John 1:1-14
Christmas Eve
December 24, 2020
On a night like this, sometimes we open the Bible to hear what we have always heard. So the Gospel of Luke is opened and the story of the birth of Jesus is released again into the air. We expect that. We depend on that. This is not any other evening. This is the festival of incarnation.
Sometimes we open the Bible and an unexpected star begins to shine. Perhaps it is the darkness of our circumstance that sharpens our vision and opens our hearts. That's what happened to me. I opened the first chapter of John's Gospel and the good news is there: "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it."
Let's affirm how shining the light is a daring thing to do. The year that I began my ministry, the government of South Africa banned many of the Christmas celebrations in that country. The country was in turmoil and the authorities worried about an outbreak of joy.
So "Joy to the World" was squelched. "Silent Night" was silenced. All the faithful were told not to come but rather stay home. Not only did the authorities declare the songs were too emotional, but "candles have become revolutionary symbols."[1] That's a direct quote: candles were "revolutionary symbols." In spite of the crackdown, the candles were lit.
You and I are living through a different kind of crisis. It's a crisis with multiple layers, and the most obvious is an international virus that rages out of control. Tonight is not the time to fuss about public health restrictions, especially if they are reasonable ways to protect our families and love our neighbors. No, tonight is the night to shine the light.
John sings these Christmas words at the beginning of his Gospel story. With this extraordinary poem, he states the best way to understand the coming of Jesus to the world is as light coming into darkness.
Darkness? We know the darkness is real. It lurks in the crevasses of the soul. It stirs in the shadows of every human assembly. Darkness is irrational evil that destroys life. Darkness lies behind our willful desire to refuse kindness and to reject what is true. When God created the heavens and the earth, there was darkness. It was in the shapeless "void" of what God did not create.
Then God said, "Let there be light." Light reveals what the darkness wishes to hide. Light illumines what we ignore in our shadows. Light inspires the telling of truth and the cultivation of life. Every day, darkness says, "Turn out those lights!" Don't let the secrets be told. Don't let the truth be revealed. Don't let the destructive impulses be seen. In spite of it all, the light comes. God announces Light, sends Light -- and this sets up the great conflict of creation.
We know the story of Jesus. He did not stay as a child in the manger. He grew up. He was instructed in the love and justice of God. He opened human minds, cured human illnesses, healed broken hearts, and rebuilt human community. Precisely because he was so good at shining the light, the darkness tried to snuff him out. In the language of John's poem, to "overcome" him. It worked until the darkness was cracked open.
I never noticed how John mixes up his tenses. "The darkness did not overcome it" - that's past tense, an historical event. God's good news comes in the present tense, "The light shines in the darkness," which is a Resurrection reality. John sings of resurrection and crucifixion in the same sentence. Yet he reminds us of two truths.
The first is that the darkness has not gone away. Surely this is why the world behaves as it does. There is ignorance and foolishness in a world that resists illumination. There is mistrust and mistreatment in a world addicted to fear. There is hostility and abuse in a world ashamed of its own shame. The darkness is real. So John says, "This is the crisis, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19)."
And yet the second truth is that the Light has come. Or as the next carol declares, "The Lord is come." The Light is here. The Light was extinguished on the cross of Jesus but it will not go out again. The Light shines now and invites us out of the darkness, away from the shadows of death, to live abundantly and to shine as brightly as God empowers us.
This is why a true observance of Christmas always has an edge to it. The Light defies the darkness. As G.K. Chesterton once said of Christmas, "A religion that defies the world should have a feast that defies the weather." You have heard it said, "The weather outside is frightening." But I say to you Jesus Christ is born. And he lives. Oh, he lives!
So that's why we offer a Christmas Eve service to you. We can't gather as a crowd this year. Only a few of us can safely come to witness to the joy and peace which is offered to all. It is our way to affirm God comes in spite of the darkness. Jesus is born regardless of who sits upon the world's cardboard throne. The Spirit of God has the freedom to reach all of us without the constraints of an international pandemic.
We do this to declare what the scriptures testify: that we are precious enough to God to be rescued by him. That we are honored enough by Jesus for him to be birthed to live among us. That we are sufficiently available to God's Spirit that our own spirits can be enlivened and we can be empowered by the music from heaven far greater than our own.
Trust
the good news, wherever you are: "The light shines in the darkness and the
darkness did not overcome it." Let the good word sink into your souls and
rejoice.
[1] See, for instance,
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-12-25-mn-21091-story.html
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