Merry Christmas! I’m not one to say “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” Instead of being politically correct, I wish you a merry and blessed Christmas, for this day a savior is born to us whom Isaiah describes as Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Prince of Peace. We gather to celebrate the birth of the eternal Word made flesh.
The right word at the right moment can transform a person, for good or for ill. Hollywood knows well the dramatic value of such moments. So did John. The opening line of his Gospel makes it clear that the divine nature of Christ has existed eternally with the Father. John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, didn’t suddenly come into being when he was born in Bethlehem. He has existed with the Father for all eternity. Yet on this night, God found the right moment to transform the world.
What we celebrate is the birth of Emmanuel, God with us. God became human in a very impoverished setting, a stable in a small town. At long last, God has entered into our human nature to fully relate to all that we have to contend with as a consequence of our sinful nature. Because of this, we have been redeemed so that we can be blessed with the gift of eternal life.
The opening lines of John’s gospel speak of Jesus as the invincible light that comes and shines on all for we are told, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” So true! For many peoples over time Jesus has been the light that dispels their darkness, offering them hope. Now, darkness can mean many things. We who are surrounded by electric lights can experience a blackout, but that isn’t what John is talking about here. Instead, there is the darkness of guilt, of alienation, of broken dreams or relationships, of despair, of rejection, of grief, or of falling short of one’s goals. For some, there is the darkness of wondering if God even exists, much less cares about us.
That image of Christ being the light took on real meaning for one certain prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II who wasn’t even a Christian. In his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, Victor Frankl describes an early morning scene when he and other prisoners were digging in the cold hard ground. He wrote, “The dawn was gray around us; gray was the sky above; gray the snow in the pale light of dawn; gray the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and gray their faces… I was struggling to find a reason for my sufferings, my slow dying.”
As Frankl labored in the miserable cold to comprehend his plight and suffering, he suddenly became convinced there had to be a reason even though he could not understand why. He then describes what happened next.
“At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if it were painted there, in the midst of the miserable gray.” Then, the words of John’s gospel flashed into his mind. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.” Frankl was filled with hope, while before all he had known was despair.
His experience demonstrates that when Jesus entered our darkened world, so did hope. Before Jesus came, people struggled, much like Frankl did, to find a reason for their suffering, their slow death. After Jesus entered our world and shared the Good News of God’s love, people could better deal with their suffering even if they couldn’t fully understand why the world remains filled with so much pain and misery.
Maybe in our neck of the woods we are spared that suffering but elsewhere people are struggling with getting into the spirit of Christmas. The destruction of one of the world’s oldest cities, Aleppo, has been heart breaking, not only to its residents, but also to others who watched from afar. Aleppo is just a microcosm of what is happening around the world with countless violent acts that have claimed lives from Berlin to Orlando, from Paris to San Bernardino, from Mexico City to nearby Mukilteo. The faces and places change from one week to the next, yet sadly the suffering persists and so does the darkness.
Since his birth so long ago, darkness hasn’t yet overcome the light because we are that light, revealing by what we say and do God’s truth and glory to others. As John said, “To those who did accept him, he gave power to become the children of God.” As Titus observed, as God’s children we have been graced to reject godless ways and instead live justly and devoutly in this age. With goodness and truth, we announce to the world around us that the Word made flesh dwells within us, making a difference in how we live.
Christmas, my friends, is an invitation for each one of us to be for our world today what Jesus was in his time: a beam of light in the midst of darkness, a ray of hope in the midst of despair. If Jesus is to be born into today’s world it must be through us. Our mission is to be that beam of light, that ray of hope, so that our world can be transformed and others can see clearly that Christ continues to dwell in our midst.
To the extent that we share the Word by what we say and do will we receive the gift of Christmas: peace on earth and goodwill toward all. May your Christmas be blessed with much joy beyond your expectations.