Darkness Visible
Part II
Rev. David Takahashi Morris
December 17, 2006
Welcoming
the Returning Light
We will not notice it for weeks yet, but starting at 7:20
PM Thursday, the days will begin getting longer, and the hours of darkness will
diminish bit by bit. So too in our lives
the presence of light can pass unnoticed at first; we can fail to realize where
we should look. Yet in this year, as in
every year, our shadows are balanced by light if we seek closely enough. So in the return of light to the candles of
our year, let us recognize those sources of light which sustain and encourage
us through the winters of our hearts.
Our disappointments are
balanced by moments of celebration, when we welcome new people, new visions,
new possibilities in our lives.
Our loneliness is eased as we
recognize the presence of love in our lives.
Perhaps not in the shape or the form we had expected, perhaps not in the
way our culture has taught us to look for—yet love is all around us, if we open
our hearts to its currents.
We have seen acts of loyalty
great and small to hold over against life’s betrayals: The unconditional welcome of an animal
companion; the trusting grin or embrace of a child, the determined friend who
would not let us slip quietly away into isolation.
In the midst of our sense of
shame there have been quiet voices offering us acceptance: friends and family who love us even knowing
everything there is to know about us; a faith community that tells us we are
all beloved children of the Holy.
The bitter hours of loss are
followed by the slow rhythms of healing.
Broken hearts learn to love again; our shattered lives slowly mend
themselves and we open ourselves to the possibility of new love and new
hope.
Deep within our beings the
yearning for joy sings in the midst of our sorrows. In our saddest times we are visited by
moments of laughter or of quiet smiling recollection, when we know that joy
will not desert us even in the darkest hours.
Just
as we contribute to the advance of darkness in the world, so we can be part of
the light’s return. The slings and
arrows life casts our way are met by our chosen response. This power to choose our response is our
greatest gift in engaging our life with the life of the world.
So
now as the light continues its advance through our candles for the months of
the year, let us remember that we have the power to be that light which we
would see advance in the world.
Generosity is our answer to
greed: Recognition that we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity, and
making ourselves part of that abundance.
We challenge arrogance with
humility: the recognition that no single
glimpse of truth is the final word. We
know that no child of the Universe is more worthy than the others of a place of
love, nurture, and care in the world.
Anger separates us from those
we love, from those we would guide or help, from those we wish to
persuade. Nurture is the answer to
anger: Nurturing and gentling our own
fear and our misguided need to control others; nurturing and healing those whom
we must seek to understand if we would embody our belief in human kinship.
Courage is the answer to
fear. Courage is not fearlessness, it is
the willingness to proceed faithfully in spite of our fears. It is the willingness to risk everything for
the sake of our highest values.
Hatred is dismantled by
compassion. Compassion recognizes our
shared humanity with those with whom we disagree. In the place of hatred compassion seeks to
build relationship and respect
Despair is answered by
hope. Hope is not an emotion we feel,
and it does not depend on miraculous changes in events or in human beings. Hope
is the constantly renewed choice to commit ourselves to the possibility of the
best within us and in others.
And so the year comes full circle, and the season of darkness is succeeded by the season of light. Here on the cusp when the shadows and the hours of darkness are longest, let us never forget the solstice wisdom: Darkness there must be, yet darkness is never the only truth. In the stillness of winter, in the stillness of our hearts, let us hear the quiet voice that heralds the returning light. Let us be that voice. Let us become the light of the world.