Dr. Rob Boyd tells about a man whose name was Charlie Stink. People constantly picked on Charlie Stink because of his name. His friends encouraged Charlie Stink to have his name changed. Finally he agreed and went to court to take care of the legal requirements to have his name formally changed.
The next day his friends asked him, “What did you have your name changed to?” And Charlie Stink replied, “I changed my name to George Stink, but for the life of me, I can’t see what difference it will make.” (1)
Well, I believe old Charlie Stink missed the point of having his name changed, don’t you?
People often miss the point when it comes to Advent and Christmas. For some, this season of the year is simply an opportunity to throw parties and to exchange gifts. They see it simply as an opportunity to eat, drink and be merry. For merchants it is a time to salvage a lackluster year of retail sales. For consumers it is a period of dread as we contemplate the crowded stores and the crowded calendar. All of this misses the point of Advent and Christmas, of course. Advent and Christmas are the coming of Light and Love.
Little Joey asked his mother at Christmas time: “Mom, why do people put lights on their houses?”
“They are celebrating Jesus’ birthday,” she replied.
“When is Jesus’ birthday?” asked Joey.
“He was born on Christmas,” his mother replied.
“Jesus was born on Christmas?” Joey exclaimed. “What a coincidence!”
Little Joey is the reason we have all those signs that say, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” And, of course it’s true. He is the reason for the season. He brought light and love into the world. Because of his coming we have fellowship with the Father. To help us get the real point of the Advent season, I want to take us back about 750 years before Christ to a prophet named Isaiah. Isaiah was both a prophet of judgment and a prophet of hope.
Over the next four weeks we are going to deal with some of Isaiah’s most memorable writings concerning the coming Messiah what it will mean for the world when the Messiah comes. But we will also remind ourselves that the manger of Bethlehem was only the beginning of messianic history. The kingdom of God came into the world with the birth of Jesus, but the fulfillment of that kingdom will only come when the love of Christ reigns over all the earth. So, Advent is a two-fold celebration, a celebration of the birth of the prince of peace, and a celebration of the coming age when the peace, joy and love of Christ will dwell in every heart. Today our emphasis is on the light of Christmas.
In today’s lesson Isaiah writes, “He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD.”
Isaiah spoke of a world of peace and light. Next week we will deal with peace. Today, we want to talk about light.
Nearly eight hundred years after the time of Isaiah, the Apostle Paul would write, “The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
If there is one theme that is appropriate for this season of the year it is light. Some of you have already gotten out the lights for your Christmas tree. Some of you will perhaps light up the entire inside and outside of your house. A few people go hog-wild as they say in the South when it comes to Christmas lights. They will strain every utility plant for miles around with their addiction to brightening up their homes. That’s all right, as long as we understand what Isaiah meant when he said, “Let us walk in the light of the LORD.” And what Paul meant when he wrote: “The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
Come back with me to the night of May 5, 1942. Europe is mired in the brutal violence of World War II. The Nazis are slaughtering millions of Jews throughout Europe. On the night of May 5, 1942, a small band of Ukrainian Jews from the town of Korolówka decided to hide out from the Nazis in an underground cave. Thirty-eight people, ranging in age from a toddler to a seventy-five year-old woman, created a home underground. They had no advanced equipment, only some lanterns, cooking pots, firewood, and food. For 344 days, almost one full year, none of these cave-dwellers saw the light of day. Some of the men would emerge from the cave at night to search for food or firewood, but no one came out during the daylight hours. Finally, on April 12, 1943, after receiving news that the Germans had retreated, the cave dwellers emerged from underground to see the sun for the first time in almost a year. (2)
How eagerly those cave dwellers awaited being able to leave the darkness and walk in the light. When Isaiah writes in chapter nine, verse two: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned,” he is describing that kind of anticipation about seeing the light which the Messiah will bring.
One writer has said that, if you want to really appreciate the contrast between darkness and light today, all you have to do is view nighttime satellite images of North and South Korea. South Korea is bathed in light, with its cities gleaming in the blackness, while North Korea, still primitive in so many ways, is dark.
But it’s more than just the lack of visible light that makes North Korea a place of darkness. The North Korean government is one of the most repressive governments on earth. Radio and television sets are hardwired to receive only government propaganda. In 2004, the government banned cell phones. North Koreans still have no access to the Internet a source of information readily available in almost every other country.
There is another significant contrast, however, between the two: the North is officially atheist the last remaining “Stalinist” communist society. The South, on the other hand, has known Christian influence for more than a century. (3) In fact, one of the largest Christian churches in the world is in South Korea.
Darkness is a very potent symbol of sin and estrangement. Author Bruce Larson tells of driving on a highway near Scranton, Pennsylvania years ago in the middle of the night. As he was driving along, he took the wrapper off some candy. Finding the ashtrays in the car full, he absentmindedly opened the car window and threw the wrapper out onto the ground. Suddenly he realized what he had done. He also realized that he would never have done this in the daylight. Somehow, the very darkness encouraged him to litter, a thing he deplores. There is something about light that reminds us of our responsibility to other people and helps us to do the responsible thing.
“People who do not live in fellowship with others,” writes Larson, “live in perpetual darkness and continually do things of which they are ashamed. But people who live in a fellowship where they know and are known live in the light and are encouraged to be and to do those things of which they can be proud.” (4)
Just as darkness symbolizes sin and estrangement, light represents grace and love.
In 1973, Margaret Craven wrote a book titled I Heard the Owl Call My Name. It is a book where the central character, Mark Brian, is a young priest who has only three years to live. His doctor and his bishop have not told him of his prognosis. The bishop sends Mark to a remote Native-American village called Kingcome. He believes that in this small community Mark will be able to find enough of the meaning of life, so that when the time comes he will be ready to die.
It is his first Christmas Eve in the village. Mark is in the church. Everything is ready. He is alone, waiting in the hushed silence with the candlelight shining on the statue that stands in the front of the church, a statue of Christ holding a little lamb. The young priest walks slowly down the center aisle. Not wanting to open the door until the very last minute for fear of losing the precious heat, he walks to the window at the left of the door and looks outside.
The snow lays thick on the ground. He sees the lights of the houses go out, one by one, and the lanterns begin to flicker as the members of the local tribe come slowly, single file, along the path to the church. How many times had the people of his parish traveled this path, he wonders. He goes to the door and opens it, and then steps out into the soft white night, the snow whispering now under the footfalls.
For the first time he feels he knows the people making their way to his church and he feels a deep sense of commitment to them. When the first of the tribe reaches the steps, he holds out his hand to greet each of them by name. (5)
In this story Margaret Craven captures the meaning of this season of the year. The darkness of winter and the faithful villagers lighting their lanterns and walking to the little church where light will flood every heart and they will be united in the love of the Bethlehem babe is a picture of Advent. Darkness is a potent symbol of sin and estrangement. Light is an even more potent symbol of grace and love.
Walking in the light means walking in fellowship with God and one another. That’s what we need to see. Walking in the light is a summons to community and peace. We live in a contentious and conflict-filled world. Sometimes even some of our most treasured traditions are sources of conflict.
I was amused to read that in Fort Collins, CO, sometime back a civic task force recommended that red and green lights be banned from the city’s holiday display. Why? It was deemed that red and green lights are too religious, so they should not be part of a civic celebration. Later cooler heads on the City Council prevailed and the lights were allowed to remain.
I doubt that most of us would think of Christmas lights as being too religious. Especially when we see them adorning the homes of people who verge on being outright pagans. But it reminds us of how potent a symbol light can be. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it,” writes John in the prologue to his Gospel. And it’s true. Light is more powerful than dark. Love is more powerful than hate. Faith is more powerful than fear.
The month of December is one of the darkest months of the year. When we put up our Christmas lights we are affirming that the darkness shall never overcome the light. We are affirming those positive values of peace and justice and love and hope. Most of all we are affirming the presence of God in our world.
As people of the light, our job is to make sure the light of Christ shines ever more brightly in this world of darkness. How do we do that? By continually walking in the light ourselves. By living a life of integrity and love.
There is a story that has been circulating on the web about a church Christmas pageant. The day of the presentation finally arrived. A young girl named Jana was so excited about her part that her parents thought she was to be one of the main characters, though she had not told them what she was to do.
The parents of the children in the pageant were all there and one by one the children took their places. Jana’s parents could see the shepherds fidgeting in one corner of the stage which was evidently intended to be a field. Mary and Joseph stood solemnly behind the manger. In the back three young wise men waited impatiently. But still little Jana sat quietly and confidently.
Then the teacher began: “A long time ago, Mary and Joseph had a baby and they named Him Jesus,” she said. “And when Jesus was born, a bright star appeared over the stable.”
At that cue, Jana got up from her chair, picked up a large tin-foil star, walked behind Mary and Joseph and held the star up high for everyone to see.
When the teacher told about the shepherds coming to see the baby, the three young shepherds came forward and Jana jiggled the star up and down excitedly to show them where to come. When the wise men responded to their cue, she went forward a little to meet them and to lead the way, her face as alight as the real star might have been.
The playlet ended. They had refreshments. On the way home Jana said, with great satisfaction, “I had the main part!”
“You did?” her Mom asked, wondering why she thought that.
“Yes,” she said, “’cause I showed everybody how to find Jesus!”
And ultimately that is what it means to walk in the light. It is to show the world how to find Jesus. It is to so live that people see in us year round the love of the Bethlehem babe. That is our part and it is the main part to show the world how to find Jesus.
1. The Timothy Report, http://www.timothyreport.com.
2. “The Cave Dwellers” by Peter Lane Taylor from “National Geographic Adventure,” published in Reader’s Digest, January 2005, pp. 134-141.
3. Charles R. Boatman, editor, The NIV Standard Lesson Commentary, 2009-2010 (Cincinnati, OH : Standard Publishing, 2009), pg. 379.
4. Ask Me To Dance (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1972), pg. 52.
5. Cited at Drema’s Sermon, http://www.fairlingtonumc.org/sermons_2002/sermon12242002.htm.
6. Author unknown. Cited in Sermon Fodder, Sermon_Fodder?subscribe@yahoogroups.com.