THANK YOU!

And Darkness Fell Like Thunder! 

For a broad swath of America today is not going to be a day like any other. Our part of the country is experiencing a solar eclipse and, despite our modern scientific understanding, something out of the ordinary, something mystical is happening. As I write it is 11:27 AM, the darkening of the sun is not far off, but I have the advantage of knowing that it is coming AND that it will go away.

Think of so many ancient cultures such as the Mesopotamians, Mesoamericans, Egyptians, and the Chinese who felt that the sun was the source of all life and that its lessening brightness just might mean that it was dying and with its demise all earthly life would end too. It is that “not knowing” that makes the darkness even more fearful. The same creepy feeling makes us shiver when we hear, “Well, your lab tests indicate something is wrong but we just do not know what it is yet.” Until clarity of final reports are done we stand alone in darkness.

France in the summer of 1789, had a convergence of events that wrought havoc to French society. Two bad grain harvests had occurred and famine filled the major cities. Cannibalism was reported. A society that had been incredibly stable for over a thousand years was about to fragment. In short, at Versailles a good but ignorant man was king. He wanted to help his people but had no idea how to do it. The Estates General, an advisory group that had gone uncalled for over a century, met to help the king. Neither the Estates nor the King got the chance to effect France positively in any way. By July 14, 1789, the radical leftwing mobs and ideologues took over the nation. The Royal family, its supporters, clergy, rabbis, and all persons of moderate sensibilities were being arrested and many guillotined. The only solution the radicals offered was utter destruction of all the mooring posts that had kept French society intact be eradicated and a new world rebuilt.

Priceless Christian churches were desecrated or destroyed. The Church lost all its voice in society. Even the Christian calendar was abolished as were all titles of respect; everyone was now “equal” as a citizen. However, the supposed equality was nothing more than words. The proof of citizenship was utterly predicated by agreement with the Radical Government (the Reign of Terror) now in control.

I say all this to remind us that we may well scientifically know our few minutes of natural darkness will end, but no one has devised a mechanism to determine what the results will be when radical revolution is instigated as it takes on a life and power of its own, beyond all control.

Compare that to the Christian movement and faith. It spread peacefully by missionaries and small bands of believers who preached no destruction, no eradication of opposing groups, no racial or national supremacy. They spread not darkness but light! The core of its message was love; not a love of feel good fluffy flower power, but love instigated and formed by God. This love changed people if they lived by its precepts, and changed people changed the world. That my friends is the only answer for our day.

Will you help push back the darkness by letting the Light of Christ illumine you. Then, as you shine His light on others they will, like you, catch fire with God’s True Light.

See you in church on Sunday,
Andrew