Christmas Eve
Year C
December 24, 2012
Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7 Psalm
96:1-4, 11-12
Titus 2:11-14 St. Luke 2:1-20
The
lessons for today start off with the light shining on people who have walked in
great darkness, those who have been living in a land of deep darkness. People throughout history have been living in
deep darkness. Just look at the world
around us, at the people around us and it is very easy to see. There are many people in need of a light
shining in the darkness of their lives.
And
then the light shines. My experience has
been that nothing is quite a dramatic of the sudden appearance of light in
total darkness. From something as simple
of being in a pitch black room and having the lights suddenly turned on – not
the best of experiences sometimes. To
being out in the middle of no where when the moon or stars appear. Light bring hope. Light brings the potential for change in our
lives.
This
opening statement seems just as applicable today as it was thousands of years
ago when it was first spoken. Darkness
seems to be all around us. And that
darkness seems to take so many forms. The
recent school shooting in Connecticut is just one recent example. And while the loss of innocent lives to
crazed murders is one very clear example, there are sadly many of them around
us.
There
is also spiritual darkness around us.
And I’m not just talking about people not going to church, or being
hostile to the Christian faith (sadly many of them have very good reasons for
such hostility). I’m talking about
people who claim to be Christians who pervert and twist the very Good News, the
light of God that they are called to be a witness of. I’m talking about people like James Dobson
and Mike Huckabee who proclaim that those innocent children and adults
slaughtered in Connecticut were slaughtered because God happens to be very
pissed at the United States for all gay rights, for supporting the right of
women to make choices about their bodies, and for removing prayer or kicking
God out of school.
I
wonder just what kind of God it is they believe in who feels that the only way
to strike out at apparent wrongs in the country is to murder innocents. After all if God was really pissed at the
gays, I’m sure God is perfectly capable of targeting us directly! And I don’t even know what to think of people
who believe in such a powerless and capricious god. To me this is totally crazy. Quite frankly I find these people no better
than the crazies from the Westboro Baptist Church. They are all a stain on Christianity.
So
those of us rather simple people who believe we know something of the true
light of God have quite a task set ahead for us. We need to proclaim the truth of the light
of Christ in the world both in word and in our deeds. As the first words from the reading from
Titus state: “The grace of God has
appeared, bringing salvation to all…”
God’s
light, the light of the incarnation is available to all. You don’t have to be born a certain way to
receive it. You don’t have to belong to
a particular socio-economic group to receive it. It is there for all. It is there for each of us here this
evening. It is there for those absent as
well.
You
see, God does not see humanity as many of us tend to see it. We judge by external factors, those factors
primarily being how close others are to what we might be. Roman catholic scholars have coined the
phrase “God’s preferential option for the poor.” The phrase was developed in response to the
obvious demonstration of God’s preference to the power and powerless and
disadvantaged.
The difficult
part of our work in spreading the light of God in the world when so many have
been driven from any consideration that God might have or even want to be a
part of their life. We have to fight
against the evil and unchristian message of people like James Dobson who sadly
get coverage of their misguided and wrong ideas of God.
Quite
frankly, I don’t blame people who are not the least interested in what
Christianity is about based on the things they hear on the news portraying a
most unchristian view of Christianity. I
cringe from some of the things I hear. It makes our call doubly difficult.
So
what are we to do? We are celebrating
the great event of the incarnation of God in the world. We are celebrating the coming of the light
into the darkness. We need to share this
light to our friend and neighbors. And
it can be done in the simplest of ways.
We do not need a public platform or crowds. The light of Christ can be shown in
everything we do as we live our lives.
We
show it by a simple act of kindness, or a kind word. We show it every time we look out for and
protect those less fortunate than ourselves.
We show it each time we speak a word in defense of those unable to
defend themselves.
It is
something that needs to become a part of who and what we are. While speaking the truth of the light of
Christ in the world is very important, it is not nearly as important as each
and every one of us living the light of Christ in the world. That is when it shines most brightly for all
those around us.
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