Christmas Eve Sermon

Christmas Eve

Transcribed from a sermon

By Valerie Ann Hart

At St Barnabas Episcopal Church

December 24, 2011

It is really dark out tonight. When I arrived tonight it was very dark because there were no lights on in the parking lot. They are set to turn off automatically at 10:00 PM so several of us began scrambling trying to get lights to come back on. We are used to having lots of lights around us, even on a dark night.

Imagine how dark it must have been for the shepherds up on a hillside. Not near any towns or villages and of course no electricity. If it was a clear night, there might be the moon or the stars providing some light, but imagine that it as an overcast day of fog and darkness.

Have you ever been camping and wandered outside at night when everybody had gone to bed and all the campfires were out? If you turn your flashlight off just for a few moments, it’s so dark. Imagine what it was like for the shepherds in that darkness on that day so many, many years ago.

Their darkness was not just a darkness of the lack of physical light. There was a darkness laying over the whole land of Israel at that time. They were people who were occupied. There was an occupying arm from Rome all around. And there had been dark times for the people of Israel of a long time. They had been conquered by Babylon and taken into exile. Isaiah’s beautiful words in the first reading, where he talks about people that have been in darkness will see a great light, was the hope for those who were in exile­. They did get to come back home but they were never truly a free people after Babylon. They were ruled by the Assyrians and then the Greeks and then the Romans. The Romans were like any despot today. They ruled with a combination of bribery and cruelty. Those who were in with the romans lived quite well. Everybody else was on their own. There were arbitrary killings. If the Roman’s thought there was a town that was in rebellion they would nail a hundred people up on a wall to make a point.

It was a cruel time and a dark time, a time when people were looking for something, searching for, hoping for, the light. Some people might say that today is a dark time in the United States. The economy has been a mess for a long time, the politicians in Washington have been a mess for a long time, its confusing. There are a lot of people who are out of work or underemployed, people who have lost their homes or are afraid they will lose their homes.

There are a number of people in this parish who have lost someone to death during the last year. The first Christmas without them is a dark time. I know others who are suffering from illnesses that casts a gloom. We each have our own darkness.

I also know that there are some families who are having a wonderful year with joy of children and new life, but we all know what those dark times can be like.

It is like when you are in a cave or a tunnel and are feeling lost, then the batteries in your flashlight wear out. All is darkness around you. You don’t know what to do; you don’t know which way to go. The darkness is all you experience. But if there is even the tiniest little spark of light, if you see in the distance a weak flashlight, it is like a bright sign. If you see a match or a candle in that darkness it is so bright that it gives you the hope that there is a way through the darkness and back into the light.

It is like these little light bulbs that we have on the decorations. You might have noticed that during the day when the sun is out and it is really bright you can’t tell whether the lights are turned on or not. But when it gets really dark, even one of these little bulbs, one of these tiny bulbs, could make a huge difference, especially if you are lost in the darkness.

One of the news programs this past week was giving examples of extreme decorating of houses with lights. There was one road where there were so may Christmas lights on both sides of the road that you could read a book in the middle of the night from all the lights. One of those little tiny lights doesn’t do a whole lot, but you put a lot together and it can be really, really bright.

Those who walked in darkness have seen a great light - that is who Christ is. The Gospel of John begins not with the story of the nativity. It begins it differently. This is Gospel that we sometimes read on Christmas day and we almost always read on the First Sunday after Christmas. “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.” Christ is the light in the darkness and John tells us that the darkness can’t, can’t overwhelm it.

One of the ways that I have heard it translated is instead of "overwhelm it "is "apprehend it". Kind of the dual meaning. The darkness can’t understand it and also can’t trap it. There is a light that was born on Christmas, and that is what we celebrate. We celebrate the light that is the life of all people. The light of Christ who came into the world and whom on Christmas we invite to come within us - to come within us so that we can be the light in the world.

He was a great and bright light 2000 years ago. And he still is with us, though not in the body as he was. But he left the spark of light in all his people. We are like those little tiny light bulbs and when you get a whole group together it is pretty amazing how bright the light ca shine.

One of my favorite passages from Matthew is related to this. “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 give light to the whole house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.”

We are Christ’s light in the world, each one of us has that light within us. When we are walking in darkness, when we search for the light, that is what we are searching for. We may not be able to find it in ourselves, but maybe we can find it is someone else.

Light is a wonderful image of going against the darkness, but what is that light? That light is the light of Christ, and Christ is of God and God is love. That is what the letter of first John says over and over again. God is love. That light of Christ, that light that we search for when we are in the darkness, is love. It is the love that will get us through, that will carry us through the darkness and give us hope, give us direction, give us meaning and give us purpose. We find that through Christ and through one another.

Christmas is a time when we put up lights, we fight the darkness. It is in the darkest time of the year when the day is the shortest. But we don’t give in to the fact that it is dark out. We put up lights even when electricity is expensive. We light lights, we put up candles, we fight the darkness. And we fight the darkness with our love. The light of our love that we show through our giving to one another.

The reason for the gifts, the essences of the gifts that we give at Christmas time, is an expression of that love - that light within us, the love within us. But the gift of that love doesn’t have to come in an expensive package. It can come in a phone call, or a hug, or some food or a smile. There are lots of ways to give at Christmas.

We do that because Christmas is the time when we celebrate the fact that the light has come into the world and the darkness has not, and will not, overcome it. So let your light shine before all people so they may see your love and good works, and glorify your father who is in heaven.