Joy comes in the morning

THE RISING SUN

The sun rises over the seat of power in America, Capitol Hill in Washington DC

Luke 1:78 By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us.

Malachi 4:2 But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

There is so much that is obvious in this name for Jesus. In our language, of course, there is the echo of ‘sun’ and ‘son’. In our language, there is the mirroring of the coming up of the sun at daybreak and the rising of Jesus from death to life. That much seems obvious, I suppose.

But our two readings stretch these givens in different ways.

The verse from Luke 1.78 is recited daily in Morning Prayer by Anglicans. It comes as a great crescendo towards the end of the prayer and prophecy of Zechariah, known as the Benedictus. Let’s read the whole great poem:

 ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has looked favourably on his people and redeemed them.
 He has raised up a mighty saviour for us
    in the house of his servant David,
 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
 that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
    and has remembered his holy covenant,
 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
 to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
    before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give knowledge of salvation to his people
    by the forgiveness of their sins.

 By the tender mercy of our God,
    the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

    to guide our feet into the way of peace.’

For nine months, faithful priest Zechariah had been struck dumb by God’s angel for doubting the impossible plan for his wife to have a baby late in years. As Elizabeth bore John the great prophet for nine months, so Zechariah went through his own pregnancy: a priest unable to speak for nine months must be a hard thing! In fact, he had probably a little more than nine months of enforced silence; it was not until eight days after the birth, when it came to the naming of John at his circumcision ceremony that his tongue was again loosed and out came this great poem of praise and prediction. Of course, Elizabeth will no doubt have told Zechariah that her cousin Mary was to have a baby whose course was already set, like the very nature of the sun itself.

As Zechariah saw it, this child Jesus would spring out of tender mercy from God. This child would break upon the world like the dawning of the day – silently but surely. This child, who would experience the darkness of death, would also rise to lead a way out of death's shadow, into a way of peace.

As I write this, we have been celebrating Epiphany today – the feast day of the arrival from the East (the lands of the Rising Sun) of the star-gazing Magi, the ones who had followed the bright star to Bethlehem. Yesterday’s reflection was on the name of Jesus as Bright Morning Star. And today we are considering Jesus as the brightest star in our solar system, the Rising Sun.

Last November 6^th, on night of the Presidential election count, when it became clear the surprise candidate Donald Trump had won, the sitting president Barack Obama found the words to help the people of the United States. Here is what he said, as reported in the Los Angeles Times:

President Obama has a message to Americans: The sun will, in fact, come out tomorrow. In an election night message he recorded for BuzzFeed News, Obama sought to sooth any angst among voters as they cast ballots on Tuesday after what's been a contentious presidential race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. 

"This has been an exhausting, stressful and sometimes downright weird election for all of us," Obama said. "We've been through tough and divisive elections before and we've always come out stronger for it. Whether your chosen candidates win or lose tonight, let's all agree, not only to stay engaged, but to push ourselves to do even better," he said. In closing, he added, "no matter what happens, the sun will rise in the morning."

As has often been the case with President Obama’s oratory, he found soaring words of grace to encourage the people of America to look beyond their hopes and fears and unite. These were words of healing comfort. And it is that theme of healing which Malachi picks up in the other verse which guides are thoughts. The prophet paints a delightful picture of a leaping calf, bursting out from the confines of its winter stalls as if full of joy to find liberty in spring pastures. After the dark days of winter, comes the spring. After the night comes the day.

Psalm 30.5 perhaps provides us with a final very truthful experience of the night-time of our fears and impact of daylight which can bring a more steadfast and hopeful approach: Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.