Darkness and Light
Stories
Contents
“Darkness and Light” by Frank Ramirez
“Babe Status Never In Doubt” by John Sumwalt
Darkness and Light
by Frank Ramirez
Isaiah 60:1-6
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you. (Isaiah 60:2)
Darkness and light. It’s a consistent theme in scripture. Terrifying darkness, metaphorically speaking, but just hold on and wait a spell. God’s light will restore and renew the hopes and fortunes of the people.
Of course, sometimes it takes longer than other times for restoration to occur. Especially when something happens of biblical proportions. Darkness strikes, and it might take six or seven centuries for the light (figuratively speaking) to shine once more, for crops to grow and people to return.
Six or seven hundred years?
Evidently 3,700 years ago, around 1700 BC, a large object, perhaps an asteroid or a meteor, struck the earth’s atmosphere and exploded around half a mile above present-day Jordan, instantly destroying all the cities and towns over a two-hundred square mile stretch. Temperatures rose momentarily to 18,000 degrees. 40,000 to 60,000 people died instantly. Pottery turned to glass. Buildings were torn off their moorings.
This once rich agricultural region was poisoned by the salty brackish waters of the north end of the Dead Sea, which were strewn all over the area. Those outside the death zone were no doubt aware, awestruck, and terrified by the event, but those who worked up the courage to investigate weeks or months later, would have been confronted by a dead landscape where nothing would grow for over half a millennium and more.
It’s not unheard of for calamities like these to happen. It happened only recently on a far smaller scale on February 15, 2013, when an airburst caused by a meteor occurred over the city of Chelyabinks, Russia, damaging over 7,000 buildings and injuring 1,600 people. A much more spectacular example occurred on June 30, 1908, over Tunguska, Siberia. That blast occurred around six miles above the earth. More than eighty million trees were blown over. Had this occurred over Europe instead of the isolated regions of Siberia, millions would have been killed.
One of those who might have seen this blast could have been Abraham. He lived around 1700 BC. And what he might have seen was the destruction of the cities of the plain, including towns like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Archaeologist Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has for the past decade insisted that Tall el-Hamman, the archaeological site in Jordan he has been working at, geographically matches the Cities of the Plain as described in Genesis 13:1-12. His colleague, Phillip Silvia, says that the evidence for destruction matches what would have happened with an airburst caused by an astronomical event, and not an earthquake or other natural cause. The two published a paper outlining the archaeological and astronomical evidence for such a calamitous event. Pottery sherds turned to glass are consistent with the proposed high temperatures. High levels of platinum 600 percent higher than normal are consistent with a cosmic airburst. The waters displaced, poisoning the soil, would explain why it took centuries for people to return. And the fact that a relatively small area of 200 square miles suggests that this airburst occurred only a half mile above the surface of the planet, unlike the Tunguska blast.
The horrifyingly bright light of this explosion, while it would have killed instantly those who lived in the region, certainly would have terrified the surrounding nations for hundreds of miles in all directions. Contrast that with the light that calls the nations to seek God’s glory and wisdom, as celebrated in this feast of the Epiphany.
Want to know more: Enter “Silvia and Collins, “The Civilization-Ending 3.7KYrBP Event: Archaeological Data, Sample Analyses, and Biblical Implications” in a search engine to read paper.)
* * *
Babe Status Never In Doubt
by John Sumwalt
Matthew 2:1-12
Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,[band have come to pay him homage. (v. 2:2)
We sometimes speak of those who gather in our churches on Sunday mornings as the “faithful.” No one I knew in my years of pastoring exemplified that more than Jay Murley of Blue River. Jay was one of the first people I heard about when I was appointed to serve as student pastor there in 1974. “You will like Jay,” people said, “he is the most kind and honest man you will ever meet, and he is in church every Sunday.”
Jay ran the little stockyard on the north edge of town. Dad had sold cattle to Jay and when he heard I was going to Blue River he said, “That is where Jay Murley lives. He is a good man.”
Jay was in his early eighties then and still working every day. He was nearly deaf, he walked with an oak cattleman’s cane, he drove his big Oldsmobile around town at turtle speed, and he was in his place in church every Sunday on the left-hand side, two rows from the back. Every Christmas season, a small evergreen tree with a large star of twinkling yellow lights appeared at the top of the loading chute high over Jay’s stockyard.
I will never forget what Jay did the Sunday I introduced Jo to the congregation. We were greeting people on the steps of the church after the service. Jay came by. I introduced him to Jo, he welcomed her warmly and then went to get in his car. It was parked directly across the street from Jo’s brand new 1974 Ford Comet. She loved that car a lot more than she did me at that point. She called it “Babe.” Jo had never called me babe, as in what Sonny sang to Cher, “I Got You, Babe.” Jo had her beloved car and maybe me. My eligibility for “babeness” was yet to be determined.
What happened next was an unimaginable catastrophe. We were chatting with Oscar and Iris Wagner, and the organist, Darcy Elliot, when out of the corner of my eye I saw Jay’s big Olds backing slowly and relentlessly toward “Babe” like an untethered river barge. I yelled, “Jay, stop!” But of course, he couldn’t hear me and the Olds kept coming. Bumper met fender with an excruciating crunch sound that reverberated in the chambers of my racing heart. I ran down the steps to talk to Jay, only to see him pulling obliviously away.
I was devastated. Would the girl I loved love me after I enabled the crippling of her beloved “Babe?” Jo had turned pale and would barely look at me. I told her what a good man Jay was and that I knew he didn’t mean it and that I was sure he would make it right. Being a visitor in Blue River and having known the not yet “babe” me for only a couple of months, Jo was not convinced. Suffice it to say that the background check was still in process and my “babe” status was now much in doubt.
After a quiet lunch, Jo allowed me to drive “Babe” over to Jay’s house to tell him what had happened and to show him the wounded fender. I went with more than a little trepidation. What if Jay denied it and what if he was upset with me? What if he stopped coming to church? But Jay was as nice as he could be. He apologized profusely and said that he would arrange for his insurance company to pay for the repairs.
The next Sunday, Jay was back in church in his usual spot and when he saw Jo he took her hand and told her how sorry he was for damaging her new car. The incident was never mentioned again, except when I talked about it at his funeral, one of the biggest I ever saw in Blue River. Cattlemen, truckers and farmers came from all over southwest Wisconsin. Everybody loved Jay.
Every Christmas season, in my mind’s eye, I see a small evergreen tree beneath a large star with yellow twinkling lights hovering over the loading chute high over Jay Murley’s stockyard.
*****************************************
StoryShare, January 6, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“Darkness and Light” by Frank Ramirez
“Babe Status Never In Doubt” by John Sumwalt
Darkness and Light
by Frank Ramirez
Isaiah 60:1-6
For darkness shall cover the earth,
and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
and his glory will appear over you. (Isaiah 60:2)
Darkness and light. It’s a consistent theme in scripture. Terrifying darkness, metaphorically speaking, but just hold on and wait a spell. God’s light will restore and renew the hopes and fortunes of the people.
Of course, sometimes it takes longer than other times for restoration to occur. Especially when something happens of biblical proportions. Darkness strikes, and it might take six or seven centuries for the light (figuratively speaking) to shine once more, for crops to grow and people to return.
Six or seven hundred years?
Evidently 3,700 years ago, around 1700 BC, a large object, perhaps an asteroid or a meteor, struck the earth’s atmosphere and exploded around half a mile above present-day Jordan, instantly destroying all the cities and towns over a two-hundred square mile stretch. Temperatures rose momentarily to 18,000 degrees. 40,000 to 60,000 people died instantly. Pottery turned to glass. Buildings were torn off their moorings.
This once rich agricultural region was poisoned by the salty brackish waters of the north end of the Dead Sea, which were strewn all over the area. Those outside the death zone were no doubt aware, awestruck, and terrified by the event, but those who worked up the courage to investigate weeks or months later, would have been confronted by a dead landscape where nothing would grow for over half a millennium and more.
It’s not unheard of for calamities like these to happen. It happened only recently on a far smaller scale on February 15, 2013, when an airburst caused by a meteor occurred over the city of Chelyabinks, Russia, damaging over 7,000 buildings and injuring 1,600 people. A much more spectacular example occurred on June 30, 1908, over Tunguska, Siberia. That blast occurred around six miles above the earth. More than eighty million trees were blown over. Had this occurred over Europe instead of the isolated regions of Siberia, millions would have been killed.
One of those who might have seen this blast could have been Abraham. He lived around 1700 BC. And what he might have seen was the destruction of the cities of the plain, including towns like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Archaeologist Steven Collins of Trinity Southwest University in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has for the past decade insisted that Tall el-Hamman, the archaeological site in Jordan he has been working at, geographically matches the Cities of the Plain as described in Genesis 13:1-12. His colleague, Phillip Silvia, says that the evidence for destruction matches what would have happened with an airburst caused by an astronomical event, and not an earthquake or other natural cause. The two published a paper outlining the archaeological and astronomical evidence for such a calamitous event. Pottery sherds turned to glass are consistent with the proposed high temperatures. High levels of platinum 600 percent higher than normal are consistent with a cosmic airburst. The waters displaced, poisoning the soil, would explain why it took centuries for people to return. And the fact that a relatively small area of 200 square miles suggests that this airburst occurred only a half mile above the surface of the planet, unlike the Tunguska blast.
The horrifyingly bright light of this explosion, while it would have killed instantly those who lived in the region, certainly would have terrified the surrounding nations for hundreds of miles in all directions. Contrast that with the light that calls the nations to seek God’s glory and wisdom, as celebrated in this feast of the Epiphany.
Want to know more: Enter “Silvia and Collins, “The Civilization-Ending 3.7KYrBP Event: Archaeological Data, Sample Analyses, and Biblical Implications” in a search engine to read paper.)
* * *
Babe Status Never In Doubt
by John Sumwalt
Matthew 2:1-12
Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,[band have come to pay him homage. (v. 2:2)
We sometimes speak of those who gather in our churches on Sunday mornings as the “faithful.” No one I knew in my years of pastoring exemplified that more than Jay Murley of Blue River. Jay was one of the first people I heard about when I was appointed to serve as student pastor there in 1974. “You will like Jay,” people said, “he is the most kind and honest man you will ever meet, and he is in church every Sunday.”
Jay ran the little stockyard on the north edge of town. Dad had sold cattle to Jay and when he heard I was going to Blue River he said, “That is where Jay Murley lives. He is a good man.”
Jay was in his early eighties then and still working every day. He was nearly deaf, he walked with an oak cattleman’s cane, he drove his big Oldsmobile around town at turtle speed, and he was in his place in church every Sunday on the left-hand side, two rows from the back. Every Christmas season, a small evergreen tree with a large star of twinkling yellow lights appeared at the top of the loading chute high over Jay’s stockyard.
I will never forget what Jay did the Sunday I introduced Jo to the congregation. We were greeting people on the steps of the church after the service. Jay came by. I introduced him to Jo, he welcomed her warmly and then went to get in his car. It was parked directly across the street from Jo’s brand new 1974 Ford Comet. She loved that car a lot more than she did me at that point. She called it “Babe.” Jo had never called me babe, as in what Sonny sang to Cher, “I Got You, Babe.” Jo had her beloved car and maybe me. My eligibility for “babeness” was yet to be determined.
What happened next was an unimaginable catastrophe. We were chatting with Oscar and Iris Wagner, and the organist, Darcy Elliot, when out of the corner of my eye I saw Jay’s big Olds backing slowly and relentlessly toward “Babe” like an untethered river barge. I yelled, “Jay, stop!” But of course, he couldn’t hear me and the Olds kept coming. Bumper met fender with an excruciating crunch sound that reverberated in the chambers of my racing heart. I ran down the steps to talk to Jay, only to see him pulling obliviously away.
I was devastated. Would the girl I loved love me after I enabled the crippling of her beloved “Babe?” Jo had turned pale and would barely look at me. I told her what a good man Jay was and that I knew he didn’t mean it and that I was sure he would make it right. Being a visitor in Blue River and having known the not yet “babe” me for only a couple of months, Jo was not convinced. Suffice it to say that the background check was still in process and my “babe” status was now much in doubt.
After a quiet lunch, Jo allowed me to drive “Babe” over to Jay’s house to tell him what had happened and to show him the wounded fender. I went with more than a little trepidation. What if Jay denied it and what if he was upset with me? What if he stopped coming to church? But Jay was as nice as he could be. He apologized profusely and said that he would arrange for his insurance company to pay for the repairs.
The next Sunday, Jay was back in church in his usual spot and when he saw Jo he took her hand and told her how sorry he was for damaging her new car. The incident was never mentioned again, except when I talked about it at his funeral, one of the biggest I ever saw in Blue River. Cattlemen, truckers and farmers came from all over southwest Wisconsin. Everybody loved Jay.
Every Christmas season, in my mind’s eye, I see a small evergreen tree beneath a large star with yellow twinkling lights hovering over the loading chute high over Jay Murley’s stockyard.
*****************************************
StoryShare, January 6, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
