Sermon by Anne Robertson ~ "In The Beginning"

IN THE BEGINNING

TEXT: John 1:1-5, 10-14; Rev. 21:10-11, 22-26

Well, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that today has the dubious distinction of being the shortest day of the year. Today the earth tilts on its axis as far away from the sun as it ever gets in a year, meaning that we have more darkness in today's 24 hours than in any other day. Great. And if that were not enough, tomorrow is the beginning of winter.

But all is not lost. If today is the shortest day of the year, that means that, beginning tomorrow, the days will begin to get longer, until light conquers darkness and the warmth of spring melts winter into memory. Those cycles are pretty much academic exercise in some of the sunny southern climes, but here, they are the reality of the way we live. Here, suicides go up in the dark days. Here depression rises when the sun sets. Here people fall and break bones on the ice and others become confined to their homes for a long, dark winter. On the flip side, sometimes in the season of long days, the light comes much earlier than we would like. The cycles of light and darkness shape us as a northern people as we rebel, adapt, and adjust to the rhythm of the earth.

All of that, I think, helps us to connect to the light and dark imagery in Scripture with a deeper awareness. It means something that Christmas happens in the night. The star shines and leads the way to the stable. Angels appear to the shepherds in the night. The Gospel of John takes those concrete images and makes them abstract: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." If I had to pick one verse in all of the Bible that describes what the Christian hope is all about, I think it would have to be that one. Whether you are talking about the star that points to a baby born on a midnight clear or the blinding light of resurrection in a darkened tomb, that verse covers it all..."The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."

I think we need to grab hold of two main things in that verse. The first is that, since day one of Creation, there has been both light and darkness, and the second thing is that light is the stronger. John very intentionally has the beginning of his Gospel, mirror the beginning of Genesis where God creates the heavens and the earth. In the chaos before Creation, there was apparently only dark. Here is the account of day one of Creation according to Genesis:

"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day."

The very first thing God brings to the task is Light. "Let there be light," says God, and it was so. Then God separated the light from the darkness and saw that it was good. God could have simply obliterated the darkness altogether, but it didn't happen that way. The darkness remained, although it was contained and put in its place. Once God stepped in, the darkness could not roam where it pleased anymore. It could not intrude on the light; it was separated. More than that, light is put in charge of both day and night. On the fourth day of Creation "God made the two great lights-the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night." Let there be no mistake. The light is in charge, even when the sun goes down.

That truth has been used over time to support the great evil of white supremacy, to the detriment of both God's children and God's Word. When seen in its true context, however, I believe it holds the truth of all of the Biblical account that follows.

One of my most fundamental beliefs is that God has written all that we need to know into the book of Creation...I don't mean the literal book of Genesis or some other writing, but the earth and the heavens themselves. Look at the ecosystem and you will see that every organism is dependent for its survival on other organisms. You will see in the food chain that the death of one is the life of another. You will see in the turning of the seasons that there is always Spring after Winter, and you will see after sunset that even the deepest night cannot put out the stars. "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it." That is as much physics as theology, and it has been true from the moment our universe was born.

That is the hope of Christmas. We all know about darkness. We know about the darkness of the outside world, but if we live long enough, we also know about inner darkness-despair, depression, fear, pain, suffering, and eventually death. That is our chaos. In those places we are without form and void. Our lives feel like night, when the clouds have covered over the moon and the stars. The witness of Scripture is that there are times like that. Nighttime comes in nature and it comes in life. We should not expect to be free of it. Being a Christian does not exempt us from the dark times...even very dark times.

I find as I talk with people that sometimes we look around at church and think that we are the only ones who know dark and that everyone else is just soaring along through life in light and bliss. I promise you that is nowhere near the truth. Life has darkness as a regular feature. I plan to have a discussion with God about that someday, but whether we like it or not, that's the way it is. I suspect that's the way it is because dark is something we need in order to truly appreciate the brilliance of light. The moon in the daytime is interesting, but nobody writes poems about it. It is the blackness of night that draws our love to the moon and stars. Life is like that, too. We appreciate things we have sacrificed to achieve, we draw closer to that which is not always with us, we delight in health after illness has kept us down.

The thing that sets us apart as people of faith is not some imagined exemption from difficult times, but the knowledge that even though our lives are without form and void, the Spirit of God hovers over our chaos. When the time is right, God will speak, "Let there be light," and our world will be made anew. "That light was the life of all people," says John. Just as the first word of light began life on earth, so the Word that became flesh brings new life in the Spirit.

The hope of Christmas is not a hope for a life without darkness. The darkness was built into Creation. The hope of Christmas is that the darkness cannot overcome the light. The light is stronger. The light is God, and not even death and the grave can claim final victory. The light was not content to remain in heaven. God spoke and brought the Light to earth...first as photons, then as a baby. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us as the Light of the world.

Christmas comes in the night...in the dark. What that means is, if it has gotten dark in your life, the conditions are right for you to be able to see the Light of God in action. More than that, if you have invited the Light of the World to dwell in your heart, you might well be that Light of God in action for someone else. Many times I have seen someone going through a dark period of their lives and there with them is a caring, Christian friend providing love, support, and a shoulder to cry on. It seems plain to me, but yet the person in the dark cries out "Where is God? Why isn't God here?" God is right there holding them while they ask the question, but they can't see it. Christmas has come in their darkness...the Word has become the flesh of a friend or loved one. But they look right past the miracle, or even send the miracle away because there is no room at the inn.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world." In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells the disciples, "You are the light of the world." Both of those are true. Jesus comes from the eternal light to be a light for a dark world. As that light is passed to the disciples of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, we become the Body of Christ...we continue to do on earth what Jesus was sent to do...to be the light for the world, to be the Word of God made flesh. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. The darkness did not overcome Jesus, and the darkness cannot overcome anyone in whom the light of Christ dwells.

The message of Christmas boils down to the words of Gabriel to Mary and the angels to the shepherds on the hillside... "Fear not." It doesn't matter how dark it has gotten. It doesn't matter how bad the situation gets; it doesn't even matter if you die. "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it." The Light cannot go out, and when you put your life square in the center of that Light, your soul is in a safe harbor.

Creation began with the light. Light then took on solid form in Jesus and is passed to all who wish to follow in Jesus' footsteps as the Body of Christ. While we dwell here, there will be times and seasons of darkness...sometimes more, sometimes less. But Christmas comes in the night. When the darkness comes, start looking for stars. Amen.

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