Episodes
Tuesday Dec 22, 2015
Through the Darkness
Tuesday Dec 22, 2015
Tuesday Dec 22, 2015
A homily preached by T.C. Morrow at Foundry UMC December 22nd, 2015, for the evening Longest Night service.
Text: John 1:1-14Let us Pray:
God of all our days, may your Spirit continue to surround us and open us to your comfort, grace and love. Amen.
On Sunday morning I was overwhelmed with emotion as Pastor Dawn shared that Hugh Blackman had passed away last week, on his and Josiane’s 50th wedding anniversary. Hugh and Josiane are some of the first people I remember meeting when I started attending Foundry, more than a decade ago. Even as dementia progressed, Hugh always had a kind word of greeting.
We could go around and share about all the loved ones – family and friends – who are on our minds this evening. Stories that are etched deep on our hearts or thoughts of what might have been. We could share good memories, or the pain and grief that some of us find ourselves in this evening and during this season. Whatever feelings you bring this evening, know that there are no right or wrong things to be feeling or thinking. And regardless of what pressures you might be under from outside, it is important to take time to tend to yourself.
In our culture of over-hyped expectations for Christmas time that relate very little to Christian hope in the Advent season and the celebration of our Savior’s birth, we gather on this evening that is just a little shorter than last night and a day that is just a little longer.
And we gather so close to when we mark God coming among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Emmanuel – God with us. 2,000 years ago there was not the benefit of being able to check a baby’s birth date by going back and looking at a Facebook post from a proud parent. So we celebrate Jesus’ birth in a few days, not sure when it really took place. It is probably no accident that we celebrate Jesus’ birth in connection with the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. The Light of the World enters just as days are getting longer. This is a statement of faith, not necessarily factual accuracy. The Gospels of Luke and Matthew start with birth narratives of Jesus and grand statements of genealogical connections, but John starts on a cosmic scale.
The
Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God
present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in
readiness for God from day one.
Everything
was created through him;
nothing—not
one thing!—
came
into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and
the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the
darkness couldn’t put it out.
These words start John’s Gospel – here from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible, The Message.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
In this season of Advent we do well to remember that this poetic opening of the Gospel is penned from the other side of Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection. It is written out of a community trying to make sense of Jesus’ life and their life together as Jesus’ followers. This is the same general basis as in the other Gospels, but scholars think the community of the fourth Gospel is one who has been expelled from the faith community it had been part of previously, due to being followers of Jesus. People who had experienced loss and change, as the community they grew up in and lived in said that with their beliefs and practices they were no longer welcome.
Some of us may know this type of loss all too well – or we certainly have friends, especially LGBTQ friends, who have experienced it. We are mindful this season of those who experience distance from those whom they were once very close. And with the community of John’s gospel, we give thanks for people with whom we are able to be in life giving community.
The community of the fourth Gospel needed to make sense of their place in God’s story. Out of this we get a beautiful vision of the cosmic Christ, there from the very beginning, blazing Life-Light into all the places that would cause destruction and harm.
In the midst of grief and sadness, it can be hard to know that Life-Light. But this is why in our tradition we do not live out the faith individually but rather in community. When you are in your longest night, I can testify to the Light. And when I am in my longest night, someone else can be Christ in the world for me. On Sunday, Pastor Ginger encouraged us to be the Light at the End of the Tunnel for others. If you are at a point in your life when you need to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I likewise encourage you to let someone else be that blazing Life-Light for you.
Amen.
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