Christmas Eve Year C 2009

Christmas Eve C 09
December 24, 2009

Isaiah 52:7-10
7 How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,
who brings good news,
who announces salvation,
who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
8 Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices,
together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see
the return of the LORD to Zion.
9 Break forth together into singing,
you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

Psalm 98
1 O sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things.
His right hand and his holy arm
have gotten him victory.
2 The LORD has made known his victory;
he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
5 Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody.
6 With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD.
7 Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who live in it.
8 Let the floods clap their hands;
let the hills sing together for joy
9 at the presence of the LORD, for he is coming
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.

Hebrews 1:1-12
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. 3 He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,
"You are my Son;
today I have begotten you"?
Or again,
"I will be his Father,
and he will be my Son"?
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,
"Let all God's angels worship him."
7 Of the angels he says,
"He makes his angels winds,
and his servants flames of fire."
8 But of the Son he says,
"Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."
10 And,
"In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
11 they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
12 like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same,
and your years will never end."

John 1:1-14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And 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 Light in the Darkness

(Ushers blow out candles and turn out the lights as the gospel is read. Let the silence go for a little while.)

You know, the dead of winter is one of the busiest at the funeral home. There are ten families right in our own congregation for whom the Christmas season is also a time to grieve the loss of someone they love. And we know of at least six local families outside our congregation just this season who have made the sad trip to the cemetery. Every year we dust off the word “merry,” a word we don’t use for anything really anymore except for Christmas, yet the cold and bleak winter is the time when many of us experience or remember loss and sadness, and when many of us pass away.

Back on Thanksgiving Sunday, I researched the many ministries of our church around the world, the many wonderful things we, as a global church, are doing to bring a little peace, a little love, a little justice here and there. This is the harvest of the kingdom of God, the sweet grapes of the vineyard, the fine wine at the end of the meal, the bread that is baked from the gathered wheat.
And yet, I remember as I researched these things that I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. I began my search with the hope of finding dramatic and powerful stories of victory and redemption. Instead, the stories that I found were, for the most part, fairly small; little stories of this or that child or this or that village or this or that family that was able to receive a little grace, a little safety, a little hope, a little justice.

And I thought, “Is this it? Is this all that we are accomplishing? With all the terrible problems in the world today, the two billion people who are starving, the thousands embroiled in war, the millions dying of preventable diseases, the thousands who labor in anonymous slavery, this is all the church can do?

(Light one candle.)

But John says tonight, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
It’s a sentence, I think, that we don’t often really think about. John doesn’t say, “The light shines and has driven away the darkness.” He says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Not much of a victory it seems. Is this little light really worth the trumpets and the halleluiah choruses?

A little light in the great darkness. A little salvation in the midst of a great disaster. He came to what was his own, but his own did not accept him. He was in the world, but the world did not know him.

One of the great themes in the bible is that of the remnant, the little piece that is saved out of the great cataclysm: Noah’s family in the flood, Lot’s family in the destruction of Sodom, the few who returned from the exile, and the little band that will escape the final, great catastrophe. The little light in the darkness, so small, so fragile, so insignificant in the big picture, and yet, so consistent, so faithful, so indestructible.

"In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth,
and the heavens are the work of your hands;
they will perish, but you remain;
they will all wear out like clothing;
like a cloak you will roll them up,
and like clothing they will be changed.
But you are the same, and your years will never end."

Jesus never travelled much more than about twenty or thirty miles from where he was born. He was at work for only about three years, or even less if you figure it according to John’s gospel. There were millions of people who never met him, thousands of sick who he didn’t heal, thousands of demons he didn’t cast out, thousand of lepers he never cleansed.

But he did do something so amazing and wonderful that even the great and terrible darkness could not overcome.

He shined the light of God into the darkness of the world.

He was the firstborn of God, and in the church that has come after him he sometimes manages to inspire this or that person to be born of God just as he was. And these “born-from-above” people might not do much beyond this or that little village, this or that little school, this or that little hospital. But as they do these things, there is something much greater and more important they are doing.

They are shining the light of God into the darkness of the world.

It’s strange, isn’t it, how huge a difference one little pinprick of light makes even in the great darkness of the night? Enough perhaps even to say:

The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

It’s also strange and amazing, isn’t it, how the darkness cannot overcome it?

Amen.