John 1:1-5, 9-14
I can’t remember a darker Christmas Eve in my lifetime. This has been an extremely difficult year for people in America and around the world. Our nation has been ravaged by disease, natural disasters, and social unrest. And now we pause in the stillness of this moment to catch our breath, reflect on the past, ponder the moment, and prepare for the future.
Certainly the COVID-19 pandemic has been the central story in the news this year. From January 21, when the first case in the United States was documented by the CDC, until December 21, when 18 million Americans had been diagnosed. We have seen suffering and death on a scale almost too big to comprehend. It took 5 months to reach the 2 million mark; and just 1 month to jump by another million cases. As of December 21, some 320,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, including 656 in New Hampshire. Just think about that for a minute. All those hundreds of thousands of families grieving the loss of a loved one, or more than one. With over 3 million total deaths in the US this year, this has been the deadliest year in our history, largely thanks to COVID. And in addition to the loss of life, there have been millions of Americans who have lost their jobs, as businesses were forced to close, either for a time or permanently. More people are struggling financially, even in need of basic necessities like food, and it has caused a lot of stress and anxiety.
But we haven’t just been faced with a public health emergency. Many people in our country have also had to deal with natural disasters. It has been a record-breaking year in this category, also. Consider the occurrence of hurricanes. This is only the 2nd time in history that the alphabetical list of names has been used up. We had the most number of named storms on record, with 29. We had 12 named storms to hit the US, for only the second time in history. And in the middle of September, there were five named storms in the Atlantic at the same time, something that has happened only twice. There were also states in the western part of the country that experienced significant wildfires. The worst of these took place in California, where 4 million acres have burned, more than twice the previous record in one year. The August Complex Fire, which burned 1 million acres, was the largest ever in California. Five of the largest six wildfires in California history happened this year. And Colorado also saw the largest fire in state history, the Cameron Peak Fire, which burned 208,000 acres. We saw historic flooding in Michigan, where 2 dams failed after heavy rain. And in Arizona, the city of Phoenix suffered through a record 144 days over 100 degrees.
And then there were the protests that swept across the country in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by the police in Minneapolis on May 25. Within days, protests swept across the United States and the world. The National Guard was called into some locations, and by the end of June over 14,000 people had been arrested. While 93% of these protests were peaceful, there was billions of dollars of damage done by violent rioters. Estimates range from 15-26 million people who participated at some point in these protests, making them the largest in our nation’s history. And we are still struggling with racial injustice and inequality.
I recall all of these things tonight, not to depress you or sound negative, but to remind you that if it has seemed like a horrible year, it has been one. It may seem like darkness has taken over entirely. It is only natural for us to feel afraid, discouraged, disgusted, and even angry. Some people have had to turn to assistance programs for food or rent or help with bills. Others have become lonely and isolated, as nursing homes went into lockdown and travel has been discouraged. Many of us are celebrating Christmas apart from our families, just as we did on Thanksgiving. Children have had to learn how to do remote learning, and teachers have had to teach remotely. Worship services have moved online, and Communion takes place virtually. Our lives have been thoroughly disrupted. We even went through a toilet paper shortage, for heaven’s sake! And cleaning products are just as hard to locate.
It would be easy to give in to our feelings of sadness and grief and loneliness and despair. It would be understandable if we thought there was only darkness in our world. Except for one thing. Heaven has come to earth. Heaven is in the real world. God sent his Son Jesus into the world on that first Christmas, and nothing has been the same since then.
The Gospel of John tells the story of Christmas in an entirely different way than Matthew or Luke. We don’t read about mangers or shepherds or angels; there are no wise men. Instead, John begins at the very beginning, echoing the words of the first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning.” In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word is Jesus; Jesus is the Word of God. And Jesus is God. And then John proclaims, “The Word became flesh.” Jesus became a human being. God became one of us. Wow! Can you comprehend how amazing that really is? God – the One who created the universe and everything in it – somehow squeezed himself into human skin, into the skin of a tiny little baby, and was born into this world. And because of that, God understands everything about what it means to be human.
We don’t have a God who is just out there somewhere, watching us from a distance. We have a God who is right here, who has felt what we feel, who has lived as we live and died as we will die. We have a God who has laughed and cried, played with children and gotten angry at hypocrisy, gone fishing and eaten feasts and attended weddings. Our God became flesh and blood in order that he can understand what it means to be human, and to show us what all humans are called to be like.
Jesus started out in life the same way we started out, tiny, vulnerable, and totally dependent on his parents for his survival. He ate and cried and had to be changed. He cut teeth and learned to walk and went through puberty. He learned a trade and worked at it for most of his adult life. He had a family and had to learn how to get along with his brothers and sisters. He also had to take responsibility for that family as the firstborn when his father died. Jesus had friends and enemies, and was the same person no matter who he was with. And when one of his best friends died, he experienced grief as he wept at his tomb. Jesus was tempted and tested, and knew what it meant to make hard choices. And he knew how hard it could be to follow the will of God. Jesus knows what it’s like to be completely human. He can relate to anything we are going through, even the year 2020.
The world Jesus was born into was experiencing a time of darkness, too. Not so much for the rich and powerful members of the Roman Empire, but certainly for all of their conquered peoples, including the Jews. Taxes were high. Wars were frequent. There was no protection of civil liberties for anyone except Roman citizens. Anyone who tried to resist was quickly subdued and put to death. The Jews had been hoping for a Messiah to come and rescue them for over 500 years, but so far God had seemed to be silent. But then God acted in a burst of light dawning on the world.
John writes that, in Jesus, a light had come into the world, and the darkness could not overcome it. No matter how dark it might be, the darkness cannot extinguish the light of Jesus Christ. In Jesus we find our hope, our joy, our peace, and our love, even in the darkest of years. Jesus gives us hope that we will get through this time. Jesus plants seeds of joy in our hearts, as we feel the presence of his Spirit in us. Jesus grants us peace, a peace that transcends all understanding and that defies all circumstances. And Jesus gives us love, the love of God for us, and the love that we have for God and for one another. And Jesus also calls us to light up our world, as he lights it up.
We light the world by sharing God’s love with others. We light the world by serving others in Jesus’ name. We light the world by donating food to the hungry, by giving generously to help those who are struggling financially, by working for racial equality and justice, by wearing a mask to prevent the spread of the virus, by reaching out to the lonely and the isolated, by lifting up the downcast and the downtrodden. We are the light of the world when we reflect the light of Jesus to others.
This Christmas, I pray that you see the light and that you are the light. I pray that you will grasp the hope that is ours through Jesus Christ. And I pray that you will see signs of heaven in the real world as God’s people share the light of this holy night.
