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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther The Candlelight service at 11 pm here at Grace was memorable for me. Last year I remember looking out upon the congregation midway through the service and thought to myself that the people looked like islands among themselves. The overhead light seemed to not connect people but show the separateness of the people gathered. Each family was seen apart from others. The candlelight service involved the lighting of the handheld candles, but not until just before the singing of Silent Night at the end of the service. This year at the service midway through I looked out and saw a very different scene. Everyone was illuminated by the light of the candle they were holding. My impressions from the year before and this year are not really that scientific nor do they represent some real division that existed among the people that has been healed across the year. Rather for me it was looking out and seeing the light that each person held being multiplied. At the beginning of the service we lit the Christ Candle on our Advent wreath and then immediately proceeded to light everyone's handheld candles. There was certainly some wondering if their candles were going to make it through the entire service, and unfortunately some did not. But throughout the service the opening lines of the Gospel according to John was coming alive for me, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." "Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds" (Ps 147:1-2). Those are the opening words for Psalm 147. These words describe that same sense of praise I knew was present on Christmas Eve. It is praise rooted in our Lord bringing healing and gathering. It is rooted in the light of Christ multiplying as we reflect his love and mercy to a world that knows only darkness. We bless and thank the Lord for bringing his healing to the brokenhearted. We thank the Lord that he has not forgotten our cries. He hears our pain and from the beginning has desired that we be image reflectors and not deflectors of his glory. When God was creating the heavens and the earth he said, "'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping things that creeps on the earth.' So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Gen. 1:26-27). As the Evangelist St. John says, "In this beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). So it was that at the very beginning our Lord was bringing life, and this life was the light of men. This light shines and is not overcome. I know that throughout the ages there have been moments of dimness when God's promises are not clearly seen. The tragedy in Asia and the resulting suffering is a remarkable time of darkness. But even so I am hopeful that in the midst of this terrible suffering God's people will be reflectors of the God that heals the brokenhearted and gathers the scattered. I pray that we may be at moments of darkness reflectors of God's grace. During the time of the judges in the Old Testament the people of God struggled. Their struggle was living for God while living in the world. Repeatedly they faced the crossroads where the society around them demanded one thing and the Lord God was calling them to live according to his ways and promises. Reality is that they did not often choose the Lord's will and instead sought to satisfy themselves with the ways of the sinful society that they lived around and in. For instance, after the death of Joshua the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the false god Baal. They abandoned the Lord of their fathers, the Lord that had rescued them out from the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, the gods of the peoples who were around them. This of course provoked the Lord to anger. This may surprise you, but our God is a jealous God who does not desire our following of false promises. The Lord gave the people over to their enemies. He withdrew from them so they could no longer withstand their enemies and were overtaken. The people were in terrible distress. It was a time when it was not easy to see God's promises. But the book of Judges records this cycle repeatedly. The people called out to God in distress and so the Lord raised up a judge, who saved them out of the hand of those who plundered them. The Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because they were oppressed and afflicted. The Lord heard their cry and so reached out his healing and gathering mercy and brought the people back into his embrace. In the time of the judged whenever the judge died, they turned their back on the Lord and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. The Lord's anger would be kindled and he would lead them to their enemies. The people would cry in distress and the Lord would raise up a judge that would save the people and lead them to God's embrace. We live in a time of distress today, when people cry out to God in pain and anguish of loneliness. All around us there are people that do not know the comfort of a healing and gathering God, but instead walk in the path of other gods seeking relief and comfort. The gods of wealth, success, pride, fame, and consumerism are not leading our nation or you or me to healing. The darkness of not knowing the promises of the Lord is heavy and not something that we ourselves can see our way out of. But even more than in the time of the judges the Lord has heard your terrible distress and has raised up for you a savior, who has come to rescue his people. He is the Word of God that reached out across the heavens and the earth in the creation to ensure that it was good. This Word of God which was with God and was God, and through whom all things came into being, has come in the flesh and made his home among ours. He is the light which is the life of men. The light which the darkness cannot overcome. Jesus Christ is the light that illumines our dimness. The truth be told, we wouldn't ever know the depth of God's redeeming grace were it not for the distress and pain of knowing the condemnation of God's anger. For one cannot really know how dark it is, until that darkness is eclipsed by light. When faced with suffering and death and pain and anger, one may wonder is this all that life brings. We cannot know what living in God's grace truly is until death, and all that diminishes life, is overcome. Grace emerges in such a way that it creates a new truth that overcomes the old truth. The resurrection of Jesus Christ creates the new truth of hope and promise. When you struggle to see God's promises in a world that suffers and cries, I want you to look upon your Lord and Savior and trust that he makes a difference. His healing and gathering power does and will always eclipse the darkness. The darkness of the world could not overcome him and so he is true life and light for the world. What Christ has accomplished for the world generally through his coming in the flesh and making his home among ours, being rejected, suffering, and dying but rising on the third day, is not done just generally and abstractly. Jesus' victory is personally your victory. We not only see the light dimly from afar to distant in the midst of suffering, rather by faith we are now of the light, that is, "children of God." Our life of faith is lived in this world as people reflect the glory of God on the world, that is, who give testimony to Christ. Our life of faith will always be active in shedding light in the world so that the darkness is overcome. When we are pointed to Christ, through our faith we see light no matter how dim the moment. When we point others to Jesus, they are pointed to the light that overcomes the darkness, no matter how dim their lives are, he shall overcome. Jesus is the savior sent to people who are in distress, for the Lord God has heard your cries and so sent his one and only son to deliver you out from under the darkness. Please with me instead of deflecting the glory of God, reflect the light of the world so that his light may shine. Soli Deo Gloria
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