Christmas… a magical time of year! It’s so magical everyone is doing it – even the
non-believers! Many complain this season has become more and
more of a secular holiday. In fact
there’s documentation that this complaint has been leveled for at least a few
hundred years. There’s writings from
back in the 1700’s of how Christmas had turned into a mockery of its once
religious symbolism. For many, Christmas is more and more the
department store Santa’s, TV Christmas specials (but really, who doesn’t like A
Christmas Story or It’s a Wonderful Life, or the Charlie Brown Christmas
story?), Christmas parties and presents for the kids. So this whole “put Christ in Christmas”
really isn’t new.
Christ in Christmas.
When was Jesus born anyway? Yes,
this is a trick question. This isn’t the same question as “When do we celebrate
the birth of Jesus?” I asked the first
question once in a church one Sunday morning with another pastor present next
to me. “When was Jesus born?” and behind me, I heard the other pastor say, “December
25th, duh.” It’s not so “duh”
when you look into this a little! I followed the question with, “The answer is
- we really don’t know when he was born.”
I mean, how would we? The
Gospels don’t say anything about this.
The letters of Paul don’t say anything about this either. See,
here’s the thing, for the early church – and by this I mean the first few
generations, the really important thing was his life, and his death… and the really really important thing was his resurrection! Paul is transformed from a persecutor of the
church to a major leader through the experience of the risen Christ!
But at some point the later
early church (meaning more than a few generations later) have this notion of wanting
to somehow mark the birth of this significant person. They want to commemorate this date, remember
this date.
The first mention of the search for the birth of Jesus seems
to come from a Bishop named Clement from
Asia Minor in the middle of the 4th Century of the Common Era. In his
letter he mentions that some say Jesus was born in March while others say he
was born in May. So, we assume the
consensus was sometime in the Spring.
But truth is, we really don’t know when he was born. But we do know the early church obviously did come to a decision on when his birth should be marked. At some
point they probably figured out that having one date the growing Christian community
could all use was better than each community having its own date. So the next questions you would have asked
if you’d been a leader back then was… what date should we use? And how do we pick it?
Seems the Roman Emperor in the middle of the 3rd
century decreed that Sol Invictus be the main “Empire god”. (It’s good to be the Emperor!) Anyway,
Sol Invictus (the Invincible Sun) was a big deal… the Sun…
symbol of power, strength, Light! The birth of this god of strength was celebrated
just after the winter solstice (December 21st) – the shortest day of
the year, the day in which the light of the sun shines the least amount of time
– this applies to them since they were indeed above the equator. Seems sort of fitting – the birth of the sun
god celebrated in a time of the year in which the sun comes into the world more
and more every day after the winter solstice.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world.” This is one of the many “I am” statements
in this Gospel… “I am the Light of the world”, “I am the good shepperd”, “I am
the bread of life”. But still, Light is
a big deal here. Understandably, the
early church connected Jesus with the Light of God in the world. So, they decided to use the same date as the Sol
Invictus date. I’m
sure there’s more to the story, but still, close enough for government work.
This theme of Light – it’s an idea and a reality. Light has always been important to humanity
and to creation. For sure, plants use
light to create oxygen, and convert light energy in to fuel. But also cultures across time and the world
have recognized the importance of “Light”.
In a conscious manner, I suppose light dictated a lot of things, from
planting and hunting times to migration times. Our human ancestors were very dependent on the
planets place in it’s rotation around the sun.
But Light is also a theme that
keeps coming up over and over – it’s a classic archetypal theme. Early Ancient Near Eastern stories predating
Israelite stories describe the battle between forces of light and forces of
dark. The Hindu tradition, dating back
some 5 thousand years or so, is full of this theme of light and dark. Heck, Star Wars is a classic modern example
of this very thing. George Lucas was no
dummy, he knew a story like this would touch a very ancient part of us… and it
did! And like a good capitalist, he
made a little somethin’–somethin’ off this. The Power of Good, the power of Light, the
Light of the Spirit, the Light of Love, the Light of Hope!
As an aside, speaking of Hope, have you heard of the Survival
Rule of Three’s? These are generalities,
but basically you can’t go beyond three minutes without air, three hours (in
inclement weather) without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without
food, and three months without Hope.
Christianity is no different. Light is an important theme in this
tradition here too – I mean, we’re part of this whole human story too! The early church called Mary the mother of
Jesus, Theotokos. The Orthodox
tradition still uses the term for her. It
means “God bearer”. This past Sunday
was the “Mary” Sunday- the story of her being greeted by Elizabeth in the beginning
of Luke’s Gospel. And she responds to her greeting with this beautiful soliloquy that just wonderfully expresses her trust in God –
“My soul magnifies the Lord.” From here we get the Latin "Magnificat". My
soul amplifies the Lord! The story
goes she amplified him into human form!
She brought Light into the world.
The Gospel of John has Jesus saying, “I am the light of the
world”. The story goes that he brought
the light of God into a word that needed it!
Thing is, we still need this
light! We still need the light of love, the light of the Spirit, the light of
Hope! But how can this happen? Jesus isn’t here anymore! Jesus isn’t here…. but you
are! “Right!
Jesus was Jesus… and I’m NOT him!!!” There
are a thousand reasons why we couldn’t be Jesus! But
in Matthew 5 Jesus says to his disciples, “you are the light of the world!” “You.” Yes,
you! What a place this would be if we lived as if we really were the light of the world!
“Light” has always been a part of the human experience! We have, and still do, look for the light of
a New Day, the light of a New Sunrise, the Light of New Hope! That’s part of what it means to be
Human!! It lifts up our humanness. This is what our ancestors
did when they traveled from one place to another, never knowing if that move
would be a success or not. It’s what our
ancestors did when they reached up to the stars. Theotokos.. God Bearer! The bearer of the light of God doesn’t have
to be perfect! They just have to be
willing to be open to the light!
In Genesis chapter one, when did God create “Light”? You know, “Let there be light… and there was
light!” What day was that? That was the first day. Next question… what “light” was that? The sun?
Nope! The sun and moon were
created on day three. So, what was that
“light” created on day 1? I want to
say the Light of Life!
This could be a metaphor for sure! But the significance of “Light” in human
history cannot be overstated. And it’s
not a metaphor, it’s very real. There’s
a reason it was mentioned in the creation story first! And we all – all of us, are inheritors of
this light!
There’s a tribe of people in western Africa called the Dogon. Their ancestral stories say they came from
the stars. When they are asked where
their people came from, they point to the heavens. But not any random spot in the night sky,
but a very particular spot- to the star Sirius. The Aboriginal people of Australia also
believe they originated from the stars.
But again, not just any random spot “up there”. They come from the Pleiades system. We’re a carbon-based life-form… no carbon,
no life on earth. Ever wondered where
carbon comes from? How is it
created? From stars! From light!
When things are dark – literally and metaphorically... are called to remember. We touch into something deep
inside us. We remember with the memories of
our ancestors "You are light!" You are light in bodily form. You are the reflection of the light of God in the world! We’ve
just passed the longest night of the year…
from here on out, the light comes into the world more and more. And we rejoice!
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