God Lights Up
the Darkness
Christmas Eve – December 24, 2019
“The Birth of Jesus”
The opening scene of the movie The Current War shows a train moving
through the night
· Suddenly it stops and the men follow a lantern off the
train into the pitch-black night until finally they come to a stop
· And just as suddenly circle upon circle upon circle of
light leaps into existence as Thomas Edison shows off the power of electricity,
harnessed by his lightbulb
Caught my imagination when
I saw this movie a month or 2 ago
· How much we take for granted this light we have
available at the flip of a switch
· How different the world was before electric light was
a thing
· How deep the darkness, how powerful the difference
between day and night
· And how shocking it must have been for those investors
seeing this light breaking apart the darkness that night
· How the world changed with this invention
· Living in the field, watching over their flocks by
night – in utter darkness, away from the town; only the stars, perhaps the moon
for light, along with little campfires to hold the darkness at bay
· Darkness of the world in general; a people subjugated
by Caesar Augustus – who had brought peace to the world and reigned over a
booming economy and growing infrastructure (roads, temples, cities) – but
through the subjugation of his subjects
o Including the power to compel a census – for the
purposes of taxing the people
o Poor people like young, pregnant Mary and her
betrothed, Joseph; forced – as Luke tells it – to travel to Joseph’s ancestral
city to be registered
· The darkness of a world under someone else’s power and
control; knowing the weight of oppression and poverty
· The struggle of travel; the challenges of childbirth in a strange place, among strangers
· Many kinds of darkness
And we, with all of our access to instantaneous
light – light so powerful we can fill whole stadiums, light roadways, use
floodlights
· Still know the weight and power of darkness
o Of depression
o And addiction
o Of loss & loneliness – esp. difficult at this
special time of year
o Division and disconnection between and from those we
love and as a society in general
o Violence, poverty, all the –isms and phobias
o Sense of not knowing where we are going, of stumbling
forward in the darkness without even a lantern to guide us
· Darkness of worry and anxiety and stress
· The darkness of this world can seem so heavy, so
inescapable at times
And then suddenly, as we hear the story of the
shepherds in this gospel, the world lights up, circle upon circle upon circle
· For the shepherds, they were out there in the dark
night, doing their jobs, minding the sheep
o And suddenly an angel of the Lord shows up and stands
before them
§ And “the glory of the Lord shone around them” lighting
up the night so unexpectedly – and they were terrified
o But the angel says (as angels always seem to do!) –
Fear not! For see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people
– to you is born on this day a Savior, the Messiah, the Lord
o And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest
heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”
o Light upon light, voices multiplying, song increasing
§ Praising God and rejoicing, celebrating this baby who
has come into the world, to bring peace
§ To be the light who breaks the darkness of this world
· Thomas Edison in the movie declares – “I’m working on
something so new, the world will never be the same!”
That is what we see
happening in this story on this Christmas Eve
· That God was working on something so new that the
world would never be the same
· That God would be born as one of us, coming to live
with us and walk with us in the darkest moments of our lives
· And then to burst forth with light, scattering that
darkness
o That is something so new that no one could have
imagined it happening in quite that way
§ Not Joseph and Mary
§ Not the shepherds
§ Not the emperor
· We hear this new thing announced and accompanied by
the singing of angels and then we go the shepherds to see for ourselves the
child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger
· Born for us and for all people to bring light and hope
and peace to everyone
· May we go forth this night singing with joy and
praise, and bearing the light of Christ into a dark world.
· Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment