Good morning, Friends! And once again, merry Christmas!
Christmas is more than a day. Christmas is a season. All month, we’ve been talking about Advent as the season of hope, as the season of joy, the season of peace and love.
Today I want to talk with you about something else – I want to talk about Advent as the season of light. We put so much effort into bringing light during Advent — Christmas lights, candles in the windows, Christmas trees, luminaria, warm fires at home, outdoor decorations, all kinds of lights everywhere.
I set up a table this morning with some of the interesting different ways that people have created light over the years.
We take light for granted today – just flick a switch, and the light turns on. But that’s only been true during the last hundred years or so. Before that, and for most of human history, light was something that people took very seriously. They worked and struggled and had to be inventive to have light after the sun went down. So, this morning, on a table here at the front of the room here’s:
• a clay lamp – Jesus would have used something like this
• a betty lamp to hang in the barn or from an overhead rafter
• a rush light – these were widely used in colonial times. They burned a dried rush plant that had been soaked in fat or bacon grease
• a hog scraper candlestick
• a lovely china candle holder to light you up to bed
• a lamp from the early 1800’s that used to burn whale oil and got converted to electricity
• a kerosene lamp that would have been put in a proud place in someone’s parlor or kitchen
• a pair of silver candlesticks — wedding presents to my mom and dad almost 80 years ago
• a modern flashlight
• one of the candles people held here on Christmas Eve
• one of the electric candles we put in the windows
If you’ve visited a Jewish home at this time of the year, you probably saw that they lighted a menorah, which is a light with spaces for nine candles.
A hundred and seventy years before the time of Jesus, Israel was invaded by a pagan king who looted the Temple. The Jews rebelled and drove out the invaders. But when they went to light the lamp in the Temple, there was only enough oil to keep it burning for one day. But miraculously, the oil kept the lamp alight for eight days, until fresh oil could be made and blessed. So, in Jewish homes, the menorah is a reminder of that event, and Hanukkah was celebrated even in the time of Jesus.
Part of the reason for all of this talk about light is that here in the Northern half of the world, this is the darkest time of the year. But part of what’s going on is that we associate light with Christ, the Light of the world. Here are two Scriptures to start us off:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word was with God in the beginning. Through the Word all things were made; without the Word nothing was made that has been made.
In the Word was life, and that life was the light of all people. And the light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overcome it.
- John 1:1-5
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from al] sin.
- 1 John 1:1-7
Christmas is the season of light. We have all these lights going all month to push back the dark. In Ireland, where my mother’s family came from, one of the customs at Christmas was to light a big candle on Christmas Eve, and leave it burning in the window, all night long.
People in Ireland said they lit the candle to welcome the Holy Family, who didn’t have a place to stay at the inn. They left food on the table, too, and the door was left unlocked all night on Christmas Eve, for the Holy Family or for any homeless or hungry person who might stop by.
In the same way, at Christmas in Ireland they always set an extra place at the table, or left an empty chair. They said it was in case Jesus came to the door. Other people kept the empty chair to remember a family member who had sailed away to America, who they might never see again.
I know some people here at Springfield raised their eyebrows the first year that my wife and I were here. We put electric candles in all the windows at the meetinghouse for Christmas. And we put electric candles in the windows at the parsonage, and left them up, all year long. What was that about?
The candles here at the meetinghouse, of course, are for Christmas. People in the neighborhood told me they thought Springfield was deserted, because there were never any lights on.
That’s not a good thing, so we bought the lights and put them in the windows all through December. Later that first year, we bought special lights for the front porch and the colonnade, which turn on at dusk and off at dawn.
But if you drive by here in the evening, you’ll see that our family has window candles at the parsonage all year long. It’s partly to let the neighborhood know that people live here. But it also helps the whole neighborhood feel safer. It’s sort of like that commercial for Motel 6 – you know, the one where they say, “We’ll leave the light on for you.”
The thing is, there are lots of different ways to share the light, and to bring light into the world. There’s no question that this world can be a dark place.
Sometimes it’s just because it gets dark at night. And sometimes it’s because some people in this world make darkness by the things they say and the things they do.
Last week, we read the part in the gospel of John where Jesus says, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have eternal life. God didn’t send his son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him. . .” (John 3:16-17)
Just two verses after that – just two verses later – Jesus says: “This is the way it is: the light has come into the world. But some people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, because they don’t want their deeds to be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they do has been done through God.” (John 3:19-21)
Later in the gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. . .” (John 8:12)
But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill can’t be hidden. . .Don’t hide your light under a basket, but put it on a high place! Let your light shine, so that people will see what you do and praise your Father in heaven. . .” (Matthew 5:14-16)
We share the light at Christmas to celebrate. Light is joyful. Light brings hope in the darkness. Light pushes back fear and loneliness. Light brings warmth and caring.
But light isn’t something just for a day, or a week, or a month. Light is something we need to live in and walk in and share, every day of the year.
In one of his letters, Paul says: “You are all children of light and children of the day. We don’t belong to the night or the darkness. . .encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:5, 11)
Did you know that “Children of the Light” used to be one of the names that we used to call ourselves? Quaker was a name that other people hung on us. But “Children of the Light” was what we called ourselves. Our other name, of course, is Friends.
All through the year, you hear me reminding you that we need to love each other, to love our neighbor, even to love our enemies. But the Bible also reminds us, over and over, how important it is to seek the light, to find the light and to share the light, any way we can.
In one of his letters, Paul says, “Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things some people do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it is said in a hymn,
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give you light.” (Ephesians 5:8-14)
There’s a reason that when a person is converted, they often say, “I saw the Light. . .”
When we see the light, Christ gives us the power to change our lives, to stop being prisoners of darkness, to throw off our old habits and addictions. When we see the light, Christ shows us how burdened we are by fear and hatred, and how small these things are in the clear light of God.
Christmas is the season of light. All month, we’ve been celebrating Christmas with lights of all kinds.
In a few days, we’ll start taking down the decorations, and putting them away for another year. But as the old year comes to an end, and as the new year begins, let’s not forget about the more important kind of light – the Light of Christ, but also the light in each one of us.
Don’t ever put away the light, even if you put away your decorations. Let the light shine, all year long – into your mind and heart, into your life and walk.
All year long, remember the words of the Psalm which says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. . .” (Psalm 119:5)
Remember the words from John’s letter that we read earlier: “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. . .”
And remember the words from the good news of John: “The light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never overcome it. . .”