Light For the World

Light in a Dark Place

Have you ever wondered why it is we celebrate the birth of Jesus at this time of year, literally at the time when the darkness reaches its height and the longest days of the year are upon us? Well, our non-believing friends sometimes poke fun at us and perhaps give us a little knowing wink. They remind us that Jesus wasn’t really born in December or on December 25th. If they’re even more skeptical, they’ll insist that Christians really just adopted a pagan holiday and tried to convert it.

But the cynics are only half right. It is true that Jesus wasn’t actually born in December and it is also true that the medieval church adopted this particular celebration as an apologetic turn to help convert those who grew up on pagan myths to Christianity. But notice that I said that they are only half right.

There just seems something right about celebrating the birth of Jesus this time of year. All around us darkness is trying to get us down. For many people, this time of year is the peak of their depression. Doctors have even given it a name: Seasonal Affective Disorder. And to that darkness and that depression we Christians who celebrate the birth of Christ, the Light of the world say NO! We’re not going to let you win. We’re not going to let you put us down.

Friends, we all know that there are dark places and dark spaces in the world. We know that because of sin and selfishness that the world is not the way it’s supposed to be. People take the agency that God has given them and use it for their own selfish gain. And inevitably, this costs other people. Today in the morning we celebrated by lighting the Peace Candle. Yet, we all know how precious little peace many people feel. And it’s even possible to steal peace away from people by their actions.

And if we look back to the time of the first Christmas, we see that the world was in much the same state as it is now. The world into which Jesus was born was a world in which it was difficult to be like Jesus. It was difficult to be a faithful follower of the God of Israel in a world that was designed for the wealthy elites of the Roman Empire. It was simply impossible to be a good Roman citizen and a good Jewish believer at the same time.

Some people in Jesus’ day tried though. To one extent or another many among the Jewish leadership tried to get along with the Roman Empire. You may have heard of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, right? Well, the Pharisees tried a little to accommodate to the Roman way of life and made a deal with the Roman leaders so that they could maintain their religious traditions in exchange for making sacrifices to God on behalf of the Emperor. But the Sadducees went even further. They cozied up with the Roman elite and wrangled their way into powerful positions. It was the Sadducees that controlled the Temple in Jerusalem. It was the Sadducees that held the high priesthood. Each of these groups surrendered some of their light in order to live an easier life in a hostile land.

And into that land of politics and power-seeking comes Jesus the infant child born in Bethlehem. In Jesus, as our Philippians passage reminds us, there was no grasping for power, for position, for prestige. No, Jesus, although in the very form and likeness of God. Jesus being God himself in the flesh did not grasp on to that power and use it to his advantage. Instead, Jesus shows what it is like for us to live a life fully alive by surrendering what is naturally our right.

By giving up seeking a name for ourselves—trying to make our light shine by force, in an ironic twist of the script, we end up shining even brighter. You see, Jesus came to turn the world on its head. The world did—and still does—try to run things based on position, power, influence, and force. To this philosophy Jesus offers us an alternative.

To this philosophy, Jesus says this, “Let your light shine before other people so that people might see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

It is for us to be the light of the world just as Jesus was the light of the world. And, what is more, it is not just that we are to be the light of the world as Jesus was the light of the world. No, we are to be light FOR the world.

As Isaiah says, “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” This prophecy was fulfilled on a night much like this one two thousand years ago when the angels burst forth with light and heavenly proclamation telling the lowly shepherds that a child has been born. And it was this light that shone brightly in the heavens that led the wise men some time later to visit the child that was born in Bethlehem.

But you might be wondering, “how much light can I really give?” Or, “That was all well and good for Jesus, after all, he was God in the flesh.”

But think about this, have you ever been in the countryside on a dark twisting road in near pitch-black conditions? I think about this many times as Angela and I drive through the tree-lined roads near Mt. Gretna. If not for our headlights would we be able to see anything around those curvy country lanes?

But then, around the next corner comes a house. And in that house are some of those window candles. The light from even one of those candles is able to give light and guidance to a poor weary traveller on the road. It only takes a small amount of light in near darkness to see by.

Perhaps that is how God works in and through us. Each of use here represents one of those small little candles. Maybe some of us glow a little brighter than others. Maybe some of us have dimmed with age. But if you put us together, imagine the blaze we make.

That’s what it’s like to be the light of the world. That’s what it’s like to be light FOR the world. As you and I combine our light, we multiply the effect two-fold, ten-fold, a hundred fold. And light, if it gets bright enough simply cannot be contained. Light in the end dispels the darkness. Light, like love, wins in the end.

As people of God, as people who seek to follow after Jesus, we must be people who walk in the light. And as we do we guide the steps of those around us, some of them we may even guide all the way home to God’s family. And then, our light only glows brighter.

As you go into this holiday season and this upcoming New Year, shine your light by doing good, loving God and loving your neighbor. In so doing you add to the light of the Kingdom of God which each day is winning victory over darkness, despair, and death. And one day, when the light fully comes, Jesus the Sun of Righteousness will light our path with a light so bright it will make the sun itself look like a guttering candle. Amen.