2nd Wednesday in Advent (December 8) Let there be light

Prepare to Listen.  As you light the 1st and 2nd purple candles, let these words still your heart and mind: In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
 
Prayerfully Read Genesis 1:3-5, 14-19
3Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.  4And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  5God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And there was evening and there was morning, the first day….  14And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 15and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.’ And it was so.  16God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars.  17God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.  19And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.
 
Prayerfully Wonder
The Genesis 1 creation account is artistically and poetically arranged.  On the first three days the form or infrastructure was created.  Then the ‘stuff’ or content for each of those three days was created on days four to six.  Thus, the stuff for day one was created on day four—light on day one and the means for light on day four. Light, as we know and will read about tomorrow, is an important symbol of Christ.
 
The world began in darkness and chaos (v2) until God created light on the first day.  God didn’t eradicate the darkness.  It’s still there.  God put limits on it.  The light, created on the first day is given specific form on the fourth day with the creation of the greater and lesser lights.  Creating a light (the moon) to rule the night means that God has permanently altered and controlled the darkness.
 
God’s creative power to bring light into the world isn’t confined to literal light (day) and dark (night).  We continue to live with darkness and chaos in experiences like Covid-19, political and church divisiveness, riots, crimes, abuse and more.  Jesus came to be light in our darkness, light for all people in the chaotic darkness of 2021; light in our personal pains and struggles.  The light doesn’t remove the darkness.  It controls it and guides us through the darkness and chaos of our times.  Salvation is about God cleaning up our frequent messes (darknesses) and letting us begin again anew.
 
Prayerfully Reflect
What darkness are you now experiencing?  Be open to the light of God to show the way.
 
Respond to Jesus
Creator God you separated light from darkness, controlling the darkness with a lesser light.  Come into the darkness in the world today with your revealing and controlling light.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Let Jesus’ light shine in your darkness today.