Casting Away
the Works of Darkness
An Advent Meditation
by Fr. Josiah Trenham
St. Luke Orthodox
Introduction: Our lessons for this
first Sunday in Advent focus upon the two major "comings" of our
Lord. His incarnational coming to earth
in the womb of the Virgin Mary and his final and all-glorious triumphant coming
to judge the living and the dead. The
first prayer for Advent summarizes the lessons and sets the tone for the entire
Advent season. In it we pray for grace
that we might, "cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of
light" so that we might have a good defense before the dread judgment seat
of Christ. This is the true spirit of
Advent. Advent is the time for us to
cast away the darkness that lies within us in order to receive the light which
shall dawn upon us in the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now casting away the works of
darkness is no easy task. This is why we
are praying for grace to be able to do it.
We know that on our own we have no power to expel the darkness so we ask
for grace from God. Jesus spoke thus
about our darkness, "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into
the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds
were evil" (
First, we must accept the reality of
our inner darkness. It should be apparent to us that
it is impossible to cast away something that you do not believe is in your
possession. There are many ways that we
may fail to accept the presence of our darkness.
Out and out denial of the work as a work of darkness has
always been popular. This is the trick of calling
evil good and good evil. If we can
convince ourselves that a work of darkness is actually a work of the light then
we need not cast it away. We build a system
to propagate our darkness under the guise of righteousness.
I was reminded of a radical modern
day example of this while reading the morning paper on Friday. In the news was the death of the popular cult
leader David Berg. He founded the cult "The
Children of God" which today is known as "The Family." The
Children of God have long been known for a proselyting practice that they call
"flirty fishing." The members
of the group entice others into the cult through sexual intercourse. Thus, fornication becomes a righteous
missionary tool for the propagation of the "faith".
Now I grant that this is an extreme
example, but if we are honest I think we
will find the same principle at times at work in us. Undue anger we may justify under the pretense
that the person needed someone to be honest with him. We may cloak our greed and materialism in the
garment called saving for our children.
We may call our lack of empathy and emotional indifference over the sad
lot of others "being tough-minded" and practicing "tough love". Whatever it may be when we do this we are
practicing out and out denial.
Responsibility Transfer is another popular method to avoid
accepting the reality of our inner darkness.
I was sad to witness this tactic while reading a recent interview with
the new Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
A major section of the interview dealt with his opinion of the
Homosexual Lobby. He stated in no
uncertain terms that homosexuality was not a choice, but was something one was
born with on par with race and gender, and that he didn't see any reason that
people of this persuasion should be treated any differently than other
groups. To do so is of course to
practice undue discrimination. I
immediately thought of writing Mr. Gingrich a letter in which I let him know
that in my prayers since reading his interview I have informed Almighty God
that he sinned by unjustly discriminating against the homosexual communities of
Sodom and Gomorrah. I am sure they have
some living relatives who could use some divine restitution for that unjust act
and emotional break on God's part. The
fire and brimstone was really out of control- clearly homophobic.
Now this sort of responsibility
transfer where what Scripture places in the realm of free moral choice is
relegated to the realm of inescapable nature or bodily constitution is tragic not
only because it is out of accord with the mind of God as we have it in his Word
and in the Church's two thousand year ecclesiastical and civil penology, but it is tragic because as I said earlier
one cannot cast away something that you don't believe is in your
possession. If it is necessary to cast
away the works of darkness in order to be prepared for the final judgment then
you can see how harmful the self-proclaimed prophets of responsibility transfer
are to their followings because the impetus to launch out and experience the
saving power of the living Lord Jesus Christ is taken away. No Savior is ever sought from something one
does not believe he needs to be saved from.
Now the antidote for these practices
of denial and responsibility transfer are the humble reception of the testimony
of the Church and Her Bible about our darkness.
We must fail to substitute the canon of contemporary political
correctness or even the canon of contemporary Christian practice for the Canon
of Scripture in judging evil and good.
Many no doubt will be extremely disappointed on the great day of
Judgment when they are not judged according to the standard of what their
Christian peers did or didn't do or according to the civil religion of America
but instead by the perfect law of God.
Second, having accepted the reality of our inner
darkness we must cast it away. How to do
this? We must know that the means of
casting away our inner darkness is by filling ourselves with Jesus Christ, the
true light of the world. It is Christ in
us, the hope of glory, that abolishes the darkness and transforms our dark
habits and character into the glorious character of the saints in light. Light and darkness have no fellowship (2Cor.
6:14ff). Do you feel helpless against
that besetting sin? Do you sometimes
feel swallowed up by the darkness inside you own heart? The balm for your sore and the cure for your
grief is our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ. Where he is his burning light of love drives
away our darkness, strengthens our will to practice virtue and grants abiding
peace to the conscience. Advent is
calling us to seek Christ. To make way
for the coming of Christ into our hearts more and more. in answer to our
prayers, " O heavenly King, O comforter, the Spirit of truth, who art in
all places and fillest all things.
Treasury of good things and giver of light. Come and dwell in us. Cleanse us from every stain and save our
souls, O gracious Lord."
If our Lord Jesus Christ is the
answer to our quest in casting away the works of darkness. If it is his light we seek to save us then
Advent calls us to obtain him and his light by praying, fasting, giving and
confessing. "And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you; seek,
and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you...If you then
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?" (St. Luke 11:9,13). Let us make concentrated time this Advent to
ask God for his Holy Spirit to come more fully into us. As an aid to prayer and means of
self-emptying that the Spirit might come we humble our souls in fasting. In order to beautify the house for the
Spirit's residence we focus on giving away our lives- in alms and good works of
mercy. And during Advent we agressively
take the most pertinent action in casting away the works of darkness possible
to us humans. We search out the
darkness. We leave no room for it to
hide, giving ourselves to the brutal yet most freeing and deifying work
possible to man: repentance. Let us
clean our hearts this Advent. Let us
make room for the King of Kings to find rest in the light filled inn of our
hearts. In the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit: One God. Amen.