Christmas Eve 2014

Christmas Eve 2014 There is another gospel that can be read for Christmas eve, but I’ve never been brave enough to supplant the beloved story from Luke (fearing to create the St. Peter’s Christmas eve riot). And yet, this other gospel reading is the one that speaks to my heart this Christmas, so with you having already heard the treasured favorite, let me share with you the alternative: John 1:1-14 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. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. I am struck by the images of the light and the dark that this gospel gives us, a reality that is actually much more present and a part of our experience than the bucolic scene of a stable-born baby and shepherds in the fields visited by blinding celestial beings. While the traditional Christmas story from Luke touches us because of its familiarity, its connection with innocence, the Christmas story from John is a mysterious kind of challenge. We know this light and dark of which John speaks. We see it in others and in ourselves. Jesus came as the light that shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness is still around. It even sometimes seems to triumph, to squash out the light. That’s why we so desperately need Christmas. Not for the presents or the parties or the food or the family or the carols. We need Christmas because it is a reminder that no matter how it seems, the light continues to shine in the darkness and the darkness does not, cannot, will not overcome it. Christmas also comes around every year with a mysterious invitation, to “make of ourselves the light.” The Quaker writer Parker Palmer writes about this in a blog post where he shares a poem written by the poet Mary Oliver. Palmer challenges us to “be the light for another.” Let me share with you Mary Oliver’s poem, “The Buddha’s Last Instruction” and Palmer’s reflection on it. The Buddha's Last Instruction by Mary Oliver "Make of yourself a light" said the Buddha, before he died. I think of this every morning as the east begins to tear off its many clouds of darkness, to send up the first signal—a white fan streaked with pink and violet, even green. An old man, he lay down between two sala trees, and he might have said anything, knowing it was his final hour. The light burns upward, it thickens and settles over the fields. Around him, the villagers gathered and stretched forward to listen. Even before the sun itself hangs, disattached, in the blue air, I am touched everywhere by its ocean of yellow waves. No doubt he thought of everything that had happened in his difficult life. And then I feel the sun itself as it blazes over the hills, like a million flowers on fire— clearly I'm not needed, yet I feel myself turning into something of inexplicable value. Slowly, beneath the branches, he raised his head. He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd. Parker Palmer reflects, “We are the frightened crowd the Buddha looked into as he drew his last breath. We are the people who need to be light for one another. There are many kinds of light. There's the light that allows people lost in the dark to find their way home. There's the light of compassion that comforts everything it touches. There's the light of truth-telling about ourselves that allows us to see what we are doing — or allowing — that has helped bring this darkness upon us. There's the light that shows us the way forward toward a better world. There's the light of courage to walk that path no matter who says "Stop!" No one of us can provide all of the light we need. But every one of us can shed some kind of light. Every day we can ask ourselves, "What kind of light can I provide today?"i As we celebrate Christmas this night and beyond, giving thanks for Jesus Christ, the one true light that shines in the darkness, which the darkness cannot overcome, may we all have the awareness to try to reflect just a little of that light for someone else, and may we ask ourselves, each and every day, “What kind of light can I provide today?” i. http://www.onbeing.org/blog/the-light-for-another/7141