Darkness Cannot Extinguish the Light.

Sermon for First Sunday of Christmas

December 29, 2018

Isaiah 61:10-62:3

Psalm 147 or 147:13-21

Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7

John 1:1-18

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. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.

Last week we heard Luke’s version of the Nativity.  With Mary in the manger, the Angels announcing his birth and the shepherds coming to the witness this thing that God has done.  The birth of God as a baby.  Luke, being a good first century historian, makes sure that we know when the event happened.  Luke tells us that it happened during the reign of the Emperor Augustus while Quirinius was governor of Syria.  Luke pinpoints the time when the heavens opened and Jesus came to set us free.

This week we have John’s version of the birth story.  It is a very different story.  John tells us that this baby Jesus was not created on that first Christmas in the manger.  John starts his birth narrative “In the beginning…”  It sounds familiar doesn’t it”  The creation Story of Creation in Genesis starts that way “in the beginning…”  John tells us that Jesus existed from the very moment of creation.  Jesus was and is the Word that was used by God to create the universe.  The creative power of God’s word that brought all things into being at the beginning of time also brought Jesus into being.  That Jesus is the light of the world that keeps the darkness at bay.

John lets us know from the very beginning of his Gospel who this Jesus is.  Jesus is of and is God.  No question in John’s Gospel.  The rest of John’s Gospel goes on to chronicle how God came to earth to show his people how to dispel the darkness.  In some ways John’s Gospel is too cerebral.  We much prefer the birth of a baby in a manger because we can relate to it.  We have a little more difficulty relating to the amorphous being “The Word” that sparked creation. 

This little bit of the Gospel of John is so rich in symbolism and theology that it could occupy a whole series of sermons.  This time however the one part that really grabbed me this week is “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” Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness and that darkness cannot extinguish the light.

Now more than ever we need to hear that promise.  When we hear of immigrant children dying in custody of immigration detention facilities.  When we hear of the killing of a police officer in a small community – a police officer who in many ways symbolized the dream of America – that an immigrant could become a citizen and want to give back by being a police officer.  When we hear about the disfunction in our nation’s capital with part of the government being shut-down and where no one seems to be negotiating with each other.  We here threats to completely shut down our Southern border unless the congress gives the president what he wants.  Instead of negotiations we hear soundbites from both sides that are not negotiating strategies but strategies to engage their base.  Strategies that are more likely to create discord than to create light.  When we hear about all these things, and more, it may seem like the darkness is winning.  It seems like the light, the goodness, is being extinguished.

The world in which Jesus was born was not much different for the people of Israel.  They had been conquered by the Roman empire.  They had an Emperor who wanted the “Pax Romana” the Peace of Rome and was willing to do anything to keep that peace – including the killing of anyone who disagreed with the occupation forces.  The people in the occupation area are paying exorbitant taxes to keep the emperor rich and well fed.  When Jesus was born in that stable it seemed that the darkness was winning.  It was into that darkness that the light of God was born – this time not as an amorphous power of creation but as a baby.  A baby that will show us how to keep the darkness at bay.

God came to earth in human form to show us that we too have the power to keep the dark from winning.  As I am fond of pointing out when God came to show us how to fend off the darkness it was not with the avenging angel army to smite down the evil.  God came as a vulnerable baby.  God came as the Love that God has for all for creation.  God came not to smite the darkness with bolts of lightning but to scatter it with the light of love.

John tells us that 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.”  Jesus came to show us that we too are born to the light.  That we are called in our time to be the light that will cast out the darkness.  We are called to continue God’s dream that this creation will be Good.  It sounds so easy but it can be daunting too. 

It can be daunting to continually have to turn up the light to drive away darkness.  It is much easier to let the light go out and let darkness win.  Science tells us that light is energy.  It is not a passive force but an energy force.  We are called to be that energy force that advocates for Love.  We are called to extinguish the darkness not with the kind of force that an army makes but by showing that Love will win in the end.

One of the good things that seems to happen during the Christmas season is that we hear more about the Love that happens in our community.  In addition to the stories of death, corruption and political impasse we also hear stories of Love.  This week one of the stories was of a social worker who seemed to have few resources – so few that he resorted to fixing his shoes with the universal male repair tool – duct tape.  It turns out that he had quite a few resources.  He left $11 million to children’s charities.  We hear stories of the generosity that people have in their hearts for those without resources.  Toy drives and food drives make the news. 

And I say we hear about them more this time of year because I know that they happen all the time by people who have the light in their hearts.  We see it in the generosity of people this year to River City Food Bank.  In a recent e-mail from Eileen Thomas, the Executive Director of River City Food Bank, she announced that in 2018 the food bank increased the number of people that it served by over 40%.  That is an amazing number – and a number that is probably in large part due to their expansion onto this campus and the crazy generosity that allowed them to build that mega walk in refrigerator and freezer on this campus.  A generosity of love that happens 365 days a year not just at Christmas time.

I see the light that refuses to let darkness overpower it on Wednesdays at St. Pauls’ downtown.  The gracious and over-brimming love named Phyllis, that started feeding people after services showed a light that death will not extinguish.  Phyllis was a very proper English women who was so full of love that in her nineties started making good nutritional lunches for those who gather at St. Paul’s on Wednesdays and Fridays.  When Phyllis recently became unable, due to her final illness, to make sure that food was there on Wednesday’s one of our homeless members stepped in and made soup.  Phyllis left this mortal plain on Christmas day and that light that she lit at St. Paul’s was not extinguished.  Now multiple people – and some of the most surprising people who have little themselves – multiple people are stepping up to make sure that hot lunches are still served after the services on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

That is the promise of our Gospel reading today.  That Jesus may have been on this Earth in human form for a mere 30 years or so but that light that is Jesus was here before that time and is here now.  That light that pushes away the darkness is in each of us.  It is that light – the light that was at the very beginning of creation that burns in our hearts.  A light that will drive us to help overcome the darkness that seems to be pushing upon us.  A light that will shine a light of love on God’s creation.  A love that in the end will win.  A love that will be so bright that the darkness will be extinguished.  And we are called – each and every one of us – to be part of that light. 

I invite you, as we enter a new calendar year to look for the light.  When the darkness seems to overpower the light not to despair but to look and see the light shining there too.  A light that we can be part of to drive away the darkness.  And the good news is that we don’t have to be alone.  God sent Jesus to remind us that the creative force that is God is always with us and will always be there to help us shine bright.  To help us spread the light of love in a world that seems so full of darkness.  A light that will win.  A love that loves creation so much that it came down on Christmas day to show us how to be that love in our world. 

Amen.

Follow the Light!

Sermon for Lent 4B – 2018

March 11, 2018

Numbers 21:4-9

Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22

Ephesians 2:1-10

John 3:14-21

Jesus said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

The Gospel lesson today includes what some say is the most popular verse in the Bible.  John 3:19 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” According to popular culture I should be able to hoist a poster board with the reference to this verse high above my head and sit down.  End of sermon. 

But I am not letting myself, or you all, off that easily!  I have to admit that I find it a bit amusing that one of the places that you see people with signs that say John 3:19 is at sporting events.  Events where the rivalry between fans for “their teams” appears to display anything but love towards the rival team. 

I admit that I too love the verse and believe with my whole being that God loves this world and us so much that God is willing to pursue us all the way to hell to offer us that love.  Unfortunately, we seem to also use this verse as a clobber verse – a verse used to hurt rather than to heal.  We use this verse as a gateway verse that only those who publicly profess that they love Christ are worthy of God’s love.  If we don’t publicly espouse Christ as our personal Savior then we by corollary are going to that fiery place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. However, there is more to this excerpt from the Gospel of John than the, dare I say it, trite saying of a single verse taken out of context.

Jesus continues after John 3:19 with the part that should give us pause.  After promising that God sent Jesus not to condemn the world but to save it we have a warning.  The warning is that some people prefer darkness over light.  Some people prefer judgment over forgiveness.  Some people prefer evil and hate over goodness and love.  If we look a little closely at ourselves, we may find that we recognize the saying of a popular cartoon character from the era of the Vietnam war – Pogo who said “We have met the enemy and he is us.”  It seems that there is something about human nature that leads us to dwell on the darkness to the point that we refuse to see the light.

All we have to do is read the local news.  Turn on the TV or look at social media like twitter or facebook to see the baseness of our society.  We can read quotes from people who would happily hoist a John 3:19 sign at a sporting event take to twitter to demonize the young survivors of the Parkland Massacre in Florida who are advocating for Gun control.  I read an article in the Sacramento Bee just yesterday about how the young survivors are taking to social media – particularly twitter – to continue to advocate for controls that would hopefully reduce the occurrence of school shootings.  In the article it mentioned that in response to these young adult’s advocacy they are the subject to various twitter attacks that have included death threats.  The article mentions that the twitter overseers are monitoring the feeds and blocking particularly violent attacks directed towards these young people.

How is attacking survivors of a horrible mass shooting spreading the love of God?  It is not.  Instead it is following the warning in the Gospel that we are attracted to the darkness. Some in response to an evil attack are responding with darkness instead of with light.  How do we respond when we read such stories?  Do we respond with light or do we too descend into darkness?  I admit that my initial response is to demonize those who demonize these young adults.  Which again heads me down the path of darkness instead of light.

One of the most popular movie franchises of all times took this concept and ran with it.  Can you guess which movie series?  Star Wars of course.  With its battle between the light – the goodness in us all, and the dark.  The evil Darth Vader who followed the power of darkness versus his son Luke who is struggling to follow the light – the goodness of creation.  Darth Vader represents a power that threatens to destroy the world.  It is probably no secret that we are attracted to this battle of darkness against light – of evil trying to overtake the good.  We are attracted because deep down it is a battle most of us wage on a regular basis.  The dark side can be attractive.  We can almost hear the breathy voice of Dark Vader calling us to embrace the power in the hate.  “Rik – let go of the light.  Come to the dark side and enjoy the power that you will receive.”

Jesus calls us again and again to let go of the power of hate.  To let go of judgement.  God did not send Jesus to judge and to condemn but to spread light and show us a different economy.  One that instead of judging people who act darkly looks to find the spark of light in their souls and breath air on it so that the light will ignite and consume their souls.  A light that is powerful enough to shine into the dark corners where hate and prejudice like to lurk waiting for their moment to jump out and take over our better instincts.

It is hard to find ways to respond to hate with Love.  It is easy to respond in kind to those who demonize others.  When I read editorials or social media tweets that caricature homeless people as lazy slobs who enjoying using our alleys and byways as toilets.  That complain that all homeless people want to be on the streets because they are lazy and just want to do drugs and drink themselves into oblivion.  When I hear or read such things I become angry. 

I get angry because I minister with a good number of homeless people.  People who have been on the streets for many years who really are trying to find a way to get a home off the streets.  I know some young people who have been on the streets for most of their lives – indeed they were practically born on the streets and in one case both parents are homeless and have been for over a decade.  One young man yearns to get a Job and a home.  But it is nearly impossible because having lived on the streets for most of his life he has no high school diploma.  He has no address to provide prospective employers.  So how is he supposed to get a job.  I know many homeless people who would love to get off the streets but for various reasons have trouble connecting with services or with finding a landlord who will rent to a person who has no recent housing history to provide.

Similarly, when I hear people demonize immigrants as “bad hombres” who are all criminals that come to our country to continue in a life of crime and to take Jobs away from “good Americans” my response is to get angry.  This caricature refuses to acknowledge that most of the people in this country, with the exception of the first peoples – the Native Americans – have relatives who just a few generations back came to this country as immigrants looking for a better life.  My own Great-grandmother came to this country form Ireland as an indentured servant likely to escape the brutality of the potato famine.  It seems the response is now that our families have the better life our ancestors were seeking we need to slam shut the doors to people from countries who are fleeing violence and economic disasters.  We hear people lump all people with brown skin as evil while those with white skin are ok and to be welcomed.  Racism is one of those dark forces that lurk and lure folks to the evil side.

The hard part is that when we get angry over just causes, be it for the victims of violence, for folks without shelter, or for immigrants looking for a better life, as did my ancestors, the hard part is not to respond with darkness but to respond with light.  It is far too easy for us to caricature those we disagree with as insensitive gun huggers, as insensitive elitists who want a country where the homeless are not seen, or as incurable racists.  It is too easy to take a dark road in the name of light.  And that never works.

So how do we respond to evil with lightness?  We do that when we respond with love to those who are demonized.  We do it when we look for ways to influence policy by advocating for just laws.  We do it when we vote for politicians that we hope will also spread light.  Frankly we can spread light in simple ways such as advocating for public bathrooms so that homeless folk, not to mention anyone else who is out in our city, have a sanitary place to go.  But I won’t get on that soapbox today.  I’ll save that one for another sermon!

Jesus did indeed come to the world to save and not to condemn.  But he also came to warn us against our own dark sides.  To warn us against following that dark instinct that leads us to hate instead of love.  But God promises if we just repent and follow the light.  If we feed the love rather than the hate.  If we do that we will be welcomed with open arms into God’s great dream of love.

Lent is a great time for us to examine our hearts and see if we are fanning the flames of love and following the Great Commandment to Love God and Love our neighbors.  Or are we following the breathy voice of Darth Vader and going over to the dark side – fanning the flames of hate.  And if we find areas of darkness Lent is a great time to shine the light of God’s love into those dark places.  For when we do that our dark sides will be crucified with Christ and the light and love will be raised with Christ into glory on Easter.

Amen.