"Shadows"

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who walked in the land of shadows, on them a light has shined."

The people of Israel, during the time of Isaiah and well beyond lived perpetually in the land of the shadows. For decades they were always overshadowed by superpowers. They were pawns in the battle for supremacy between the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans... They were always in the shadows - constatly battered by forces beyond their control.

The shadows thrown by surrounding military powers were very dark and very deep. The threat crushing military defeat and deportation was always round the corner; the constant problem of negotiating the correct military alliances and being on the right side at the right time was a constant headache; the indignity of having puppet kings imposed by another nation, loyal not to the people of Israel, but to a foreign king - all of this plunged the people of Israel deep into the land of the shadows.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who walked in the land of shadows, on them a light has shined."

But I think Isaiah has in mind something much darker than the physical shadows of the surrounding superpowers. Isaiah is also pointing to a shadow across the soul of the people of Israel. Or, to put it another way, the people of Israel are but a shadow of what God intends them to be. A shadow is a pale, two-dimensional version of the real thing. Your shadow is faceless and featureless; it leaves no mark on the world, it serves no useful purpose.

The people of Israel are in a spiritual shadowland. They have fallen short of what God called them to be.

The Christians at Corinth were in a spiritual shadowland too. They had lost sight of the three-dimensional fulness of life that they saw in Jesus Christ and had begun to settle for a pale, two dimensional shadow of that life. Their Spiritual poverty led them to grievous divisions - "I follow Paul" ... "I follow Appollos" ... "I follow Cephas" ... "I follow Christ." (1 Cor. 1:12)

"IS CHRIST DIVIDED?" thunders Paul.

C.S. Lewis once said, "This present world is temporary, only shadows; real life, our eternity in heaven, has not yet begun." (Lightbearer in the Shadowlands, A. Mengue, pg.32).

Compared to the people God really wants us to be, compared to what God has created us to be, we are lifeless, flat, featureless shadows.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who walked in the land of shadows, on them a light has shined."

The people of Israel faced two kinds of shadow - physical shadows and spiritual shadows. They faced the fear of real events and frightening possibilities and they faced the truth that they had fallen far short of what God called them to be - physical shadows and spiritual shadows.

What about you and me?

Do you ever feel like you're living in the land of physical shadows?

It might be something that you feel as a whole church community. Here at Westbourne it might be the rather frightening shadow of a condemned building ready to be demolished. It might be the shadow of an uncertain future - finances, buildings, declining membership... All of them frightening shadows.

Or it might be something you feel as an individual. You might be facing the shadow of illness for yourself or someone close; the shadow of unemployment; the shadow of loneliness. You might be facing the ultimate shadow of Psalm 23 - the valley of the shadow of death.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who walked in the land of shadows, on them a light has shined."

And what has God to say to us as we face these frightening physical shadows all around? Jesus looked down from the hill over the city of Jerusalem and he wept. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!"  (Luke 13:34)

God offers you and me the shadow of his wing, the shelter of his presence. As the Psalmist wrote, "For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent, he will set me high upon a rock." (Psalm 27:4)

Think about this for a moment. Just as there is no smoke without fire, there is no shadow without light. Shadows are the evidence that darkness is not in control.

Helen Keller once said: "A cloud cannot cast a shadow unless the sun is shining behind it."

Goethe said, "When there is much light, the shadow is deep"

and Ursula Guin said, "To light a candle is to cast a shadow."

Shadows are the evidence that the darkness is not in control.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who walked in the land of shadows, on them a light has shined."

And what about the Spiritual Shadows? What about your corporate life here at Westbourne? What about our corporate life as a Local Ecumenical Partnership, as Churches Together in Hartlepool? Are we everything God wants his Church to be? Are we anything like God wants his church to be? Let's be honest with ourselves for a moment. Is God thrilled with the life and witness of his Church in Hartlepool, or are we but a pale shadow of what God wants us to be?

Or think of your own spiritual life. Would you describe it as rich and colourful, full of life and creativity, filling your life with peace, joy and hope? Or would it be more accurate to describe it as dried up, a bit shrivelled, a bit of a chore, filling your life with guilt and despair?

What has God to say to us when we find ourselves living in a spiritual shadowland?

As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

When we find ourselves in the shadowlands, Jesus calls us to himself, "follow me!" he draws us into his presence, into the light, and he sends us out in his service, "I will make you fishers of men." He sends us out into the the shadowlands to draw others into the light.

"Out of the shadow of the night, the world rolls into light. It is daybreak everywhere." (Longfellow)

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who walked in the land of shadows, on them a light has shined."

Thanks be to God. Amen.