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Our theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”
This is Christmas Eve, the conclusion of our 2022 Advent Series.
Advent literally means “the coming.”
It is a time of building anticipation for Christmas, which is the celebration of Christ’s coming.
We recently completed a series on the Gospel of John, so someone suggested to me, “Why not do an Advent series from the Gospel of John?”
I thought it sounded like a good idea.
It’s especially interesting because John is the only Gospel writer who does not include any details about the birth of Jesus.
John is more that just a historian, he’s an artist.
He tells us the story of the gospel through images.
The Creator of the world is coming into the world that He made.
He is trying to communicate with the people of the world in terms that they understand.
He is using terms life life and light - we are like ‘yeah, we know what those mean’
But our understanding is like that of a child compared to His.
Or rather, if we really believed, like a child does, we might understand better.
Jesus, the real Jesus, is the bridge between our human reality and that of our Creator.
Last week we talked about life that is beyond mere existence.
And John parallels life and light, so that we can understand that life, light and good are vastly more powerful and substantive than are darkness, death or evil.
What is light?
Light is energy - electromagnetic radiation.
We know a lot about light, but we are still not entirely sure of what it is.
What does light do?
Light illuminates!
It helps us to see and to know the world around us
In the universe, light provides a constant by which time and space can be measured.
It dispels darkness, which is the absence of light.
Light nourishes and supports life.
Light is also what gives life beauty, because it opens our eyes to a whole world of color which is made possible by light.
Objects are made visible by the light that they reflect.
Light shows us what beauty and goodness are.
And our job is to spread God’s goodness and his light.
Light Reflects the Creator.
After John begins His gospel that Jesus is the light coming into the world, he tells us that John the Baptist is not the light, but reflects the light.
John says that John the Baptist “bears witness” to the light.
To bear witness is to give testimony to the truth.
It is reflecting the light.
I can shine a light, but you won’t see the light until it hits something that reflects it back.
Light, itself is invisible, but it becomes visible when something reflects it, or bears witness to it.
God Created light as a representation of His goodness.
Augustine points out that God called the light good.
He didn’t say it after he separated the darkness, in case we might also thing that darkness is good.
Light is good and darkness is just the backdrop against which we see that it is good.
God is good and He is light.
“The goodness of creation is the goodness of God” - Augustine
I said last week that we can know something about God just from observing His Creation.
John the Baptist is created by God and therefore reflects something of his Creator.
You and I are created and reflect our Creator just by virtue of the fact that we are human.
But Jesus is more than a reflection - He is the light that is come into the world.
By saying that john the baptist is not the light, John is declaring that Jesus is uniquely different.
Jesus is the light!
He is not just a reflection or a representation of God - He is God.
The church has affirmed this from the earliest creeds.
The Nicean Creed was first formulated in 325 AD and concluded in 381 AD, but this part was one of the first to be written.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father; God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten not made, one in being with the Father.
Through Him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation He came down from heaven.
By the power of the Holy Spirit He was born of the Virgin Mary and became man.
This is what we are celebrating at Christmas time, that light came into the world.
God became human.
The Creator became one of His creation.
The Light that created the world from His own substance, came to ignite something of the same in us.
Light makes God’s goodness visible.
Since John uses a lot of imagery in writing his gospel, I thought it would be good to illustrate John’s points with some of our own American Christmas imagery.
What should I use to illustrate light?
Why, lights, of course!
We are in the middle of Hanukkah the festival of lights.
Who doesn’t love to drive around and see all of the Christmas lights on a cold winter evening!
In 1880, Thomas Edison had already invented the incandescent light bulb and was looking for a way to advertise it.
So he hung up lights on the outside of his laboratory to show them off to passersby.
A couple of years later, one of his employees realized that the lights could be used to solve the problem of fires caused by candles on Christmas trees.
So he strung 80 red, white, and blue Christmas lights around a Christmas tree and called local newspapers to cover the brilliant idea.
Understandably, the idea took off, especially once several Presidents started lighting trees at the White House.
General Electric bought the patent from Edison and started selling Christmas tree lights to the public.
But Christmas lights were very expensive, especially since they required installation and electricians were few and far between at the time.
Department stores even suggested that families rent the lights rather than buy them!
Though we still use incandescent bulbs in many applications, over time, companies were able to make Christmas lights much safer and more affordable.
You might remember that the whole idea of lights on Christmas trees is attributed to Martin Luther.
He was said to be out walking on a winter evening and composing a sermon when he saw the stars shining through the evergreen trees ans wanted to duplicate that experience by wiring candles to the branches of a tree.
Christmas tree candles were notorious for causing fires, so Edward Johnson, who worked for Edison, made the first Christmas tree light bulbs.
So now people could burn down their house more efficiently with electricity!
The idea is not to burn down the house, but to light up the dark winter nights.
And with light bulbs you can do it bigger, better and in color!
Some neighborhoods even have competitions to see whose house is the brightest or the prettiest.
Now you can get computer programs to control all of your lights and even time them to flash to the beat of your favorite tunes.
Lighting up you house or your tree becomes a visible expression of holiday cheer.
On Tuesday evening, some of us went around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols.
One problem, how would we know which houses to go to?
Some people are grumpy and might not take kindly to us ringing their door bell or singing to them.
But our experience has been that many people are delighted to have a surprise visit from carolers.
We decided to go to the houses that are lit up with Christmas decorations.
After all, their lights are a visible expression of their Christmas celebration and we would be adding to their joy.
How was God supposed to know who would receive Him until He came?
God is good - but how are we supposed to know what good is unless something or someone expresses that goodness to us.
If God had not created light on the first day, nothing else that God created would have mattered.
You wouldn’t be able to see it.
Everything is made visible by light.
And it is sustained by light.
Animals and plants depend on light to some degree for their survival.
So how does God show us His goodness?
He comes into the world that He has created, and how people respond to him shows what they are made of.
So many people think that God is up there just waiting for them to mess up so that He can judge them.
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