December 9: Out of Darkness
♫ Music:
The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nations, You shall increase their gladness; they will be glad in Your presence as with the gladness of harvest, as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Isaiah 9: 2-3
OUT OF DARKNESS
It is one of nature’s peculiarities that light is most easily seen from a place of darkness. That is, the absence of light makes light more visible. For example, stars are more easily visible from dark, rural areas than they are from over-illuminated urban centers. On a field exercise with a naval construction battalion in a desert in the middle of Nowhere, California, we were led to an empty field at the center of our camp for a “light exercise.” My recollection is that it was dark – very dark. There was no waxing moon to illumine the night sky and there was no local light pollution of note, so we were enveloped by a veil of darkness. We sat for a number of minutes as we allowed our eyes to adjust to darkness. Then, from about a mile away, another soldier lit a cigarette. From the vantage point of such extreme darkness, that quarter inch of burning tobacco and paper seemed as bright as a searchlight’s beacon. To paraphrase the prophet Isaiah, those who dwell in darkness will indeed see great light.
As persons of faith we oftentimes live in a place of darkness (whether of sin, fear or shame) and just as often we judge this to be a defect. We should never desire nor remain content with sin, fear and shame; rather, we should hope to live in the light but we must also realize that our darkness helps us to see the Light. As in nature, it is a human peculiarity that from our place of darkness we are well-positioned to see the light – God.
Erica Grimm Vance’s Tenebrae illustrates the theological profundity that though we live in darkness we see the light of God clearly. Vance’s image shows that this light, God himself, is both within and outside us. Despite being stooped low, God illuminates us with his light. Despite living in both darkness and light we are a source of that light to others as well as grateful recipients of God’s illumination. We receive the light of God and become that light for others. Just as Jesus Christ himself is Light yet becomes the Light of the World so we too are children of that Light and a light to illumine the darkness of others still in darkness. God is with us; therefore let us submit ourselves to him in order to be saved.
Greg Peters, Associate Professor of Torrey Honors Institute
ALMIGHTY GOD, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the First Sunday of Advent
Tenebre, 2004
Erica Grimm Vance
Encaustic, 23 K gold, and steel on birch
About the Artist and Art
Erica Grimm is Associate Professor and Chair of the Art & Design Department, School of the Arts, Media and Culture at Trinity Western University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Represented in galleries across Canada, she has had over 25 solo exhibitions and is in numerous private and public collections, including the Vatican Art Collection and the Canada Council Art Bank.Grimm states, “Embodiment has been the focus of my image making for the past twenty years. All we know is mediated through the body, making it, inescapably, the central site of meaning. I am not interested in the surface superficialities of the body but in going deeper, going inside in an exploration of states of being.” The title of Erica’s painting Tenebre means “shadows” or “darkness” and refers to the service during Holy Week when light is extinguished and congregants exit the sanctuary in darkness (anticipating Christ’s death). The opposite happens during Advent, the darkest time of year, when the light of Christ symbolically enters the world and brings hope to those dwelling in darkness.
Website: http://www.egrimmvance.com
About the Performers
The St. Seraphim Orthodox Church Choir sings in English with a majority of Church singing done according to the Russian-style practice, although hymnody from other traditions (including contemporary American) is sung. The choir is led by Father Lawrence Margitich who is also the senior pastor at the church. The Christmas hymns in the Advent Project are from the recording Behold Your God: Eastern Orthodox Hymns for the feasts of Nativity, Theophany and the Meeting of the Lord. God is With Us is an Advent hymn taken from Isaiah chapter 9. The chanter offers various calls and the choir responds with the phrase, “For God is with Us.”
Website: http://saintseraphim.com/store.html
God is With Us Lyrics
God is with us understand all ye nations
And submit yourselves, for God is with us
Here ye even unto the uttermost ends of the earth
For God is with us
Submit yourselves, ye mighty ones
For God is with us
And again ye shall rise up in your might,
again shall ye be overthrown
For God is with us
If any take council together, them shall the Lord destroy
For God is with us
And the word which ye shall speak shall not abide in you
For God is with us
Lord we fear not your terror, neither are we troubled
For God is with us
But the lord our God He is to whom we must ascribe holiness and Him will we fear
For God is with us
And if I put my trust in Him, He shall be my sanctification
For God is with us
I will put my trust in Him and through Him shall I be saved
For God is with us
Lo I am the children whom God hath given me
For God is with us
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light
For God is with us
And they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them hath the light shined
For God is with us
For us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given
For God is with us
And the government shall be upon His shoulders
For God is with us
And of His peace there shall be no end
For God is with us
And His name shall be called the Angel of Great Council
For God is with us
Wonderful Counselor
For God is with us
The Mighty God, the Highest Power, the Prince of Peace
For God is with us
The Father of the Age to Come
For God is with us
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit
For God is with us
Both now and ever and unto ages of ages, Amen
For God is with us
God is with us understand all ye nations
And submit yourselves, for God is with us