Chiaroscuro: The Clear Dark

Chiaroscuro: The Clear Dark

Lectionary Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14

Anybody who enjoys language inevitably picks out words they love to say or hear. When I was in middle school I fell in love with the word “Lugubrious”(mournful and brooding) after a teacher said a 500 word essay should not be written lugubriously. By high school I picked up “Isomorphism” (a mathematic concept in linear algebra of one-to-one correspondence of sets) as my word love affair. I frequently stated my chess club and math club were isomorphic (yea, that’s the nerd in “Shepnerd”). My favorite Hebrew word is “Tzedakah” (to give charity justly) and my favorite Greek word is Ekkletos which literally means “gathered in from different sources” and became the biblical word for “church”. My favorite Spanish word (out of the 7 or 8 I actually know correctly) is “Esperanza” (hope). But of all the words in all the languages in all the world – my favorite word is “Chiaroscuro”.

Chiaroscuro is a word used to describe the interplay between darkness and light. It’s used in art, in photography and interior design. It comes from a combination of two Latin words: Ciarus (Clear) and Obscurus (Dark). The clear dark. Shadow and light. Darkness and dawn. What a perfect metaphor for my life, and my faith. What a perfect way to describe what God is trying to do in our world through us – to make the night clear, and overcome the darkness with light. Paul certainly thought a lot of this symbolism. He uses darkness and light as one of the major analogies in his letters and the lectionary scripture for this week in Ephesians is a great example.

Reminding the Ephesians, and all of us, that we are children of light – even in the darkest of situations – Paul draws contrast to the differences between darkness and light. Let’s look at the Chiaroscuro.

The Surrounding Dark – The Comforting Light

There is darkness in our world and each of us encounters it sometime. Some go through long periods of their life journey when God seems far, or hope seems lost. They tend to call that the “dark time” of their life. Others can point to a singular event of blinding intensity that enshrouds them. Some folks have “dark people” who draw them into avenues or habits that nearly choke the light from their soul. Others have dark thoughts of emptiness or depression – described by Catholic mystic St. John of the Cross as the “dark night of the soul”. The surrounding darkness is pervasive in our world.

Everyone has things they do, eat or run to when looking for comfort and light. Some people take walks when they are hurting and clear their head that way. Others write journals, go fishing, watch movies or drown their sorrows in a couple of pints of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream. For me, anytime I am about to be overcome by a surrounding darkness I resort to a technique I have used since I was a kid – listening to music in the dark, with the stereo lights on. When I still lived with parents, it was a huge all-in-one record, tape, and radio set with headphones (waking my parents up while listening to Van Halen at midnight would have definitely increased the darkness in my life!). As time went by the media changed – car radio, clock radio, boom box, centrally wired home theater system, modem shining in my office – but the comfort remains.

Not long ago, I sat in my office in the dark one night – praying and thinking – when I heard Kate Voegele’s “Its Only Life” sing…

"Tears are forming in your eyes
A storm is warning in the sky
The end of the world it seems
You bend down and you fall on your knees

Don't look away
Don't run away
Hey baby it's only life
Don't lose your faith
Don't run away
Hey baby its only life"

While it’s not the most theologically profound piece of secular music ever written (that would be Madonna’s “Crazy for You”), it touched me with the right message at the right time – encouraging me to face the issue and find perspective. That’s what the comforting light does. That’s why I love to hear music by the stereo lights.

It doesn’t seem a fair contest – A tiny green LED light or small blue modem flickering against the surrounding darkness – and yet the light always perseveres. Paul describes us as CHILDREN of light. Not warriors. Not lighthouses. Not supersonic lasers. Children: the smallest of people, the most vulnerable, the most fragile. Yet even when we feel so small and overpowered by the dark things we encounter – that tiny light of us – powered by the inextinguishable Spirit of God is enough to keep the darkness at bay.

The Initial Darkness – The Natural Light

Genesis tells us the world was in darkness until God said “Let there be light”. So darkness was first. It goes that way with us too. Each of us is born into a world with a certain amount of spiritual darkness. We are born knowing need, knowing hunger, needing touch and our parents provide that for us. Before too long our little baby brains figure out a great spiritual truth – we need a provider. But, once we start toddling along and learn to feed ourselves we buy into the idea that we have all we need. Even in Christian homes where prayer happens before every meal and Sunday school is the norm – the darkness of self-providence and ego comes upon us. As Paul tell us in this passage (approximately quoting Isaiah 60:1) – its time to wake up. Arise. Shine. (give God the glory, glory…).

There are 2 ways for people to wake up. First there is the sudden glaring beam of light way. In this method – the person pulls down the shades – covering all windows and closing all doors. At some point the alarm will ring and the shades will be raised or the light turned on all at once. After squinting in the painful reality of morning, the person becomes ready to embrace the day. While the method is fast, it is also quite jarring and visually painful. The other way is to leave the shades up and the door open. As the sun rises, so does the light – slowly, naturally – waking the person in small degrees. It can take a lot longer, but the pain is vastly lower.

Those are the two ways we wake up to God. Some people meet God through their every day life – through parents and school, through friends, church and mentors. Slowly they add to their faith and relationship with their creator. Others have a life crisis – a moment of loss or a moment of change or clarity profound in its ability to stun and blind. Then they see God and realize the light has come.

Peter and Paul are two good examples of this awakening. Peter saw the life of Jesus shine every day. He saw healing, heard sermons, engaged in prayer and conversation. Slowly with every footstep at Christ’s side (and through that dark night where his feet led him away from the savior) Peter saw the light. Paul didn’t get a couple years of lessons, tutoring, astounding forgiveness and commissioning. Paul was riding along when WHAM! Darkness in the form of blindness and three days later WHAM! Amazing, beautiful light.

Is it any wonder Paul tells us so much about chiaroscuro? Paul knows all about darkness and light.

We as people of God, as children of light, need to understand what Paul is saying - there are those unspeakable things that happen in the darkness that surrounds our world. But more than that – we need to know – like Paul – with no uncertainty that the light overcomes the darkness. Whether it comes shining in all at once from the Spirit, or slowly rises on a path of healing that takes time and wisdom– the light will shine on you, in you, and through you. The light will cleanse you of your sins, and heal you from your sorrows.

No one is so small that God cannot shine a light that drives even the greatest darkness from around them. Even now we live with hope and assurance that God will create for us a clear dark.