Preacher: Christie Dahlin

Scripture: Luke 1:68-79

Blessed are you, the Most High God of Israel–
for you have visited and redeemed your people.
You have raised up a mighty savior for us of the house of David,
as you promised through the mouths of your holy ones,
the prophets of ancient times: salvation from our enemies and from the hands of all our
foes.
You have shown mercy to our ancestors by remembering the holy Covenant you made
with them,
the oath you swore to Sarah and Abraham,
granting that we, delivered from the hands of our enemies,
might serve you without fear, in holiness and justice, in your presence all our days.
And you, my child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
For you’ll go before our God to prepare the way for the Promised One,
giving the people the knowledge of salvation through forgiveness of their sins.
Such is the tender mercy of our God,
who from on high will bring the Rising Sun to visit us, to give light to those who live in
darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

I love the songs of the Bible.
Hannah’s song of praise at the birth of Samuel, Mary’s song
And this morning we got to hear Zechariah’s song of praise at the birth of his son.
These are some of the first words he speaks after nine months of silence.
Since he was in disbelief that his wife, Elizabeth, in her age would get pregnant,
He has been unable to speak for nine months.
And then he sings these words,
Words of praise, words of promise,
And words looking towards what God is doing and will do in the world.
The coming of Christ,

that his son John,
Who we know better as John the baptist, will be preparing the way for.
Zechariah seems in awe that he gets to be a part of this unfolding narrative of God’s
work in the world.
As I read this song over and over I kept getting pulled in by the last two verses:
Such is the tender mercy of our God, who from on high will bring the Rising Sun to visit
us, to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow of death and to guide our
feet into the way of peace.
These words stand out to me, Tender mercy of our God
Give light to those who live in darkness
And lastly guide us in the way of peace
There is a weaving of God’s embrace, tender mercy,
Of light in the midst of darkness and I would add the reminder that God is at work in
darkness,
And that all of this is happening within Jesus coming to earth, coming in-flesh seeking to
guide us in the way of peace.
So first, what do we mean by peace?
We say the word peace, often in our Anabaptist peace context,
So often that we may occasionally forget what we mean by peace
There are so many layer involved in peace,
Peace within our own beings, peace in relationship, peace within creation, peace within
nations.
And I have appreciated the reminder that without justice first, there cannot be true
peace. True shalom.
There is work to be done for peace to flourish. And justice is part of that work.
Peace is not something we can just sit back and watch happen.
One way I like to think about peace is as wholeness,
As shalom,
As a coming together, holding and acknowledging all the realities present within us each
and within our world.
Peace is a call to wholeness, restoration

Within all of this we can also think of peace as God’s all-encompassing embrace
Peace is seeking wholeness
And we are whole when we sink into and deeply know our belovedness
Deeply know that we are beloved children of God and we get to live out of that place of
love.
Of God’s tender mercy and love.
It helps me sometimes to imagine what God’s tender mercy and love feels like,
to imagine what an embrace from God may feel like in our work of seeking peace.
One way I imagine God’s embrace is the wind.
When I am standing in nature with wind swirling around me,
I imagine God’s spirit moving and encircling me.
God’s love all around me, I may not be able to tangibly see the wind,
but I can feel it and know God is present.
To do the work of peace, I/we need to sink into God’s embrace
Sink into our belovedness,
And lean into the invitation of being guided into the way of peace,
By the incarnate Christ.
Part of leaning into God’s tender mercy and into the way of peace,
Is to consider the light and the dark.
As we look towards advent starting next week as well as winter solstice in a month, we
are in a time waiting for the growing light,
For the light of the world to come.
We are living in the time of year in the northern hemisphere,
with the shortest days, and longest nights.
This is a season where we become familiar with the darkness,
in the morning when we wake to it, and in the early evening the darkness returns.
There are beautiful lines in the scriptures around light,
Such as we heard this morning in Zechariah’s song

to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow of death.
I both love these images and want to push against them a bit.
Or maybe better said add to them a bit,
Yes to light, and also yes to the darkness.
Part of why I push against the temptation to lean into the binary of light being good and
dark being bad, is that I believe we need both for wholeness.
Just like so much in life, we need a balance, we need the contrast.
In the past few years I have become very aware of binaries.
Curious of the ways the binaries take root in us.

And use of light and dark is one of them,
As Morgan Harper Nichols says:
“And as you lean into Light, be gentle with the word “darkness.” For more than it merely
means wrong or bad, it is also the color of full starless night sky, and actual bodies of
human beings who have been overlooked too many times. Many, many words hold more
than one meaning.”
This isn’t to say these verses of light shining into the darkness are not verses of hope,
Indeed they are.
And they are an invitation to remember
Both light and darkness have varying qualities.
There are different qualities of light.
The gentle morning sun shining in the window
Or flashing neon signs glaring in the night.
And there are different qualities of dark
A sudden disorienting darkness when you can’t see what is around you.
And darkness that allows for us to see stars shining,
Darkness that invites wonder,
I keep thinking of seeds germinating in the dark earth,
Not all darkness is bad.

I really appreciate the work of Cole Arthur Riley, who runs Black Liturgies on instagram,
and she speaks of the need for darkness,
“In advent, we put all our hope in the sacred blackness of a womb. As we wait, we
remind ourselves that darkness (which is far too often reduced to a trite symbol for sin
and death). Actually has the unique capacity to bear the divine. In Advent, we reclaim
the holy dark.”- Black liturgies
We need light and dark,
For light to shine, we need the contrast of the dark,
For the moonlight within the dark of the night.

As we will sing in just moment the words of a hymn that begin:
“Joyful is the dark, holy, hidden God/ rolling cloud of night beyond all naming: Majesty in
darkness/ Energy of love/ Word-in-Flesh, the mystery proclaiming.”
A reminder of a God who creates in the dark and the ways that the divine can emerge
within the dark.
We are invited to listen, watch and wait for that energy of love, and majesty in darkness.
I wonder if part of how Jesus sought to bring light to those who live in darkness and in
the shadow of death,
Was to invited us to learn to know the darkness,
To remember that God creates in the dark,
Seeds germinate in the dark earth,
Babies grow in the darkness of the womb,
Within the darkness we can see more clearly the light,
We can see the candles glowing in the windows.
Seeking peace, and wholeness is not simply about shining light into dark corners of our
world and hearts
But doing the hard and needed work of sitting with the darkness and seeing where we
are being invited to notice.
Acknowledging the holy dark.
In these days as we wait for the growing light,
As we sit in the darkness,
May we remember the tender mercy of God’s embrace,

And know that God enflesh came to live among us and guide us into the way of peace.
Just like Zechariah, who got to be part of the unfolding story, to be a part of God’s work
in the world.
So too, do we get to be a part of God’s unfolding story.
Within the mystery of the darkness and the shining of the lights.
May you seek wholeness in light and in the dark seeking to follow in the way of the
incarnate Christ.
May it be so.

Sending:
As we walk in the way of peace,
may you feel God’s tender mercy surrounding you always.
May you go into the week ahead,
seeking wholeness in both the light and dark in this season.
Go with Christ’s peace. Amen.