RIVER REFLECTIONS: God is the light of the world who loves, forgives and redeems

Published 5:00 pm Thursday, April 17, 2003

God is the light of the world who loves, forgives and redeems

Our world has experienced dark times for at least as long as human beings have tried to keep a record of their events and their environment. That’s true for our physical world as well as it is true for human history and the human spirit. Darkness can be particularly dangerous – and often frightening – when men and women are at sea. People in Astoria know that as well as any people do, considering we are located on the edge of what has been called the graveyard of the Pacific Ocean.

A little light often helps. As far as human records tell, the first lighthouse was built in the harbor of Alexandria, Egypt, commissioned by one of Alexander’s generals after he decided to settle down on the extreme western side of the Nile Delta and change his occupation to that of a domestic ruler.

Ptolemy Soter became the king of Egypt and he hoped to throw a little light on his part of civilization. He had the lighthouse built on the island of Pharos in the harbor and it was completed around 280 BC. It stood more than 400 feet above the ground, and its convex mirrors on top reflected either the sun during the day or an enormous fire built at its base – which was more than 300 square feet – during the night. It was one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Most lighthouses have been built on dry land, but dry land was not always available where light was most needed. Some lighthouses, like the one built off our own Tillamook Head, were built on what was dry land some of the time but at other times was swept over by waves. I understand that the lighthouse keeper on “Terrible Tilly” reported that waves covered the entire tower of the lighthouse in one very bad storm. It’s not an easy lighthouse to get to even today, and there must be something significant about the fact that it is continuously occupied only by the ashes of the dead. It serves as a mausoleum now.

One of the most incredible lighthouses is located 14 miles southwest of the harbor of Plymouth, England. It is built on a 600-yard-long reef named Eddystone Rock that is constantly under water. The first Eddystone Light was built by Henry Winstanley, who had to row his boat for six hours just to get to its location. The reef had a reputation much like our Columbia River bar, so when Winstanley completed his 80-foot edifice and lighted several large candles at its top on November 14, 1698 (AD), much of England was as pleased as it was surprised. When the greatest storm ever recorded in English waters hit five years later, it battered headlands, tore down buildings, drowned humans and livestock and sunk ships with their crews. Nothing but a few rock and steel fragments of Eddystone Light remained when the storm subsided. The remains of its keepers have never been found. It has been rebuilt three times since.

Today is recognized throughout Christendom as being a dark day, dark because of the cloud cover that closed in over Palestine the day Christ was crucified and dark because of the apparent victory of evil over the hearts and minds of even Jerusalem’s “good” people. Jesus himself was heard to say with his last words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Yet today also is called Good Friday because something very good came out of his memorable death struggle. Looking back on the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, early Christians were convinced that in their Rabbi God had become man. He was at once truly God and truly man. God’s lighthouse was established in the most dangerous of territory. What once shone brightest in the distant land of heaven now shone intimately among the deadly rocks of earth’s shoreline. God’s light pierced the darkness of human sin, revealing the truth of who we are and who God is – the Light of the world who loves, forgives and redeems his world.

The story doesn’t end there, however, for his church is to become a lighthouse built upon a rock, much as her Lord had been. And that story is more ambiguous and troubling to me.

Doug Rich is the pastor of Pioneer Presbyterian Church on Clatsop Plains in Warrenton.