Light in a dark time

Sermon Notes, Christmas 1, 2020 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. Th e light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. It's the day after Christmas as I begin to work on this sermon. Last night's rain broke to a slate grey sky. It's the end of December and it is dark. After all the joy of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it is a fair thing to ask what difference did it really make? It's still winter. It's still dark. The world's sorrows and tears are not miraculously gone. Two millennia ago God chose to come into the world as a human child. Two millennia later, what difference did it make? In a real sense all the New Testament writers speak to that question. The writer of Hebrews speaks of the glory of God coming into the world to make purification of all sin. The Apostle Paul writes of Christ liberating mankind, and lifting us to become heirs with him. The Gospel writers tell of Jesus' walk with us and the effect he had on the world in his time here. All of the New testament writings point to the means of grace and the hope of glory. We live with the assurance of our salvation and the promise of life everlasting. But what about today? What about the days after Christmas in 2020? I watched a video recently where Gavin Ashenden talked about this dark age we are living in. He said he didn't know if we are approaching the end of the ages, but it surely is the end of an age. The age of the church being a guiding light acknowledged by the rest of the world is over. We don't yet know what the new age will be. But the church will not be leading. The church is ridiculed, persecuted, and shunted aside as irrelevant. God is not glorified. The self is glorified. And not the best of the self, such as conscience, sacrifice, and courage. But the worst of the self: greed, lust, aggression, and pride. The darkness it seems, is winning out over the light. This morning we read again the first words to John's Gospel and they paint a very different picture of the world. John bore witness to the life of Jesus and what difference He made in the world. "The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world." Jesus is a light to all the world, even to the world that does not know him. John is truth-speaking when he says that the world did not know who the Son-of-God was, and that his own people did not receive him. But none of that could dim the light. The light of Christ cut across all the existing avenues of religion and privilege. Who you were or who your father was didn't matter anymore. Jews, Romans, Samaritans, slaves, shepherds. Republicans, Democrats, blacks, browns, whites, gay or straight. None of that matters anymore. Only faith in Jesus matters. "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." The first glimmer of that world changing light broke on the world in Bethlehem that first Christmas. So which picture is the right one? The picture of expanding darkness or the picture of penetrating light? To answer that question, we need to step back from the moment, the time we live in, and take a wider view. We need to see the world through the eyes of Isaiah: "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands; they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment, like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end." Isaiah is saying it is preposterous and impossible to judge God's things with man's measurement. You cannot judge God's eternal plan for his creation by the present state of the world. The world's a mess. It's falling apart. This can't be how God intended. If I step into a closet and shut the door, it is dark. Outside is magnificent sunlight and abounding life. But where I am it is black. I need to open the door and be released from my surrounding darkness to see the overwhelming light all around me. See eternity in the present. Don't mistake the present for eternity. John invites us into that world view. "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 were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." Only after we accept that premise can we begin to see the light of the world that surrounds us. It is a step beyond our human senses. It is not so much that we see the light as it is we are in the light. John invitees us to rediscover ourselves as the creatures we were created to be: his creatures living in this present time yet subject to Him who is beyond and before time itself. We cannot deny the present darkness. This new age, whatever it will turn out to be, will be a darker age than the one we are leaving behind. But it is not an age outside God's redemption. In fact, because of that birth two millennia ago in Bethlehem, it is already redeemed. Our present age will be made perfect in Christ and that is one huge difference made in the world. So when we are assaulted by the media and all the nay-sayers who point to the despair around us, we have a ready reply, "If you only knew." But we can't stop there can we? No, we have the responsibility and the joy to bring the light with us into the darkness. The light we share is none other than Jesus himself. Jesus, who says in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." That, my friends, is the true Christmas message changing our world every day. In the Name of the father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.