1 Christmas 2017
John 1: 1-18
Children were putting on a Christmas skit at their school. They applied some rudimentary special effects; in order to show the radiance of the newborn Savior, they hid an electric light bulb in the manger.
All the stage lights were supposed to be turned way down so that only the brightness of the new born Jesus would shine from the manger lighting the dim surroundings.
It was a great theatrical touch—making the words of St. John become real: “in him was life and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ….the true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.”
But as things would have it, the boy who was controlling the light got confused and the whole stage went dim and then totally dark. It was a tense moment and then out of the darkness one of the shepherds cried, “Hey! You switched off Jesus!”
It is only a few days since we celebrated the feast of Christmas, proclaiming joy to the world, the Lord has come. We hymned our understanding of night, singing:
Son of God, love’s pure light
radiant beams from thy holy face
with the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord, at thy birth
But for many Christmas is already over. Since this year’s Christmas season began at Halloween, they are tired of Christmas music and lights and want to get back to normal.
The stress of shopping for the exact right gift, dealing with the mobs in the stores, the traffic on the roads, the family visitors; cleaning, cooking, entertaining, all of it leaves folks exhausted. Even the Christian radio station I listen to stopped Christmas music right after midnight on Christmas Day.
So the lights will go out and are put away for next year. Te tree will come down, shorn of all its glory, and thrown unceremoniously to the curb.
Visitors will go home—for some– thankfully, and many will spend hours in line exchanging gifts of one sort or another for something they really want or is actually useful.
We will slowly return to normal as this Christmas experience fades into the mists of Christmas celebrations past.
But as we pack away the Christmas lights, are we in danger of packing away the light of Christ himself? As we move back to normal, will we be switching off Jesus, forgetting about the importance of this holy day in our lives and in our world?
The 12 days between Christmas and the feast of the Epiphany, celebrating the arrival of the first Gentiles to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, is to be a time of reflection on Christmas. And it is the time made infamous in the song, The 12 Days of Christmas.
I do confess that I have no earthly idea what the partridge in the pear tree, and the various other birds, lords, maids, rings, etcetera, have to do with Christmas. Regardless what scholars have offered, it is a time that we might use to reflect on the light of Christ coming not merely into the world, but to you and me personally.
So on this first Sunday after Christmas, let us consider what St. John says to us about Christmas. Maybe he can give us reminders to keep us from accidentally turning off Jesus.
John begins with the statement: “In the beginning was the Word.” Now this word “word” was significant for both the Gentile and the Jew.
To the Greek mind, it was the name of the reason or rational principle that governed all the universe. The philosopher Philo understood it as a bridge between the transcendent God and material universe.
To the Jewish mind, it was the word given to refer to God himself, and his power, and in truth. In the book of Genesis, God spoke and it was done. God’s word created reality– it was him in action and power. We even call the scripture the word because it is God inspired –it comes from him—it is about him and in it is the power to change lives—to make things new.
This logos is said to be both: in relationship with God, and to be God himself.
And it is this “logos”– this “word” – who becomes flesh, who moves from the distant realm of logic for the Greek, from the transcendent and awesome power of heaven for the Jew, to become a person known as Jesus; becoming a full human being, dwelling, living among us. In Christ, God becomes man.
That should be a rather startling and life-changing revelation in itself. Of all the events since time has begun, this is the most significant – God becomes a man. God himself comes to us, as one of us.
John further tells us that there is purpose to this enfleshment of God. This incarnation of God is to be light and life to man.
Light reveals things—things already there but hidden in darkness. It reveals dangers, guides travel in dark times, and brings that which is real and true into the light.
Years ago, when I was stationed at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, back when it was a real Army base, my friends and I went spelunking in a local cave. After about a quarter mile of crawling through cracks and water, we arrived in a huge cavern. And then we turned off our lights.
Most do not know the reality of true darkness; no light at all. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face. The voices of my friends seemed surreal, emanating out of this absolute dark. There was no reality but a black emptiness. It felt consuming, isolating oppressive, yet light completely destroys it.
Jesus born that we might know the truth– he shines his light on the reality about who God is, about who we are, and the truth of his love for us. He becomes light to lead us out of darkness into a relationship with himself, and the consuming darkness of ignorance about reality is destroyed.
His light is life. The consuming darkness of death no longer reigns in the human realm. Jesus marks the end of death as the final word in human reality.
Many of us in our culture live, but without life. we merely exist, we function but we do not know the joy of life. We have no sense of true love, true purpose, and we have no real hope for what lies at the end of all of this. We live in darkness.
And it is this logos, this Jesus, the word made flesh, that comes to address this human predicament, to bring light and life to us because only in the light of Jesus do we find life, find that we are truly loved by God, that life can have joy-filled purpose if lived for Him. And as we face the transitory nature of this life we can have the hope of eternal life.
John continues: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born of God.”
I read a story about a woman who had been abandoned at birth, born with a cleft palate and harelip. As a child, she was made fun of by school mates. She had a sense of being lost in the world, unrooted, unloved, and unlovable. She was in darkness.
One day the class was scheduled to have a rudimentary hearing test. A teacher would whisper something in the child’s ear and they would repeat it back.
As this girl’s time came, the teacher whispered to her: “I love you and I wish you could be my daughter.” Those words changed her life. Mary Ann Bird related that she was never the same after that. She went on to become an accomplished reporter and author.
John tells us this logos, this Jesus can change us, can change our lives to be new, to have a new beginning, a new birth, a new present, and new end. His light and life can shine through us.
Through Jesus, God whispers to us and all humanity, that God loves us and wants us to become his son, his daughter. He invites us into a loving and intimate relationship with God as our father.
All of this is what is celebrated in Christmas.
So through the next few days, let’s consider what difference Christmas has made in our lives. As the trees come down, the lights go out, and the gifts lose their excitement, what difference has Jesus birth made in your life, and in my life?
Do we need to respond to his invitation to become a child of God? Do we need to invite Jesus to light our lives with his presence, to dwell in us for the first time? Then do it–he comes if you invite him in– that’s all it takes– “come in, Jesus” and he brings his life and his light into us.
Do we need to be reminded that even though we might have already accepted that invitation, somehow over the years we have allowed Jesus to be switched off in our lives? What do we need to do to let his light shine on us and in us again so it can then shine through us to others?
Tonight is New Year’s Eve. It might be a moment to consider a new resolution for the year. Consider Christmas, and think how might you switch on Jesus in your life this year? And see if the new year truly becomes a “new year.”
Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard C. Marsden
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
1st Sunday after Christmas
31 December 2017