Because of COVID, I am unable to minister to the folks at the 55+ community as I usually do.
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You can listen to my Advent message here:https://youtu.be/lIQ_tE0RuiU
Or you can read it below:
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Light from Light
by Richard Maffeo
One of the things I very much enjoy about the Christmas season are the lights. Red lights, blue, white, blinking, bubbling – all kinds of lights. In some neighborhoods, some people seem to compete as to how magnificent their home displays can be. I’ve read in the news – perhaps some of you have also – of homes so decorated with lights that people drive for miles and miles just to see the decorations.
No one really knows why Christmas is celebrated in December. Theologians and other scholars have speculated Jesus was actually born in the early spring in Israel. But I think a December birthday commemoration is very appropriate.
December – at least in the western hemisphere – the same hemisphere where Jesus was born – is the darkest month of the year. And the week of Christmas is darker still. It is the time of the winter solstice – the time of the shortest day and the longest night. This year the winter solstice will occur on December 21st.
In other words, during December, and especially during the week around Christmas, darkness reigns. Trees look dead. Shadows are at their longest.
I believe it is not at all coincidental that in the midst of that darkness, God orchestrated the celebration of His Son who is the Light of the World. In the midst of lengthening shadows, God tells us there is great and ineffable hope.
God gave His people many prophesies through Isaiah about the first Advent. Here is one of them. And it provides our text for today:
“The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”(Isaiah 9:2)
The Christmas season, introduced to us each year on the first Sunday of Advent, is about light in the midst of darkness. No, it is about light EXPLODING from the darkness. It’s about hope for everyone who seeks His light.
Let’s look at only a few examples:
First: Mark 5:1 You probably remember the story.
They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes.When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him.Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him . . . "
And what did the Light of the world do?
The desperate man lived alone, fearing and feared, cold, isolated, in darkness. And then he met Jesus. And Jesus healed the man, casting out the demons into the herd of swine grazing a short distance away.
Then there is Bartimeus. Luke 18 "As Jesus was approaching Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the road begging. Now hearing a crowd going by, hebeganto inquire what this was. They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he called out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”Those who led the way were sternly telling him to be quiet; but he kept crying out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”And Jesus stopped and commanded that he be brought to Him; and when he came near, He questioned him,“What do you want Me to do for you?”And he said, “Lord,I wantto regain my sight!”And Jesus said to him,“Receive your sight; your faith has made you well.”
But not all who come to Jesus are healed. Remember Fanny Crosby? I’ve mentioned her before – probably because of her passion for Jesus despite her physical darkness.
Blind for all of her life,Fanny Crosby, the greatest hymn writer in the history of the Christian Church. She saw over 8,000 poems set to music and over 100,000,000 copies of her songs printed. Fanny gave the Christian world such songs as: He Hideth My Soul, I Am Thine 0 Lord, Praise Him Praise Him, Redeemed How I love to Proclaim it.
Augustine of Hippo: As a teenager lived a profligate, reckless, godless life. Then he got caught up in religious heresy. Darkness encompassed the prodigal son of the great saintly woman – his mother – Monica. But then he met Jesus. And light shone through his darkness. We today know him as Saint Augustine, one of the fathers of the Christian Church. Wrote two classics studied today: The City of God, and Confessions.
John Newton, former captain of slave ships in the 18thcentury. Stuffed the ship holds with human slaves, hardly enough room to sit amongst the filth and sewage and accompanying illness – death of slaves on board were simply marked off as the cost of doing business. Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.
I was blind, but now I see.
What is YOUR story? If we took the time we would be here for hours, hearing from each one of you how the Lord Jesus shed His light on your life and rescued you from your own darkness.
And that is why Christmas is about light. And life . . . eternal life.
There is good reason the Holy Spirit placed this psalm in our Bibles: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of theLordforever. (Psalm 23)
The Lord Jesus said of Himself,“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
A few years ago, my wife and I drove south along I-85, scanning the radio stations for something worthwhile to listen to on a Sunday afternoon. And we came across a preacher – a Baptist, we learned at the end of his message – we came across him in the middle of his sermon. From the way he spoke – his vocabulary and his manner of delivery – I conjured an image of many of the preachers Nancy and I sat under during our three decades in evangelical churches. There was nothing erudite about his delivery, or for that matter, what he said. But, oh! He captured our attention.
“Thank God for Jesus.” He repeated that phrase again and again during the several minutes we listened to him.
He reminded his congregation, “Jesus came as a baby and lived 33 years so that He could die for your sins and my sins. Thank God for Jesus.”
“He was glad to do what He did because of His great love for you and me. Thank God for Jesus.” Then he asked his congregation, “Do you thank God for Jesus?”
Nancy and I heard a few voices in the congregation call out, ‘Amen,” and “Yes, we do.”
Then he said, speaking out of what I recognized was chapter 16 of St. Matthew’s gospel, “Jesus said to the people, ‘Who do you say that I am? And some said Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” And then Jesus looked at His disciples and said: ‘But who do YOU say that I am?”
The preacher paused a moment and then continued to paraphrase from the text: “Peter said, you are the Christ, the Son of God.” And Jesus said to him, “You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but my Father in heaven revealed it to you.”
“Thank God for Jesus,” the preacher said again. And then to his congregation he asked, “Has God revealed who Jesus is to you? Are you a child of God? Is Jesus your Lord?”
He continued, “Do you know of Jesus because your preacher told you about Jesus? Do you know about Jesus because your parents told you about Jesus? Or do you know Jesus because God told you about Jesus?”
“Do you thank God for Jesus?”
A few moments later, his simple sermon ended.
We turned off the radio and talked about what we’d just heard. The preacher, simple as his message seemed to be, reminded me of what the very erudite St. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth:“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).
This Christmas, as we open the gifts set for us under the tree, Oh, mayGod help us reflect on the gift He gave us:“God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
And, please God, help us say from our hearts, “Thank God for Jesus.”
Thank God for the light of Christmas that shines from houses and Christmas Trees and department stores and supermarkets and so many churches across this country and around the world – reminding everyone and anyone with eyes to see – Jesus is the light of the world. The light that shines even in the darkest month – the darkest week of the year. The light that shines even in the darkest life and the darkest of experiences and the darkest of situations.
Thank God for Jesus. Thank God for Christmas.
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