Advent Devotion for Monday, December 11
Here is the Advent Devotion for today, Monday, Dec. 11. It is based on Luke 22:39-53 (read it here: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=32855599 )
“This is the power of darkness!” says Jesus as the temple police come to arrest him. What does that phrase mean?
At its root, “darkness” has to do with a lack of integrity. Jesus says that in the daytime–for weeks, for months, for years in the daytime–he has preached in the temple and they have not ever touched him. In the light, he was untouched if not entirely unmolested. But now that darkness has come, with its seductive promise of secrecy, Jesus is threatened with swords and clubs.
In the darkness, people act in a way they never would act in the light. This is “the power of darkness,” then: the darkness gives people license to act in ways they usually would not, ways that run counter to their professed morals. This is why I say it has to do with a lack of integrity. Integrity implies a person acting with consistency, unafraid to be who they are, always, without exception. But darkness reveals hidden motives and desires we would never profess.
“Never do anything you don’t want on the front page of the New York Times,” my dad always said. Not that I actually can do it–in fact, neither could he! Nor can you simply avoid bad behavior by trying. Darkness is that powerful–it feasts on willpower, it demoralizes good intentions.
We humans were created “very good” by God, and deep down, we still long to live out that intention. Something in us still yearns to be “very good” in spite of the darkness. But it is not something we can do on our own, with our own power. It is God’s gift; as Peter says, it is God “who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” It is he alone who can make us more than we know we can be; it is he alone who can break the power of darkness.
“This is the power of darkness!” says Jesus as the temple police come to arrest him. What does that phrase mean?
At its root, “darkness” has to do with a lack of integrity. Jesus says that in the daytime–for weeks, for months, for years in the daytime–he has preached in the temple and they have not ever touched him. In the light, he was untouched if not entirely unmolested. But now that darkness has come, with its seductive promise of secrecy, Jesus is threatened with swords and clubs.
In the darkness, people act in a way they never would act in the light. This is “the power of darkness,” then: the darkness gives people license to act in ways they usually would not, ways that run counter to their professed morals. This is why I say it has to do with a lack of integrity. Integrity implies a person acting with consistency, unafraid to be who they are, always, without exception. But darkness reveals hidden motives and desires we would never profess.
“Never do anything you don’t want on the front page of the New York Times,” my dad always said. Not that I actually can do it–in fact, neither could he! Nor can you simply avoid bad behavior by trying. Darkness is that powerful–it feasts on willpower, it demoralizes good intentions.
We humans were created “very good” by God, and deep down, we still long to live out that intention. Something in us still yearns to be “very good” in spite of the darkness. But it is not something we can do on our own, with our own power. It is God’s gift; as Peter says, it is God “who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” It is he alone who can make us more than we know we can be; it is he alone who can break the power of darkness.
posted by Rev. Michael Jordan at 11:45 AM
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