The bone cold chill hangs over the darkness like a death shroud.  The thick, suffocating darkness creeps into every crevice, driving out any thought of light.  Intense loneliness and agony stalks about the hidden stone halls. 

Mildew and mold clings unseen to the uneven, damp stone walls.  The rough cut stone floor heaves unevenly along its course.  Punctuated at even spaces narrow doorways plunge into deeper darkness.  Ever so often a groan or cry breaks free of the darkness inside the dungeon cells and echoes eerily down the corridor.  Despair slinks into the prison to be the prisoner’s only companion.  “No escape,” whispers through the dank dungeon like a cruel wind. 

           Then it comes, a slight tremor begins to shutter.  Slowly the tremor builds until all the prisoners take notice.  The guard stands to his feet with his heart in his throat.  His worse fear is about to be known.  Quickly his mind reels with his new strategy as the tremor builds to a shake.  Soon the entire prison is shaken with tremendous power, and the doors are in jeopardy of breaking open.  Then the light begins to grow in sudden luminosity.  Suddenly a great explosion shatters the despair.  A blinding light explodes into the deep darkness.  It rushes past the keeper, taking his key.  The Light bursts into the dungeon halls, blasting its luminescence across the rough walls, exposing the weakness and filth of the walls.  Doors break open and slam against the block walls.  A sweet savor wafts into each cell.  Freedom breathes across each face.  The Light lingers in the dungeon.  The prisoners sit in stunned silence.  The keeper quickly sets his guards to work, sending them throughout the prison.  From somewhere in the prison a shout of joy breaks forth as a prisoner breaks out of his prison of dark despair.  He steps into the Light and is instantly changed.  His filthy prison rags are changed to pure white clothes.  In jubilation he races up and down the cell block, shouting and crying.  Other prisoners hear and step to the edge of their barrier.  Some step into the Light and are changed, others stand in their darkness with mistrust in their heart.  Others continue to scratch at the inner walls, seeking their own way out of the destructive darkness.  The guards spread their deception, “The only way out is your own way,” or “There is no release.  You are doomed.”  But then, one of the freed ones moves past, proclaiming the freedom that the Light has brought.  “Trust in the Light.  He has freed you!  Your prison doors are open and cannot be closed!  Freedom!  Freedom!  Salvation has come!  You are free!”

            The message of freedom has crossed time and space and has come to us.  It started in the beginning of time, accomplished at the proper time, and concluded at the end of time.  On one dark day, the Light of the world shattered the chains of darkness and sin and made it possible for all who hear to come and embrace the freedom that He has won.  Sin is broken and the darkness is undone.  Its keeper has lost his key, and his future is sealed.  He no longer has power.  How sad it is that there are those who still wish to make it out of their prisons on their own.  How sad it is that there are those in this world who listen to the message of freedom but refuse it because it is too simple, too easy.  Certainly the way to heaven must be complicated and include some effort of their own.  The false preachers and philosophers of this age race through the world and tell others that they can do it on their own.  Men and women who call themselves ministers of the Word twist and distort the Truth of the Light.  They cry out that you can do it your own way and that there is really no “One Way.”  These wolves tear at the hearts of parishioners, lulling them into self - indulgence and apathy and hopeless labor.  Heartless men stand in the pulpits of our churches and proclaim antiseptic band - aid sermons to tickle the ears of the congregation.  They distance themselves from the slim and filth of the prisons to set themselves on the pedestal in place of the Light Keeper.            Who then will stand in the dank, damp dungeons and proclaim freedom to the captives?  Who will stand in holiness and righteousness and show those that are weighted in sin that there is a Way and that it is worth living?  We have been called to be lighthouses where the Truth of God’s Word can shine through to a dying world.  We have been called to be set apart from the world’s system so that our message can be heard true and sound.  So often we let the Truth of the Message become clouded in squabbles and speculations.  Maybe it is time we go to the Word and study It in the light of God’s Spirit and interpret Its message right and true.  Its time for God’s Lighthouses to become brilliant beacons to the prisons in their neighborhoods.  It is time for God’s people to take up the cry “Set Free, Come and See!”  We are set free!  Two thousand years ago, the Son of God destroyed forever the chains of sin, breaking its power, and giving all men the opportunity to step into the Light of Freedom.  Take His Light to the world so that all will see the Truth of the Word!