“There was evening and there was morning, the first day.” In our society we tend to think of morning as the beginning of the day, but for the Hebrew people the day began in the evening, when the previous day was ended at sundown. For orthodox Jews today, it remains the same. Their Sabbath begins with dinner on Friday evening and ends with sundown on Saturday. In reading our creation story in the Genesis lesson once again, I recognize, for the first time, I think, the scriptural foundation for that understanding. The story begins in utter darkness. Try to picture a stage setting. The curtains are open, but all is a black void. Nothing is visible, but then we begin to hear a gentle sighing in the air from somewhere. We don’t know what it is. The sound slowly builds as we feel a breeze blowing around us. Maybe we can even hear waves sloshing in the wind. Ruach, the Spirit of God, is moving over the face of the earth. And then we hear the creating Word of God, “Let there be Light.” And all of a sudden, there is light. At last we can see what is going on. Out of darkness, into light!

Looking at the story symbolically, the insight for me is that out of darkness, whatever darkness we experience in our lives—rejection, betrayal, loss, grief, pain, suffering of any kind—God will bring light, the Light of the World. We will experience the breath of God blowing away the clouds of darkness, bringing the light of God’s love to bear on whatever the situation may be, opening our eyes to see the way forward, enabling us to step out in faith, trusting God to make the rough places smooth. In our gospel lesson, we see that acted out in Jesus’ baptism. Jesus comes from the darkness of the obscurity of his early life in Nazareth, from the spiritual darkness of Galilee of the Gentiles, through the darkness of the waters of baptism into the light of God. He experienced the Holy Spirit anointing him, the voice of God affirming him, preparing him for his ministry to the world. Out of darkness, into light!