sermon excerpts: "To Touch Light"

The gospel of John is often used to prove God’s exclusive covenant with the Jewish people who became the Christian people. (We should remember always that Jesus didn’t come to earth to create a new religion, but to enable all people to fully be the people of faith they were intended to be).

For me, what the light represents, what Jesus represents, is God’s way on earth. God’s light shines within each of us. Christ brought that spark to a blaze as proof and an example for all of us to share and follow.

We need the light to see clearly the obstacles, the paths, the right of way that is set before us. Yes, we fumble and stumble and trip in the darkness, injuring ourselves or causing damage to our surroundings. How apt is the introduction of light into the world?

John the Baptist is the one who points to the light, but really, we can see light coming for ourselves. It is obvious where the dark is breaking up, no one needs to direct us to it. But John the Baptist was able to tell folks the importance of what that arrival truly is.

We understand that with the eternal nature of God the Word was always there. In Jesus we have God’s holiness packed into one single person. Light brought to flesh, God’s holy Word walking as one of us.

This happens all the time, God using the ordinary to bring the sublime and holy to life. This morning we consider the ordinary birth of a child that was admittedly special and still the same as everyone else’s birth. And we will partake of symbolic bread and wine, which also captures the essence of God’s love made real for us.

It may strike us as strange that on this holy day of Jesus’ birth, the first day of his earthly life, we’re already looking ahead to his last meal. Yet, like so many Christmases of our time now, the Last Supper was a family affair. It was a common meal of people gathered at a table. I will not go so far as to presume all of our family meals are harmonious, free from disagreement, past arguments coming back to life or questions about what one is doing with one’s life and with whom. In fact, the disciples themselves with Jesus in their midst couldn’t keep from bickering and infighting.

Yet as we remember the birth of Christ on this day, as we gather for the moment around the table, casting our thoughts back to the manger, we participate in the mystery of our faith. How such a powerful and infinite God could be made known in a vulnerable and dependent infant; that a holy light can be cast in this world of darkness offering hope simply by being. In a barn of all places, swaddled tightly to be comfortable and warm, God’s light became real in a way that people could see and hear and touch.

Like so many babies that I have been acquainted with, Jesus as a babe did nothing but coo, cry, nurse and fuss. We have that much in common with Christ, and each other. In this way we too bring our light to the world, bringing to life the good and holy that we have to offer. Let this be our Christmas present on this holy day: our light and our life, committed to the way of God’s love on this earth.