We see Christmas lights everywhere this time of year and tonight, here we are, bathed in the soft glow of candlelight. We sing about light in carols: “light and life to all he brings”, “but in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light”, “Silent night, Holy night, Son of God, love's pure light”. So what is this Light which we celebrate at Christmas? Where do we look for true Christmas Light?
Perhaps we should look at some of this year’s TV ads which seem to want to share some kind of “spirit of Christmas”. The John Lewis ad, (Man in the Moon) has a theme of reaching out to the isolated, symbolized by a girl sending presents to an elderly man on the moon. Then there’s the Sainsbury’s ad featuring Mog the cat who saves the day when the house catches fire, but the punchline is that all the neighbours share their Christmas things with Mog’s family.
And then there’s the new Star Wars film The Force Awakens, where some themes seem to fit the season. No spoilers, I promise! The film’s title The Force Awakens appeals to the idea of a moral rising up, the goodies standing up for justice against oppressors. The whole series of Star Wars films includes themes of hope, good versus evil, oppressed peoples waiting for their salvation, and on the personal level, themes of power, temptation, self-sacrifice and redemption. The light sabres shine in the darkness…?
In many ways, then, we live in a culture which still seems to want to embrace some elements of what we think of as the spirit of Christmas. But even these positive themes are not the heart of Christmas, they are not the light shining in the darkness which John’s Gospel speaks of. At Christmas, we may see glimpses of light in the darkness in these cultural nods but, to paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi’s line in a previous Star Wars film, “These aren’t the lights you’re looking for. You can go about your business…”
They are not the real deal.
Perhaps we can see the Light more clearly in a traditional nativity play acted out by small children? Even here though, we can still end up selling Christmas short, lovely and heartwarming as nativity plays invariably are. And that’s the problem. If our vision of Christ’s birth is merely “lovely and heartwarming”, if it’s the cosy, sanitized picture painted by sentimental Victorian carols like Away in a Manger, we have got it very wrong. “But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes”? Seriously? Doesn’t sound like a real baby to me… and make no mistake, Jesus was a real, human baby. An airbrushed, idealized baby who doesn’t cry, in a soft-lit, beautifully clean stable scene with docile animals, beautifully lit by starlight is pretty much the opposite of the events of Christmas we read about in the Bible. It was dirty. It was messy, smelly, noisy. It took place under an oppressive regime in an unimportant part of a huge empire. It took place at the end of a pregnancy which would have shamed both Mary and Joseph’s families. God met us in a mess. Jesus arrived in squalor and was laid in an animal’s food trough because things were so bad that there simply was no other option, and before Jesus was much older, his family had to become refugees in Egypt, as they fled for their lives.
The light shines in the darkness…
But again, this light is about more than the mere survival of a baby against the odds. Jesus, the Light of the World didn’t remain a baby. He grew into a man and lived a perfect life which exemplified God’s love, showing us that it is possible to love God and love each other. But this life of self-giving love had a price: it challenged the powerful and made those who thought they had the monopoly on morality uncomfortable. And it led to an unfair trial, torture and a shameful death for Jesus on a cross.
The world still has darkness. The world still needs light. So yes, this Christmas let us reach out to the isolated as John Lewis suggest. Let us share our plenty with those in need as suggested by Sainsbury’s. As in The Force Awakens, let us reawaken our efforts to bring about justice in our world (not just in a galaxy far, far away). All good stuff, really good stuff which I am not knocking. But remember that these are symptoms of Christmas Light, reflections, not the light itself.
God’s Light is not remote. God came to us – and still comes to us today - in Jesus. The darkness of this world meant that Jesus’s life of love, light and peace led to his death on the cross. And then, three days later, the true nature of the Light which Shines in the Darkness was revealed: Jesus rose from the dead. The Eternal Light of God came to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ on Christmas day, but this crucial moment in history wasn’t immediately obvious to the world. The power of that light was only fully revealed at Easter when that same Jesus Christ was raised from the dead into a wonderful new expression of life – resurrection life. And Jesus is alive and among us still today by the power of the Holy Spirit, and is alive in his Church. Christmas light is Easter light: the light of eternal life in God.
So know this: whatever life throws at you, however dark things seem, or however light and comfortable life may be, God’s light is worth inviting into your life. Welcome the light of Jesus into your lives, not only this Christmas, but forever more. Don’t make do with just the reflections, go for the real deal: the transforming light which comes through Jesus. “In him was life and that life was the light of men”. Ask God for something truly transforming this Christmas. Open your hearts and pray that you will receive Jesus: the light which shines in the darkness and which the darkness cannot – and has not - overcome. Amen.
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