Loading...Merry Christmas! Welcome to this exceptional day.
For the past four Sundays, in the season known as Advent, I used the beginning of my sermons to talk about the theme of each of these Advent candles. Each candle represents a certain emotion, a focus, as you may have known or figured out when we lit all the candles tonight at the beginning of the service. Because we lit the fifth candle, and it, too, has a theme or focus, I want to talk a bit about how each of these candles are a part of what Christmas means.
Today is the day we celebrate the LIGHT of Christ, through his birth as love made flesh, of Immanuel, God with Us, of this baby born to be the King of Love.
We celebrate with hymns and lullabies, prayers and storytelling, candles and poinsettias, all to help us see that even in this broken, hurting world, there are many, many reasons to not just look for, but to embody HOPE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE, AND LIGHT.
At the beginning of the season of Advent, we lit the candle representing HOPE. On that Sunday, we were able to witness the baptism of a six-month old baby boy. He loved the water and splashed in it, giving all of us within range, a bit of his holy water and his glee.
When a new child is born, it is a tangible reminder that life goes on. We can have HOPE that who we are, as people of God, will continue in this new life. Maybe that is why Jesus came to earth as an infant. To remind us to have HOPE.
The next Sunday in Advent we lit the candle of hope and the candle of PEACE. On that Sunday, we heard in the Gospel of Matthew how John the Baptist met many people at the Jordan River, inviting them to repent, which means to change their minds, their hearts, their direction.
Sometimes it takes a change, like a renewed awakening, to achieve PEACE. We might need to learn something new, or to hear someone else’s experience to make a change in our own lives. We may need therapy or some other kind of help to heal from a deep hurt or an emotional wound. When we take the opportunity to learn with others, to better understand the world through another’s eyes; when we commit to healing our own wounds, we may become the agents of PEACE who will lead us to the beloved community, where all are valued for who they are, as is so desired by our Creator God.
On the third Sunday in Advent, we lit the candles of hope, peace, and JOY. Now, JOY is something to behold. It is one of those misunderstood emotions that can be misinterpreted as a temporary experience, but JOY is not temporary. It is something that lingers in our bodies and helps us to see beyond the moment, especially when the moment feels rather blue or sad.
If you know someone who has embraced an attitude of JOY, that does not mean that their life is without hardship. It is knowing that with JOY, hardship can be more manageable, especially when we remember that joy is just one more way to recognize God’s love for us and for the world.
This past Sunday, we lit the candles of hope, peace, joy, and LOVE. We heard the story of Joseph’s visit from the angel, of the angel asking Joseph to break the long-held rules to punish an unwed pregnant girl and to be the man who would not only help raise God’s son with Mary, but to name him Jesus. By naming Jesus, Joseph became his adoptive father.
Joseph, like Mary, answered “yes” to the angel, to God, and took on a very risky situation because of their faithfulness to their God. Their bravery brings us to this night, in a place set aside to keep animals warm, with cries of a mother giving birth and cries of a baby taking his first breath. A night that would be the start of a ministry to change everyone, a ministry that had a foundation in LOVE.
Tonight, we lit all those candles, yet again, and added the white one in the middle. The candle of LIGHT, because Jesus is the LIGHT of the world. He came as a vulnerable baby, needing the hope, peace, joy, and love of his earthly parents to bring him up in a world in need of amazing LIGHT.
This LIGHT is here to illuminate the shadows, where the vulnerable huddle and the sick hide. Jesus came into this world to show us that even though we may fear what is in those shadows, there is nothing to be afraid of. The people lingering there are God’s beloved. And if those shadows are places we hide inside ourselves, this light reminds us that we, too, are God’s beloved children.
This LIGHT is for all of us. It is the LIGHT, beckoning us to the warmth of all that God IS through Jesus.
{**In the delivery of this sermon, I deviated here. I took a candle and showed how when you light a candle from another candle, the light does not diminish, it strengthens to light the second candle. I invited people to consider this as they share their candle’s light at Silent Night, and remember that whenever they share the light of Christ, it does not diminish what is within each of us…it brightens the world even more!**}
We are invited to peek into those hiding places and see what Jesus saw: God’s beloved children. And to respond the way Jesus responded: With hope. With peace. With joy. With love.
I wish for you on this night and in the days to come the reality of God’s deep, abiding, love for you. And I pray that as you know this love, you will be moved to shine that love, that joy, that peace, and that hope with the bright light that was given to us on this holy, holy night, all those years ago.
Amen.
