I truly believe I grew up in the golden age of kids’ television programming. As a young child, Mister Rogers made weekly visits to our home. As adolescence peeked its head into our home I transitioned to Nickelodeon. Hey Dude, Salute Your Shorts, and Guts helped me pass the time during rainy weekends and snow days. By far, my favorite program on Nickelodeon was Are You Afraid of the Dark.

Are You Afraid of the Dark provided pre-adolescent viewers with just enough scary to freak us out but not prevent us from falling asleep at night. Of course, there were a few episodes that kept me up at night but at the time I would not have told my parents.

Advent has turned our attention toward the darkness we find around us. The shiny lights of Christmas can distract us from the shadows within our own communities and homes. Do not misread this, I love the shiny lights of Christmas as much as the next person. In fact, just ask my wife, I think our yard and home require more lights and inflatables than our electric panel can handle.

The shiny lights of Christmas hide the shadows surround us.

Last week I led a small group at our church in examining the darkness Advent begins with. We came to the conclusion (with the help of Rev. Fleming Rutledge) that we, even as grown-ups, are afraid of the dark. The unknown we find ourselves confronting scares us as much as the hit Nickelodeon show. While we know those shadows exist, following us daily, if we don’t shine a light into them what hides in the darkness won’t (we think) be revealed to us.

“Advent begins in the dark and moves toward the light—but the season should not move too quickly or too glibly, lest we fail to acknowledge the depth of the darkness. As our Lord Jesus tells us, unless we see the light of God clearly, what we call light is actually darkness: ‘how great is that darkness!’ (Matt. 6:23). Advent bids us take a fearless inventory of the darkness: the darkness without and the darkness within.”
― Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ

When I was in high school and college, well beyond the years of watching Are You Afraid of the Dark, I found myself immersed in the darkness each night. For six summers I lived in an 8’x8’ tent without electricity. The shower house/bathrooms were a 1/4 mile walk. This walk was no problem in the morning but at night, should you happen to knock your flashlight off its perch in the tent the 1/4 mile walk was more treacherous. Roots, branches, and holes littered the path from our campsite to the shower house/bathrooms.

By the end of the summer, I could navigate my way from the tent to the shower house/bathrooms without a flashlight with ease. I could navigate the entire camp at night, without a flashlight because I allowed myself to become more comfortable in the darkness surrounding me rather than trying to shine my measly AAA battery Maglite into the vast darkness of the Goshen mountains.

Shadows created by the moonlight bouncing off the white pine trees were creepy for sure but by the end of each summer, I embraced the shadows knowing not only was there nothing to be afraid but also that the shadows revealed parts of the forest I would miss during the day.

So much of what we do during our preparations for Christmas miss that Christ entered the shadows of creation as a baby. The shiny object at the manger was the star in the sky. Jesus entered the world to a poor family and shortly after his birth fled to Egypt as a refugee. During his ministry, he regularly spent time with those forced into the shadows of the community by local religious and political leaders. Christ confronted the darkness of pain and humiliation on the cross and then descended into the darkness of death.

Jesus did not shy away from the darkness. He entered into the dark. He allowed his light to reveal the hurt, pain, and suffering. Once what was hidden by the darkness was revealed, Jesus acted. Jesus stepped into that which we pretend did not and does not exist.

While it is easy to celebrate the Light entering the world at Christmas the light of Christ reveals the parts of creation we wish we had not participated in and as a result, reveals to us the dark side of ourselves we try to hide from the world. The Light of Christ entering the world makes many realities we wish were not present more visible, making that which we may be afraid of more visible.

When confronted by darkness God did not shy away and God continues to enter into the places in our community we wish did not exist. When we find ourselves in the darkness we know Christ is there with us. We do not have to be afraid. In the shiny lights and in the dark, we are not alone.