Reverend Adam Hamilton – Wednesday, 25 December 2013 – “The
Light of the World”
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being
through him, and without him not one thing came into being. 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. (John 1:1-5)
No one knows when Jesus was born. December 25 was chosen not
because someone had a copy of Jesus’ birth certificate, but because, as the
early church pondered when to celebrate Jesus’ birth, the winter solstice
seemed the perfect time. (Under the old Julian calendar the winter solstice was
set as December 25. The Gregorian calendar we use has the winter solstice
occurring in the Northern Hemisphere on December 21/22, but this calendar was
not adopted until the 1500s.) They chose this time, I believe, not because it
was already a pagan festival, though it was. I believe they chose this date
because on this night the heavens themselves seemed to tell the Christmas
story.
At the winter solstice, the world seems to change. Up to that
day, the nights have been growing longer and the days shorter. Darkness has
been defeating the light. But after the winter solstice, the days grow longer
and the night grows shorter. Light overcomes darkness.
We are most familiar with Matthew and Luke’s telling of the
Christmas story; but John, too, tells the story of Christmas. He does not
include shepherds or angels or wise men. He tells the story thus: “In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. . . .
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.” When better to celebrate the one who himself was light, who defeated the
darkness, than on the winter solstice!
We observe candlelight services at Christmas in part to
commemorate the triumph of light over darkness that happens through Jesus
Christ. The candlelighting portion of the service begins by extinguishing all
the candles and turning out the lights in our sanctuary. We stand in the
darkness, recalling the moments in our lives and in our world when darkness has
seemed palpable. You can’t appreciate the light of Christ that comes to us at
Christmas until you’ve first felt and known the darkness.
Finally in our candlelight service, we bring in one candle from
the back of the room—the Christ candle—representing Jesus himself. We then
begin to pass the candlelight throughout the room, lighting one another’s candles
as we sing “Silent Night.”
When we finish passing the light, we invite everyone to hold
their candles high in the air, and we all just look around. The room that was
pitch dark a few minutes before is now filled with the soft glow of
candlelight. And this, we note, is the point of Christmas—God came to us in
Jesus Christ to dispel the darkness with his light. Hate, violence, bigotry,
war, poverty, disease, and even death seem so often to rule the world. But
Jesus came to show us that God is, that God loves, and that hate and evil will
not ultimately prevail.
I remind the congregation as we stand holding our candlelight
that at one point in his ministry Jesus said, “I am the light of the world!”
But as he called his disciples and invited them to follow, he said to them,
“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one
after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand,
and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine
before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your
Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16).
In this moment we see that Christmas is not only a gift from
God—light piercing our darkness—it is also a calling from God to take his light
into the world by our acts of love, mercy, and justice. At Christmas we are
invited to receive Christ’s light, but not only to receive it. We are invited
to bear the light, to walk in the light, and to take the light into the world.
Merry Christmas!
This post is an excerpt from Walking the Road to Bethlehem!
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United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, KS 66224 United States
(913)897-0120
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