Isaiah 11:1-10; Luke 2:1-14; Galatians 4:1-7; John 1:1-14

Wonder

The philosophers and scientists of old knew it: wonder is the beginning of all knowledge. You need to see an apple fall from a tree and wonder why it fell down and not up, before you make any serious investigation and then perhaps discover the drawing force of the earth. You need to see the Milky Way at night and wonder how many stars it contains before you set out on an investigation and build large telescopes.

And knowledge becomes real knowledge when it touches us; when we accept responsibility for what we know; when it makes a difference; when it changes us. This is the reason why in the Bible the verb Îto knowâ and Îto believeâ can be used interchangeably. To know God and to believe in God is the same thing.

I would like to introduce you this morning – again – to the wonder of Christmas. None of us has understood it very much, and therefore it changes us so little. But it happens again and again! Suddenly people here and there do understand and become changed and set out on a new future. There can be moments of explosive grace in our lives: and we never know when they come.

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5)

One of the New Testament stories speaks about Christmas in this way: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

This has two dimensions.

“The light shines in the darkness, ….”

Godâs light, which is Godâs life, shines into the darkness of human existence. In the birth of Christ, God has not created a superman, but God simply opened his divine life to include the human story. The human story becomes part of Godâs own story. And Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger.” It is quite inconceivable, and therefore it has been a challenge to philosophy and a stumbling block to religion: the God who created the universe, who through billions of years sets the stars into space, freely and voluntarily chose to make himself dependent on a young peasant women from an unknown region, Galilee, from unknown villages, Nazareth and Bethlehem.

And this is quite unambiguous. Here all the sources agree: A peasant girl, birth pains, a delivery, and then Mary “wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger.”

We would have done it differently. The gods we create do not share our infirmities and our limitations. That became already clear in early times when some of the early Christian legends portrayed baby-boy Jesus as shaping sparrows from clay and then letting them fly; of playing marbles with his friends and always winning, because how can the Son of God lose? You see, they had problems with the humanity of Jesus. Therefore, the peasant women (not a princess) and the horse trough (not a crib in a hotel) and the “bands of cloth” (nappies we would say today) are very important. They guarantee that God can and that God does come to us!

The light of God, the life of God does not despise or avoid the darkness – it shines right into it!

“… and the darkness did not overcome it.”

In Christ, God has exposed himself to our humanity, without compromising himself; without ceasing to be God.

He has tasted the cruelty of human selfishness, but Jesus shows his divinity by being the man for others;

he tasted the enmity and violence between tribes and nations, but he retained a firm commitment to non-violence and reconciliation – although many a nation and many a tribe wanted to claim God for their cause;

He knew the cruelty of illness and the fatedness of poverty ö and he announced that the kingdom of God operates by different values than the life of this world.

he tasted the bloody cruelty of war, and yet remained firmly committed to be the prince of peace.

he opened himself to the temptation of power and arrogance but he never forgot the first commandment that God was God in his life and that therefore there cannot be any other ultimate allegiances.

Light shines in darkness, and it keeps on shining. It comes from God and therefore it cannot be put out. It continues to make a difference. It provides wells to drink from and orientation to our living and a hope in our dying. Here in the flux of history is a point of meaning and orientation. It is the centre from which the rest receives its meaning and purpose.

Creative Conflict

The Christmas story, my friends, is realistic and at the same time it gives us hope.

It is realistic in that it does not silence or suppress the conflict between light and darkness, between God and those who oppose God.

We have already seen it. The story of Christâs birth is not all smooth and romantic. It is realistic. Such is the world we live in. Note the motifs of dissonance in the different Christmas stories:

light coming into conflict with darkness;

“he came to his own people, but his own people received him not”;

when Mary gave birth to the child she had to do it in a stable, because there was no room in the guest house;

when King Herod heard about the birth, he wanted to get rid of Jesus, and he was quite willing to sacrifice others in the process.

What does that say to us today? How can we feel the creative conflict of the Christmas story today?

Let us enjoy our Christmas dinners and our Christmas presents. At the same time let us not forget that hundreds of millions live in abject poverty and millions die of starvation.

Our creativity may not be strong enough to see a world without war. But let us not forget that the Jesus whom we worship and whose birth we celebrate was and is the Messiah of the poor and the prince of peace.

Therefore, because Christ, the Son of God, is the centre of Christmas, therefore the Christmas story is not only realistic; it also gives us hope. Christ is the bearer of the hopes of humanity for peace and justice. Christians have confessed that with Christ the human hopes for a better world are grounded in the very being of God. We claim the ancient prophecy to give content to our hope:

11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 11:2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 11:3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. · with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; ·. 11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins. 11:6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. 11:9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. 11:10 On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

There is darkness and there is light. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” Christmas stands for the divine fact that the light will outlast and outshine the darkness!

Invitation

But how can we tune into this creative conflict between “light” and “darkness”? How can we make sure that we have not extinguished the light, or become so used to the darkness that we donât see the light any more? How can we affirm it today that “the light shines (!) in darkness,” and that “the darkness has not overcome it”? Does the story of Jesus still provide a reason for our living and a hope in our dying? Is it still an orientation for what we do with our lives?

What do we value? What occupies our hearts? Does it include the peasant woman, the stable and the nappies? Does it include the single mother who is struggling to provide for her children? Is there room in our hearts for the feeling of rejection that the unemployed father or the parents of drug dependent children face? How long can we be silent when people around us speak disrespectfully about foreigners and even about the native people of this land?

Today, by coming to church and hearing the story of Jesus, if we accept responsibility for the Christmas story we have committed ourselves to a Christian view of reality. We have placed the price tags of our hearts on

a peasant women who was faithful to Godâs call;

on a baby that was born in lowly circumstances but who needed care and protection and love;

on shepherds who responded to and then announced good news;

on a refugee family that had to flee from the political power brokers.

Let us then be encouraged by the promise that the light of Christ keeps on shining in darkness. We canât extinguish it, because God has lit it, and God keeps on providing the burning fuel.

Let us see ourselves in the light of Christ. God says “Yes” to you. Let us hear it.

Let us see others in the light of Christ. God says “yes” to them. Let us live Godâs YES to the world.

We can do it because “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

A merry Christmas to you all!

Thorvald Lorenzen: Canberra, Dec. 25, 1999