River Road Church Baptist

December 25, 2005
Christmas Day Service

Mr. J. Brent Kimlick, Pastoral Intern

Merry Christmas. For all of those who were here at last night’s 11:00 pm service, this will be your opportunity to rest your eyes. I will be giving the same sermon that Mike gave last night at 11. So, rest easy, you’ve already heard this before. Let us pray together as we begin:

Guide us, O God, by your word and spirit, that in your light, we may see light, in your truth, find freedom, and in your will, discover your peace, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

I cannot remember when I first began watching the world news when I was younger, but from an early age I have always been interested in world events that happen around our world. My anchor of choice has always been, and will continue to be, Peter Jennings on ABC, who I felt had a way of bringing bad news to me with a sense of hope, flair and sophistication. More so than the way that it was presented, I remember being quite perplexed and troubled by the evil and chaos that I saw on the nightly television news. Perhaps that is why I loved, and still love, the season of Christmas and for the grace, hope and truth that it provides for us all.

During the Christmas season, often after watching the news and doing my school homework, I would venture into our family’s living room to look at our Christmas tree. The room would be dark and I would sort of fumble around in the dark, touching the wall and touching the light switches until I found the correct one. And then with one easy flip of a switch, the tree would come alive in this kind of 1970’s glow of orange and red and white lights - you know, those great big ones that we used to have in the 1970’s – leaving the cares of school and worldly pressures behind, I would lie on the floor and put my head up underneath the tree at the base. From this vantage point, I could almost see all the way up the trunk of the massive tree. This I believed was the best view of our season’s brief visitor. The smell of pine was the most intense at that point. Also the lights sort of intermingled and shadowed the ornaments and in this prone position with only my legs sticking out from underneath the tree, I felt at peace.

To be honest, during the liturgical seasons of Christmas and Advent, I really didn’t need an educated pastor to explain to me the in-depth details of how or why the incarnation happened. I really only needed them to confirm for me that God came in human form to shelter me from the evil and the chaos of the world and that I could claim Christ’s hope, grace, and truth, much like the low hanging branches of our family’s Christmas tree.

In our lectionary reading from the Gospel of John today, we heard these words from Chapter one, verses 4 and 5:

“What has come into being through 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.”

Once illuminated, the warm glow of the lights from the Christmas tree enveloped and sort of fell gently over the corners of the furniture in the living room. At times in our own lives, there is complete darkness, the type of darkness where dust settles quietly. But it is easy to see that darkness and light do not always hold the same power. This light that shines in the darkness is John’s pronouncement of Christ into our world, or more plainly today, a light that shows the darkness in clearer terms.

It is on this day, Christmas Day that we celebrate God’s logos, or word, coming to Earth in human form. And it is John’s attempt to highlight the work of Christ with us from the beginning of creation. In Genesis 1, God’s first order of creation was the establishment of light in the formless void. John sort of is providing us a peek into God’s workshop, as if we’re looking through the keyhole, and John provides in very poetic detail Christ’s beginning. Instead of the birth narratives that we get from Matthew and Luke, our text today is a prologue to Christ who John relates to creation. As such, Christ can be seen as eternally established in our own lives as a permanent light. It is through the light of the incarnation that the Word, or Christ, enters into our daily experiences bringing hope and grace and truth.

Our family tree would need water during the month to avoid becoming a matchstick. It had been separated from its roots, its life nourishment. And as such it would need us to provide the sustenance that it needed, if only for a little while longer. Time would march on through December and soon New Year’s would come, and the tree would seem to be dry and lifeless and sort of sagging, especially the bottom branches. So the ornaments would hang very low on the drooping branches, just the right height for our family cat, Tasha, to wreak havoc on them. Hit this way and that way, carcasses of Santa Claus and other ornaments could be found under the stereo or the coffee table as you would come in and out of the living room.

Much like the news reports I saw as a child, today we are bombarded with earthly images that wreak chaos and mayhem on God’s hope, grace and truth. Very often the carcasses that we see are not of holiday ornaments but of women, children and men. Where is God’s peace that we speak of so freely at this time of year? The silent cries of the ornaments of humanity on the tree of life lift up their arms in protest. Does the darkness have the last word? No. It is not important that we remember the how and why of the incarnation. We should remember God’s hope, grace and truth, spoken in humanly basic terms, through the Glory of Christ’s birth that we celebrate today. It is with this peace and comfort that we can look strongly into the face of evil and darkness and the darkness will not overtake us.

One holiday season, after being comforted by the hope, grace and truth of the family Christmas tree, I was devastated when it came time to take the tree down and to remove the visitor from our home. Once all the decorations had been removed, the tree was thrown, I thought sort of helplessly and shamefully, onto our front porch. I went out crying, I remember, grasping the tree at its base and dragging the remainder of my dry friend into my tree house. I redecorated the tree with acorns and sticks and leaves. I remember sitting quite chilly but rather comfortable in the dark tree house, feeling safe and secure next to the branches that for this Christmas season had provided warmth, light and protection. Calling me from the deck, my mother had turned on the porch lights and yelled at me to come in for dinner.

Christ, who ventured into the darkness through his own death on a solemn hill, looked into the face of evil and provided through His birth and through His death the ultimate light to God, our ultimate light source. Like a candle in the darkness, the lights of the deck landed gently on the corners of my new, outdoor Christmas tree. So I took one last look at my new friend that sat in my tree house before I left and I waved goodbye and I ran across the creek and up the hill to our house.

Much like you I bet, I do not need even now for an educated pastor to explain to me the how and why of the incarnation. God, living and breathing through Christ, is not a riddle to be unraveled, but rather an act of hope, grace, truth and faith, in which to embrace and live each new day. “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.”

God’s hope and peace to us all this day and may the strong fragrant branches of Christ’s peace be with us throughout this coming year.

Let us pray together: Then God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. And God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness and in that darkness God placed the ever-present light of Christ. Thanks be to God. Amen.