Christmas Eve
December 24, 2017
Dr. Susan F. Dewyngaert
Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7
John 1: 1-5, 10-14
Irrepressible Light
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. – John 1:5
Tonight, on this holy night, we hear the Christmas story from the lips of several gifted writers. Luke tells his version of the events that took place long ago. Luke’s is a gentle story of maiden and angel, of the journey to Bethlehem, and shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night.
Matthew, another gospel writer, records the same story but in a very different voice. Matthew’s Christmas story is intense --with emphasis upon Joseph’s dilemma, the murderous King Herod, and the Magi, those Zoroastrian priests-astrologers who were wise enough to understand not to return to Herod. Instead, they found the Christ child, worshiped him with their gifts, then they left for their own country by another way.
The third gospel writer to tell a Christmas story is John. John’s account of Jesus begins long before the others, in the beginning, in darkness. Long before the galaxies began, before creation, or the Big Bang, or whatever you want to call it…in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.
John’s story of Jesus reaches all the way back to the first breath of creation. Jesus, the Word of God, was there at the beginning. Of course he was, because, according to John, Jesus, the Messiah, was not merely born of God; Jesus WAS God. Jesus IS God. Christ was present from the beginning, when the earth was a formless void and darkness was over the face of the deep.[i]
Listen to the Christmas story from John, chapter 1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own,and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let’s pray together.
Christ our Lord, you are the Light of the world, Word of God made flesh, full of grace and truth. This world seems awfully dark at times. The advance of evil appears unstoppable. And then you appear. You shine with unquenchable light. Help us to greet you well on this sacred night. Be born in us, we pray. Cast out our sin, and enter in; be born in us today. Amen.
The ancient Greeks had a unique race in their Olympic games. The winner was not the runner who finished first. The winner was the runner who finished with his torch still lit.[ii]
Do you remember a time when the light of Christ burned bright within you? Maybe it was in your childhood, when you were a shepherd or an angel in the Christmas pageant, or when you were a teen, at summer camp, or a youth at WoodsWork. Maybe it was in Bible study on campus. Maybe it was when you met your helpmate, or when you celebrated your golden anniversary with that person. Maybe it was when your own tiny child was born and you felt the light of love burn in you in ways that you didn’t know were possible.
Remember? Faith is a gift of God. That’s what the Bible tells us; faith is a tiny flame, the spark of God burning in each of us. This is part of what it means to be made in God’s image.
I love the way Paul, the great apostle of Christ, explained this to a young guy named Timothy. He wrote:
I remember your sincere faith, a faith that lived in your grandmother … and your mother … and now, I am sure, burns in you … I want to remind you to fan the flame, [it is] the gift of God, which is in you … for God gives us a spirit, not of fear, but of power, love. [iii]
Fan the flame; it is the light of Christ in you.
Here’s the reality. Darkness happens. There’s a lot of it out there in the world, and sometimes I think, even more of it is in here – in you and in me. And sometimes, when we are honest,we have to admit that it feels as if the darkness is winning.
But there is an ancient truth. Long ago this night, God looked upon this struggling world of brokenhearted people – people walking in darkness – and God sent a Savior, a Messiah, Christ the Lord.
What has come into being in him… was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
Faith is the Christ light that burns in you and me regardless of the circumstances, but, as Paul reminded, we have to fan the flame. Neglect it, isolate it, and it becomes like a dying ember. Nurture and cherish it – fan the flame -- feed it with regular practice of worship, study and service and it will become a bright, irrepressible light, a faith for the hard times as well as the good, a light in dark places.
About ten years ago, my friend Tricia had a stroke. She was my age then, active and successful.Now she’s partially paralyzed. She can speak, but only with great difficulty, so it was painful to communicate with her. In her eyes you can see the same love and faith that shows how much she wants to say, but cannot.
One day I was visiting her in the nursing home. Her dear boyfriend was there too. It was tempting to avoid the struggle altogether and talk with him only, but I couldn’t. It was Christmas, and Tricia loves Christmas. Just then we heard music coming from the hallway, “O holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior’s birth.”
Tricia’s face lit up. What happened next I could barely believe. This woman who had so much difficulty pronouncing evena single word began to sing: “Long lay the world in sin an error pining…” There was no stuttering, no stammering.
She had it, all of it, every word. It felt like a Christmas miracle –now I know that there’s solid science behind what happened, and it is also the light of faith she nurtured in her, the flame of the spirit, tended by Tricia for the decades she spent fanning the flame of faith. Now, in spite of everything, that faith burns bright in her; it isa light shining in a dark place.
Darkness takes many forms. Sometimes it is internal, sometimes external; there are wars and diseases, so many political divisions, and all kinds of oppression...we know it all too well. We also know that God was not willing to leave us alone in our darkness. In the fullness of time, God came to us in Light so glorious that no amount of darkness can ever extinguish it.
There is a promise at the heart of our faith, a golden thread woven through all the stories and songs given to us by our ancestors – it begins in the stories of creation. It runs through the ancient prophecies; it is in all the pages of scripture, and the faith that lived first in our great, great grandparents, and now lives (sometimes better than others) in you and me.
We are never far from this promise – when we gather and pray, when we worship: singing our songs of faith, and read from the Good Book, this golden thread is always there.
You know the promise. It is stitched into every lesson tonight, every carol. Whenever God looks upon those who struggle, wherever God finds weary, brokenhearted people – people walking in darkness – God speaks this promise:
Don’t be afraid. I am with you. I’m going to send you a Savior. He is the Light of the world, the light that shines in darkness and the darkness cannot, will not, overcome it.
In the 1980’s, behind the Iron Curtain, in Leipzig, East Germany, at the Lutheran Church of St. Nicholas, a movement began. Believing that the wall dividing East and West Germany was evil, and convinced that human liberty is just as much a faith issue as it is a political one, the pastor of St. Nicholas Church began holding evening prayer services at the church. Every Monday night he invited a few people in the community to gather at the church and to pray for peace and unity, and to pray that the leaders’ hearts would be changed.
At first these gatherings were small. Gradually word started to get around. Leipzig is a university town and before long the prayer services were filled with students who were looking for a way to express some hope. Word spread and the number of people attending these services went from a few dozen, to a few hundred, to a few thousand.
Soon the crowds drew the attention and the ire of the communist Ministry for State Security. Something had to be done. So in October of 1989 the secret police made plans to put an end to the prayer services at St. Nicholas. They sent Communist Party loyalists to occupy all 1600 seats inside the church, and heavily armed security forces with tanks and tear gas to patrol the streets outside the church.
Then the security forces waited for instructions from Berlin, as to when they could confront the worshipers who were gathering on the streets outside.
That night 70,000 residents of Leipzig showed up.
Standing on the steps outside the church, the pastor reminded the people to be peaceful. “Put down your rocks,” he shouted. “Members of the church are going to pass out candles. We’re going to light our candles and do what we do every Monday night. We’re going to pray. Then we’re going to walk over to the Communist Party headquarters, and pray some more.”
That night, the local security chief, who desperately wanted to subdue the worshipers by force, was captured on film. He was filmed staring out his window at the massive crowd that had gathered in front of the headquarters. “We planned for everything,” he said turning to the camera with wide eyes. “We prepared for everything except candles and prayers.”
The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
Less than a month later the Berlin Wall came down. [iv]
Tonight we have returned, as we always do, to the stories of Christmas-- one tiny child, the son of peasant parents, born in a backwoods place, born to save us all.His light shines in darkness– a Light that no amount of darkness can overcome. Christ’s is irrepressible, unquenchable light. And it is yours for the asking. So…Light your fire! Fan the flame!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
1
[i] Genesis 1:1-2
[ii] James Stowell, Fan the Flame, Moody, 1986, 32
[iii] 2 Timothy 1:5-7
[iv] The story of the “The Peaceful Revolution” is well- known. This rendering of the story is by Scott Black Johnston, pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, from a sermon, “Imagining the Good” preached in that church on December 24, 2016