Aug_9_09 Gerber

We go to dark Gethsemane on Thursday night, to the cross on Dark Friday, and to the grave. It is this through this darkness that we see the new light.

Darkness is the new light: That's the premise behind a visual effect in the TV series that until recently was the most popular on the planet: CSI. According to Eurodata, a firm that ranks shows by their worldwide ratings, in 2007 nearly 84 million viewers around the world watched the original CSI series (the one set in Las Vegas). In 2008, House edged it out of first place, but the spinoff CSI: Miami still holds second place.

The notion that dark is the new light refers to CSI's lighting scheme, which gives the series a visually dark effect. In fact, none of the three CSI series shoots in natural light. The Las Vegas CSI is shot using a blue filter, the Miami CSI uses a yellow filter and the New York CSI, as well as some other shows set in New York, uses a black filter. These light-altering lenses give each of the three series a distinctive look, and they add a layer of darkness to the shows' appearance.

Ron Rosenbaum, writing in The New York Observer, says visual darkness is a way that several dramas try to convey that they are "quality TV." This visual darkness is most obvious on the original CSI. In those episodes, much of the crime-scene investigators' outdoor work is done at night, but even when they're out in daylight, it's never really bright. Their lab apparently has no windows whatsoever, and except for the area right around the actors, which is usually starkly illuminated, the rest of the lab trails off into blackness.

When the investigators enter an indoor crime scene, they never bother to flip on the light switch. Instead, they proceed with only their flashlights illuminating their way.

We might want to argue with the notion that the visual darkness on the show conveys "quality TV," but it does convey -- at least on a subconscious level -- that the realm of crime and death in which the intrepid investigators have to work is one of moral darkness, where people do the most awful things to other people.

Moral darkness brings us to Psalm 130, which begins with the lament, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord." The psalmist is in a dark abyss with out a lamp or a candle.

On a surface reading, we may think that "depths" is simply a way of indicating the intense sincerity of the psalmist's plea, as in "from deep in my soul." But that's not what the psalmist is saying; "depths" is literally Sheol, the place of death, but the psalmist is using it metaphorically to refer to chaotic forces that trouble human life. Thus the force of the opening line is, "Out of the pit of darkness I cry" or "From my deep despair I cry to you."

Yet, while crying out for God to hear his plea, the psalmist at the same time expresses confidence that God has the power to redeem (vv. 5-6) and even encourages the whole community to place its hope and trust in the Lord (vv. 7-8).

Verse 6 especially shows how desperately the psalmist looks for the Lord's merciful response: "my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning." Watchmen, who guarded the city walls at night, found the hours tedious, and they looked impatiently for the first rays of dawn when they could go off duty. "?those who watch for the morning," permits us to imagine a person who has many troubles, making that person's world a place of darkness and despair. All that person has left is the possibility that the hard times will eventually pass and that "morning," a new day, a new beginning, will dawn.

A person in such darkness waits, hoping against hope, for the morning. But the psalmist is waiting for the Lord's response even more earnestly than that and is confident that God will eventually drive out the darkness of the depths from which he cries.

The New Testament writer John saw Jesus as the personification of the Lord's redemption. Thus he wrote, "... in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:4-5).

We need to hear that because in real life, darkness is not the new light; it is the old darkness. It is evil, pain, suffering, despair and their kin. The only things new about today's darkness are the additional ways it finds to creep into our lives. Our dreams of peace, good will, equality, justice and freedom from pain are limited by the reality of the night around us. Thus, from our depths, we, too, cry out to God.

But taking our cue from Psalm 130, we should do so with the conviction that redemption will come from God. Thus, we wait for it more than those who watch for the morning. We can feel and almost taste the redemption of the Lord

I have probably shared this story with you before: a family is awakened in the middle of the night by a fierce thunderstorm. The mother and father gather the children in the middle of the living, in pitch darkness except for the flashes of lightning. They huddle in fear of the storm and the damage that can come. Except for the little 3 year old who knows that the storm is God is at work against the devil. She goes to the window and throws the curtain back with a shout of exclamation: "Sock it to him Jesus!"

What helps us while we wait for the storms in our life to pass? For one thing, it's helpful to remember that for the time being, the biblical promises are not about the light of God obliterating darkness. "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it," John said. But apparently, neither has the light yet overcome the darkness. In that sense, the light of God in our day is more like that in the CSI lab, where it illuminates the subject but doesn't dispel the darkness in every corner. The light of God doesn't eradicate all of the world's darkness, at least not yet. But neither can the darkness overcome the light. The lightning storm did not obliterate the darkness of the storm, but rather it brought light in the midst of darkness.

In writing about visual darkness on CSI, Rosenbaum came up with his own theory to explain the universal popularity of the series, a theory based on Zoroastrian theology. The Zoroastrian religion is one of the oldest in the world, a Persian sect with only a couple hundred thousand worshipers left, mostly in India and Iran.

Rosenbaum explains his theory this way:

Zoroastrian theology ... [is] all about Light, about the cosmic struggle between Light and Darkness. ... The cosmos was the product of a pure creator ... a god of Light. This creation, however, is then "attacked by violence and destruction," just as the forces of light are constantly under attack on the mean streets of ... the CSIs. Zoroastrians believe all beings can affect the outcome of this battle between the Forces of Light and Darkness by their good deeds and words. Those who fail to do their share for the Forces of Light "fall into darkness." ... It's the cop-show religion! The show's lighting effects thematize ... the moral drama. Creation is under such relentless attack from the Forces of Darkness that Light has to go into hiding -- go undercover -- and can be seen only in glimpses ...

It's the wrong time of year to talk about the magi, but they were very likely Zoroastrians. Recall that they came seeking Jesus because they were following the light of a star. That star didn't light up the whole night and drive the darkness away. Instead, it shined enough to guide the magi through the darkness to the general vicinity of where Jesus was.

The light of Christ is redemptive

Embracing the available light offered by God through Jesus Christ allows his light to illuminate us with personal redemption. It's not for nothing that after her recent conversion from atheism to Christ, Anne Rice, famous author of novels about vampires and witches and books of erotica, called her autobiography about renouncing that subject matter and turning to God Called Out of Darkness. And indeed she has been; her two most recent novels are Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, and her autobiography is a book-length testimony.

Darkness will be overcome

Finally, we are encouraged as we wait for the redemption of the world by the biblical vision of what that redemption will be like. The Bible's last book tells us that in the final accounting, the light of Christ will overcome all darkness. It speaks metaphorically, to be sure, but it says that the "city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light ... Its gates will never be shut by day -- and there will be no night there" (Revelation 21:23-25).

That said, it's important that we do not translate the redemption for which the psalmist waited into only some future promise. John spoke of the light of God present though Christ from the time of the Incarnation onward. Thus, what we find when we conduct our own Christ Scene Investigation is that even in the darkness, Jesus is the light for our path. No matter how dark our days may seem, no matter what gloom the news may bring, Jesus is the light unto our path. Let us close with song #206. "I want to walk as a child of the light...I want to follow Jesus?In him there is no darkness at all... Let us stand and let us sing?#206 v. 1,2 then v.3 after the benediction.

Sources: Barclay, William. The Gospel of John, Vol. 1. The Daily Study Bible Series. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1975.

"CSI earth's no. 1 show." New York Post, June 17, 2008, nypost.com/seven/06172008/tv/csi_earths_no__1_show_115835.htm.

"Guinness World Records launches 2009 edition." Guinness World Records, September 17, 2008. guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2008/09/080916.aspx.

Rosenbaum, Ron. "In new ?quality TV,' dark is new light: CSI-ing of America." The New York Observer, January 21, 2007. observer.com/node/36586.