Rev Frank’s Dec 21, 2013 Sermon

“THE LIGHT SHINES IN THE DARKNESS” – John 1:5

PART IV – THE LIGHT OF EMMANUEL

December 21, 2013

Westmount Park United Church

 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… In that Word was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” [John 1:1,4‑5]

The time is almost upon us. The watch we have kept throughout the season of Advent, as the days grew shorter and the nights longer, has led to the winter solstice, and now as the days just begin to lengthen we will celebrate the birth of the one who lightens our darkness, who brings the light of peace to a world darkened by war, who brings the light of justice to a world darkened by oppression, who brings the light of healing to a world darkened by degradation and disease, who brings the light of the very presence of God into our midst.

The light of Christ, which first shone in the manger at Bethlehem, which lightened the lives of all whom he touched in his life, was not snuffed out by his tragic death, but has continued to grow in brightness throughout the world and down through history, for by the power of his resurrection Jesus Christ, the light of the world, is still the very presence of God in our midst. Two thousand years after the light of Christ broke upon the darkness of our world we who follow him reflect his light as we continue his ministry as peace makers, as advocates of justice, as agents of healing, as the body of Christ in the world. While we work for peace and justice and wholeness Christ’s light continues to shine through us, but the miracle of Christ’s light shining in the darkness is not just the sum total of our collective human efforts to carry forward his ministry of combating violence and injustice and degradation. It is not just our reflected light that shines because of Jesus but the direct brilliance of the light of God shining in the face of the resurrected Christ which illumines the darkness of our world.

In our days of waiting and anticipation, leading up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus, we have marked each week in Advent by lighting a candle which symbolizes our hopes and prayers for what the light of Christ shining in our dark world can bring. When we lit the first candle three weeks ago we prayed for the light of Christ to bring us peace. When we lit the second candle two weeks ago we prayed for the light of Christ to bring us justice. When we lit the third candle last week we prayed for the light of Christ to bring us healing. After we lit each candle we joined in the prayer of St. Francis, asking that we might be instruments in God’s hands of peace, love, faith and joy. As disciples of Jesus we are God’s instruments therefore we have the responsibility of carrying forward his ministry by working hard for peace on earth, for justice for the poor, and for the healing of the wounds of all sorts from which we suffer. But that which we hope for is far far more than any amount of human effort could ever achieve. We lit those candles and offered up our prayers as we lit them because we believe in the miracles which happen when the spirit of the living God transforms us.

That was the message which Isaiah brought to his people seven centuries before Jesus. There will be peace when the nations come to God and learn from God the ways of peace. There will be justice when those who rule have the spirit of God resting upon them. There will be restoration and healing when God makes streams flow in the desert and cures those crippled by diseases. As Christians we dare to believe in miracles of transformation brought about by the active workings of God’s spirit because of the one most important miracle of all, the miracle which is present with us all the year round but which we celebrate particularly at Christmas. Jesus is the light of the world because Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us.

The prayer which was said as we lit our fourth candle in the Advent wreath may have seemed somewhat modest and unassuming compared with our shopping list from previous weeks. We didn’t pray for such grandiose sounding things as world peace or universal justice or the miraculous healing of diseases, all we did was pray “that Jesus, our Emmanuel, be born anew in our hearts to lighten our darkness and reveal to us the truth that God is with us.” It may sound like a simple and somewhat modest prayer, but it is in fact a prayer which is the foundation of all our other prayers for the light of Christ to shine.

This candle of Emmanuel is the last of our Advent candles to be lit, yet it is not the culmination of the others but the foundation, the beginning point, for lighting the first three candles and praying for peace and justice and healing. Isaiah knew that the only way for his hopes and dreams to be fulfilled would be to have the miraculous transforming presence of God in the midst of Israel and of all the nations. I doubt that Isaiah ever imagined that his prophetic words about a young women bearing a son and naming him Immanuel would find their fulfillment several centuries later in the birth of a son to the virgin Mary. Seven hundred years after Isaiah Mary’s son became the key to the fulfillment of all his hopes and dreams for peace and justice and healing, because in Jesus God is most definitely and definitively “with us.”

It is the miracle of Christmas, of God entering human life to be really and truly with us, that encourages us to pray for God to visit us with other miracles when by human standards the situation seems hopeless. It is also the miracle of Christmas, of God loving the world so much that God was willing to enter fully into the frailty of our human existence, which inspires us to work for peace and justice and wholeness when the forces of darkness seem utterly overwhelming. We dare to work and to pray for peace and justice and wholeness against all odds because we believe in the miracle of the incarnation, because we know that when we work and pray in Jesus’ name God is with us and therefore the light of Christ can and will transform our lives and our world with the sort of miracle which happened on the first Christmas.

We call the child born to Mary and Joseph Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” because in this child God has come to dwell in our midst. The name which Joseph and Mary gave the child was Jesus, which means “God saves us,” because the light which shines from this child has the power to transform our lives and our world from darkness to everlasting light.