CHRISTMAS LIGHT
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
CHRISTMAS LIGHT
November 29, 2009
Text: John 1:1-18
This being the first Sunday in Advent, we officially move into the Christmas season. But it seems like we've already been in the Christmas season for some time now, doesn't it? Haven't the ads and store displays been up for weeks? The countryside has already been ablaze with lights and decorations. We've been Christmas shopping for weeks or months.
Amid all of our hectic and heady preparations, we will no doubt hear the annual cries to "put Christ back into Christmas;" "Jesus is the reason for the season." We will voice them ourselves. We mean them. The words work to remind us that there is more to Christmas than just the holiday trappings of plenty of food, plenty of gifts, and plenty of frustrations.
But of what do these reminders tell us? How can we put "Christ back into Christmas" when we Christians are as busy going to parties, shopping for presents, and tasting the delicacies as anyone else we know? In fact, we would have more time if we cut out the extra church services and Christmas programs altogether. What does it mean to "put Christ back into Christmas?"
Each of the Gospel books has a unique way of introducing the Christ. The first chapter of John contains so many Christological gems that a lifetime of study would barely pierce its depth of meaning and beauty. There are two themes that John introduces here, though, that help draw us back into the truth of the meaning of the Christ in Christmas. They are light and life.
"In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it." Other translations give the fifth verse even more power by saying, "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it." John refers to a darkness that is ignorant of the light. John keeps this theme alive in 8:12, as Jesus says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
Jesus was the light for the woman at the well; the light for a short, despised tax collector; the light for a guilty, despairing roomful of disciples. He is still the light for millions of seeking people. Were scrambling to find Christmas gifts this time of the year. To be given the gift of the good news of Jesus Christ is to be given the light of the world.
John also mentions darkness. This darkness is hostile to the light; this darkness is wicked and violent and evil. In the movie The Mission, the colonial powers of Spain and Portugal unite to disband the Jesuit missions in South America that had converted natives to Christianity and given them a place to live in Christian community. The reason for this attack? The missions were too successful. They were taking revenue away from the colonial plantation owners who used the natives for slave labor. Upon their refusal to disband, the Jesuit priests and their missions were attacked and massacred by the colonial soldiers, and the natives were taken once more into captivity. A few of the native children are shown in the end going back into the jungles. The viewer then reads on the screen that the natives of this area have been oppressed for centuries and are still fighting oppression today, and that many religious leaders have lost their lives in the struggle alongside the natives. Just before the credits begin to roll, John 1:5 is seen on the screen: "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not over come it."
The absolutely amazing thing about Christianity is that it still exists today. Everything seems to be against Christianity. It began as only a few rag-tag followers, most of whom came from the lower social structures of the first century. It could have easily been snuffed out; indeed, it was persecuted fiercely. The night has fallen many times, yet the dawn has continued to come. Always, some person or group has stood up and declared that Christ means more than status quo. At great personal risk and with loss of property, and sometimes life, reformers have blown the breath of Christ upon the embers that looked almost black and have discovered that they blaze up again. The light still shines!
John Bunyan, in his classic work The Pilgrim's Progress, describes it in this manner: "Then I saw in my dream that the Interpreter took Christian by the hand, and led him into a place where there was a fire burning against a wall, and one standing by it, always casting much water upon it, to quench it; yet did the fire burn higher and hotter. Then said Christian, 'What means this?' The Interpreter answered, 'This fire is the work of grace that is wrought in the heart; he that casts water upon it, to extinguish and put it out, is the Devil; but in that thou seest the fire notwithstanding burn higher and hotter thou shalt also see the reason of that.' So he led him to the backside of the wall, where he saw a man with a vessel of oil in his hand, of the which he did also continually cast, but secretly, into the fire. Then said Christian, 'What means this?' The Interpreter answered, 'This is Christ, who continually, with the oil of His grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart; by the means of which, notwithstanding what the Devil can do, the souls of His people prove gracious still.'" "The light shines in the darkness..."
Putting Christ back into Christmas means that we accept verse fourteen with its full force and impact. "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Up until this point, John had not alienated his readers. He wrote some very profound things, but they could still appeal to a civilization steeped in philosophies on the meaning and nature of life. Here, though, John goes too far. His belief suddenly becomes unbelievable.
It was popular thought in John's day to intellectually separate the flesh from the spirit. The most well-known concepts about a god were that he was too pure to have any contact with the world. So a series of gods were created to explain the material world. Each constructed god was farther removed from the true god until, finally, no purity remained, and material could be formed. Thus, the purity of spirit could be maintained in spite of an evil, material world. Many went on to believe that the body of the flesh was a prison of the soul. Greek thought had no concept for a spiritually pure god to become willfully confined within a material body.
Into all this, John made the irrational assertion that this is exactly what the Living God did. The Word of God - the being of God - became flesh. Incarnation; Immanuel; God Among Us. Suddenly, God is no abstract, far-away thought. He is no uninterested observer. Suddenly, God is a player, imposing upon Himself the limitations of flesh. But He also shows how those limitations become great sources of strength for worship and service. Thus was Paul able to write to the Corinthians: "That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
This is where God becomes bothersome. This is where God becomes problematic. Because, you see, if God had remained aloof and removed from us - had He remained uncaring and unconcerned - we could construct our philosophies and theologies and rationalities, and then go do what we want, because we would have a God who didn't care whether we did what we said we believed or not. After all, no one has ever seen God.
Except that "the Word became flesh." The Word "lived among us for a while." The most original meaning of the word translated as "lived" is "tabernacle." God "tabernacled" with us for a while; He pitched His tent among us. So John goes on to write, "No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known." Suddenly, we know who God is and what He is like. Suddenly, we cannot create our images of Him - we cannot create our beliefs about Him - and then go our merry way. Suddenly, we must follow Him, because He cares very much what we do to Him, with Him, and for Him. He cares very much what we do to and for each other.
This is what it means to "put Christ back into Christmas." It means doing that which Christ has shown us. It means seeing God acting quite unexpectedly. It means seeing the Word-become-flesh in a stable manger because there was no room at the inn. It means seeing the Word-become-flesh grow to manhood as an apprentice to his carpenter father. It means seeing the Word-become-flesh reject all the treasures of the world so that he could suffer with and for the people he came to save. It means seeing the Word-become-flesh not in the nativity sets that are placed in homes and on lawns, but in the acting out of the nativity by God's own people.
So let us be unexpectedly Christian. We will be busy and hurried and harried, like anyone else. But in the midst of all this, let us be caught by surprise by the presence of God. And let us share our surprise with others. After all, that's what we're trying to do - give gifts. Writing for the A.B. Input, Ray Jennings says, "All the trappings of Christmas, every bit of Christmas lore, the fact that our stores seem to begin their Christmas promotion earlier each year, all point to the fact that people are hungry for the 'Christmas Story.' Consciously or unconsciously, they want the reassurance that God is still with us. Immanuel!"
Only we who know the story can tell it. "The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us." This is Christmas light.
Rev. Charles A. Layne
First Baptist Church
PO Box 515
179 W. Broadway
Bunker Hill, IN 46914
765-689-7987
-- To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: abesermons-unsubscribe@welovegod.org