In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:4-5
It is growing dark. Protestantism is a mess. Lutherans are facing plenty of problems with our relation to tradition and Scripture. Rome has its share of liberal clergy and laypeople going against their traditions. And the East has been dealing with numerous issues about speaking in harmony with itself. Things look dismal for the Church.
But that’s nothing new. Things have looked bad for the Church since its earliest days. When Christ was crucified, the sun literally went out in the middle of the day. Later, the apostles hid from the Jewish leaders because they didn’t want to die. The Church right away began to deal with the heresy of the Judaizers. Then came Nero’s persecution, the gnostics, the Manicheans, and Marcion. Years of great persecution were followed by a brief reprieve. And then even more persecution.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.Ecclesiastes 1:9
Christendom schismed in the 5th century with the Council of Chalcedon. And in the 11th century with the rise of the papacy. And in the 16th century with the reforms and excommunications that occurred with protestantism, the papacy, and Evangelical/Augsburg Catholicism.
Today, we face the challenge of sexual ethics. This isn’t new either, but it is today’s issue of schism. What does it mean to be truly human? Are we merely what we perceive, think, and feel? Does our physical body, genetics, and family history play a role in who we each are? Is there any difference between men and women?
The world says no. And the world has begun to seep into the Church. Families are becoming divided on these issues, entire church bodies are struggling for air as the cacophany of liberalism drowns the Church.
Save me, O God!
For the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink in deep mire,
where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying out;
my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim
with waiting for my God.Psalm 69:1-3
Christendom is under a shadow. Even today, violent persecution and martyrdom occurs regularly in the near East. In the far East, Christianity is illegal to practice. In the West, Christianity is attacked by modernism and liberalism making it increasingly frowned upon throughout the world. We should expect this, however, for Christ himself says, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15).
Of course, the persecution is far worse for some than others. By no means is the world’s hatred the same in all places.
But no matter how dark it may get, we have a hope greater than the darkness, for we have Jesus Christ who is God of God and Light of Light. We have Christ who was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man. One of the Church’s oldest hymns, the Phos Hilaron, speaks of this. As the Lutheran vespers service begins, it proclaims the light in an antiphonal chant:
Jesus Christ is the Light of the World
The Light no darkness can overcome.
Stay with us, Lord, for it is evening,
and the Day is almost over.
Let Your Light scatter the darkness,
and illumine Your Church.
Immediately the hymn commences in a throng of glad voices:
Joyous light of glory of the immortal Father,
Heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the Sun
And we look to the evening light.
We sing to God, the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of Light,
The universe proclaims your glory.
The obvious interpretation of this hymn is one of a standard, earthly, 24-hour day. But I think we can sing beyond that. In the eschatological view of time, we walk by faith and not by sight, because our Light, Christ the King, has ascended into heaven. No longer do we see him in his glory, but as Paul says, “now we see in a mirror dimly.” Our vision of the Way, the Truth, and the Life is hidden and obscured by the cares and perils of this world. However, even now we look to Christ as our source of evening light. The darkness is scattered and we are illumined in His Holy Sacraments and Scripture.
Satan will always try to distract us from Christ. He will point us to ourselves, to sins, and to schisms. These are all visible to us only through the Light of Christ, and we should “look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,” as the author to the Hebrews tells us.
Indeed, it is dark. And it will only get darker as we await the Resurrection. But the True Light has come into the world to destroy darkness, and we look forward to the Final Day, where “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Revelation 21:23).
The Lutheran Monk 