Two
Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday January 25, 2026 – 3rd Sunday After Epiphany
Scripture Readings: Isaiah 9:1-4 and
Matthew 4:12-23
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in
a land of great darkness – on them, light has shined.”
If that reading from Isaiah sounded a bit familiar, we most often hear it as
one of the Christmas scripture readings.
If Martha/Pat had continued to read a bit further, if she had read on to
verse six, we would have heard the even more famous verse:
For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders,
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
But the lectionary doesn’t give us that verse today – instead, I suspect that
we are supposed to focus on the first part of chapter 9 because the narrator of
Matthew quotes from it right at the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in
a land of great darkness – on them, light has shined.”
The
people that Isaiah was speaking to were living in a land of great darkness. 30-ish years ago, the Assyrian army had
conquered the northern kingdom of Israel, including the lands of Zebulun and
Naphtali, and the people had been killed, carried away to exile, or fled south
seeking safety in Jerusalem.
But even in the southern kingdom of Judah, things weren’t all sunshine and
roses. Even though they had held out
against the Assyrian army, they were still a small nation surrounded by
superpowers. The people knew that they
were at risk, and eventually, 100-ish years after Isaiah’s prophesy, it would
be the Babylonian army that would destroy Jerusalem and carry the people into
exile in Babylon.
And into this setting of a painful history, an uncertain future, and danger
lurking around every corner, Isaiah proclaims, “The people who walked in
darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of great darkness –
on them, light has shined.”
600 years later, the author of Matthew begins Jesus’s ministry by quoting from
Isaiah: “The people who sat in darkness
have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of
death light has dawned.”
600 years later, the reigning superpower had changed, but the threat was still
there. Now, instead of the Assyrian or
Babylonian army, it was the Roman army who controlled the land. You paid taxes and honoured the emperor in
Rome on the threat of execution by crucifixion.
Empires in every time and every place have held on to their power using fear
and violence.
And yet the author of Matthew introduces Jesus’s ministry by proclaiming that
it is going to be about bringing light to people sitting in the shadows and
darkness.
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about light, and thinking about where I find
light when our world today feels so very full of shadows. In a world where preschool children can be
kidnapped by the powers of the world and used as “bait”; in a world where an
ICU nurse can be executed on the street by the powers of the world, where can I
find light? And I realized this week
that the places where I am finding light these days is in community.
I found light this week in a gathering on Thursday bringing together the United
Churches in southwestern New Brunswick to share in worship and a meal, and time
spent together sharing what we are all up to these days.
I found light this week in videos of community coming together peacefully in
the streets of Minneapolis to sing – 600 people walking through a neighbourhood
and singing to people who are hiding behind locked doors: “Hold on. Hold on. My dear one, here comes the dawn.”
And when the weight of the news feels too heavy to bear, I find light in
turning off my computer and calling one of you to ask you, “How are you doing?
What is going on in your world these days?”
I shouldn’t be surprised that the places where I am finding light right now are
places of community. After all, I
believe that we are all created in the image of God, and I also believe that
the God in whose image we are created is Trinity, is community within Godself.
We are created in the image of Community, and we are created for community with
one another.
And in a few minutes, we are going to be fed at the community table, the
communion table, the table that welcomes everyone and where everyone can be
well-fed. We are going to break bread
together, and be nurtured as God’s beloved community.
Just as those first disciples, Peter and Andrew, James and John, were drawn to
the Light of the World, we too are called by the light and fed by the
light. And just as those first disciples
were sent out into the world to bring the light to others, the question then
becomes, how are we going to not just find the light in these shadowy times,
but how are we going to be the light, or how are we going to reflect the Light
of the World to bring hope to others?
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in
a land of great darkness – on them, light has shined.”
The light is always there. As we light
our Christ Candle at every gathering, we remind ourselves that there is nothing
that can ever extinguish the light of Christ.
The world tried on Good Friday, but we are a resurrection people, and we
know that the light is stronger and will always return.
And so let us seek out the light; let us be fed by the light, and then let us
carry the light into the world so that others can see.
And may God give us the strength and the courage so to do. Amen.
“For Those In
Darkness (Light is Dawning)”
Lauren Wright
Pittman
Used with Permission
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