UCC Church of Charlotte

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Christmas Eve Sermon
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Saturday, December 27, 2008 10:13:25 AM
From:
Phil Hobson   
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To:
Phil Hobson 


A little late, but here is the sermon for Christmas Eve.

And the Darkness Has Not Overcome It
Luke 2:1-7        
Matthew 1:18-25
Luke 2:8-14
Luke 2:15-20
John 1:1-5

Grace and Peace to you this Christmas Eve.  Grace and Peace.
    
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  Luke expresses the glory of God coming into the world in human form with shepherds out in the hillsides, receiving glad tidings from angels.  Matthew tells of magi, astrologers, wizards from strange and distant lands, coming to offer tribute to one born so lowly, one who will rule over Caesars and Pharaohs and Kings in all lands.
    
John starts not with narration, but description, not with humans who receive revelations by angelsong or by star or by dream, but with the cosmos.  John harkens back to Genesis and speaks of the very essence of all things.
    
John can seem impersonal.  Perhaps we have been those who lived far from light and warmth and family and friends, and God's love was revealed to us, like shepherds on a hillside.  Maybe we have discovered our gifts because of the words and actions of strangers, or found ourselves with dreams of what might yet be.  Matthew and Luke feel more approachable because we can read ourselves in as shepherds, as magi, as innkeeper who has no room or time for this annoying God stuff, as husband who doesn't understand what his wife is going through, as wife who fears for her family, as officials who are just doing their jobs, as some part of the drama.
    
But not John.  John speaks in mystical language that can seem almost clinical.  "All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. " Who talks like this?!?  How do we read our messy and mixed up lives into a theological philosophy of the creation of the universe?
    
But we can still find ourselves in the story.

In him was life, 
and the life was the light of all humankind.
The light shines in the darkness, 
and the darkness has not overcome it. 
    
We can read ourselves into the story because we know something about darkness.  About times when there isn't enough light to see.  Times when a shadow rests over our hearts.  Times when we are so frightened, so angry, so frustrated, so overwhelmed that we can't think straight and can't see straight and can't speak straight.  Times when the room has no exits, no way out, but it clearly has entrances because stuff just keeps coming at us.
    
We know about times like this in our own lives, and in the lives of those we love.  And sometimes we don't know which is worse.

        The light shines in the darkness, 
        and the darkness has not overcome it.

There is a lot of talk of faith as a feeling.  John Wesley spoke of his heart strangely warmed.  One Christmas miracle is that the story is true whether or not we feel it.  Feeling it is good.  But some days we walk our faith not because we feel it, but so that we can get back to where we can feel it.

Like when grief blinds us to the life that is going on around us, when it mutes the colors and dulls the sounds and makes the world bleak, we need to remember:

        The light shines in the darkness, 
        and the darkness has not overcome it.

When depression, whether economic or emotional, makes it so that we cannot feel hope, we cannot experience joy, we need to remember:

        The light shines in the darkness, 
        and the darkness has not overcome it.

When the calendar is too full and the checkbook is too empty, when the needs pulling at our attention scream louder than that still, soft voice of God speaking peace in our soul, when we are too busy to answer the door, much less tell the poor, wandering, overly pregnant couple there is no room for them except maybe in the garage, we need to remember:

        The light shines in the darkness, 
        and the darkness has not overcome it.

When we wait for healing, our own, our loved ones, our community, our world.  When we long for the day of justice and peace, when we might study war no more.  When we look and see our neighbor struggling, and our first thought is not compassion, but how we can guard our own stuff from a jealous and thieving world.  When we grieve our losses and mourn our beloved dead.  Whenever we face the darkness, we must remember:

        The light shines in the darkness,
        and the darkness has not overcome it.

For the love of God we know in Jesus, that was with God at the beginning of time.  And it is woven into the very fabric of the universe.  And in order for us to understand it, God took all of that love and made it into a human.  That God might live life as we do, so that through him, we might live life as God would have us.

And this is the Christmas message.  This is why we light our candles and sing our praise, not as mere ceremony, but as a reminder, as a witness, to what God has done, what God is doing, what God is yet bringing to be in our lives.

        For the light shines in the darkness,
        and the darkness has not overcome it.

Thanks be to God.
Amen.