Light Shining Brightly

John 1.1-18

    Since shortly after the pandemic began last Spring, a Zoom study group has been meeting, to take the place of our in-person adult Sunday School offering. This fall the study has turned to the Gospel of John. Roughly a dozen or so people come together to talk about faith, to delve more deeply into the Bible, to learn more about this Lord Jesus Christ whom we follow and adore, and to share their experiences of God. 

    We learn as much – if not more - from each other as we do from our fine study materials, ably led by Tom Richards. For the season of Advent, we turned our attention to a book and DVD written and published by the prolific author and Methodist minister Adam Hamilton, called Incarnation, as it fit right into the group’s contemplation of John’s gospel. Last week, one of our participants, Karen Borten, spoke about how moved she was by the final chapter of the book – the one before the Epilogue. This chapter reflected on the reading we heard from John’s Gospel this morning – the prologue to what the evangelist would be writing about – the Word of God through whom all things were created. 

    Karen told the group how Hamilton’s beautiful reflection on this prologue moved her, especially as she prepared for holidays this year which, frankly, for her and so many in our congregation and community, are challenging to face. She spoke movingly about the power of the writing and the way Hamilton’s words helped her find deep spiritual meaning for a Christmas that might otherwise feel sad and hard. 

    This text from John’s Gospel is often referred to as “John’s Christmas story” even though there are no angels, nor Mary or Joseph, nor is the Bethlehem star reported here. There are no magi or shepherds, and no inn, stable, cave or guest house to connect to the traditional telling of the birth of the Christ. There is not even the Christ child! Instead, we hear testimony of the One who was with God from the very beginning of creation, through whom all was created, without whom the world is deep, and dark and formless, but in whom and through whom there is light – a light that shines on all people and is for all people. 

    Hamilton writes, “Light shines in the darkness; the Word became flesh. The One who once shouted, ‘Let there be light!’ came to us in Jesus. This is the Incarnation! “The Word—the creative power and wisdom of God that spoke all things into existence—took on flesh as an infant in Bethlehem. “These words are meant to inspire and awe. Far more than the birth of a baby, Christmas is about the God who created and sustains the universe breaking into our world—light and life, word and flesh, grace and truth, the glory of a father’s only son.” We see ‘darkness and light’ spread throughout the pages of the Bible. They are images to which we can easily relate; darkness is scary, darkness is lacking, darkness is what exists at the very depth of our ache, and pain, and emptiness and fear. 

    I don’t know about you but when I am watching a television program or a movie and the character on the screen is plunged into darkness, or a child is surrounded by darkness, I immediately relate. The hairs on the back of my neck go up. I am instantly more alert – watching, listening for danger. When I was little and a scene like this came on tv, my sainted father who had more than a little of the devil in him, would usually shout or poke us or do something to scare the living bejeebies out of us kids. It always worked, because in the dark, anything could happen and the more sinister, the more believable.      

    But the thing about darkness is that it yields to light. Even the smallest amount of light has the power to break the hold of even the deepest darkness. In Christ light overcomes darkness because Christ is our light. Jesus is the light of God for all the worn and weary world. And in the light of Christ the darkness is no more. The light that God shines into the world is Jesus, the child born in Bethlehem, the itinerant preacher and rabbi who called disciples to follow him, who welcomed those whose darkness had been so consuming, and offered them life and light. Because of him, darkness loses its hold, its power, its ability to imprison us, define, and destroy us. As Hamilton reports, the Bible both begins and ends with light. We find it on the opening page of Genesis when God says, “Let there be light” and suddenly what was formless and void brims with the goodness God, with division between darkness and light being called ‘night’ and ‘day.’ 

     The power of light comes from God. The gift of light is God-given and God-created. How appropriate then, that in writing of the Word of God that was in the beginning with God and is God, in this prologue the evangelist John, he writes, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” Think about that. God chose that this light be for all people, and my friends, when God says all, God. means. All!

     Hamilton goes on to describe darkness of two kinds. First, he points out, [that] “In the bible darkness is most often (but not always) associated with evil, adversity, ignorance, despair, gloom, and even death. Light, on the other hand is usually associated in scripture with God, goodness, joy, knowledge, hope, and life.” “There are two broad categories of existential darkness in scripture,” he writes. “The first is moral darkness; the second is what we might call situational, relational, or emotional darkness.” We witness moral darkness all the time when we look around the world and see evil playing out in terrorist attacks, genocide, mass shootings, and selfish acts that harm others. “We feel it in circumstances that leave us hopeless.” We see it in spousal or child abuse, sexual assault or manipulation by people in authority. We think of children separated from parents, kidnapped, abused, and exploited. We remember the scourge of human trafficking and slavery. This is just some of the evidence of deep moral darkness that is pervasive. 

     But we also consider our own deviation from following the path we are supposed to walk, the one modeled for us by Jesus himself. That is the path we refer to as “walking in the light”. In worship, week after week, we confess to God and to one another that we consistently fall from that path, and when we do we find ourselves moving toward the darkness. Hamilton writes, “When we succumb to thoughts, words, or deeds that bring momentary gratification followed by guilt, hurt, and shame, we walk in the darkness. The battle between good and evil, light and darkness, is one of the major themes in human existence, captured in history, literature, the arts, and life. The perennial battle that defines us as human beings is the battle between good and evil, light and darkness. It is not only a battle outside of us, it is a battle that is fought within us.” 

    The other kind of darkness with which we battle and for which we see plenty of biblical evidence as well is what we would call “existential or situational darkness”. We’ve all experienced this darkness as well – any time we have encountered grief, sadness, or despair. It is the darkness experienced when we feel unloved or lost, when we feel isolated and alone, when we feel hopeless and out of options. Scripture speaks of this kind of darkness as well, and we have all experienced it in brief episodes or dark moments or seasons of loss and disenfranchisement. 

    At some time in our lives, we each experience a journey through darkness. For some the journey is brief, for many, for myriad reasons, it is interminable. As Hamilton writes, “Christmas, the Incarnation of God, is God’s response to both forms of darkness, the moral and existential.” The Christmas story is full of light. 

    For many years, we lived off Route 896 in southern Chester County. The road there is curvy and hilly. As we headed south, about three miles from the Delaware state line, on the left, just after a curve, in a little bit of a hollow, sat a small house, one of those you could pass a million times and not notice. But come Christmas, this house and its yard was thoroughly decked out in every kind of lighted display imaginable – so much in fact, that at night as you drove south along 896, the glow from the house was visible long before the house was seen. As you drove down the road perhaps a half mile or further from the house, and considerably more on a foggy night, the glow of those lights could be seen and appreciated. 

    In an area without street lights, those lights certainly banished the darkness! I think of John’s telling of the Christmas story and how he begins with light. The story is rooted in Creation, is rooted in God’s response to all manner of darkness, is rooted in God’s very Word. The Word that called life into being provides light that eradicates darkness – for you. For me. For the world. It seems clear that in Jesus light and life are intertwined and cannot be separated; “in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the light of the world.” Peter wrote to those who believed, “[God] called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Paul, who was literally “blinded by the light” of his conversion experience wrote, “For once you were in darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.” May it be so as this new year dawns and forever. Amen.