"Neon Lights in the Darkness" | Jeremy O'Neill, Seminarian | January 22, 2023
Sunday January 22nd, 2023
Trinity Church on the Green, New Haven, Connecticut
Epiphany 3A
If we think back on the most memorable emotional and spiritual experiences in our lives, I would bet that a number of them would be experiences that happened to us unexpectedly, or even accidently. Some of the most moving Church services I have been to have been ones where I was just walking by and stumbled into a sanctuary to be greeted by an incredible experience of the Divine. I am sure many of us can point to happy accidents that we could never have planned out that led to life changing moments, like meeting a future spouse in some random location (my parents, for example, met at a Jimmy Buffet concert I am pretty sure neither of them really wanted to go to) or running into an old friend we haven’t seen in years. The point is, it is very difficult for us to consistently plan or prepare for these moments of intense spiritual and emotional significance.
This is unique in a society that it feels like is always encouraging us to do more planning. I know numerous Trinity Parishioners and staff have spent hours preparing for next Sunday’s annual parish meeting, writing reports, balancing the budget, and preparing for what is to come for this community in 2023. And this isn’t to say that that meeting won’t be a profound spiritual experience for some, but I am a person who believes that God often works most clearly in moments of spontaneity. And it is in those moments that God is both very present but also where there is a lot of pressure on us. Its in some of these spontaneous, immediate moments that we might wish we had more time to plan and prepare and consider our options. Medical decisions by the bedside of a loved one or questions of how to act in an emergency are some of the highest stakes situations we may find ourselves in, but we are forced based on the circumstances to act quickly and with little time to prepare.
So while I am confident that God shows up often in moments of unexpected intensity, it doesn’t make the experience of them necessarily pleasant to say the least. Even though God may be a light in our darkest days that doesn’t make the fact that it is difficult to see in the darkness any less traumatic or stressful.
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus appears, as he often does, somewhat unexpectedly. He is walking by the Sea of Galilee and he finds Simon and Andrew, fishermen and brothers. Now, I am not a fisherman, but I do think it is significant that Jesus appears to these individuals in particular. These men have built their lives around catching food for themselves and for others. And in order to be a successful fisherman you need preparation, that is casting your nets in the appropriate fashion, knowing what to do with bait, and preparing yourself for changing weather conditions. You also need patience. These men have made a living based upon waiting for their food and nourishment to come to them, and then making the appropriate decision when it does come.
So, when Jesus comes to them unexpectedly, they do not wait or prepare. They do not ask questions. The Gospel says: “Immediately, they left their nets and followed him.” Now, there are many moments where I feel humbled by scripture, and this passage is definitely one of them. If I was at work on a normal day and a man I had never met came up to me and said “follow me” I don’t think I would be able to make a decision with as much confidence as Simon and Andrew do. My friends know I struggle with indecisiveness when picking a restaurant for dinner, so I know I have too much anxiety to accept the call of Christ as readily as these disciples do. These people who have dedicated their lives to preparation and waiting are able to literally drop everything they have known to follow Jesus. They don’t ask who he is, or where they are going. They don’t get a business card or his five-year plan. They just follow him.
Speaking of Christ’s arrivals, in our lectionary sections from the 9th chapter of Isiah like we heard this morning only come up on Christmas, as the church is intentionally commemorating Christ’s new arrival in the flesh into this world. But once every three years we get those famous words “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” not on Christmas but almost a month later, reminding us to always be mindful of the ways, big and small, that we are offered salvation throughout the year, and to still keep our hearts open to the arrival of a savior.
Now, going back to these unexpected or accidental spiritual experiences, this past December I purchased a last-minute ticket to see kind of a random concert in Hartford, Connecticut. This concert was a solo acoustic performance by Patterson Hood, who is one of the members of a gritty rock band from Northern Alabama called Drive-by Truckers. It was on a Thursday Night, and the venue was fairly empty as Mr. Hood got up on stage with his old guitar and in his thick southern accent thanked the few audience members that were there and talked about how he was happy to be back in New Haven, even though the concert was in Hartford but I guess that was close enough. Toward the end of the concert he played a song written during one of the bands many years touring the United States called “21st Century USA.” And suddenly and unexpectedly I found myself incredibly moved by one of the verses, especially as this was in December in the midst of the preparations of Advent and the anxieties of finals season. And I immediately thought of this passage from Isaiah, and what it might look like if Jesus were to make his coming again right now, in 21st century America.
The words of the song go like this: “They say we have to hang on just a little bit longer / And a savior will come our way / We'll know Him by the neon sign / And the opulence He maintains / If Amazon can deliver salvation / I'll order it up on my phone.” I was struck by these words for a variety of reasons, and they made me wonder if any of us would follow Jesus as readily as the disciples did if he were to come in the 21st Century. While I wish I could say that we would embrace him fully as the Son of God and there would be great rejoicing, the fact of the matter is that Jesus was never fully accepted in his life, and I sometimes feel that our society today is even less likely to accept him as a leader as the world he lived in was. If Jesus were to visit us today, there is a chance that people would treat him like our society treats other people like him who have come from little means and were born into a migrating family, which is to say, not very well. The song is right in that so often in our society we look for salvation in those who maintain opulence and whose name we can find in neon lights, whether they be political leaders, movie stars, televangelists. We look up to and trust those who have seen commercial success while sometimes ignoring the prophets walking among us in the darkness.
When hearing St. Paul’s words to an early church in Corinth from our second lesson today, it feels like we might be able to relate to a lot of the things the Corinthians were experiencing. We often identify ourselves as being pro-this or anti-that and label that as key parts of our who we are. Just as some of the Corinthians say “I belong to Cephas or I belong to Appolos,” we tie ourselves to the political leaders we trust and express anger over those who support different ones.
But Paul reminds us that we have unity in Christ. We have unity in our creator and in the creation we inhabit. And we have unity in just being human beings and taking care of each other and in our obligation to care for this fragile earth.
One of the many harmful things we do to our planet has to do with light pollution, that is artificial light leaking into the night sky and negatively impacting birds and other creatures that rely on the night sky. But when thinking back on Isaiah’s words about the people who walked in darkness who have seen a great light, I wonder if our neon signs and bright lights might not just harm wildlife, but also in some metaphorical sense prevent us from living into the darkness and appreciating Christ as the worlds one true light.
So, in this world full of distractions and enticing paths and people to follow, it is my prayer that we can be like the disciples and keep our focus. It is my prayer that we can avoid the doubts and false idolatries that plague us. It is is my prayer that we can avoid getting blinded by our own bright lights. Those who end up dropping everything and following the light of Christ even at the sacrifice of their fishing business get to see the man from Nazareth do some pretty incredible things. They get to see him proclaiming good news and curing peoples sicknesses. And the best part of their journey is that it doesn’t take any preparation, or studying, or knowledge of the bible. The Christian life is, at its core, actually incredibly simple. It just takes saying yes, and following immediately. So, as we move through these next few weeks, let us say yes to the great light in the darkness. Let us say yes unity over division. Let us keep our eyes open to the unexpected ways God shows up in our lives. And let us, in the words of this mornings collect “answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation. Amen.