The Light Is Unquenchable John 1:1-5 (Sunrise Service Reflection)

The sun rose at 6:42 yesterday morning and at 7:52 pm it officially set, and, unless you are living under bright city lights, darkness settled in.  Yet, despite the darkness’ arrival, at 6:41 this morning, the sun has officially risen once more, dispelling the darkness moments ago.  The darkness may come, but the light always returns…and according to scientists, that cycle will continue in some manner for the next 5 billion years or so, though life as we know it will be altered in about 1.1 billion years, as the sun grows in intensity as it moves through its life cycle…and several trillion years later it will finally dim to black.  Those of you who are preppers…are you ready for that cataclysmic event?  The sun will eventually be extinguished.
We lit this fire in front of the crosses before folks arrived…it has burned brightly…but eventually, as the wood and paper is consumed, it will grow dark…it will burn out and find itself extinguished.
The light bulbs that light our sanctuary and fellowship hall and your homes will burn brightly for a while, but eventually they will burn out, leaving darkness in its place.
Lights come, brighten the darkness for a while…but eventually, over time, they find themselves extinguished, never to brighten again.
We gathered this morning in darkness remembering the morning that the women had gone to the tomb in darkness.  Their Messiah, their teacher, their friend had been placed in the tomb in darkness days before.  Darkness had settled over them, not just as the sun set when he had been taken from the cross, but it had settled over their hearts as well, leaving them dwelling in darkness whether it was night or day.
They believed He had been the light.  They felt that He was the One promised by Isaiah that would dispel the darkness forever.  They thought they had found the fulfillment of the promise that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness—on them light has shined.”[i]  After all, He had touched those who had been left in darkness by blindness and caused them to see; He had touched those who have been left in the darkness of sin, and offered them the light of forgiveness; Hehe had touched those who found themselves in the darkness of being ostracized by the community, and offered them the light of acceptance and love; He had touched the darkness of death and called them back to the light of life.  Surely, here was a light unlike any they had ever experienced.  And yet on the cross, as He said, “it is finished,” they believed they had seen this amazing light extinguished.
What they didn’t know was that this light…the Light of the World…is unquenchable.  They gathered in darkness outside the tomb…darkness covering the skies and their hearts…and as the sun rose in the sky…they found the tomb empty…and as the morning crept forward and the day opened up, first with Mary Magdalene and later to the others, the darkness filling their hearts was dispelled forever.  The Light that had been put out on the cross was reignited.  Jesus, the Light of the World, was alive.  The darkness had tried, but it could not overcome the Unquenchable Light that is Jesus, Messiah, Son of God, Savior of us all, the Light of our lives, the Light of the World.
My brothers and sisters…just as the sun will set at 7:53 this evening…or rather our earth will rotate it away from the sun’s light as it dispels the darkness on the other side of the globe…darkness will come and try to settle over our lives.  It will try to settle in through sickness…it will try to settle in through death.  It will try to cover our lives with financial trials or job layoffs.  It will try to darken our lives through change and challenges and struggles. But we gather here this morning to declare that the darkness will not win.  It has been and will continue to be dispelled by the Light of the World.  We are here this morning to declare that while trillions of years from now folks will not be able to gather on this lawn for a sunrise service for that sun will have faded to black, there is no darkness…not even the darkness of death…that can nor ever will be able to extinguish the Light that is the risen Son of God…and because of that we never need to live in darkness again.
Praise be to God.  Jesus Christ is Risen.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

[i] Isaiah 9:2b

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