Christmas Eve

A meditation given on Christmas Eve 2011 at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH.

scripture: John 1:1-14, Isaiah 9:2

My favorite image in the scriptures is the contrast of light and dark. It is a very powerful image. Ever present with us, a very real experience for all of humanity.

Now in this time of winter we experience more darkness on a daily basis than we do light. Many leave home for work in darkness and return in darkness. We look forward to the time when light will be the prevailing experience and darkness will retreat.

The words from the prophet Isaiah speak of people who have “walked in darkness” and people who have “lived in a land of deep darkness.”

We walk in darkness. Often wondering what the point is for all that we do – unable to see meaning in all of the particulars of our life story, of our various activities. We feel caught in cycles of anger or depression, we feel lonely or afraid. We find ourselves caught in inconstant ways of living. Now giving selflessly, now hoarding selfishly. Now loving everyone, now hating everyone. Now feeling happy, now feeling depressed. Now feeling hope but more often feeling despair.
We walk in darkness.

We live in darkness. All around us people are suffering, wars are being fought, nations are fighting against nation, politician against politician, all accusing one another of wrong and firing back and forth words of accusation and angry insult. We live in the confusing darkness of pride and selfishness. And that darkness is causing many to suffer.
We live in darkness.

“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.”

We “have seen a great light.”
On US “light has shined.”

The story of humanity is story of hope in deliverance from darkness. This is the story that we’ve been singing and speaking this evening.

From the beginning when humanity first broke its relationship with the God who is love (and the results of that brokenness we still feel deeply in our world today) to God’s promise to Abraham that “by your offspring shall all the nations of the earth gain blessing for themselves” to the prophet Isaiah’s words of promise and hope to Israel in the darkness of their exile from their homeland, in the oppressive society of Babylon, to the foretelling of the birth of a Savior to Mary, to the angels’ great announcement to shepherds watching their sheep. All of this, all of these events are part of the great story of hope we find in the scriptures. 

The scriptures look to a day when those who walk in darkness will see a great light. And today, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the light coming to darkness, the hope being made manifest in our world.

“The light shines in the darkness,”
“The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.”

What is this light? It certainly didn’t fix the world of darkness. It certainly didn’t dispel all fear and hate and pride and selfishness. What is this light?

The light that is revealed is the light of God’s love for humanity.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only son…”
It is God’s love that we see in the birth of Christ. God reveals himself and not only shows us the way of life that God had always intended for humanity, but makes it possible by Christ’s death and resurrection for us to die to darkness and become alive to the light of God’s love.

The light that comes into the world is God’s love, God’s outstretched arm to prodigal humanity to come out of the darkness of hate, of selfishness, of pride and to follow the way of Christ, the way of love. To receive God’s love, God’s light, and to let that light penetrate the darkness of our own souls and allow us to reflect that light to others who, walking in darkness, need to see the great light.

The light did not fix darkness. But the light provides a way in the darkness, a way forward, a way of healing and being healed. All our broken relationships, our cycles of hatred and resentment, our bouts of hopelessness and grief, do not go away overnight, are not fixed. But we find the power to be children of God, children of the light of God’s love in the midst of a world of darkness.

In the dark streets of Bethlehem shines the everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not (and will not) overcome it.”

And we with John go out to testify to the light, so that all might find new life and hope through the everlasting light shining in Bethlehem’s manger. John himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

This is how God heals the world. We, like the moon to the sun, reflect God’s light and shine hope and love to a dark world. And we look forward in this time of winter when darkness seems dominant, for the time when God’s love will bring light to all the corners of this world by the power of God’s healing love. Amen.