The twelve days of Christmas are now at an end. The signs are all about us. The scales tell us the weight we’ve gained. Trash bags have bulged this week too, overfilled with boxes and paper, waiting to be taken away. Christmas trees are lying down, out in the yard, still streaked with some tinsel. The Advent wreathes are packed away with the tree lights, and the remaining Christmas displays seem oddly present. We are returning to "the real world": business, and war, as usual; a world of darkness, and not light.

Isaiah was right in his prophecy. Whatever else, darkness has come over the earth. There is a "thick darkness" which covers the people. For Isaiah, though, it was not just a "general" darkness that he had in mind. There was a very specific darkness which comes only when you live in…