In Darkness - December 2008 Synchroblog Post

The home in Uberlândia, Brazil was sparsely furnished, there was a handful of grubby children scampering around and from speaking with the mother of the family only a short while it was clear she had never completed grade school. My then-girlfriend (now wife) Christiane and my future brother-in-law Marcelo had invited me along to study the Bible with this woman. The economic circumstances of this family were challenging but also fairly typical of a significant segment of Brazilian society. "Inequality" is more than a word in many Central and South American countries, including Brazil. What I remember most wasn't the home, education level of its inhabitants or their financial situation. What sticks in my mind is a question the mother asked.

Her husband wasn't able to join us to study. It wasn't that he was against it, but that he really had no time. To support his struggling family he worked two or three jobs (three is the number that comes to mind). The man returned home only to eat quickly, have a shower and grab a few hours rest before starting it all over again. With all his effort, sometimes there were bills that went unpaid, like electricity. Several times they had gone days without light in the house (and since the showers are electrically heated there, without warm baths) because they couldn't pay the bill.

"It gets so dark at night. Sometimes I've heard people say that sinners are sitting in darkness and wonder if God is punishing us."

It made me want to cry. Only a few months before I had been listening to debates on fine points of the Bible in a Church of Christ college context, and here was a woman so simple and humble that she took the words "in darkness" completely literally.

Of course it's true that sinners are "in darkness," and Christians are called to "walk in the light." Here in North America and indeed throughout Brazil I think most people would be able fairy easily to distinguish between the concept of spiritual darkness and physical darkness fairly easily. Perhaps the distinction shouldn't be made so sharply, though.

Africa has been called the "dark continent" since the 19th century. It isn't a reference to race, so attempting to flame me in the comments won't draw an apology like the one NPR should never have given for the term's use. It was originally a rather romantic name given to what to the Europeans of that century was a mysterious and (to them) unexplored region of the world. Nowadays the label is still apt, given the dearth of electricity and therefore artificial illumination throughout Africa (check out some images and an interesting post from a white African's perspective here). The continent continues, for the most part, to sit in darkness.

A recent BBC Radio program explored the ways African nations are trying to build electrical infrastructure, particularly with nuclear energy. The trouble is that any infrastructure of any kind built on the continent is at risk of destruction from war and civil unrest. The funds also never seem to be available, despite billions of dollars contributed from Western nations.

If, God forbid, the electricity were ever cut off from my home here in the United States it would either be because there was a power failure or I failed to pay the bill. If it were the latter, I would have only myself to blame. I pay many bills in a month and have gone through some pretty difficult financial times in my life, but the last thing to go unpaid would be energy. I just couldn't leave my family in darkness.

In Africa, South America and elsewhere many people don't have the options I enjoy. Grinding poverty brought about by corruption and violence remove from people the ability to have access to many resources we in the wealthier nations consider a given. That family in Brazil and many cities Africa abide in darkness because of sin, but not necessarily their own. The dread dark of night that is poverty's companion is, in our times, the savage offspring of the Stygian gloom the human heart.

Disciples of Jesus are mistaken if they address one form of tenebrosity to the exclusion of the other. They go hand-in-hand and must be confronted in word and deed by the light of the Good News that the crucified and resurrected Jesus of Nazareth is the world's true Lord. If He is indeed Lord of the nations now, then they, their people and governors must be called to account. No one should be sitting in darkness.

"'Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.' From that time Jesus began to proclaim, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.'" Matthew 4:15-17 NRSV

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This post is part of the December 2008 Synchroblog on Darkness and Light as Motifs of Spirituality. Check out what all the synchrobloggers have to say on this topic.

Phil Wyman bangs his head against the keyboard in the Darkness: a Thin Place for the Soul
Adam Gonnerman on being "In Darkness"
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Jeff Goins is "Walking in the Light with Jesus"
Ellen Haroutunian finds Light is Coming
Julie Clawson walks through Darkness and Light
Kathy Escobar will Take a Sliver Anyday
Susan Barnes at ...and here's a photo of one I made earlier
Joe Miller thinks you can Discover Light in Darkness
Beth Patterson talks about Advent: Awaiting the Ancient and the Ever New
Liz Dyer says What the Heck
Sally Coleman muses about Light into Darkness
Steve Hayes with the Lord of the Dark
Josh Jinno with Spiritual Motifs of Darkness and Light
KW Leslie contrasts Darkness versus blackness
Erin Word writes Fire and Sacrifice