Sunrise Season

 I sat in the pre-dawn dark, watched the gathering glow in the east and heard the first bird break the stillness with song. Soon others joined him in the gathering light until the air echoed with a chorus of calls celebrating the break of day. It was as if the birds had waited through the long hours of darkness wondering if the sun would return, and, once it did, they were delirious with joy.

We sometimes feel that way, when we consider the darkness in which our world exists: continued wars in the Ukraine, Israel, Myanmar, and Sudan; Jihadist insurgencies in Niger, Burkina Faso and Tunisia; daily reports of sexual abuse, domestic violence and prejudice.   We sometimes wonder, as the birds seem to do, if the dawn of light and goodness will again dispel the darkness of violence and suffering .

I have watched the sun rise over the snow-covered hills of Minnesota, painting the landscape with crimson and gold, its light sparkling like diamonds on ice covered limbs. I have watched the sun stain the eastern horizon with purple and gray before penetrating the breaking clouds with shafts of gold. I have watched the day dawn over the mountains of Montana and Switzerland. I have seen it transform the sea into pink and purple waves. I watched the sun rise on the first day of the new millennium, bursting above the horizon as a brilliant ball of light in a clear blue sky.

Sunrise is the perfect symbol for God’s intervention into our world at this Christmas season.

When the forerunner, John, was born, his father, Zechariah understood the importance of his birth. For nine months he had reflected on the angel’s announcement in the temple, that he would have a son in his old age. He had remained mute throughout Elizabeth’s pregnancy. But when John was born, his tongue was loosed, and he burst into praise. He said, “And you, child, also will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;  to give His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the sunrise from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:76-79).

Every generation has witnessed the sunrise of God. Darkness cannot conquer it. Corrie Ten Boom and Dietrich Bonhoffer saw it during the dark days of Hitler’s holocaust. Louis Zamparini discovered it after surviving the Japanese POW camps. Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall bore witness to it during the massacre at Columbine. The light from on high refuses to be extinguished by the violence and suffering of this world.   

This is what John meant when he wrote, “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:4-14).