Holy Eucharist at 9:30 am
191 Flanagan Way (Rt 153) Secaucus, NJ 07094
Fax: 201-863-1474
This page
revised 04 Jan 00
http://www.secaucus.org/
oursaviour
http://www.secaucus.org/
oursaviour
The Church of
Our Saviour
in the Town of Secaucus, New Jersey
Home | Welcome | News | Sunday | Bulletin
Bookshop | Stewardship | Community | Links
When darkness baffles us, the Light of God is in our midst
Reflections on the lessons for Christmas
By The Rev. Mark A. Lewis, Vicar
Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7
Psalm 96:1-4, 11-12
Titus 2:11-14
Luke
2:1-20
I have noticed a mini-trend in books that came out this year, at least among the ones I have read.
Michael Crichton (the author of Jurassic Park) : "Timeline." Some scientists travel back in time to 14th century France. And the first thing they notice when they arrive there is how extremely quiet everything is.
Robert Lacey: "The Year 1000" (a month-by-month chronicle of daily life in rural England in the year 1000) goes on and on about how different the world looked (darker) and sounded (quieter) and smelled (like an outhouse) . He points out that in 1066 when William the Conqueror took England from the Anglo-Saxons in the Battle of Hastings, a half-mile away you couldn't hear a thing. No guns. No bombs. Just foot soldiers with swords.
But the darkness is what interested me. Thinking about the simplest imagery in the Christmas story: The child who is called the Light of God is born in the dead of night.
Nowadays it is hard even to imagine the degree of darkness that used to envelop the earth as soon as the sun went down. In camps and villages there would be fires and lamps. But until the late 19th century all forms of artificial lighting were extremely expensive and labor intensive -- and therefore strictly conserved. And besides, even the biggest bonfire still seems small in the vastness of the dark of night. From the circle of light, you can always see the walls of blackness not far away.
Caught out on the road, or in a distant pasture, people of the first century might well have to do without light until morning, unable to find a way home if the moon and stars weren't out.
To understand something about the good news of Christmas, maybe an attempt to imagine ourselves back in the world before electric lamps and streetlights and security lights could help. Imagine wandering off with your bow or your gathering basket and being caught too far from home on a pitch black night. Then imagine seeing in the far off distance some small campfire, or lit doorway. And knowing with infinite relief that the godforsaken darkness is not the final word in the story of your day, the story of your life.
Most of us don't have the imagination it would take to really feel the radical emotions that must have come with seeing a tiny spot of light in the midst of great darkness. But we certainly don't need to use any imagination at all to experience the longing for light and truth and justice and support as we make our way through a world that can seem pretty dark sometimes.
And when our world doesn't seem so dark -- lucky us -- we know what it's like to be grateful for the people and things that light up our lives. A small glimmer of light on the horizon makes our hearts race. And when we are sitting under a sparkling chandelier -- it's the brightness that makes happiness possible.
And so we receive once again our Christmas vocation: To be ourselves bearers of the Light of God that came to dwell in us long ago. To show forth divine light in the face of whatever darkness we find ourselves walking into. Our particular places of darkness are almost certainly going to be as near as our own home, workplace, neighborhood, our church.
And it may not be our gift to fill up all those places with all the light they need. But it is indisputably the message of Christmas -- the message of God putting heaven aside and choosing to live as one of us -- that it is everybody's job to be a small ray of "something different" in the darkness. To be that spark that lets people know that even when darkness baffles us with its persistence, the Light of God is dwelling quietly in our midst nevertheless.
-- Mark Lewis
Your comments or questions are welcome MLewis@secaucus.org.
Links to additional "Reflections on Lessons" may be found at the bottom of the Sunday web page.
© 2000 -Church of Our Saviour Home | Welcome | News | Sunday | Community | Links
http://www.secaucus.org/oursaviourWebmaster - DRoberts@Secaucus.org