Joy in the Darkest Night: Luke 2: 8-14
This week, I spent some time re-watching A Christmas Carol to get into the Christmas spirit. If you think back to the book or movie, it tells of Ebeneezer Scrooge, who lives in a life of darkness. He refuses to light extra coal for heat or light. His house is dark and cold. His office was dark and cold, and you could say that he personally was dark and very, very cold. Through a series of spectral visits, he transforms his sense of “Bah-humbug” at Christmas to a warm, generous, and joyous spirit.
But think of that hateful response—bah-humbug. He said it about any notion of joy and hope. He said it about being charitable and caring about the poor. He said it about family, kindness, all things good, all things Christ-like. Bah-humbug. We live in a similar society, a bah-humbug society. We live in a time where people care more about politics than people, care more about being theologically right than working for Christ’s mission, and care more about the diet of 24-hour news than any Biblical story of hope. Don’t believe it? You need only look at how many churches are fighting over property, polity, and being a part of a denomination instead of caring about the suffering of people and state of the souls in the pews.
But Jesus was born into a time not so different. It was a dark and cold, miserable society in first century Judea. We learn in school about the greatness of Rome—the Pax Romana or Roman peace that lasted for some 200 years. But the people did not truly live in this glorious peace as Dorothee Soelle pointed out. It was a time of great suffering and of the vicious and severe rule of the Roman Empire. Peace was achieved through war, oppression, and fear. Rome kept a census to know who to tax, and who might be a threat. Rome ruled the people with tyranny.
Into this world of darkness and sin, Christ, the Savior, was born in Bethlehem…the one who would not only be our saving grace, but whose life set the pattern for how to live in such a world. But Luke tells us that Jesus was not born in royalty. It was practically scandalous that the Messiah was born to a poor carpenter in a low and humble way. It would be even more unbelievable that the first people to hear of the good news and travel to Bethlehem were Shepherds. In those days, shepherds were despised as lowlife drifters who often exploited the land and resources of others. The whole story was shocking and unbelievable to those looking for Messiah.
We, too, look in all the wrong places for a Messiah. You cannot vote your way out of sin and darkness because the politicians cannot deliver us like that. You cannot study your way out of sin and darkness because Jesus’s life was lived bringing grace in the world. You cannot buy your way out. You cannot guide yourself out because the sinful systems of this world are all around us and hold us hostage. Think of it this way: the person who gives up alcohol will drive by 5 liquor stores in his town. The person who gives up sugar will find 100 ads for dessert on her computer. The person who resolves never to support corporate exploitation will go to buy a shirt and find clothing racks filled with items made by children in foreign countries. You cannot escape a world where sin lives, and it can be a dark and joyless place.
The only way out is by finding the light that leads us to Bethlehem where God meets us in the form of Jesus, the Son and Savior. Luke, as a Gospel, reminds us that Jesus lived and worked predominantly among the poor, the marginalized, the suffering, and the poor in spirit. When you journey to Bethlehem you will find Christ waiting for you there. Joy in a world sin and darkness is found in the face of a mother who gets food at Christmas instead of facing another hungry night or a child getting toys at Christmas. Joy in a world of sin is found in a frail or elderly person who smiles with recognition and love for the first time in months. Joy is found when someone who felt like the church and society hated them finds a place of God’s welcome and holiness. Joy is found when we lift up our heads and remember who our Savior is and whose life and light we represent here.
Every year, in Advent, we are invited to journey to Bethlehem. There we find a baby whose message in life would be that what is important for us is that we are children of God. Just as Jesus worked to heal, help, and save, so too must we have the faith that encourages us to heal and help our community. I think back to the narrative of A Christmas Carol. When Scrooge is asked about giving to the poor by two colleagues at the exchange, he demands that the poor be sent to prisons and workhouses as his taxes go to pay those. It’s an unbelievably cruel response to those who are desperately in need.
But in the end Scrooge is shown his own grave. He finds out that his own life brought no joy, and his death lacked any hope at all. In the end, that knowledge softens his cold heart. As we journey to Bethlehem, we find a Savior who did not come to overpower Rome, to take back King David’s throne from Herod, or to be the ruling emperor. We find, instead, a Savior who came for the redemption of hearts and souls in a people wandering in the darkness of the world.
Each year we journey to Bethlehem again. We travel through the holy announcements to Mary and Elizabeth, the proclamation of John the Baptist, the shepherds, the wisemen, and the angels—all who tell us the way to this light of Christ who came to bring hope to a people acquainted with death and joy to a people living under political and sinful oppression. We too are reminded of the words of Isaiah 9:2, “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine.”
Whatever place of darkness we find ourselves in, we can follow that light of Christ to Bethlehem. If we have a personal darkness we struggle with, if we are suffering because of the ba-humbug of the world we live in, or if we feel like we just can’t escape the evil around us, remember that the light of Christ leads us into a joyful redemption and a new hope for how we live here in the world. And so we come to Bethlehem where Christ will meet us and we pray, “Jesus, our Lord, Emmanuel, come, Savior, quickly come.”
Worship Video: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/2110140759196183