The word "cast" has many senses from the people in a play to finishing up a knitting project. It also has the sense of removing or being removed - castaways are removed from their ship, clothes may be cast upon a bed or the floor. It has that sense of being flung - in the Bible when people are cast into a pit or the lion's den there is a sense of violent removal.
It is with this sense of being moved very deliberately and energetically that we can look at the collect this week which prays that we may "cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light." It is quite a remarkable request - we are not simply asking to quietly wander away from the things which keep us from God but to fling them away from us. In my slightly romantic way this collect always makes me think of removing a "Zorro-like" cloak and flinging it away - watching the black fabric slide and billow as it flies.
Romantic perhaps, but as we settle into Advent we are called to enter more and more into light from the Godless, or God restricted areas of our lives and become those who shine with God's glory and radiance.
Light always wins over darkness - even a very small light in a dark room prevents the darkness from taking over completely. Jesus is the light of the world - so the armor of light is a great image for us - wrap ourselves around with Jesus and however week we feel our light to be we will still shine - and shine enough.
Our armor of light is not something which we need to spend time polishing - it is not something which really just goes on the outside - that sort of armor comes from a heart which is open and transformed for God - a heart where the darkness of sin is regularly thrown away (flung away!) and a life which allows itself to be wrapped in the merciful arms of Jesus.
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