The hymn for our devotion this week is Hymn 375: Arise and Shine in Splendor
Mornings can be hard sometimes. Especially this time of year in the upper midwest, when it’s bitter cold in the mornings and still dark until close to 7 am. Sometimes you won’t even see the sun for weeks at a time! It can be hard to find that motivation to power through those cold winter mornings when the sun hasn’t even risen yet or may not be visible at all! Therefore, if I had to choose two words to associate with rising it would not be “shine” and “splendor!” Yet those are the words the hymn writer encourages us to do when we rise with the opening line of this hymn. Why? Because someone has come, and his glory has been revealed.
Epiphany is the season of unveiling. For 30 long years, Christ had veiled his glory, patiently biding his time until he would begin his earthly ministry of preaching and teaching the gospel. And after decades of waiting, that time had now come. In Epiphany, we celebrate how the light of the gospel has come to all nations under heaven. Our hymn for today is a beautiful example of an Epiphany hymn, reminding us that the light has come to save us, and therefore we should gladly prepare our hearts and minds for that light to shine in our lives.
Verse 1: Arise and shine in splendor; let night to day surrender. Your light is drawing near. Above, the day is beaming, in matchless beauty gleaming; the glory of the Lord is here.
I’m sure you can think of a time when you couldn’t sleep because of what was happening in the morning. Maybe it was when you were little, and you couldn’t wait for Christmas morning and stayed up all night tossing and turning as a result. Maybe it was the night before your wedding, and you were kept up out of a mix of excitement and stress about how the day would go. Maybe it was a restless night waiting for the results of a surgery, or before taking an important exam. In every one of these situations, the morning brings a powerful sense of newness and opportunity with it, for good or ill. Yet one can’t deny just how welcome that sunrise is, no matter what the night held. The dawn marks a new day, and new opportunities with it. So it is with the metaphorical “dawn” in this verse. The light that is drawing near isn’t the sun rising, but the Son rising. His glory is drawing near. His time has come. The savior of the world approaches!
Verse 2: See earth in darkness lying, the heathen nations dying in hopeless gloom and night. To you the Lord of heaven—your life, your hope—has given great glory, honor, and delight.
In one of my favorite movies, The Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King, Frodo, the main character, is alone in the dark and being hunted by a horrifying gigantic spider. When he’s in the midst of this darkness, Frodo remembers a gift that was given to him to help when all other lights go out: a magical lamp that shines with the light of the stars. In the hopeless gloom and night of the wicked monster’s lair, Frodo’s light gives him hope, and with it, the path out of danger and into life! So it was with us in our darkness of sin and death. Before Christ came into the world, we were lost in the darkness. But through the preaching of the gospel, we’ve seen the light. We’ve heard the truth in the gospel that sets us free! Jesus came to die and rise again, so that anyone who believes in him will have eternal life. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Lord of Heaven gave hope and life to anyone who believes in him, not just to his chosen few people of Abraham’s descendants. And so we now have great glory, honor, and delight.
Verse 3: Lift up your eyes in wonder—see, nations gather yonder from sin to be set free. The world has heard your story; her sons come to your glory, her daughters haste your light to see.
One of the things I remember vividly from my high school chapel was the first time I walked into the room, there were flags from various countries on the back wall of the sanctuary. There’s the US flag, and then 22 other nation’s flags, each representing the nationality of a student who attended the school. It’s humbling to know that at one small high school in Michigan, 23 nations of the world have been represented there. Think of how many more will be in heaven one day! The Bible describes it as every nation, tribe, people, and language. That is the picture that is drawn for us in this verse. The salvation of the world is exactly that: it’s for the world! Heaven isn’t an exclusive club for only certain people. It’s for everyone! And because of how simple and easy the gospel is to understand, it can and will change the hearts and lives of anyone who hears it! God will draw people from all over the world to himself, and give them a new life in our savior Jesus.
Verse 4: Your heart will leap for gladness when from the realms of sadness they come from near and far. Your eyes will wake from slumber as people without number rejoice to see the Morning Star.
I think we can all think of a time when our hearts “skipped a beat” upon seeing or hearing something truly amazing. That curious sensation that one feels in their chest is something that is truly special, and can’t really be described. Anyone who’s experienced this sensation knows how uncommon it is. It’s not every day you see something that makes your heart skip a bit, or makes you elated for an extended period of time. It’s that kind of situation that we see described in this final verse. Think of how incredible it will be when, in heaven someday, we will get to see every believer who’s ever lived. Everyone from the Bible that we’ve read about all these years. Everyone from our family who believed and has died in Christ. People we haven’t even met–and never will in this life–but we will immediately know and recognize because they’re our siblings in Christ. This is what happens when people are exposed to the life-changing light of the morning star: Jesus the Savior. He has come to show us the way to heaven. And it’s nothing we do! It’s already been done. By simply believing that he is our savior from sin, we, too, will be included in this amazing scene in heaven. What a truly amazing thing to look forward to!
Epiphany is one of my favorite seasons of the church year. It reminds us that we’re not alone, and that the darkness is getting weaker. The light of the world has come, and he shines on us day after day. What an amazing gift of God that we get to rejoice in the light that has changed us! Let us arise and shine with this great morning star, for it is in that star that we have life: now and forever. Amen.