The People that in Darkness Sat: From Advent to Epiphany

     I like the season of Advent.  I appreciate that the church year makes room for our seasons of sadness, doubt, fear and grief.  The church years allows us times to lament and actually encourages us to do so.
     The People that in Darkness Sat is one of my favorite Advent hymns.  It's especially meaningful when you  understand that darkness is just the absence of light.  But behold a light has come.   Matthew 4:16 says "The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the Shadow of death a light has dawned."
     Today we can still relate to the words of this great hymn.  For we too sit in darkness.  We experience the  darkness of the spirit of the age wherein we live.  We experience the weight of continuing to live under a curse.  All this causes us to need times like Advent to reflect and ponder.
     This year I came to Advent with a heaviness of heart.  Certain family members were struggling with serious health issues which weighed heavily on me.  In pouring through the incoming Christmas letters I was further saddened to see a theme this past year in the loss of babies.  A number of stillborn and miscarriages occurred in several friend's lives.
     But once again the Bible understands this pain and the ongoing grief.  This too was even a piece of the Christmas story.  Matthew 2:18  "A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more."
     The Christmas story allows us to enter into it with hearts that have been broken or are currently aching with grief.  This Christmas story offers us hope because we still need it.  We desperately need that light which came so many years ago.  And we continue to long for the fulfillment of the promise that one day that very light will eradicate the darkness completely.
     Isaiah 60:1 "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you."  This is the passage we read on Epiphany.  We are called to let this light fill us and thus shine in the darkness.  And from scripture we see that we can do this even in the midst of our own trials and grief.
     Without the light we are sunk.  We are left with darkness and the holly jolly, consumerist bustle of the season which never satisfies.  The cookies, festivities, and the songs about sleigh rides and snow leave us unable to pull ourselves out of the mire.  We truly cannot make ourselves merry, only a light piercing through the darkness can do that.