Arise and Shine

“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” (Isaiah 60:1)

Isaiah 60 opens with a command.
Arise.
Shine.

God only commands what is possible for us in His mercy. This call to rise and shine is spoken to a people living in captivity, a people marked by uncertainty, weakness, and decline. And yet God does not begin by describing their circumstances but their calling. They are called to be phosphorescent - light bearing. 

Isaiah is honest about the moment they are in: “Darkness covers the earth, and thick darkness is over the peoples.” Chaos and darkness fill our newsfeeds today, but they are not new. Empires have been rising and falling since Isaiah’s day. Nations have always trembled. Our own headlines are heavy with instability—war, invasion, political confusion, social fracture, shootings, protests. Iran. Venezuela. Greenland. Cultures angry. Cultures anxious. Darkness still covers the land. Thick darkness covers the peoples.

But Isaiah makes a decisive turn: “The Lord rises upon you, and His glory appears over you.” Even while darkness covers the earth, God’s light shines on His people. Darkness can’t diminish the light—it really only it. A candle’s flame means very little at noon. But in a dark room, it changes everything.

In heavy and heady times like these, our temptation is to withdraw. To numb. To hibernate until the chaos settles. But we must resist that impulse. Because the world does not merely need more commentary and frantic posting on social media it needs God. Jesus is the light of the world. The world’s only hope. And we are His body.

Here are two responses to chaos and darkness for us in the New England church.

First: spend more time in the light.
If Christ’s light is going to shine through the church, we must first come into the light ourselves. This is what prayer is for. More than ever, we need to fix our eyes on Jesus—on His beauty, His goodness, His glory. Scripture tells us that as we behold Him with unveiled faces, we are transformed, and His glory radiates through us into the world.

It’s good, important even, to stay informed. But it is far more important to stay attentive to Jesus. To gaze at Him. To soak in His word. To bring our fears and anxieties into His presence. This is how we cultivate a non-anxious presence in an anxious world. That’s what the world needs from us as the light of the world. 

Second: don’t hide your light.
Jesus tells His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, “You are the light of the world.” Not you will be. You are. He gives a warning: don’t hide the light. The greatest threat to light is not darkness. It is concealment. The world needs the church’s light right now. Now is not the time to hide under a bowl.

Peter says, “Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within you.” Friends, whether you are aware of it or not, people are dying of despair. If we have found hope—we can’t hide it. Arise. Shine. The Lord has risen upon you.

Rev. Greg Johnson
Director, Revive New England