Christmas Eve 2007

This little light of mine

by Rev. Ash McEuen (based on Isaiah 9.1-9)

A bright light in the sky           

          If the clouds cooperate with us, we have the chance to see something amazing in the sky tonight.  Something that we don’t get to see very often.  Maybe you noticed it as you were coming in to church tonight.  Maybe you saw it, but didn’t take any special note of it.  Maybe you didn’t think it was all that spectacular…anything out of the ordinary.  The truth is, what we see tonight, we won’t be able to see again to this extent until the year 2040. 

               About an hour after the sun set, if we look toward the east, we will be able to see the planet Mars shining brightly as it climbs over the horizon.  Mars, our closet neighbor in the cosmos, is today as close as it ever comes to the earth and it just so happens to be on exactly the opposite side of the earth as the sun.  The result:  Mars will reflect the light of the sun with such brilliance and at such a high point in the sky we can be dazzled by the beauty.   

            For years I have loved looking at the stars in the sky.  As a kid growing up in southeastern Montana, the house I lived in was built into the side of a hill.  This was made it easy for me to hop onto the roof where I would lie on my back to look at the stars.  There are places on this earth where the air is so crisp and clear we can see a band of stars so dense it looks like spilt milk:  the Milky Way Galaxy.  We can play a gigantic game of dot-to-dot and create pictures in the sky of ancient heroes with names like Orion and Cassiopeia.  We can peer into the past as we look at the light from stars so distance it took millions of years for the light to reach our eyes.   The night sky is an awesome thing.  Taking the marvels and wonders of astronomy and science out of the picture, the sky is made up of thousands and millions and billions of points of light shining into the dark void.  The night sky is a picture of the role we Christians are supposed to be playing in this world:  in the darkest night, we are to be a point of light.  Some of our lights are shining brightly and some are barely visible, but every one of our lights are needed to light up the sky with beauty and hope and joy.  Our lives are to tell stories, paint pictures, and bring comfort to those who see us.  Our lives are to be points of light shining into a dark and broken world.  But just as the stars in the sky are more than just the light we see, the light we shine points to something bigger, greater, better than we are.  The source of light we shine is none other than God the father, God’s son Jesus Christ, and the power sent to us in the Holy Spirit.   

Darkness closing in

           Nearly 3000 years ago, the people of Israel, God’s chosen people, were people who were carrying the light of God into the world.  God had chosen them to be the ones to show the rest of us what it means to love God and to be loved by God.   Sometimes they were obedient to the commandments and the teachings of the books of the law and the prophets.  When they were, their lights shone like the sun.  Other times, they decided God’s path was not the right path for them, and they went their own ways.  When that happened, their lights dimmed.  Regardless their actions, though, God’s light shown through them.  Toward the end of the reign of King David, the people of

          Israel began to walk on a slippery slope that led them deeper and deeper into their own lives and further and further away from being the people God had created them to be.  As they spiraled downward, the light began to fade until one day an invading army (the Assyrians) came and conquered their land.  The best and brightest of them were carried away to a distant place.  The people were in despair.  Their prophets had said God would leave the temple because of their disobedience.  The prophets had warned them to turn back to God.  The prophets had warned of the coming darkness, but the people had refused to see it.  And now they shivered and coward in fear of what was to come.  The Psalmist wrote of this dark and frightening time in Psalm 137: 

By the rivers of Babylon–there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered

Zion.On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormenters asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of

Zion!” How could we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,if I do not remember you,if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy! (NRSV) 
 

Darkness had settled in on the hearts and minds and souls of the people, but a glimmer of God’s light continued to glow.  God had not forgotten them.  God still loved them.  God still cared for them.  God still had a plan for them.   

Do not be afraid           

          God spoke through the prophet Isaiah and told the people of Israel, do not be afraid.  In Isaiah 9:1, he writes, “There will be no gloom for those who are in anguish.”  There is a reason to laugh when we want to weep.  There is reason to continue to sing songs of joy when we want to hang up our harps and guitars and keyboards and drums and say, “We have nothing to sing about.”  There is reason to go on living when we want to lay down, close our eyes and never get up again.              

          “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,” the prophet Isaiah wrote.  “Those who lived in a land of deep darkness–on them a light has shined” (Isaiah 9.2).  A glimmer.  A spark.  A flare.  A star, as the old song says, shining in the night that will give us goodness and light.  And the light will start small, and grow larger and larger and larger until the entire world is consumed by the light of the love of God.

                Eventually, the people of Israel living in captivity so far away were allowed to return home.  Eventually, they had a chance to rebuild their temple that had been destroyed.  Eventually they were able to continue to worship and make sacrifices to God.  But even as life moved forward, for many it seemed the darkness still weighed down on them.  There were times it seemed that even though their eyes were open and they could see what was happening around them, they couldn’t see it as clearly as they should.  And so they waited and they watched for the time when God would finish what had been started.  They waited for the time when God would send the light to illumine the darkness.              

           A hundred years passed.  Two hundred years.  Three hundred years and the people wondered if they’d heard God right.   

             Four hundred years and a man named Alexander the Great began transforming their nation into a Greek nation.  The temple was desecrated again.  The people were carried away and killed.   Darkness settled in but some refused to accept it.  They held onto the promise of God.  Judas Macabees led a fight to seize the temple again for the glory of God, and when he did, he lit the flame on the menorah in the temple and the light shone through the darkness.    But it wasn’t the same as they had hoped.  It wasn’t as they had dreamed.  So they waited some more; watching for the coming messiah.  “For unto us a child is born…”  Five hundred years.  “For unto us a son is given…”  Six hundred years.  “And the government will be upon his shoulders…”  Seven hundred years.  “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…” 

When the time was right

            When the time was right, God sent the light.  A small, flickering light, nurtured in the water of the womb for nine long months.  A small, flickering light, born to a young woman named Mary while she and her husband were a long way from home.  A small, flickering light, wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger because there was no room for the family at the local hotel.  A small flickering light warmed by the body heat and breath of animals.  A small, flickering light visited by Shepherds and attended by angels.  A small, flickering light that not many people noticed in the busyness of their lives.  

             That tiny baby boy Mary and Joseph cradled in their arms was named Jesus.  A common, ordinary name in those days.  To many who heard he was just a common boy born to a common family in a world burdened and broken by foreign rulers.  Maybe he would be lucky to be alive when God sent the light they all were waiting for.   

            A lot of people didn’t know he was the one.  They didn’t know that the lantern light in the stable that night so long ago would be dimmed by the brilliance of the child.  They didn’t know the lights of the hotel with no room would be paled by the radiance of the child.  They didn’t know the light this child would bring to the world. 

             For more than 2000 years, people have been celebrating the birth of that child.  At first, the parties were small with just a few members of the family.  Today the family has grown to include men, women, children and youth from every nation on this earth.  People who follow Jesus Christ number in the billions.  The light of God has come and we celebrate his birth tonight.  The light of God has come and we rejoice in Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace.  The light of God has come! 

Why is the world so dark?

           Why then, is the world so dark tonight?  Why, then, are there men sleeping under the bridges shivering in the cold?  Why, then, are there women cowering in the closet because their boyfriend or husband came home drunk and she doesn’t want to be beaten again?  Why, then, are there children going to bed hungry tonight wondering if Santa forgot them again this year?  Why, then, is there war?  Why, then, is there famine?  Why, then, do the people we love die of cancer or car wrecks or crazy other reasons?  Why then do people drown their sorrows in a bottle?  Why do so many people behind bars first find love and acceptance in prison? 

             Jesus was born a little baby, but that baby grew into a boy and went through puberty and adolescence.  That teenager became a man who became a rabbi, a teacher.  Jesus spent the last three years of his short life teaching us about the love of God.  After those three years, he died on a cross in Jerusalem.  He was placed in a tomb, and three days later he rose again.  The Bible tells us he spent the next forty days continuing to teach and perform miracles.  After those forty days, though, he went to a hillside outside of Jerusalem and told his disciples it was time for him to go back to the father.  He would be back again someday, but not until the work was done.   

          Not work in heaven.  Work here on earth.  Jesus told them, “Guys, be my witnesses here on this earth while I’m gone.  Start here in Jerusalem and then spread out from there.”  He said that and then rose up into the air until he disappeared behind a cloud.   The funny thing is, though, when Jesus left, he didn’t take the light with him.  The light still shone in the darkness.  Jesus had taken the light and placed it in each one of his disciples.   They were charged with carrying the light into the world.  They were charged to be his witnesses, and they were. 

           Do you know what that means, brothers and sisters?  That means when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we accept the charge given to the disciples.  We accept the responsibility of taking the light of God and the light of Christ into the darkness that surrounds and oppresses us.   

          The letter the apostle Paul wrote to Titus gives us some ideas about how to do this.  In Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrase of Titus 2.11-13 we read:  “God’s salvation is for everyone.  We are being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life and how to take on a God-filled and God-honoring life.  This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears” (The Message). 

          The light of God is amazing, because it doesn’t shine on us like the stars or the planets or the sun or the moon.  It doesn’t shine on us like a spotlight or a flashlight.  The light of God doesn’t shine on us from the outside.  It shines from the inside out.  The light of God first illumines our darkness and transforms our lives.  As that happens, the light of God begins to shine through our cracks and pieces, our holes and begins to light the darkness of those around us.   

          When I was a kid and got in trouble I liked to get a good grump on.  I liked the darkness my cloudy mood brought.  After mom disciplined me and talked to me, she always did something I hated.  She knew about the light that can shine through our cracks, so she wouldn’t leave until I smiled for her.  It’s hard to be mad when you smile.  It’s hard to hide the light, when you let it shine through.   

Christmas isn’t about us

           Today is Christmas Eve.  Tonight Mars is going to be shining more brightly than ever.  Tomorrow is Christmas.  Christmas isn’t about us.  It’s not even about the children.  It’s not about the presents or the tree or the tinsel or the songs.  All those things are fine, but that’s not what Christmas is about.  Christmas is about a little child born in a manger who brought light to this dark world.  Christmas is about us carrying that light into the darkness around us.   To God be the glory.