Have the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut changed the way you celebrate Christmas this year? How?
Those events have cast a pall, a shadow, over our holiday celebrations, haven’t they? It’s hard to make merry with images of that day in our mind.
The sad truth of course, is that part of life is like that, the joy of life is tempered by death, sorrow, even evil. God’s beloved children, created for God’s glory to live in and enjoy God’s good creation, have also been blessed with the freedom of will to act as we choose. Some of the choices people make are not only stupid, selfish, and greedy, but some are downright evil. That is the downside of freedom of will; there is a dark side to life.
Christmas is about darkness and light: about angels shimmering in the darkness, about stars beaming in the darkness, about a child glowing in the darkness, about Mary and Joseph, shepherds, Magi, and all of us fearful, confused, uncertain, groping in our darkness. Christmas is about darkness and light; how the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
The date to celebrate the birth of Jesus was arbitrarily set immediately following the Winter Solstice, which was just two nights ago, when nights are longest and the darkness is deepest. Just as night seems to be victorious over the day, just as our lives could get no darker, we celebrate the coming of the light of Jesus Christ into the darkness of our lives.
Out of the shadows, out of the darkening experiences of our lives, will be born what is holy.
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,” wrote Isaiah. “Those who lived in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.” Isaiah, of course, was speaking of the Messiah of God who would come to redeem God’s people and usher in God’s kingdom. This is the one we proclaim to be born in the darkness of Christmas Eve.
“For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onwards and for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
Mary and Joseph both knew the darkness. Mary’s life was overshadowed by the most high God who arbitrarily took control of her life. To the dismay of her fiancée, her family, and her friends, she became “great with child”. The blessing of God created far greater problems for Mary than it resolved; the overshadowing of God drove Mary deeper into the darkness. There, out of the shadows, out of the darkening experience of the overshadowing of God, there, in her darkness, the Holy was born.
Joseph, too, lived in darkness. Seemingly betrayed by a faithless fiancée, he resolved to show grace and forbearance by quietly divorcing Mary. Then, in the darkness of night, he was compelled by an angel to suffer the same public humiliation he would have spared Mary. Joseph, take Mary to be your wife. But she’s pregnant, and everybody knows I’m not the father! There, out of the shadows, out of the darkening experience of betrayal and humiliation, there in his darkness, the Holy was born.
So, too, the shepherds and the Magi toiled in the darkness, the shepherds tending their sheep, the magi studying the stars. And there, out of the shadows, out of the darkening experiences of their lives, the Holy was born and shone with the light and glory of God.
And for us as well, out of the shadows, out of the darkening experiences of our lives, here in the darkness of our lives the Holy will be born.
Besides Newtown, what is the darkness you walk in today? What is your darkening experience out of which the Holy will be born? Some of you have shared with me some of the darkness you walk in. I certainly know best the darkness I walk in.
The miracle, the joy of Christmas is precisely that the light of Jesus is born to us in our darkness, in our time of greatest need. That we walk in darkness and that the Christmas light of Jesus is born to us in our darkness, is part of the miracle of Christmas.
But there is an even greater miracle at work here. For the most part we fear the darkness and are drawn to the light that overcomes our darkness. But consider this unlikely miracle. The darkness of our lives is not a darkness to be feared, rather the darkness of our lives is to be embraced because the darkness of our lives is actually the womb wherein the Holy is born!
Jesus not born that we might escape the darkness, no, Jesus the light of God comes that we might embrace the darkness as the place where the Holy is born.
Maybe this is a little fuzzy. A quick story.
A family walks the beach one night when suddenly darkness and fog and mist conspire to cut vision to just a few feet. Wow! Isn’t this great, exult the parents. The awesome power of creation, the fog, the wind, the mist, the pounding of the waves.
Dissident voices, however, are raised in protest, glumly predicting the end of all life as we know it Not to worry, reassure the parents, if we stay alongside the water, a lighthouse further ahead will mark the path back to civilization….I think. No! We’ve been walking forever, we’ve passed the lighthouse in the dark; we’re lost and we’re doomed! Uh, wait, there, no, over there! Did you see it? The light from the lighthouse! We’re saved! Thank God.
Is God the lighthouse, shining in the darkness, overcoming the darkness, as the children feel? Or is it possible, as the parents are beginning to suspect, that God has been with them all along, in the darkness and fog and mist, walking with them. They were never alone, the light was not over there, the light with them always.
I think most often darkness signifies to us the absence of God. Therefore, the darkness is to be feared, to be shunned, and ultimately the darkness is an enemy to be overcome. How would life be different for us, however, if we welcomed, even embraced, the darkness? How would life be different if we trusted the darkness as a place where the Holy is born and revealed? Have we the courage to enter into the darkness in order to receive the gift of the life giving presence of God?
I take courage from the Magi. They were led through the darkness to where Jesus lay in the darkness. They could not follow the star during the day, it was only by journeying in the darkness and through the darkness that they could receive the gift of God’s presence. And I think what they discovered, as they kneeled at the manger and worshipped the light, was that God had been with them all along, not just out there, leading them, but right here walking with them.
Now, I cannot pretend to always embrace the darkness. There are elements in the darkness that I do fear, there are aspects of life I would rather not examine right now. But I am beginning to trust the darkness, beginning to accept the darkness as the womb wherein the holy is born.
The promises of God are sure and certain, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. So rejoice.
But even more, my Christmas wish for you this year is that you might trust the darkness, because in your darkness the Christ will be born, giving you light, and joy, and new life. Amen.
Erik Spencer is the past of the First Presbyterian Church of Verona, located at 10 Fairview Avenue. This was his sermon for Christmas 2012.
