compartments each one containing around 1 million zinc atoms just ripe for exploding. The tiny fireworks that result were found to last for about two hours after fertilization. It was remarkable, says one of the team Theresa Woodruff, to see the zinc radiate out in a burst from each human egg was breathtaking. When we talk about the spark of life, apparently that's more than a metaphor. Well, Keller goes on to talk about the sun as a frame of reference. When Isaiah speaks of God's light dawning, he uses the sun as a symbol. The sun light does what? Well, it brings life, it brings truth, it brings beauty. You've heard me tell, I think, on this podcast before about speaking some years ago and after I started speaking or just about the time I got ready to start speaking a couple in their late 40s. At that time I was in my late 20s, walked in and sat down and later on I was introduced to the gentleman and his name was Howard Momstead. Howard Momstead at that time was a chemist, his specialty was analytical chemistry and within that it was spectroscopy, which is the study of light, the use of light for scientific measurement. And one day we were in the car together, we became friends. One day in the car I said, Howard, how do you think that let there be light is the first sentence in Scripture in Genesis when God says let there be light? Then he looked at me, he was very kind, he didn't shide me or say, well, you should know that. He just said, well, you know, light is the basis for life in the universe or on this planet at the very least, e equals mc squared, Einstein's theory of relativity, c squared is the speed of light. It's the basis for color, it's the basis for time, it's the basis for distance, the wavelength, it's the basis for the food chain, you don't have life without light. So it just, when our darkness is penetrated by light, life shows up. I don't know anybody that likes darkness, maybe if you're a robber or a thief, you know, the Scripture says, folks like the dark because the deeds are evil. But generally, most folks like to walk in the light because you can see things, it shows the shape and the distance and the perspective and all of that. So I'm suggesting that most of us don't get up in the morning and say, well, I just like it to be really dark all day. But I was chatting with our daughter, Suzanne about this and she has a great star, here she is. Well, hello again, Susanna. Hey dad. It is a Tuesday afternoon and the sun is setting in the west out here in the mountain west and you and I have had the joy of reading this little book, the Tim Keller wrote, hidden Christmas, surprising truth behind the birth of Christ. And chapter two talks about light and darkness and I've already said some things about that on this podcast, but just give me your quick thought or reflection on that subject, light and darkness. I thought it was interesting in the book, he is referencing the Scripture in Isaiah where it talks about the people who dwelt in darkness. The light had dawn upon them and I didn't realize that that was a prophecy. I had known that scripture from Matthew where it's talking of the same thing except it's actually coming to pass. So the light is coming is dawning upon the people in Matthew. Another translation of that says the people who sat in darkness saw a great light and the people who sat in the region and shadow of death. And to me that just gives such a vivid picture of what it is to be sat down in the dark, to be paralyzed, to not know where you're going, to not know what's coming at you. And then that just that sense of relief when the light is turned on and the warmth and the clarity that you get from that. So I really liked what Tim said and made me think. Well, you told me a story the other day that I wanted to have sure to be retold here on this podcast and that language you're using fits it perfectly. I think it's a story about when you were a little girl when we did in Urbana, Illinois and were near the University of Illinois there. How old were you? I was either four or five because I started kindergarten when I was four. And you went to what school? I went to Yankee Ridge School in Urbana and they actually had U of I students that would come and do research projects. They would use invite different kids to be part of different studies. So I remember taking a note home and I don't know why this is a vivid memory, but Mrs. Miles used to pin notes to our shirts, to our turtle necks and send us home. So they are parents could see the notes that they wouldn't get lost. And so I brought home a permission slip. That's a smart move. It's very smart. I don't think they do that anymore. They don't want children with safety pins on them anymore for some reason. But yeah, so I brought a note home and it asked if I wanted to be a part of a study to see if I was afraid of the dark. You asked me, are you scared of the dark? I remember you were sitting at the dining room table. I asked you that. Yeah, you said, are you afraid of the dark? And I said, no. And you said, well, do you want to be a part of this with that they're doing at your kindergarten class? And I said, sure, because anything to get you out of class, you know, exactly. And yeah. And so the next day, you would sign the permission slip that I could be a part of it. And I remember being taken into a room. It had a black and white child floor. And there was just a chair in the middle of the room, maybe some desks in the back. And the guy had big cyburns and bell bottoms. That's what I remember. That stood out to me. And he explained to me, I was going to sit in the chair. And when he left, he was going to turn off the light and shut the door behind him. And he wanted to see how long I could sit in the room without turning the light on. And I said, OK. And he said, because you said that you're not scared of the dark. And I said, yeah, I'm not scared of the dark. And so he said, so let's see how long you can sit in the dark. And so I said, OK. And so he turned and he went to the door. And there weren't any windows in the room. So it was pitch black. He turned the light off and he shut the door. And I immediately stood up and went and turned the light back on and went and sat back down in the chair. And he opened the door and he said, he sounded surprised. He's like, you turn the light on. And I said, yes. And he said, well, you said you weren't scared of the dark. And I said, I'm not. And he said, well, then why did you turn the light on? And I said, because I wanted to just remember thinking like what Ding Dong wants to sit in the dark if they have to. So I just thought, you know, I'm not scared of it. But why would I just sit there in it? It sounds like there should be biblical verse somewhere that says what Ding Dong wants to sit in the dark when they have an option. Exactly. So I think that that sense of wanting to be in the light has followed me throughout my life. I want to know what's going on. So I want to know, I want to feel safe. I don't want there to be anything in the shadows, all of those things. But I think the thing that struck me the most about what Tim said was that we can't bring that light. We can't generate that in our own lives. You know, there's something about a story or an anecdote that makes an idea or a concept real. And that story you just told, did that? I love that. So that's all we have today. And I'm going to come back to you next week. And we're going to go after it again with a different thing. But thanks for taking the time, Sue. All right. Love you, Dad. Love you too. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. He said this. God is like the sun. The one created thing we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything. I love that thought. God is like the sun. The one created thing we cannot look at is the one thing in the light of which we look at everything. When I understand what Tim Keller has written here, it really is moving to me, he closes one section of this little book by saying, in short, Jesus is the divine light of the world because he brings a new life to replace our spiritual darkness. Because he shows us the truth that heals our spiritual blindness and because he is the beauty that breaks our addictions to money, sex, and power. As a wonderful counselor, he walks with us even into and through the shadow of death, where no other companion can go. I think it would be appropriate to say that I think that Tim Keller wrote this after he had had a series of battles with cancer. So for him to say that, as a wonderful counselor, he walks with us even into the shadow of death. Where no other companion can go, closing line, he is a light for us when all other lights go out. That's it for now. God bless as we move closer to Christmas Day, reach out, share your life with somebody, and luxuriate when the sun comes up. God bless, both here, catch you later, bye-bye. you