In the name of God, source of all being, eternal word, and holy spirit. Amen.
Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(BCP 1979. Contemporary Collect for the First Sunday after Christmas Day)
Almighty God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin: Grant that we, being regenerate — born anew – and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
(BCP 1662)
Eternal light, scatter the darkness from our hearts and minds, enlighten our lives with your glory, and give us the power and wisdom to live as sons and daughters of God; — as children of light — through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
David Adam, Glimpses of Glory (SPCK, 2000) 18.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the one to rule them all?
[— and in the darkness bind them!]
What does it mean to be children of light? The first chapter of the gospel of John presents a very different Jesus to our eyes. Christmas morning there was a Baby. Today, the first Sunday after Christmas, we hear that “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God” – and that the Word has become flesh: the uncreated source of all being greets us from the cradle.
Before the beginning the Word was with God. The presence of God among us, Emmanuel, is the Word through whom all things came to be. But the Word was there before – before there was a before! God expressed himself: and that self-expression was with God, and that self-expression was God, for only God could be that Word.
Yet that which caused all things to be, came among us, in the form of Jesus, in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And for all those who choose to receive him, that very fullness becomes available to us. We can receive it, into ourselves. And live its reality.
Beyond the duties of church and family and nation, beyond our duties to ourselves, is the gift of following the one true light, found in Christ Emmanuel. God with us. That uncreated light, that presence, is present to us.
And we can become children of light: as we accept its radiance.
What does it mean to be children of light? Today when darkness is around us, how do we take in the luminous presence of God and let it shine forth in our lives?
Only a few days ago the literal darkness of the winter night began to recede as the longest night of the year receded into the past. Only a few days ago the brightness of the everlasting dawning which is the presence of our Savior became manifest, once again, as we welcomed the child Jesus.
And now we can become children ourselves again as we welcome again the presence of the Lord, the presence of the light, as we receive grace upon grace, love beyond love, in our inner lives – and in our outer lives as well.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the one to rule them all? There are plenty of self-nominated candidates who seek to answer this question. In our own past century Mao, Stalin, Saddam Hussein, and others, who put up vast posters of themselves, and statues, pushed themselves forward. Memento Park in Budapest is full of Soviet-era statues of self-nominated angels of light.
Back in the days of the Nativity, there was one simple answer to who is the one to rule them all: “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus…”
Caesar Augustus was ubiquitous, his image – and his troops – everywhere. Client kings like Herod the Great and his dubious offspring knew who was the boss. All the world — that is, the Roman, ‘civilized’, subjugated, world, knew who was boss.
He was even proclaimed “savior of the world’ – that Roman world; for he has solved the problem of internecine war and inter-office bickering. No more civil war. Because he had won. He had defeated, and slaughtered, his rivals. Peace.
Pax Romana. Pax Augusta. Peace in his time. In his way. Under his authority.
Not.
The little baby we greeted this week of Christmas had something else to say.
Before Augustus was, I AM. Before the beginning, when there was no light, no life, he was life, and light, and love. What Caesar Augustus ruled was darkness, not light: but there was light beyond.
What came into being
through the Word was life,
and the life was the light for all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
Before Augustus was, I AM.
Through him all things came to be. The logos, “the eternal word manifest in the reason and order of the cosmos of which it was the creative agent,” was not a new concept to first-century people.
(Massey Shepherd, The Oxford American Prayer Book Commentary, 1963, 97)
But now– something new. The Word has become flesh, and dwelt among us.
“This pre-existent, eternal and divine word has now been manifested in the flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ. And that life gives not only light to the understanding,” - intellectual knowledge - “that we may know the truth, but also power to the will, that we may be obedient sons [children] of God. For in Him [Christ] the glory of God was revealed in the fullness of ‘grace and truth.’”
(Massey Shepherd, loc. cit.)
The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.
The creator is not remote; he is Emmanuel: God with us. The word, eternal, became flesh. With us he dwells and so we see his Glory. Glory - light, shining, and more than light: life in essential union with its source.
Right now, this morning, we remember the child, and the infinite possibility he seems to awaken in us, an infinite possibility for hope and joy. And love.
This little child is revealed in radiance, in sharp contrast to Caesar Augustus, as far from imperial pomp as what power is really all about: a creative, redemptive, power, made perfect in weakness, that means eternal, abundant life, and a light that both illuminates and empowers.
This little light of mine, comes from that light. To carry that light into the world is our joy and our task.
Today there are plenty of people who put themselves forward to tell you who is the one to be the leader. Who will the mirror reflect? Who is the one to rule them all? Is it the one we hope to see when we gaze into the mirror?
If I controlled the clicker that chose the images that the mirror, the flat-screen, on the wall, projected, who would I see? Would I see myself? What would I do to shape that image? What would I not do?
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the one to rule them all?
[– and in the darkness bind them!]
And yet beyond the mirror is the reality of the light. The light that was before all being, creating all and illuminating all. And in that harsh light, that glare of reality and truth, any puny effort to ‘rule them all’ is evident to fail.
We may want to count the cost. To submit ourselves to him, to become children of light, is to give up being our own back-lit mirrors. It is to accept the reality that in him is life and this life is the light of all people. There is no other source. He is the one.
Thank God.
Eternal light, scatter the darkness from our hearts and minds, enlighten our lives with your glory, and give us the power and wisdom to live as sons and daughters of God; — as children of light — through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, O Father, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
David Adam, Glimpses of Glory (SPCK, 2000) 18.
Christmas1
First Sunday after Christmas
● Isaiah 61:10-62:3
● Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
● John 1:1-18
● Psalm 147 or 147:13-21
https://lectionarypage.net/YearABC/Christmas/Christmas1.html
https://ctktucson.org/
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JRL+
Be ware of darkness that casts itself as light.
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