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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 Merry Christmas. This Christmastime we have a wonderful opportunity to look around and see the light of Christ. "God is light," St. John writes in his first epistle, "and in him there is no darkness at all." "In him was life," that same St. John writes about Jesus Christ at the beginning of his Gospel, "and that life was the LIGHT of all people." Light and life go together. It may be that one cannot exist without the other. My Earth Science teacher in 9th grade explained the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process by which green plants use sunlight to gain energy and grow. These plants grow and many of them become edible so that people and animals may live. Light gives life. A preemie baby that develops jaundice will receive light treatment. Our body uses sunlight to process and develop Vitamin D. During the winter many relate the rise in depression to the lack of sunlight. Light gives life. On that first Christmas Eve night the shepherds went with haste to Bethlehem to see in a manger light. Light that gives life, "The Living Light in Bethlehem." But it may not have seemed like that at first. When the angel appeared to them out in the field as they were keeping watch over their flock, the glory of the Lord shone around them. That light frightened the shepherds, because this wasn't sunlight that filled the sky. The glory of the Lord shone all around them. As sentimental as Christmastime is with the family traditions, the well-worn nativity sets, and the endless sounds of Christmas music in the shopping stores, this glory light was God. We're talking about God here, God who is light, who created light in the beginning, who shattered the primal darkness of chaos and drove it back. The God who separated the night and day with the stars and sun in the sky. A modern paraphrase of the first words of John puts it this way: "Light shines. Darkness doesn't. Light always wins." Because God is light. We have been seeing that God is light this whole Advent season, haven't we? Light one candle, and the room is no longer totally dark. Light wins. Light two candles and the light is twice as much. Light a room full of candles on Christmas Eve, the place positively glows. Light rules. God rules. And well, when you get past the sentimentality of it all, this can be frightening. The Christmas light, the glory of the Lord which shone over Bethlehem's fields and frightened the shepherds, was accompanied by angels, and they frightened the shepherds too. It figures, for these same heavenly hosts had frightened the prophet Isaiah seven centuries earlier, singing their song "Heaven and earth are full of his glory" praises to God who is "holy, holy, holy." We're talking about God here, God who is light, who created light in the beginning, who shattered the primal darkness of chaos and drove it back. "Don't be afraid," the angel said, for the angel was about to shed light (as the expression goes) on the situation. "I have good news for you, happy news, tidings of great joy"—joy that would brighten the lives of "all people," the angel told the shepherds—"a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Can human eyes bear to look directly into the light, the glory of God? Moses couldn't at Mount Sinai. But the angel tells the shepherds to go and look, the angel said, "This will be a sign for you (think of it as a big bright neon sign that blinks on and off), you will find a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." We're talking about the living light, the glory of the Lord, the one who is as we confess in our creed, "God from God, light from light." The light of the world has become flesh. Not just a human being, but an infant. Someone small enough to be comprehended without having to study the whole universe, someone who is alive as we are—in the same way that we are, who got that way the way we did, by being born. I wonder if a light went on inside the shepherds' heads, the way it does in ours. Were they able to look into the manger and realize, "This is God! This is the Light of the world." This newborn baby is the glory of God that shone all around us now made flesh. This is the light that we can stand to look at. "The word became flesh," the Bible says, "and dwelt among us"—as close as a manger. This baby and mother is something that we can begin to look at. The baby will grow, he is a living light in Bethlehem. The shepherds would have understood the manger, which was a part of their job. A manger is a place where creatures get fed. And here in the manger at Bethlehem is the one who is not only the Light of the world, but also the Bread of life (Bethlehem means "house of bread," you know). He is the one by whom our souls are fed, so that we creatures of God need never hunger again. Shepherds can understand hunger, they deal with sheep who need feeding as well. The shepherds are used to bringing the sheep to the manger to feed. Now the angel has brought them to the manger to feed. There at the manger they feast on the living light, leaving there glorifying and praising God. The shepherds can understand lambs, the best of their flock was given to the Lord as a sacrifice of thanksgiving. I wonder if the shepherds have any inkling that this little baby in the manger is the one whom we will greet as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." I wonder if they see in that baby the living Passover lamb whose blood will mean the difference for us between life and death. Jesus is Lamb of God who was slain so that we might be made people of God. The Lamb of God who makes our journey to the Promised Land…where there is no need of sun or moon, the book of Revelation says, "for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is…the Lamb." "I am the Light of the world," Jesus says, "Those who follow me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." That's where the shepherds ended up on Christmas, isn't it? The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God." They went with haste to see the baby lying in a manger, and they returned glorifying and praising God because they had seen the Light, the Living Light that shines in Bethlehem. The Living Light that gives light to those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death." I wonder how the shepherds remembered that night when they witnessed the living light of the world that scatters the darkness. I wonder how you will. Soli Deo Gloria
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