TEXT: John 1:1-9; Isaiah 60;1-3

This passage from John is all John gives us of the Christmas story. But it is here in John that we see how the Christmas story ties in with the rest of the story. In the beginning...the words immediately transport us back to Genesis where in the beginning the world was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. Then what happened? There were words. God spoke and said, "Let there be light."

Now we have a new beginning, Jesus is born. Now that word of light becomes not just speech that creates the world, but it becomes flesh that saves the world. Jesus who says, I am the light of the world. Let there be light. And there was light. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not over come it. John is showing us how to understand Genesis.

What I would like to do this morning is to reflect on the powerful images of light and darkness that we have been given. From those first words of God in Genesis to the closing chapter of the last book of the Bible, we hear about light. God creates it, God embodies it, and finally at the end of Revelation we read that in the New Jerusalem that is yet to come, "There will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light." The love of God has such radiant energy that no other light source is needed.

All the way through the Bible, light is equated with God and goodness and revelation while darkness is nothingness, wickedness, despair, desolation. If we bear in mind that the primary purpose of Scripture is to tell us who God is, what can we learn about God, ourselves, and God's relationship to us by meditating for a bit on the important symbols of light and darkness?

Well, one thing we learn is that light reveals things. If you walk into a completely dark room, you have a hard time figuring out what's in there. When a light comes on, things are revealed -- you see things that you couldn't before. God as a light does that for us. When God's light shines into our lives, we see things that we couldn't see before. We wonder how we could have been so dense and so blind, because there it is right in front of us. But it wasn't that we were stupid...it's that we were in a dark room with no light.

The difficult part of this is that once you let the light of God into your life, it shines everywhere. The reason that dim lighting is so popular on social occasions is that you can't see the flaws. Whether you're worried about spots on the carpet, acne on your face, or the fact that your socks don't match, we all know and well appreciate the advantages of dim lighting. But God's light is brighter than daylight. it is a searchlight that sees everything for what it is. God does not have a dimmer switch that lets you hide things. God doesn't just HAVE a light...God IS a light. If you've got God, light is there, and any flaw is revealed.

While that's a scary prospect, it makes the Good News of Jesus Christ all the more amazing. God didn't come to save us because we had God fooled into thinking we were beautiful, sinless, perfect human beings. God knew exactly what we were like. God knew every sin that we thought was tucked safely away. God was aware of every blemish in our character, every razor-sharp edge to our personality, every mean, low, ungrateful thing we have ever done, said, or thought--and STILL God wanted us. Even knowing all of that, God longed to be back in relationship with us so much that He was willing to suffer and die for us. Thinking about God as a light, helps us realize how amazing God's love truly is.

We can also learn about God and ourselves by thinking of the darkness. Now you'll need to put on your thinking caps for this one. Darkness is not defined by what it is, but rather by what it isn't. Darkness is the absence of light. Darkness is not something on its own--it's just the condition you have when there is no light. Think about it. If darkness was really something that was there, it would have to go somewhere when you turned on the light. So if you turned on a light in the kitchen, suddenly the lights would go out in the living room, because the darkness had gotten pushed in there. So you go turn the living room lights back on and there go the lights in the kitchen. Finally you boot the darkness outside and moon goes out. Doesn't happen. Darkness is not something in and of itself, it is defined as the absence of something...the absence of light.

More than that, since darkness is not a thing in itself, it can't be changed into something else. You can't take darkness and turn it into light. You can bring light in, but you didn't make the darkness into light--if you take the light away, the darkness is right back there again, unchanged. Now if you think about that too much, it can hurt your brain. But it does tell us something about spiritual darkness...or sin and despair. If you like philosophy, you can chew on St. Augustine's notion that sin, like darkness, is not a thing in itself but is the absence of God and good. But in a more concrete way, we can realize that our job is not to take sin and try to turn it into righteousness.

The way to correct sin in our lives is not to sit down with it, work on it, and try to make it into something else. The way to get rid of sin is to bring in the light--to bring in God. God and sin cannot exist together, just like you can't have darkness where there is a light. We tend to dwell on our sins. We fret about them, yell at the devil about them, and try to turn our behavior around. And that's not all bad. But I think the most effective way to get rid of sin in our lives is to focus on letting more of God in, rather than trying to push more of sin out. If instead of praying for God to take away our sin, we prayed to love God more, I think the sin would disappear on its own.

Darkness can't muscle its way into a room and put out the light. If the light is there, it can't be dark...period. The practical thing to remember is that if darkness is a problem in your life, you won't get rid of it except by letting in more light. Don't give your attention to the sin. Keep yourself focused on God. Pray for more love.

A third thing we can learn from these images is something I learned from my Christmas tree. There are few things I like better than to put on some soft Christmas music, turn off all the lights in the house, and sit and look at the sparkling lights on the Christmas tree. The tree looks pretty all the time, but it has a special glory at night, when the rest of the world and the house is dark. It is the same with the stars. They are nice in town... they are nice with a full moon. But they are unmatched in splendor in the blackness of the country when no moon is shining. The darker the night, the brighter the stars. Light is most beautiful when you can see the darkness all around.

Thinking about light and darkness this way reminds us of some of the most fundamental truths of life. The light of Christian charity shines brightest against the darkness of injustice and oppression. The goodness of Anne Frank and her family shines all the brighter because of the blackness of the Holocaust behind it. The love of Mother Teresa was radiant because of the desolation of Calcutta around her. A card, a phone call, a loving glance--the smallest act of kindness is to us as the morning star when it comes in the dark night of our soul.

Not only are the lights of others brighter when they enter our darkness, but our own light shines brighter against the darkness of our own suffering. When a person who has an easy life follows Christ, people just nod their heads, say "that's nice" and go on about their business. If they pay attention at all, there is generally some amount of scorn with statements like, "Well, it's easy for her...look at all the advantages she's got." This is exactly Satan's point in the book of Job. "Of course Job is a good little doobie. Why shouldn't he be? You protect him on every side, God. He's got gobs of money, great family, good reputation...he's got everything. Try taking away what he's got...THEN you'll see how shallow his faith is. Let him hurt some and he'll curse you to your face, God."

Satan's challenge in the book of Job is exactly what we hear every day. The powerful testimonies of faith in our world come from those who have suffered. If the darkness of suffering were not in our world, Guideposts would go out of business. When the suffering stand up and praise God...even in the midst of their suffering...people sit up and take notice. I can tell somebody about forgiving a person who said something nasty about me. But that light is just a 20-watt bulb next to the story of Corrie Ten Boom, who, years after her incarceration in a Nazi concentration camp, came into contact with a former Nazi officer that she recognized from that camp, and in a gut-wrenching act of courage and love, went to him, told him who she was, and offered forgiveness. Her story shines like the sun because of the darkness behind it. Our trials and our suffering don't give us light. God gives the light. But our trials and suffering make our witness sparkle like stars in the midnight sky.

Christmas is a time of God's glory. It's a time when bright stars shine on ugly stables. A time when angels of God sing to simple, smelly shepherds. When we stand up and sing of God's glory this Christmas, our lights should shine all the brighter, because even the deepest darkness cannot overcome our light. The darker our Christmas gets, the more glorious our star will shine. The darker the night, the brighter the stars. The light shines in the darkness, John says, and the darkness did not overcome it. It cannot overcome it. No matter how feeble the light, darkness cannot put it out.

Whatever struggles, whatever darkness is facing you during this Christmas season, remember the lessons of the light and the darkness. The darkness might be all around you, but it cannot consume you. The darkness cannot push its way in and put out your light. Even death cannot put out the light...Jesus has determined that once and for all. More than that, as you hold onto the light of God through the dark times, your faith will be irresistibly beautiful to those you meet. If your life was all surrounded by light, the people of the world would pass by without a second glance. But it is the very darkness that makes people stop in their tracks, give a little gasp, and say, "Oh, isn't it beautiful." You can use the darkness around you to show a dark world just how spectacular the light can be. The darkness cannot overcome it. It is the light of the world. Let it shine in your darkness this Christmas.

Amen.

(c) 1999, Anne Robertson