SHADOWS
March 22, 1987, 11:00 a.m. Worship Service
John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
Genesis 1:1-8
John 9:1-41°.

“I am the light-of the world: he who follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life." : —-John 8:12 (RSV)

One of the things that distinguishes great writing. is that it-deals
with the great human issues. Ernest Hemingway; for instance, couldn't be
entirely comfortable with. traditional religion: but neither. could he-let-it
alone: -: One of.the short.stories he wrote,one of his’ favorites, : actually,
is entitled, A Clean Well-Lighted Place... Let» me sketch it. out very:

- briefly, and allow it to be a commentary<- a:literary illustration of that
story you just heard, from the Ninth chapter of the Gospel according. to
John. .

In-A Clean Well-Lighted Place, two waiters are closing the cafe for
the night... The last customer, an.old- man, won't leave. He's°a-regular .
customer, he drinks in the cafe every night.-He:has.-money.:. He’ used ‘to
have a wife. He recently-tried to commit suicide but his niece saved
him... The younger of the two waiters is becoming impatient... He wants: to
go home to his wife. The-older waiter says, "Iam of those who ‘like to.
stay late at the cafe. With all those who do not want to go-to: bed. With
all those who need a -light..for the night."- :

"IT want.to go home and-into bed," the younger: waiter persists: The
older man.continues,."We. are of. two different.:Kinds.: Each night =I .am
reluctant-:to close up because there. may be: someone: who needs the cafe,"

Finally. the. younger waiter persuades. the elderly customer. to leave. |
The. older waiter closes ‘the: cafe. almost“reluctantly,and:over a nightcap :
- on the way home, muses to himself - “(The Cafe). is well-lighted: The light
is very good. What did -he fear?. It was not fear or dréad.- It was ‘nothing.
that. he knew too well...-It: was all a nothing-and.a man was ‘a: nothing too.
it was only. that: and.light..was all: it: needed and-a: certain cleanness and
order... Some lived-in*it and never felt it but he’ knew it’ was al}. nada.
Our nada who art.in-nada,. nada be. thy name; thy kingdom nada,’ thy will be
nada; in'nada. as it is in nada.:.Hail nothing, full of nothing, nothing is
with thee." [The Short Stories of ‘Ernest Hemingway., Scribner, p: 379]:

Darkness and shadows: often represent everything that threatens life.
Darkness in-literature often represents emptiness, meaninglessness,

nothingness. It is a.primal dichotomy. our first revelation, our first
sensation, or very close to it, is light. Our oldest story uses the same

progression. Before creation can:even begin there must be some light on
the subject...

“In the beginning darkness was on the
the face of the deep; and: the Spirit
of God was moving over the face of the
waters. And God ‘said, ‘Let there be
light:' and there was light."

The primal word, the first thing God says is... "Let's have’ some light
on the subject.” It is the moment when time begins. I love’Lewis Thomas'
image of the moment of creation (I've shared it before — several times -
but it keeps suggesting itself. to me). Thomas, the scientist, writes about
“the moment of beginning. “It could not, of course, -have been a: big bang;
with no atmosphere to conduct the sound and no ears. It was something
else, occurring in the most absolute silence we can imagine. It was the
Great Light." [Late Night Thoughts While listening to Mahler's Ninth
Symphony, p. 15]:

~In poetry, art and literature, the imagery light and darkness have
been helpful ways of thinking about truth and falsehood, good and evil.
Religious language is-full of it.. Hopelessness is. “the people who live in
a land of deep darkness." Despair. is “yea though I walk through the valley
of the shadow. of death." And in popular culture, unadulterated evil - is
Darth Vadar, the very prince of darkness.

; Over. against that. ancient. theme, there is a kind of cheerful,

optimistic, positivism. which is appealing because it denies that. there is
any: darkness... Of course, there is plenty of gloomy religion that. doesn't
seem to. know anything about joy and laughter and cheer. But,°.in- reaction
to that, there is this almost painfully cheerful religiosity: which very

_: Simply denies. the darkness:and suggests that if you. keep smiling .and
wearing "God Loves You" buttons, everything will be all right... Lent is the
annual reminder. It is the season when: the-Christian church pauses in its
busyness and its celebrating to ponder the fact that it's dark out there,

_ that.-the one unarguable proposition is the existence of evil: that human
beings have an inherent capacity for. tragedy, missing the mark, getting
lost, which-our forbears used to call sin. Lent is the: time when we
remember that death is a reality and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
intended to confront it,.not to. deny it — or disguise it, or keep us
occupied with cheerful: things, and not to smother it in:the sticky
sweetness of popular piety, but to confront it, combat it, go one-on-one
with it, in the incredible: assertion that: God's own son participated in it,
stood.in-the darkness,.: died - was. crucified, dead and buried and descended
‘into hell." - Lent: insists that. we stop and acknowledge the darkness. The
colors are. somber, the music turns almost mournful... Joy will come with
‘resurrection. . But. the wisdom of the church is that left to our own devices

_we choose to pretend that the darkness doesn't exist;.and- like Hemingway's

--0ld.waiter,.we'd go on drinking brandy rather than confront -the night.

So first: of-.all, let us allow for the darkness. Let us hear the
_literature of :the race as-it ponders the darkness, from Shakespeare's:

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"Out, out-brief.candle
: Life's but. a walking shadow" <-

to Ernest Hemingway's soliloguy on darkness =o
“Our father who art in nada."

to the ancient Psalmist -
"even though I walk: through. the
valley of the shadow of death,

thou art with: me.".

« And with all -of that going -for-us,.let's: now: turn:-our attention
back. to that other short: story; a short: drama based onan: incident-in the

- life of Jesus, carefully written to present: for our consideration, the
radical suggestion that Jesus. Christ: - isthe light of the world =~ of all

of human history - and of the shadows and darkness of your history: and
mine.

This story begins with his disciples: calling his attention to a blind
man... Jesus makes.:a paste out-of his:saliva. and:clay, places it onthe
man's eyes and. telis- him to: wash in a pool. The man-returns: -“seéing for

'the first time in his: life. Be welts :

Scene 2: The man's: neighbors,:. who have: been watching him stumble out
every morning to his. spot -beside ‘the street to beg, since hewas. a:child,
were so. surprised that many had trouble believing it. was: the)-samé: man.
“What happened?" they ask. “Who ‘opened your: eyes?":’ He ‘answers, "A) man

. called Jesus."

Scene. 3:...The neighbors bring the: Pharisees: and we: learn that it is
the Sabbath. and that among: the many things you cannot do°-on the Sabbath is.
mix:.up.a batch of paste and smear it on: someone's eyes: Some of them leap
on the fact that Sabbath rules have been broken. Others are more ‘impressed
that.a man blind -from:birth is walking around seeing. "What's. your:
opinion?". they. ask...The man: says, "He:-is:a prophet." PERS a

Scene 4: It: occurs to someone that maybe the whole thing. is’a hoax
so they bring-in:the man's parents. "Yes, he-is our son and-yes, he's been
blind. since. the day he was -born."» woh me

Scene 5: Back to the man, walking around enjoying his sight for the
first.time.: Now the Pharisees.-take the offensive. "This man: who healed
you is a sinner, you know, because he violated the Sabbath."

The Pharisees let him know, in no uncertain terms, that they are
disciples of Moses, the true-man:of God.’:By now; however, the blind= man
has warmed to his subject. -He nearly ridicules: the Pharisees for not
seeing. what is going on... They respond: by casting him.out of the Synagogue
- they excommunicate ‘him, cut him-off from the nation's culture; support
system. ~The man can see, but: he's in-a new, ‘and An many: ways, more
threatening darkness. :

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Finale: Jesus hears what has happened to him and: comes back to find
him. The man, who has come all the way from blindness to sight, from
darkness through shadows into the full light, now says, "Lord, I believe."
And as the curtain. begins to fall, several lingering Pharisees, watching
almost. wistfully, say, "Do you suppose we're the blind ones?" And one
thinks of Hemingway's waiter not. wanting. to go home at night...because all
is nothing. -

That's a striking story. The man who. begins in the darkness ends up
in the light. The ones who begin somewhere at least near the light end up
in darkness. There is a disturbing hint here that healing, seeing for the
first time may not be an entirely comfortable experience; that the
predictability of the status quo is appealing; that blindness, while not
exciting, can be used: to provide for oneself begging by the roadside. In
addition, the religious traditionalists in this story are so threatened by
-the. newness Jesus represents that they hold: on even more tightly to their
old certainties, almost consciously shutting their eyes. so no light. can
penetrate. :

One time the late Paul Tillich observed that "The church very early,
forgot the Word of the Gospel. that he is the truth; and claimed that {its)
doctrines about him were the truth." [The New Being, p. 70]. -The- trouble
with the Pharisees.in:this story is the trouble with religious zealots of
any variety (zealot is a man or woman who knows how God would act if God
had access to the same information he or she does) and that is that they
had forgotten the difference between God and the ideas they believed about

God. Their way of understanding had become sacred, their particular
illumination: of the:truth had become a-system which accrued to itself the
truth and innerancy and -infallibility and ultimacy which belongs solely to
God. It is the oldest dynamic in the story of humanity and its religion.
“Our way is the only. way" seems to be the inevitable conclusien of
religion. "The light. shines: only here." © Christians are certain Moslems

_ are in the dark. Moslems are: certain Christians are in -the dark.
Christians worry about: the Jews being.in the dark. Catholics excommunicate
Protestants, Protestants imagine: a hell full of Catholics.’ An evangelical
spokesperson announced: recently: with remarkable certainty that people who
are opposed to the idea of a Constitutional»amendment to put prayer back in
the public schools are damned eternally. Baptists are sure Presbyterians
-are inthe shadows, if-not: the dark, and we ordinarily return the
‘sentiment. Pentecostals: feel the same about Episcopalians and if you're
the wrong brand of- Lutheran, you aren't :.welcome at:the Lord's Table in
another brand. :

Jesus said "I am the light of the world." You and I are called — not
to-pessess that light. --but:to be illuminated by it: not to restrain it
and.limit it, and parcel it out to those who get into the same room with —
-us, but to let. it shine :to show us. what's out there and what's ‘in here:

not: to hedge: it in but to: rejoice that in-the darkness, there is light.

"Jesus Christ is the light.of the world:". That's a staggering
proposition. It suggests that he is the light by which we see all the rest
of reality. If we believed that it would: be the end of all theological
exclusion and ecclesiastical imperialism. If we believed he was the source

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of light.--we. could stop playing the ecclesiastical numbers game and
concentrate instead on keeping the source of light unshuttered.: It: would
mean a new toleration. ..Jesus Christ is the illumination which allows me to
see acctirately. the contours of the road ahead, “the shadows of the world out
there and the hidden*recesses of my own: life: “Without Jesus -Christ,-.we
confess, we would not see accurately...without the light - which -he “is: — we
might conclude ‘that other people are competitors, threats, not brothers and
sisters: without Jesus: Christ we might actually believe ‘that “it “is more
blessed to ‘get. - than to give: that. the powerful: really:do inherit’ the
earth. Without Jesus Christ we might. actually believe: that theré“is no
hope ultimately and so the best any of us can do is grab all the gusto -
while there is still time. I.was moved to learn that: inthe early church
this story was always read:to candidates: for: baptism; — people who were
going to..face alienation and: persecution. and -a new: kind of darkness because

- of. their faith... I was moved to-learn. that in. the catacomb: art:in Rome —
the product of the fiercest and cruelest persecution -~ pictures of: this
incident occur seven different places.

2,000 years have elapsed...and the human “race:still dives in shadows.
' At the outset of the First’ World War, a-British commentator said ‘"The lamps
are going out all over Europe and: we will not see ‘them lit again in our
life time." And so.we have witnessed the darkness of wars and famine,. of
historic evil on a scale never before imagined, of génerations now living
with the threat: ofan ultimate and ‘final ‘darkness:::

And personally, we know - even though we would rather not deal with
it, perhaps cannot say it out loud - the threat of darkness.

We do, on occasion learn that our own decisions can cause us-to be
cut off, cast out ~- and very lonely.

We do, on occasion, encounter the truth that life is brief and
fragile: when teenagers end. theirs prematurely; or. when dear friends die
in the middle of living, or when colleagues ‘contract deadiy diseases.

We de; on occasion, encounter our own mortality, the truth that for
each of us there is a valley of the shadow of death through which we must
walk.

I was moved to rediscover the almost incidental detail that when the
darkness started te descend again on this good, brave man — Jesus came
looking for him and found him.

That's the promise here. Not that there is no. darkness, - but. that:
there is light in it - not that your life in Christ will be placid,
pleasant and always cheerful, but that when your integrity forces you to
make tough decisions and you live with the inevitable loneliness which
results ~ there is one who comes looking for you.

This promise is not superficially cheerful. It is not: trivial: It
is that in every darkness :— there is light - in the darkness of separation
and loneliness - the darkness of guilt - the darkness of sickness’ =. the
darkness of depression ~- the darkness of death itself.

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. In every. darkness: there-is one whose love for: you. shines like pure,
Lh bright, hight. =: . be Be,

- There is-a promise - here.. «that light: shines in every darkness.. -that
Jesus - Christ. ~ God's -Love incarnate, is that light.

. There is “also an: invitation---which comes to each of:-us... It is to
_discover this light by trusting it: it is to allow this light to illumine
‘all.of. life: it is, very simply...to do what: that formerly blind man did,
namely, fall. down on one's knees ‘and confess. - "Lord,.-I: believe."

: : Perhaps one of the greatest poets 7 certainly of our time -— was T. 5S.
Eliot; brilliant,.complex,:.sometimes obscure. -- but one of the extraordinary
-minds-of the twentieth century. . He became:a Christian in the 1920's and

his experience of the faith is expressed in‘a lovely poem, a very clear
poem ~-a prayer actually... : :

-"Q Light invisible, we praise thee!

Too bright..for mortal vision

0. Creator. light, We praise thee far the less;
The: eastern: light our. spires» touch .at::morning...

We thank. thee. for:-the lights. we: have kindled,

The light -of .altar.and sanctuary;

Small lights-of those who meditate at: midnight

And lights directed through the coloured panes of windows...
~We.see the light but. see not whence it comes.

re] Light invisible, we glorify Thee!"

{T.-S. Eliot)

Praise be to you, O light. invisible.

Praise be..to you,’ 0 God for light in the darkness.
Praise and Glory .to-you, . Lord: God:-

-for.Jesus Christ. your..son, our. Savior,

who is for us, the light of life. Amen.

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