Faith Works 12-30-22

Faith Works 12-30-22
Jeff Gill

Work, for the night is coming
___

Imperceptibly, the days are getting longer. You may have to take it on faith, but they are.

At year's end, we feel the darkness weighing down on us. Night is coming, we think, starting about half past noon. There's more evening than daylight, and night goes on forever. Or so it seems, getting up in the dark to head to work.

There's a hymn from my childhood that comes to mind this time of year: "Work, for the night is coming." I didn't realize until more recently the song comes from the Bible, in John 9:4 where Jesus says "We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." Literally, the Greek of that last phrase is "it is coming night, when no one is able to work," inclusive in emphasis. No woman or man, no one can work when night falls, so let's get the job done now.

Or as the lyrics say: "Work, for the night is coming: Work through the morning hours; Work while the dew is sparkling: Work mid springing flowers…" The first verse starts with a hint of hope before turning to night, reminding us of the light we have, going on with "Work when the day grows brighter; Work in the glowing sun; Work, for the night is coming, When man's work is done."

Anna Louisa Walker was born in England, and when she wrote the lyrics of this hymn as a poem in the 1860s, her family had moved to Sarnia, Ontario where nights would have been even longer in the winter than they are in Ohio. Her father was an engineer on the railroads, which would certainly have been a daylight endeavor in the Nineteenth Century, building them or running on them. "Work, for the night is coming."

There's a somber turn in the lyrics: "Work, for the night is coming, Under the sunset skies; While their bright tints are glowing, Work, for daylight flies." And then downright morbidly: "Work till the last beam fadeth, Fadeth to shine no more; Work, while the night is darkening, When man's work is o'er."

Jesus may not have meant quite what Annie was saying, but in either case, the point is the same: use the time you have. Use it well, because as another more recent song says, we may never pass this way again.

If there is a midnight thought, a nighttime reflection I would take from both Christ's words in John's Gospel and this old-fashioned hymn, it's less about the waning of the light, as the fact that with night comes rest, and dreams, and in what Jesus is fairly directly implying, a new sort of day is coming where things are different, where work may not even be part of the next phase of the plan. We have light to do the work set before us, but when night falls, the task changes.

May the turn to the new year open up new light for you, as the sun sets on the year now past. Not so much an end, as a new beginning; but until then, let's finish what's at hand, or at least be ready to set it aside and move on to where God calls us.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's ready to move on from 2022. Tell him what you're looking forward to at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.