Sunday, December 16, 2012

Joyful Sunday in a Dark Time

Gaudete Sunday...Rose Sunday...Joyful Sunday. It's the third candle on the Advent wreath, the pink one.

The others are purple, for penitence. In Advent, we wait in darkness for the Light of Christ to come on Christmas. But the rose candle is a promise of hopes fulfilled, of joy that comes in the morning.

A world where innocents are murdered...in a moment...is a dark world. In our service this morning, we remembered, by name, the children and adults who were killed in Connecticut by a young man with mental illness, of nearly the same age and diagnosis as my oldest son.  I grieve for these lives, and for their families, and for parents of challenging children everywhere, and I wonder if now my son's employers will think twice about keeping him on after Christmas. It is a dark world.

Yet in the darkness, Emmanuel. God with us.

Often in the darkness we ask:  Where is God? How can He allow suffering and injustice? And we miss the miracle:  In the darkness, God is with us.

We are not alone. He has not abandoned us, alone and without hope or promise. He saves, he redeems, he comforts, and he will not leave us alone in the dark, however much we doubt and suffer and struggle and ask where He is.

He is the pink flame of joy in the midst of darkness all around. Not just light in the darkness...joy in the darkness. Because of Him, the darkness cannot overcome us.






1 comment:

ChristLover said...

Thanks, Jeanne!! You inspire me to keep focus and also give the message of hope and light out to others. This is truly influential leadership.