Sermon for December 24, 2006 Morning WorshipTHE LIGHT OF LOVEBy Rev. Cindy Bates |
|
John 1: 1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, F1 and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
This last Wednesday evening I was out shoveling the driveway hoping that if I went out and shoveled every couple of hours, I could keep up with all that beautiful white stuff that just kept coming down. When I came back inside I had a phone message from one of my brothers in Michigan, where it was 50 degrees and no snow on the ground. His message went something like, “Hey, just checking in. What’s the story in Denver? Give us a call.” What’s the story in Denver? Well, there were lots of stories in Denver, weren’t there? There were stories of delayed flights and frustrated travelers and disappointed friends and family that could not get where they wanted to go. There were stories of cancellations and closings….even a Nuggets came was called off! We will probably be hearing stories of “The 2006 Holiday Blizzard” for many months into 2007! But, something tells me the stories we will remember and share will have a whole lot more to do with how persons came together to bring a little light into the darkness of a storm than how the storm might have darkened our holiday plans. Before there were too many inches on the ground Wednesday, I made my way over here to the church to pick up some work and to check on the folks that were here in this building as part of the Interfaith Hospitality Network…. four homeless families that were being housed here for the week. When I walked in, kids were playing, a parent was on the phone apologizing for not being able to show up for a job interview and a delicious meal was being set out for lunch. I was greeted with smiles by our wonderful St. Andrew servant ministers who said, “We are fine and we have everything we need.” I heard that later this place turned into a haven for a man who came to do some light repairs and got stuck in our parking lot. He came in and began helping with the feeding of the homeless families. Then the crew came to plow the parking lot and the blizzard became so bad that they ended up staying the night and sharing meals with all who came together in this place. I think a lot of light was being shed in the darkness for those who truly needed a place to come to find hospitality, to find some warmth, to find some Christmas spirit. And that is just a glimpse of one small story from the last few days. I am sure you could share many such stories that you heard or participated in. Our scripture this morning says, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” That is the message we share this season isn’t it? It is what the Christmas story is all about…God wanting to be with us…God wanting to bring light into any darkness that we might be experiencing. Now the cynic in me says but even with that light, there still is a lot of darkness. People get cancer and other life draining illness. Children suffer abuse, hunger stretches around the world and war seems endless. There is still a lot of heartache. There is still a lot of darkness. Is the light that first Christmas was meant to bring still shining? Dr. Scott Johnston, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia tells the story of a seminary student who was preparing a lesson plan on the ninth chapter of Isaiah. It is a passage that we often read during Advent. “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.” To demonstrate the message of this scripture, the seminary student found the darkest place on campus she could find, a seldom-used racket ball court in the basement of a classroom building. It was a place that when the door was shut and the lights turned off, it was a little scary, for no light penetrated the space. Johnston said, “When it came time for the student to lead her class through the lesson, she brought them down the stairs, through the door and sat them down around the edges of the court. Then she said, ‘You are people who live in a land of deep darkness.’ And she turned out the light. A few students gasped and then it got pretty quiet. She waited. In the hush and in the dark they sat. They sat and waited. After five minutes, five surprisingly long minutes, silent and absolutely dark minutes, she read the words, ‘Those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined.’ With those words, she struck a match and lit a small candle. By no means did that candle fill the room with light, but all the same, it changed things. It changed them radically. With the flickering of the light, people saw themselves, and they saw each other. They saw faces, surprised faces, puzzled faces, and even a couple of faces streaked with tears. For those in deep darkness, a little light made all the difference, all the difference in the world.” And then he went on to talk about the incarnation by saying, “It is not that the light obliterates the darkness, it is simply that the light is there. God enters into our darkness to sit alongside us. God climbs right into the darkest places to be with us and in that holy and luminous action, we find reason enough to hope.” Each year as we go through the Advent season we tell the story of Christmas. We piece together the scripture passages from Luke and Matthew that tell us about Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men and we replay how it might have been or how we imagine it was, but we know we don’t have the details straight or the words exact. That doesn’t matter. What matters is, we get the point. It is a story about light for our darkness….a story of love for our hearts…a story of hope for our fears…a story to help us understand a little more about who God is and who God wants us to be. Pastor and author James Moore, in his Advent Study, “What Can We Learn from the Christ Child?” tells about a “Peanuts” comic strip where Charlie Brown and Linus are watching television. Snoopy is standing on top of the TV with his ears sticking up in the shape of a “V”, serving as an antenna. Then Charlie says to Linus, “I don’t understand it either. All I know is that it gives us a better picture.” Moore says, “The same thing could be said about Christmas. I don’t understand everything about the coming of the Christ Child. All I know is that he gives us a little better picture. He clears up the confusion and shows us not only what God is like, but what God wants us to be like.” The Christmas story becomes even more powerful in our lives when it helps us understand not only what God is like but who God wants us to be. God comes to bring light to our darkness and through that light not only gives us hope but encourages us and shows us the way to be light for others. The Christmas story comes to shape us, to write the story that is the life of each one of us. How has the Christmas story changed the story of your life? As we sang the words to “The First Noel” this morning, I was reminded of an article written by Sue Monk Kidd explaining the origin of the word noel. She says, “The origin goes back to the French word for birth. There are several explanations about its Christmas usage, but the one I like best goes back to medieval England. It was common then to abbreviate a common phrase into one word in order to save time; for example, the phrase God be with you gradually became good-bye. During Christmas, it seems people cried out a greeting to one another as they passed in the streets. “Now all is well”, they shouted, referring to the event of God coming to us through the Christ Child. The theory goes that with time the phrase was contracted into one word, noel.” Christmas comes to us to say, “The Light of Love will always shine in any storm, in any darkness this world can know.” Christmas comes to say, “Now all is well!” |
