Reflections on Darkness and Light
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
Psalm 27:1, 14; Psalm 139:12; Amos 5:8
Inspired by the Atlanta Master Chorale concert “The Ways of Stars”
Saturday evening, March 12, I attended a concert of the Atlanta Master Chorale at the Emory University Schwartz Performing Arts Center. The concert theme was “The Ways of Stars,” featuring choral works about the sun, moon, stars, and light. The music was transcendent and spiritual, touching that deep place within where God’s Spirit abides.
The next day I was assigned to lead the Pastoral Prayer for worship. I knew the sermon was from Psalm 27, “The Lord is my light and my salvation,” and that we would also see a video interview with the Ukranian Pastor Andrei Babiy.
Contrasts of darkness and light were powerfully on my heart that morning as I prepared. Words, phrases, and images from the concert found their way into my prayer, bringing luminous hope into the dark places of this moment in history. I offer that prayer for you today. Let these words illuminate God’s hopeful presence in your life.
Prayer
God of life, light, and love,
We come before you this day from the darkness of our lives, seeking your face, seeking your hope, seeking your light. Darkness covers our hearts like a thick blanket covering your light, blocking our spirits from the hope you offer. We seek your face in the teeming spiritual darkness around us:
The darkness of injustice and inequity…
The darkness of illness, disease, and pandemic…
The darkness of individual violence and nationalistic war…
The darkness of self-serving power and greed…
The thick darkness of destruction and death…
But you O God are our light, our salvation, our hope. We seek the light of your face, for in your light we fear no darkness. Your light turns the shadow of death into the light of the morning. With you, our darkness is not dark, but is as bright as day. Our deepest darkness is as light to you.
Even when the shadows of evil eclipse the light of your love, there remains a glimmer of light, a corona of hope, giving us strength and courage.
Give to our blinded eyes, voices of hope that can show us your perpetual light that is not dimmed by human darkness. Give us faithful hearts that in the fear of our darkness we will see that the darkness is what brings out your light.
The dark eclipse of evil is but a moment, but your light is eternal. Help us to wait for your light. In your light we shall see the goodness of the Lord around us in this world. And we shall behold the beauty of your presence with us, today and forever.
Amen
Greg Smith
Legacy Ministry for Older Adults