Grammatical Nonsense- 1/25/2014
Is 9:1-4
1 Cor 1:10-18
I think our passages for today really speak in a unique way to our town. Chicago
is a funny place. In the over 4 years I’ve lived here, I feel like I only have the vaguest
of grasp as to what this town is all about. On the surface, to me at least, Chicago
seems to be a city of opposites and division. North side / South side: Which we all
know is actually code for Cubs / Sox… and also White / Black. And a lot of times that’s
just the way I see our city, black and white, cut and dry, haves and have nots. Is it
really so simple?
And maybe these passages are cut and dry in the same way. Light vs.
Darkness. Perishing vs. Saved. What do you think these things are code for? Do we
really only have two options like this? Right vs. Left, Pro vs. Con, Progress vs.
Tradition? Is this all that our so-called free will grants us? To be stuck between two
warring forces neither of which we really identify with?
I don’t believe that division and opposition is all there is. I try not to go out on a
limb very often and say what kind of God, God is, But I’m pretty sure our God is an
ironic God. Why else would the warmest days of winter be the most nasty and gray
and the brightest, sun-shiniest be bitterly, soul stupifyingly cold? There has got to be
more to these binaries than meets the eye if we just look closer just because I don’t
think God is that boring. So let’s look at a few from Isaiah and Corinthians and see
where we get.
Before we talk about Darkness and Light, a side note about our Isaiah passage.
I know that the English translation of this comes off sounding nice and poetic, but once
you pop the hood on this passage and look at the mechanics of the Hebrew, this bit of
scripture is all sorts of weird. One of the commentaries I read called the passage
“grammatical nonsense.” But, surprisingly, nonsense actually makes the most sense
in the context of this Isaiah passage. Verse one says, “There will be no gloom for those
who were in anguish.” That’s the promise of this passage because clearly those to
whom this is addressed are anguished. Armies are invading, chunks of their nation are
being carved off by outsiders. Zebulun and Naphtali are not just the funny names for
places. These are family names. These people are losing family to the Darkness,
whatever it is, and Light at the moment is in short supply.
We know darkness. We know what anguish is like. We know what it’s like to be
lost and carved off from our family. Even with all that we have. We know Darkness.
We know that this is one of the most segregated cities in America. We know darkness.
We know what is like to be sad beyond belief. We know Darkness. We know what
addiction is like. What helplessness is like. What guilt feels like. What anxiety feels
like. We know darkness.
We have walked in darkness and we have seen others walk in darkness.
I was an only child but I still had a bunk bed and as best as I can remember it,
that bunk bed was unnecessarily high. We had one of those popcorn stucko ceilings
and it was like right there when I was in the top bunk. And I can remember flicking my
lamp on and off, way back before I was really old enough to be having such existential
thoughts, and thinking, “where does all the darkness go?” And, remember I was an
only child and good at keeping myself entertained, I’d start to get concerned for the
darkness. Was it just underneath the light, covered up? Who was keeping the
darkness company wherever it was?
We know Darkness, but where does it go when the Light shines? Because we
also know that this Light isn’t just magic. This Light doesn’t just make Darkness
disappear. This light doesn’t just cover darkness over. In this Isaiah passage people
who know darkness are finding light. This Darkness that we know and this Light that
we find intermingle to create something new. This passage is often used to scare
people. Walk in the light (as in do what your told) or the darkness will get you (as in “or
else”). I don’t think that is what this passage is saying, it isn’t so cut and dry. We
aren’t just stuck between darkness and light. Darkness and Light are not battling it out
for our souls. The inevitable Darkness that comes with taking a journey as grand as
life is, meets light along the way and something new is created.
Biologically speaking, our eyes need darkness to see just as much as we need
light. If everything reflected the full spectrum of light, there would be nothing to help us
differentiate anything and we would be just as blind as if there were no light at all.
It kind of goes back to the grammatical nonsense. The nice parallel structure of
this Isaiah passage doesn’t really hold up. It isn’t about God being the light and evil
being the darkness. It isn’t really an opposites thing at all. The amazing thing about
this passage is that we have a journey to walk at all, no matter how light or dark it is,
and people to walk in darkness with and people to find light with. And a God that loves
us enough to let us reconcile the darkness we’ve known and the light that we’ve found
and live in the new creation that comes from it.
And of course everything is hunky dory from there right? No, sorry. I hope I’m not
bumming you all out too much here. There is going to be division along the way too.
Let’s jump to 1 Corinthians. Here good ol’ Paul is pleading with the early church in
Corinth to not be jerks to each other. And we know things are pretty screwed up
because “Chloe’s people” have snitched to Paul about it. If somebody’s “people” are
tattling to a guy who can’t even remember how many people he baptized at your
church: you’ve got issues.
Right after Paul get’s done telling them to be united in the same mind and not to
have any divisions, in verse 18, he divides them into perishers and those being saved.
Great. Those who are perishing versus those who are being saved. Thanks for the
help here Paul. Look, no matter what Paul says there is going to be some division
along the way. From the very beginning of our church there has been division and
there will continue to be more. We won’t agree on everything or be completely united.
But the root of what Paul is saying here isn’t about who perishes and who gets saved,
it is that the power of God is rooted in the cross. The self- giving moment of Christ
living through death for all of us no matter how divided we are or how shrouded in
darkness we are. God’s Grace doesn’t care how dark your path is, light shines. Let’s
live like it’s true. Amen.