"Light of all people"-Sermon for Christmas 1, John 1:1-18:
So, my sister-in-law Whitney, who is married to my brother Ross, is always the last to find her way out of bed in the morning at overnight family gatherings at times like at Christmas. Now, I am certainly not pointing fingers…because I am always the second to last to make it to the breakfast table, often, sliding in just before her. And, I have actually always admired her ability to sleep soundly…even with a house very full of children. As I age, I am up more often in the night than in my younger days, but I still love to sleep…and sleep in…whenever afforded the chance. And, in conversation with Whitney about our mutual love affair with sleep…she told me that, in fact, she doesn’t always sleep soundly and is often awake in the middle of the night. And, she has done a little research around this…she told me that for much of human history…really till the advent of electric lights…our ancient and even not too distant ancestors slept twice each night. It was called “first sleep” and “second sleep” …a phenomenon that is now well documented by historians. First sleep happened shortly after the sun went down and then, at some point in the middle of the night, people would wake for a couple of hours and actually get up out of bed and do all sorts of things. And then, after an, often, productive period of time, they would go back to sleep in the darkness of early morning to arise again at sun-up or shortly thereafter. This all happened quite naturally based on innate biological rhythms, as the first alarm clock was not invented until 1787 by an American clock maker…who ironically needed to wake up in time to sell clocks.
And, this time of wakefulness in the night was often called “The Watch”. Descriptions of “The Watch” feel almost mystical. Under the haunting and hopeful glow of the moon and stars…people emerged from their slumber, lighting oil lamps and candles to stoke the fire smoldering in the hearth…stretch their legs on a star-gazing jaunt outside…tend to animals or children…have quiet conversations among those with whom they shared a bed…read and write for pleasure or work…and for the faithful, often, the watch was a time for prayer…to watch out, if you will, for God in Christ coming to us in the darkness of night. I found a quote about the watch between sleeps from a BBC article that reads, “One father called it the most profitable hour, when…no one will look for you except for God”.
Our Gospel reading on this first Sunday in the Christmas Season is the closest thing we get to a birth narrative in the Gospel of John. He doesn’t include adoring parents, a newborn infant, little lambs, shepherds in the fields, or angelic apparitions, and yet his lyrical poetry and cosmic musings is a beautiful as anything one can find in all of scripture. It actually begins long before Christmas…really at the very beginning of time/space. In fact, John begins his story about the life of Jesus, his Gospel, with the same three words that the entirety of the bible begins…the same three words found in chapter 1, verse 1 of Genesis (anyone want to guess what they are)…“in the beginning”. John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” The Word, of whom John writes, through whom everything came into being “in the beginning”, is the very same flesh and blood baby we celebrate and adore at Christmas…a baby who cries and coos and babbles…who grows into an adult who speaks words of life and love…words that have the power to build up and create courageous and light filled followers of Jesus…like each of us. Thus, John tells us that Jesus who came down at Christmas was the very same power though which all of life came to be…the spark that fired creation’s light. Jesus is life…the source of all life…at work in the moment of creation…at work in the moment of our creation…in the darkness of our own mother’s wombs…and at work wherever and whenever the darkness of sin and death seeks to overwhelm and overcome…at our beginning, in our present and, most especially, at our end. For in the light of Jesus’ incarnation at Christmas and in the light of Jesus’ resurrection at Easter…creation is remade, Eden delightfully restored…and life and love are established from forever to forever…for you…for me…for those we love and no longer see…for everything and everyone who has been, is now, or ever shall be.
At Christmas, we remember that Jesus did not only come to us once some two thousand years ago…but is always coming to us…from the beginning…at Christmas…and on to our right now…his light…his life…always coming to us, most especially, in our own nighttime moments. As John writes much more beautifully than I ever could, “What has come into being in [Jesus] was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” God’s light filled life comes to us when the darkness of the world has swooned us into restless sleep…blinded us through mistruths…lured us into a false sense of security…forced us to shut down our hearts and minds…for that often feels like a better choice than continuing to face the pain and suffering that we, and so many, much more, than we, seem to relentlessly face. Friends, the world wants us to remain asleep, keep us lost in the dark, keep us shut down an shut up, as it continues its death-dealing ways uninhibited and unchecked…doubling down on its power to corrupt and destroy God’s own beloved…beginning with those most vulnerable. And, Jesus enters into that first restless sleep, yes, at Christmas…but even now…with a gentle light felt more in the body than seen outside ourselves…mystical music…saying to us…wake up and watch…light grows in the haunting darkness full of grace and truth…wake up and watch…creation is being remade, Eden delightfully restored…wake up and watch…as the hungry are fed…the lonely are reached out to…the broken-hearted are healed…through the creative, productive, love-filled work of those glorious people wakened by and filled with the light of God’s love…the very children of God…on the watch…in the middle of this long night…this present darkness. And, that light, that creation light, incarnation light, resurrection light fully alive in God’s people awakened by Jesus, who is always coming to us, shall not be overcome. Friends, Christmas invites us to wake up and not just watch…but join the watch…to stoke the fire of God’s love sparked in us…to take our place in the mystical Body of Christ, alive and awake, in our nighttime world…till it is set to rights…till all that remains for each and for all is the perpetual light of God’s love from forever to forever.
Just a few weeks ago, I attended an Advent Evensong service at St. Andrew’s where my girls go to school. My eldest daughter Amelia was singing in the choir at the service. I was in the congregation getting to just worship with my wife on one side and my youngest daughter Mary Ellen on the other. As it was an Evensong service, which is a sung version of Evening Prayer, it was night, the chapel lit up mainly by soft candle light shining against the darkness crowding in through the stained-glass windows. For the closing prayer of the service, the priest used that familiar collect or prayer from Compline, our service for the end of the day, that our youth group prays out loud together, in unison most Sunday nights as they gather around this altar…so the prayer was very familiar to Mary Ellen. And, though in this particular service the prayer was being said by the priest alone and not the congregation, I noticed Mary Ellen very quietly praying each word aloud herself. As I held her hand, I began to join in her whispered prayer, admittedly with a lump in my throat and tear in my eye, “Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love's sake.” I felt so grateful for the light of God’s love that St. Julian’s has awakened in my beloved one’s life. For every time I lay my eyes on her…and her sister…it is like seeing my own heart beating outside my own body. And, I found myself praying that she would spend the entirety her own life awake, on the watch with the light of God’s love filling her up…watching out with Jesus…for those who weep, who sleep uneasily, who are sick and weary, who are dying and suffering, those who are afflicted and those whose joy needs shielding…and all for love’s sake alone.
In the beginning, at Christmas, and at every moment that follows…God’s Word, God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, comes down to awaken us from our slumber in the dark of night…filling us with the light of his endless love…bidding us to come awake and take our place on the watch…till all arise from their own present darkness and into their own new day…basking with us in light perpetual from forever to forever. Amen.