Dayspring from on High

Preached on 11-26-00

THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH

A Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Lk. 1:76-79)

THE LORD WAS BORN AT A TIME when evil flourished upon the face of the earth. The forces of hell predominated over those of heaven. In the hearts of many men and women there burned the fires of hatred, revenge and self-love. Inmostly, though, there was cold, the cold of indifference towards God and towards the things of eternal life. There was spiritual winter, a bitterly cold winter, in the world. And it was a very dark winter. Where evil reigns, so too does the darkness of falsity.

It was in this darkness that evil could flourish. When the desires of a person are actively evil, his understanding serves this evil by concocting all kinds of false ideas, ideas which favor and excuse his evil desires. Such false ideas are nothing else than the evil of the will taking form in the understanding. In other words, they are an intellectual expression of evil. And such falsity gives strength to evil. By convincing himself, through falsity, that his evils do not matter, a person is enslaved by these evils. In addition, by means of falsity -- false beliefs and false ideas -- these evils can be spread to the minds of others.

Falsity can be communicated. False and mistaken ideas can be expressed and taught to others. And falsity, by making evil seem to be attractive, encourages wickedness in others. It is the means by which evil gains the power to affect other people. It is the means by which unregenerate people lead one another further and further into evil, until they all become hopeless slaves to their own and to each other's hellish desires.

This is what was occurring at the time of the Lord's Advent. Indeed, this state of affairs had been going on for a long, long time. Since the time when evil had first arisen, this evil had grown, gained strength, and had spread from one person to another. Evil had acquired a power of such strength that, in the hearts of those who loved it, there reigned an incredible darkness. They could not, nor did they want to, raise their minds above the things of this world to see how awful their evil really was.

Not everybody, though was like this. If everybody had been evil in this way, the Lord's coming would have had no purpose. He could not have convinced evil men to love the truth, for they loved the darkness of falsity. Neither could the Lord have forced them from this love of theirs. The Lord respects people’s freedom, even though what they choose in freedom might be tragically wrong.

Nevertheless, there were, in the world, some who desired, in their hearts, to do what was good. There were those who wished to know the truth. And these people also were enslaved by the darkness that filled the world. This was the greatest tragedy of all. By means of falsity, evil gains power over the wicked man who invents the falsity; and by means of falsity evil gains power over other evil people as well. But, in addition to this, evil, through falsity, can also gain dominion over those who desire what is good.

Now in themselves, evil and falsity have no strength over good. The power of evil is said in the Writings to be like the power of a flea against a flea, or of a mite against a mite. In itself evil is weak, and it can only exercise power over other evils. A man who is truly good can see clearly the error of falsity, and will shun those evils which falsity condones. But those people who desired good at the time of the Lord's coming were not truly good. They were burdened with an evil heredity. They were weak, and in many ways they gave in to inherited tendencies to evil. They were, in a word, unregenerate. And so the darkness that reigned in the world at that time had power over them. They could not distinguish between what was true and what was false, and so they were led astray by the reasonings of evil men. This was tragic. Because of their weaknesses they were enslaved by the falsity which came from evil. Yet also, because of their weaknesses, they needed the truth. They had to have the truth to guide them from what was evil into what was good. And this they could not see. Here were men who were in evil, but did not really desire evil. Here were men who wished to be led to good, but could not see the path. They were slaves to darkness. In the words of our text, they sat "in darkness and in the shadow of death." They were sadly tormented.

They would not be enslaved forever. In the days of Herod, King of Judaea, the angel Gabriel appeared to announce that two miraculous births were about to happen. The angel appeared first to an old man in Judaea, a priest by the name of Zacharias, and told him that his aged wife Elisabeth would bear him a son. That his wife, who was well beyond the years of childbearing, should conceive a son, seemed impossible to Zacharias. He doubted the angel, and was struck dumb for his disbelief. About six months later, Gabriel appeared again, this time in Galilee, to a woman by the name of Mary. She also would bear a son. This was even more incredible, because Mary, though betrothed to be married, was still a virgin. But still she, as had Elisabeth, conceived a child.

Between these two miraculous events there was a close connection. Elisabeth and Mary were cousins, and the children they were to have would, from a natural viewpoint, be related to one another. But the connection between them was deeper than this. The babies who were to be born had a mission in common. It was a mission prophesied in the words of our text. When Elisabeth's baby was born, her husband Zacharias, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he opened his mouth. Under Divine inspiration he gave thanks to the Lord, and then, addressing his newborn son, added what must have appeared to those present to be an astounding prophecy. "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation to His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Lk. 1:76-79)

Darkness had indeed enslaved people who desired to see the light. Perhaps they had at times thought the Lord had forgotten them. He had not forgotten. His compassion is infinite, and all the time He had been preparing for His coming, a coming by which He would bring the light of truth into this world. Now this time was near. Now was born a baby who, in the words of his father, was to be called the prophet of the Highest. This baby's name was John, from the Hebrew meaning "Mercy of Jehovah." And John's task would be to prepare those who had lived in ignorance and falsity so long, to receive the truth. Soon to be born was the Lord who was the truth itself. The Lord, in the prophecy of Zacharias, is called the Dayspring, or the Dawn, and as the Dawn He would soon bring light to those who lived in ignorance. Cut off from the light of heaven, and living their lives in the shadow of evil, of spiritual death, they would be taught by the Lord and led from evil into what was truly good. They would be liberated from those evils which had infested them, and they would at last have peace.

Here is the wonder of the story of Christmas. As we read the story of the birth of Mary's baby, we know that this was the birth of no ordinary child. His birth was the dawn, the dawn at the end of a long night of spiritual darkness. This infant was none other than God Himself, the source of all spiritual light.

It is well then that at Christmas we focus our thoughts first and foremost upon the birth of the Lord. But still, we should not forget the birth of John the Baptist. His birth is an integral part of the story of Christmas. By himself he was an ordinary baby. He, unlike the Lord, had an ordinary man for a father. Nevertheless, though he was not Divine, the office he was born to perform was indeed a holy office. He was to prepare people for the coming of the Lord. Yet even this might seem to be of little concern for us today. Now the Lord has already come, the preparation for His coming might seem to be little more than a matter of historical interest.

The reality is, though, that the birth of the Lord is not only an historical event, but is something which can happen in the life of every individual man and woman. Historically, the Lord came to bring truth to a world full of ignorance and falsity. Individually, the Lord can come to us as well, freeing us from the bonds of evil and falsity, giving us enlightenment and wisdom. He can, as it were, be born into our minds. But if this is to happen, we must be prepared, just as the men on earth were prepared by John the Baptist. John's mission to the world is, as it were, a mission to us as well.

John lived in the wilderness. The wilderness represented the spiritual state of the people of that time. Because of the falsities which were prevalent then, they could not see the truth. Therefore their minds were in darkness. But their minds were also barren -- nothing spiritual could grow within them. Their minds were indeed like a wilderness in which nothing could grow.

Our minds also can be like a dark wilderness. Unlike the people of that time, we may know the truth. But simply to know the truth does not give us light. The truths we know may well seem dark and obscure. They may seem unimportant to us. We may instead turn to our own thoughts, and reason ourselves into doing things we know to be wrong. And we may allow ourselves to be persuaded by others to do things that are against the teachings of the Word. Though we might not realize it, we are clouding our minds with the darkness of falsity, and so making our lives into a spiritual wilderness. We are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.

Now it does not follow from this that we do not want salvation. We may in fact want to follow the Lord. But He seems to far away. And this isn't surprising, for we are weak, and we so often lose sight of Him as we fall into evils. In states like this, we would do well to turn our attention to the ministry of John the Baptist: John ministered to a state similar to ours almost two thousand years ago.

What John did was simple, very simple indeed; but what he did had tremendous power. He announced that the Lord was coming, he baptized in the river Jordan, and he preached repentance. The people at that time needed to be told that the Lord was coming. Though prophets throughout the ages had announced His coming, those who awaited Him had gradually weakened, and had almost given up hope. John's proclamation of the Lord's advent renewed their hope. It gave them strength. The ritual of baptism he performed served the same purpose, for by means of it the Jews were brought into association with those in the spiritual world who longed for the coming of the Messiah, and they were thus guarded by the angels from the forces of hell.

We too need to be told that the Lord will come. We too should have hope and be strong. It does no good to give up. We may be weak; we may be in spiritual obscurity; the Lord may seem far away. At those times when we despair of our spiritual state, we may be sorely tempted to give up. But we cannot afford to give up in spiritual matters. We must be strong. And we can be helped in this if we remember that if we keep going, keep trying, one day the Lord will come, one day the Lord will be born into our hearts.

John the Baptist also called for people to repent. He told the Jews to repent, for the Lord was coming. And we also have to repent. Indeed, the Lord's birth into our hearts, depends upon our repentance. We must put away our evils. And this we can do. We may be weak, and we may lack the illustration to always see what is right. But we can concentrate on those things we know we shouldn't do. And we can shun these things -- things we know to be wrong. This we can do, for the Lord gives us the power. And if we do this, if we persevere and refuse to give up hope, then eventually a miracle will begin to happen. Slowly, perhaps so slowly we hardly notice, the spiritual clouds in our minds will begin to fade. We will become less and less likely to reason ourselves out of doing what is right. We will find it easier to live the way we know we should live. And most important of all, the Lord will no longer seem far away. He will seem close, very close indeed. The teachings of John the Baptist -- teachings of hope, teachings about obedience -- will have prepared a way for coming of the Lord. They will have made it possible for Him to be born within our minds.

The prophecy of Zacharias will have been fulfilled once again, as it is fulfilled whenever a man or woman turns to the Lord. Once more, the Dayspring from on high will have visited us, "to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

Amen.

Lessons: Isa. 60:1-3; Lk. 1:57-80; AE 365:10