Tonight is such a special evening.  It is so great to see the church filled with people soon to be lighting candles as we sing Silent Night.  It is quite sentimental as we stand by our family or friends and sing and worship God.  It is a moment when, to use the words of the transformed Grinch, I feel all toasty inside.  And we recall how very blessed we are to live where we do and have a peaceful context in our town and this Spanish Fort community.  Most of the world can only dream of what we have and what we are able to experience, not just during this time but throughout the entire year.

But tonight, I hope this becomes more than a sentimental moment that we experience together and feel that nice warm and fuzzy feeling inside.   It is easy for us to get caught up in these moments together and then snuff our candles and go back out into the dark world that awaits us outside leaving behind us what these lights represent.  Tonight, I hope we will recognize once again, or for some perhaps the first time, the tremendous significance of what this symbolism of light really means especially in the Coming of Jesus into our world.

There was a story of a small-town church putting on a Christmas play.  The manger was set center stage and inside was a huge light bulb.  At a pivotal point the lights in the church would be turned out and only the light in the manger would shine in the church.  The boy responsible for turning on the switch got confused and ended up turning out all the lights.  There was a silent hush over the church.  Then another young boy dressed as a shepherd spoke out in a loud whisper, “Hey Johnny, you just switched off Jesus”.  It brought down the house and pretty much ended the program.  But it was a program nobody would ever forget!

The little boy’s statement is quite ironic when you think about it.  How is it possible that we could switch off the Light of the World?  From the statement of the scripture here and other places, the light of Christ will never be ultimately put out or switched off.

This passage of John 1 certainly reflects the imagery and uses the same words as Genesis 1.  So, it seems obvious that John was drawing upon Genesis when he wrote this prologue to his gospel. He is most definitely speaking about the coming of Christ, but also wants us to know that Christ existed before creation happened. Matter of fact Christ was involved in the creating process.

John’s gospel gives us a greater theological framework with Jesus being identified not just from an earthly perspective with Mary and Joseph as a baby in Bethlehem that Matthew and Luke identify.  John wants us to know that Jesus is not just human.  Jesus is God. And as is said today… this changes everything!  Think about this greater backdrop as you come to worship the Christ Child tonight.  John tells us here in verse 3:

1:3 All things were made through Him…this is totally mind blowing…everything made came through Jesus. So, Jesus is often referred to as the Cocreator of the Universe. Hebrews 1:3 tells us that He upholds all things by the word of His power.

Here you get back to the creation imagery and God who speaks things into existence.  Let’s reference back to Genesis.  The first part of the Book of Genesis we read that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the first creative word God spoke was…Care to guess? God said, “let there be LIGHT… and there was LIGHT.” (Genesis 1:3)  Then he separated the day from the night, darkness from light. What an amazing story about the beginning of creation when light comes by the Word of the Lord.

But darkness in the scripture is talking about something other than the physical atmosphere around us of day versus night. Darkness represents a lack of harmony. It represents evil that opposes God. It represents sinful actions. It represents the worst of humanity. Darkness represents the devilish forces that bring about oppression and tyranny and anarchy in our world. Darkness moves us away from the order that God has established wherein there is a return to darkness and chaos.  Unfortunately, we see this all too often in our world.

Very interestingly, when was Jesus born? The birth of Jesus came at night…He was born in darkness.  So, we will sing, O Holy NIGHT and later Silent NIGHT.  Even more we find in the scriptures that Jesus died in darkness on the cross.  The gospels tell us there was darkness over the land at the time of Jesus’ death, even though we believe it was in the middle of the day! And Jesus was placed in cold, dark tomb.  But it could not hold him!  Let me get a little Easter in here because you really cannot separate these events related to why Christ came!  He came to overcome the darkness of sin and death in our world, finally and completely and forever!  And friends, there is no greater gift we can receive.  Or will ever receive. Alleluia!

Then we read verse 4: In him was life and that life was the Light of ALL men.

What is this life and light that Jesus gives us?  I think it is more than just powers of reason and conscience…but that light by which we discern the things of God.

His life, manifest in the incarnation, becoming human, is our light (Jn 1:4). In John’s gospel, light refers to the revelation and salvation that Jesus is and offers.  So, the bottom line is that in order to have life we need to know God, and Jesus is our source of such knowledge. As our light, his life is our guide. He is our wisdom, that which reveals true life to us enables us to see God.  He has come as John would say later… that we might have life and have it eternally and abundantly.

We see this clearly referenced in Wesley’s great hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing…. One verse reads, light and life to all he brings. risen with healing in His wings.

The wonder of Christmas is the love of Christ to humble himself and become a human being and then to suffer and die on our behalf to bring us light and life.  You will find not greater love in our world.

A little later in John’s gospel Jesus boldly stated, I Am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'” John 8:12.   When he said those words, his hearers would immediately reference that language as being in the “God” category.  The “I Am” statement was something reserved for God alone.

Of course, the scriptures of the OT make this symbolism of light with God in several places. I just want to reference 3 or 4 of them.

Ps 27 The Lord is MY Light and Salvation

Is 60 The Lord will be your Everlasting Light… Focus is on Everlasting… as in all earthly lights will expire or die out, even the most brilliant light, the sun and moon will one day end.  But God is the Everlasting Light.

Micah 7:8   When I sit in darkness the Lord will be light to me.

Ps 139:12   Even the darkness is Light to you…even the darkness will not be dark to you. 

All those references contrast light and darkness.  Here again we see this epic battle of light and darkness, and that battle is still happening in every realm of our world from national and international wars and civil unrest to more personal family conflicts and struggles to our own inner conflicts within each of us tonight.  We are all dealing with some form of darkness in our lives.  But for John no matter how deep the darkness God light will overcome.

Light symbolizes the holiness and goodness of God where nothing evil exists. 

I John1: 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all

God is light and in Him there is no darkness… nothing shadowy or even a hint of evil or sinfulness in God… He is absolute truth and love.  God can be fully trusted because He is totally consistent in His attributes never changing in His holy character.  John even goes so far as to say that God is love. If you look at the message and mission of Jesus what do you see?   You see blind eyes opened, crippled people walking, captives being set free, and the dead being raised to life.

This is the good news of Christmas and the coming of Christ:  that light has come into darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it!!  And ultimately, we know how this story ends.

Revelation ends with the consummation of time and history with a new heaven and earth and guess what?? God is the Light of the heavenly city… no sun will be needed.

Jesus coming represents the Word and Promise of God that evil will be ultimately vanquished.  That sin and death are overcome!  This will happen as sure as the night gives way to dawn!  As surely as the hold of night is broken every morning by the light of dawn.  Christ has come as our Savior and Deliverer!  Alleluia! What glorious good news!

But there is another important message of Christ’s coming and Christmas.  Back to John 8 the second part.  You may recall  one of those gifts that you open up as a larger package and then you have to open up another smaller box inside that and then another package to get to the real gift.  I remember as a child my sister had one of those packages and finally, she opened the inner small box with a diamond ring inside.  John is making us unwrap his message and little further here.  Here is the the second box of this gift found in John. 8

I Am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'” John 8:12   Notice here that John is saying that Jesus as the Light of the World is not effective until His light is in you and that prevents you from walking in darkness.

Christ is the light of the world. Unto darkness has come great light, and what he is saying is, Chris is transferring light to us. And He’s called us to be the light of the world as we reflect Him. Again,  Christ is the light of the world and He’s calling us to reflect His light in the dark world around us.

If you have blinking Christmas lights please don’t’ take offense at this… it’s just an illustration.  But when we go out looking at Christmas lights, there are many varieties of lights, right?  Of course you see many blinking lights… And as you view those lights you see in the moment It is shining.  Then in another second it is not shining. It’s shining…no it isn’t…. it’s shining…no it isn’t… Perhaps this might be a negative symbolism…. Are you following Christ and reflecting His light??… Yes, I am tonight… not sure about tomorrow… maybe Sunday not sure about Monday.  It’s very inconsistent.

One commentator put it like this: Following Jesus is the condition of two promises in John 8:12.

 First, His followers will never walk in darkness, which is a reference to the assurance of salvation we enjoy. As true followers of the Light, we will never follow the ways of sin, never live in a state of continually sinning (1 John 1:5–7). Rather, we repent of our sin in order to stay close to the Light.

The second promise is that we will reflect the Light of Life. Just as He came as the Light of the world, He commands us to be “lights,” too. In Matthew 5:14–16 we see believers depicted as the light of the world. Just as the moon has no light of its own, reflecting the light of the sun, so are believers to reflect the Light of Christ so that all can see it in us. The Light is evident to others by the good deeds we do in faith and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As I think about this further, how do we do this? One of the things that really bugs me… I mean, it’s toys, pieces of equipment and things that we might purchase. Some of them may be under our tree tonight, packaged up and there’s this little note on that packaging that says, batteries not included. Why do they do that? You need a power source to operate whatever that is. The bottom line is, make sure you have batteries. Take it from someone who’s failed at that.

It’s amazing when we think about light. Light must have a power source also. And the greater the power source, the greater the light. And who is our power source? The one who is the light of the world. Christ offers himself to us, but we must receive him. Even as we receive the gifts, we will open tomorrow morning or tonight, depending on your tradition…but we cannot operate as light in the world unless Christ is in us. That’s the first step. Invite Christ into your life. If you’ve never done so, then the Spirit of Christ will indwell you and then you will reflect the light of Christ from that experience.

2 things in closing:

As we come to Communion I hope we will recognize and respond to Jesus as the Son of God and the Light of the World and acknowledge Him as our Savior and Lord who died to give us life, even eternal life.

As we light our candles and go back to our homes and walk through this Christmas season that we would recognize we are called to be consistent reflections of God’s light in our world in our words and actions.   Merry Christmas to all.  Let’s go and be reflections of Christ, the light of the world!