Sermon delivered on Christmas Eve 2020 at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH.

If you prefer to listen to the audio podcast of tonight’s sermon, usually somewhat different from the text below, click here.

Lectionary texts: Isaiah 52.7-10; The Song of God’s Chosen One (from Isaiah 11); Hebrews 1.1-12; John 1.1-14.

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Merry Christmas, St. Augustine’s! During this past Advent season we have encouraged you to look into the darkness of this world and our lives with faith in the goodness of God’s justice and power to act on our behalf. Continuing this theme in our gospel lesson tonight, St. John writes that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. But what does that mean for us as Christians living in 2020? This is what I want us to look at this evening.

To say that 2020 has been an awful year is understatement. Each of us comes here tonight with our muted fears, surrounded by a potentially deadly disease that shows no sign of letting up. Those of us who are here are wearing masks and we must distance from each other when in fact most of us long to embrace the other and be embraced. But we can’t do that for obvious reasons. Many of our parish family have stayed away tonight, concerned about their health and/or worried about spreading COVID, just like those of us are who are here. Many if not most of us will forgo our big family Christmas celebrations because of COVID along with many of our long-cherished Christmas traditions because we fear being infected or infecting those we love. Then there’s the larger societal issues that I don’t have the time here to address. During these long, dark days of winter we need most the human touch because we are programed for relationships. But because of this cursed and wicked virus, many of us will be denied that touch along with the fellowship that accompanies it. 

To make matters worse, some of our parish family have suffered the death of family members and friends recently. Others of us have actually been sickened by COVID, although thankfully not to the point where they needed hospitalization. What should be “that most wonderful time of the year” has turned into a living and sustained nightmare where we find ourselves alone, isolated, fearful, angry, depressed, and anxious, tempted to wonder (or wondering) where God is in it all. Put simply, we long with all our being for something better and for our cherished holidays like Christmas to return to “normal.” I suspect that is why so many of us love watching feel-good Christmas movies with all of their sentimental charm. There everything turns out just right. Old relationships are mended and/or new, meaningful ones are forged. Hope is kindled or reborn; everything turns out to be merry and bright, with family and friends gathered together, replete with splendid Christmas trees and dazzling holiday lights ablaze. Who among us doesn’t long for those kind of endings, especially living in the midst of this awful pandemic with its seemingly never-ending stream of bad news and myriad tragedies? In biblical language, we are being afflicted by a darkness that is produced by human sin and other forms of evil that result from living in a world that struggles under God’s just curse. Is it any wonder that we want our Christmases to be merry and bright with all our loved ones gathered around us and all our Christmas decorations blazing bright? But that’s not what most of us are getting this year. This year we are getting the darkness of pandemic and living in fear that we know all too well.

That is why we need to gather as God’s people in Christ and hear God’s word proclaimed and preached, even when lousy preachers like me are preaching. Just when the darkness threatens to overwhelm us and undo us completely, just when our muted fears are most intense and we are on the brink of despair (or have fallen over), we hear these words from St. John in our gospel lesson tonight: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (Jn 1.5). In other words, God’s light, the light of Christ born to us this very night, shines in our lives and on our sins and fears and broken dreams and shattered relationships to heal us and make God’s love and mercy and forgiveness known to us in real and tangible ways. It is the only light that can make a real difference. In proclaiming that God’s light in Christ shines in the darkness of our lives and God’s good but corrupted world, St. John is proclaiming to us the Good News that human beings—you and I in all our unloveliness—matter to God and that God intends, has always intended, even as he cursed his world in response to human sin and rebellion, to heal and restore us to himself. Tonight we celebrate the beginning of that Good News, the only news that has the power to heal our darkened and broken hearts and minds.

Human sin and the evil it has produced have always been the problem. It alienates us from God and each other and causes us to die because we are separated from our only Source of life. So to deal with human sin, God had to become human so that he could take the collective weight of our sin and the evil it produces on himself to judge and condemn our sin in the flesh and spare us from his good but terrible judgment on all the corrupts and despoils us and God’s world. God did this through the cross of Christ so that we no longer have to fear being God’s enemies or being alienated from God, either in this life or in the age to come. As St. Paul boldly pronounced in Romans 8.1, there is now no condemnation for those who have a living relationship with Christ because of what God has done for us in Christ crucified and raised from the dead. How all this works we are not told, and I suspect that is for our own good because I doubt any of us would be able to fully comprehend the power of God the Father at work in his crucified Son. Christmas is a time, therefore, to rejoice that humans matter to God and to be thankful that God has acted decisively on our behalf by becoming human so that he could die for us. As the old Christmas carol proclaims, “I wonder as I wander out under the sky,/ How Jesus, the Savior, did come for to die./ For poor, ornery people like you and like I/ I wonder as I wander/ Out under the sky.” This is what St. John means when he tells us the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not (and cannot) overcome the light. Nothing is more powerful than God the Father whose love is made known to us in a very personal way in Jesus Christ. 

This of course is why Christmas will come this year as it does every year, even in the midst of this cursed pandemic and our muted fears and forced isolation, and this is the way it has always been. Our sentimental expectation that our Christmases will be all merry and bright is a sign of how richly God has blessed us because merry and bright is not the way of the world. If Christmas waited for all to be right with the world to shine Christ’s light on it and us, it would never have come at all. But Christmas came precisely to shine Christ’s light in the darkness. Think about it. Christmas shined its light on Joseph’s unfounded but reasonable suspicion and fear that Mary was an adulterer (Mt 1.18-20). It shined its light on King Herod’s wickedness even as he ordered the slaughter of the innocents in a futile attempt to kill the announced King of the Jews, God’s Messiah or Christ. It came even as Joseph and Mary and the Christ Child fled for their lives to the safety of Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath (Mt 2). And it shines on our Christmases darkened by the threat of COVID or by serious illness. Christ’s light shines on our grief over the death of a loved one as we mourn the fact that our Christmas celebrations will never be the same in this mortal life. Death is the ultimate dehumanizer and darkness, cruelly separating us from our beloved. But the light of Christ reminds us even in our grief that our loved ones who have died in Christ are not lost forever nor is our separation from them permanent, but only for a season. We know this because we know that in Christ Death itself is destroyed and will one day be abolished forever as God has promised. How do we know this? Well, because God has promised it, and because Christ is raised from the dead, confirming that when God dealt with our sin on the cross, God dealt with the ultimate evil of Death as well because the wages of sin is death (Rm 6.23). Destroy the power of Sin over us as Christ did on the cross and its wages are also destroyed, God be praised. The light of Christ shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. 

 But there’s more. Massively important as having our sins forgiven and our relationship with God the Father restored, God has saved us for a greater purpose. God has forgiven, healed, and restored us to himself so that we can once again take our rightful place as God’s image-bearing stewards who will run God’s renewed and healed world: the new heavens and earth. As our Canticle tonight from Isaiah 11 proclaims, God has promised to remove his curse and heal and restore his creation along with us so that there will be no more hostility or alienation or sorrow or sadness or death. In poetic language the prophet proclaims this wondrous announcement to us: the wolf will dwell with the lamb and a little child will lead them into this new reality. They shall not hurt or destroy in all [God’s] holy mountain for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is 11.6, 9). In other words, God himself promises to dwell with us directly in ways we have never experienced, ways that heal us and make us whole so that we know and enjoy him in new and intimate ways, equipped to be the fully human beings God created us to be. After all, where God is there can be no evil! No wonder the prophet tells us elsewhere for the anxious not to fear because God himself is coming to judge his world and its peoples. Why should we not fear? Because in judging his world, God will destroy all the enemies of his people, enemies that sicken and corrupt and alienate and darken our lives and this world so that all sickness and brokenness and darkness will be healed and dispelled forever. The lame will walk, all of creation will be renewed and healed and made ready for human stewardship over it on God’s behalf. God is coming in judgment, proclaims Isaiah with all boldness. Coming with judgment to save you (Is 35). Not to condemn you but to save you. No wonder all of creation will rejoice (cf. Rm 8.18-25)! My beloved, listen to this glad proclamation and take hope and heart in the midst of the darkness that swirls around us. You are being reminded what God’s heart and love for you really look like. It is the light shining in the darkness and not even the gates of hell or death or COVID can overcome it.

So what are we to do in light of this reality (no pun intended)? Let me suggest the following to jumpstart your thinking this Christmastide and beyond. First, we need to remember who God is and be reminded of God’s love for us made known in Christ. When the darkness of your fear and anxiety and separation from others threaten to overwhelm you, go to Scripture to be reminded that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Read St. John’s magnificent prologue that we read tonight. Read psalms like Psalm 103, 25, and 91 to be reminded of God’s love for you and his protection and mercy on us even with our sin-stained lives and hearts. Read passages like Isaiah 9, 11, 35, and 43 to be reminded of God’s promise to heal and restore. Be reminded of the promise of new creation contained in Revelation 21-22. Don’t try to do this on your own. Most of us won’t do it because we’re losers and ragamuffins. Get together with some of your parish family members, even if by phone, and read these passages and talk about them together so that you are reminded that the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Take time to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by remembering God’s love for made known in Christ and revealed in Scripture, in your baptism, in the holy eucharist, and the lives of his people. 

Being so reminded and refreshed, resolve to do your best to shine the light of Christ’s love and hope on others. Let your light be a beacon of hope to others and then tell them why you have that hope. The angels could not keep the Good News of Christ’s birth a secret as we shall be reminded in our dismissal gospel tonight so why should we? You have the Spirit and power of Christ in you, rely on him and proclaim him by your words and deeds. To be sure, we’ll all become afraid from time to time. We’ll all get discouraged. But we have Christ and we have each other. We have the word of God and we have Christ present with us in the Eucharist. Don’t ignore or neglect these precious gifts offered by God to sustain you in this mortal life. We can best avoid despairing over the darkness by worshiping together each Sunday, even if it be in exile from Zoom. These means of grace allow God’s light to shine in the darkness of our lives and this dark old world. We have God’s promise to be with us in Immanuel. That promise is God’s great light. Let it shine on you and those around you in the days, weeks, and years ahead by availing yourself of God’s gifts of light to you.

This is why we celebrate Christmas. God became human to die for us as our epistle and gospel lessons proclaim. This is the light of Christ shining in our darkness, healing us and promising us to make all things new and right in all its ambiguity and mystery and the messiness of our human condition in this mortal life and fully in the age to come. It is the only light that can truly heal and satisfy. Nothing else can; not our bright lights or money or power or toys. Only the light of Christ can truly save us from the darkness of this world and give us real purpose for living. Let us therefore resolve to rejoice tonight in the midst of our darkness, thanking God our Father for the great gift of himself to us so that we can be his forever. It is a precious and immeasurably valuable gift from our loving Creator and Father. To him be honor, praise, and glory forever and ever. May the light of Christ always shine brightly in our darkness. Merry Christmas, my beloved. 

In the name of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.