There are better preachers out there. So, if you’re short on time, go and listen to them! However, if you’ve got 26 minutes to spare, I offer “The Challenge of Christmas Light” to you, and would love to hear your feedback.
I preached this sermon on December 27, 2015 at St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Mountain Brook, AL, as we celebrated the Feast of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist.
My sermon text was that day’s Gospel lesson, 1 John 1:1-9, expanded to include 2:1-2. But I also reference the Old Testament lesson, Exodus 33:18-23.
You can read the sermon manuscript here: The Challenge of Christmas Light Sermon Manuscript.
A transcript of the recording follows below. (Note: the recording begins just as I finish reading the collect for the Feast of St. John and the collect for the First Sunday after Christmas.)
Transcript
her. Amen. Did you catch the repetition of the word light in those prayers?
I’m calling this sermon the challenge of Christmas light. That’s the challenge of Christmas light, not Christmas lights. I’m sorry to disappoint, but this will not be a theological exploration of the difficulties of decorating.
Although, if you will indulge me, let’s at least mention the main challenge of Christmas lights, plural. Sure, they get tangled, and yes, they are very obnoxious if you leave them up all year round, but the main thing, above all else, is that they are so stinking impractical, right? Christmas lights only dazzle. Unless we’re talking about something like landing strips for the reindeer or the multicolored glow of your tree helping you not to trip during your nighttime walk to the bathroom, Christmas lights are very impractical. They serve no practical purpose, in fact. We use other lights, things like flashlights or reading lamps or headlights for the important tasks of illumination and guidance.
We are talking about this second important kind of light this morning. But even the light that illuminates and guides can also sting.
I was reminded of this on Christmas Day, in fact, when I was privileged to witness Peter and Christy Smith’s two-year-old son, Cohen, open up his very own, very bright flashlight. You see, Cohen had a great time shining his new flashlight everywhere. By the end of the evening, all of us, including him, had been reminded that those same four LEDs that could guide a family or an individual through a blackout or a storm, those same four lights that could be so useful to illuminate and guide, really hurt when they hit you right in the eyeballs. They really sting.
Because you see, light can guide, but it can also sting. And this is especially true if your eyes have gotten used to darkness. Light can guide, but it can also sting, especially when your eyes have gotten used to darkness.
As St. John puts it in 1 John 1, verse 5, God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
In Genesis 1 and 2, we read of how God made the entire world to be a realm of light, in which he and his creatures could enjoy unbroken fellowship in each other’s presence. However, ever since Genesis 3, humans have tragically chosen to try and live apart from God’s presence, away from his glory, in the shadowlands, as it were. To borrow the words of Isaiah 5, 20, humans, ever since Genesis 3, are those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness.
In Exodus 33, then, our Old Testament lesson this morning, Moses’ request to see God’s glory, to witness God’s unmitigated majesty, is therefore both understandable and absurd. On the one hand, it’s understandable because it’s good that Moses wants to experience God’s presence. Human beings were created to experience God’s glory. But you see, it’s also absurd, because Moses, as a sinful human being, would be obliterated by God’s unmitigated glory.
It would be like taking a person kept under blindfold in a dungeon for her entire life and forcing her to stare through a telescope at the sun. Actually, it would be a bit more like trying to touch the fiery surface of the sun. The same star that’s the source of light and life here on earth is a bit uncomfortable when experienced up close and personal at 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Light can guide, but it can also sting. God knows this. In Exodus 33, 20, he says to Moses, You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.
Wait, what? You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live? Is Christmas then a lie? You know, all this stuff about Jesus being fully God and whatnot? I mean, should the song go, and I’m sorry if this is your favorite song, but should it go, Mary, did you know that when you kiss your little baby, God’s glory might burn your face off?
Exodus 33, 20, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. John 1, 1-4. John 1, 1, excuse me. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Exodus 33, 20, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. John 1, 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Exodus 33, 20, you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live. John 1, 1. First John 1, 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life.
What’s going on? Was God only half serious when he was speaking to Moses? Or is he only half present, maybe even a third present with us in the person of Jesus?
St. John himself was aware of this tension. John 1, 18 says, No one has ever seen God. The only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. And in 1 John 4, 12, that exact phrase is repeated. No one has ever seen God.
Now, as far as John’s writings are concerned, the explanation seems to be that while Jesus is fully God, God is present to us in Jesus in a slightly different way than he is present to himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, in a similar way to how Moses survived seeing God’s back, but not his face in Exodus 33, we can survive the presence of the God-man Jesus Christ, even as we still await the full presence of the Trinity when all things are made new. And that’s a fair and a biblical answer to this tension, this problem. But I would like to offer you yet another this morning.
Remember, light can guide, but also sting, especially when your eyes have gotten used to darkness. Remember, God is light. Remember, Jesus is fully God. And remember, we shall not see God and live, for we have chosen to live in the shadow lands.
So, I suggest to you that, to the extent we see and experience God in the person of Jesus Christ, we do, in fact, die. But we die as shadow dwellers and are raised as daughters and sons of the light. I’ll say that again. To the extent we see and experience God in Jesus Christ, we do actually die. But we die as shadow dwellers and are raised as daughters and sons of the light.
Consider John 1, 9 through 13. In Jesus, the true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But, to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
Consider further the words of Romans 6, verses 3 through 5. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Consider even further the words of Ephesians 5, 8. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light.
This, then, is the challenge of Jesus, the Christmas light. To the extent we see and experience God and Jesus Christ, we do die. But we die as shadow dwellers and are raised as daughters and sons of the light.
This logic drives the entire book of 1 John, which incidentally begins on page 1021 of your Pew Bible, if you’d like to follow along. It’s why the first four verses of the letter stress that John is an eyewitness of what took place in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. There has been a God sighting, and therefore everything must change. A light is now shining in the shadowlands, creating a joyful fellowship of faith. A life characterized by the same kind of fellowship that takes place between God the Father and God the Son.
One of the central questions, then, that the whole book of 1 John answers is this. How do we know that we are a part of the joyful fellowship of faith, the church? How do we know that we have seen and experienced God in Jesus Christ? How do we know that we are sons and daughters of the light?
You know, one of the best things about St. John, in my personal opinion, is that he tells things like it is. He talks straight. How do you know if you are a light child or a shadow dweller? Easy. And yet, oh so difficult.
Take a look at your relationship with darkness. With sin. If you are walking in darkness, you are not walking in the light. And you must therefore repent, confess, and cling to Jesus.
Friends, I don’t know about you, but this is where the Christmas light stings me. My sin. My love for the darkness. But if God’s light is going to guide us shadow dwellers, it has to sting us first. God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
What’s that mean for us today? Well, let’s follow along with the three implications that John himself draws from this truth. He states each one first negatively and then positively. So first, chapter 1, verses 6 through 7 in our passage.
We must walk in the light to experience true fellowship with God and also with one another. What’s the negative side of that? Well, 1 John 1, 6 says, If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
You see, it’s no use denying the relationship-breaking effects of sin, as if God didn’t know any better. That’d be like me covering my eyes and saying, Ha! Now you can’t see me. But even more ridiculous.
It reminds me of Psalm 139. In verses 11 and 12 of that Psalm, David, speaking of trying to flee from God’s presence, says, If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me and the light about me be night. Even the darkness is not dark to you, God. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
Remember, God himself is light. He doesn’t just have a really good flashlight. He himself is the light. He is not deceived by our darkness. He can see right through it.
1 John 1, 7 then gives the positive side of this. It says, But if we walk in the light, as he, as God, is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
I don’t know about you, but I expected John in that verse to say, We have fellowship with God. Right? You remember, in verse 6, he just said that sin breaks our fellowship with God. And then he says, If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. What’s going on?
Well, just as walking in darkness breaks both fellowship with God and also fellowship with one another, walking in the light heals both. It heals our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationship with one another. It gives us true fellowship. And here, walking in the light means living in light of how God has revealed himself in his written word and his living word, his Son.
Being able to love what God loves and hate what God hates requires a cleansing, though. It requires a cleansing that only Christ’s death and resurrection can provide. More on that in a moment.
The second implication of God being light is that we must confess the guilt of our sins to experience cleansing forgiveness. 1 John 1.8 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Based on the usage of that phrase, to have sin, if we say we have no sin, that phrase is used four different times in John’s Gospel. And each time it means, not that we haven’t been affected by sin at all, but specifically, we’re claiming that we are not guilty of sin. That’s the false claim here. If we say we are not guilty of sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
But this is patently false to claim that we’re not guilty of sin. The only way we could convince ourselves otherwise is if, as the verse says, we lie not just to each other, but to ourselves. We are self-deceived. But tragically, we humans are often such thoroughgoing liars that we can and do deceive ourselves into thinking that, hey, we’re good people. We can make it on our own. We can be, you know, sons and daughters of at least the halfway light without God’s help.
To remedy this tragedy of self-deception, we must begin with confession. 1 John 1.9 says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now, sisters and brothers, it can be a terrifying truth, but trust me, God knows our brokenness. He sees our stains more clearly than we ever will. He himself is light, and it is pointless to lie to him about our darkness. We must take off our masks and admit our guilt, especially as Christians. Some people think you only need to do that in order to become a Christian, but especially as Christians, we must be willing to remove our masks in front of each other and in front of God and to confess our sins because he knows it already. It’s no use hiding.
That’s why we do so each week here as a church. We have the confession of sin, but I would encourage you, don’t count, don’t use that weekly confession as a substitute for your daily confession because I don’t know about you, but at least I sin every day. I don’t need to go searching for very long in my memory to remember the last time I tripped, the last time I chose darkness over light, so there’s always something to confess before God’s presence. So I would encourage you, use the weekly confession as a reminder that confession is important, but continue that practice of confession in your daily lives as individuals and as families.
But the amazing fact is, so that’s the terrifying truth that God knows our brokenness. The amazing fact is that he is always more ready to forgive us than we are willing to even confess our sins and ask for forgiveness. His grace is truly amazing. He is faithful to keep his promises to save and redeem the entire world, you and me included. And he is just. He is righteous because God himself died to rescue us from sin’s grasp. More on that in a moment.
Note, however, here that this rescue includes not just forgiveness forgiveness of our sins as if that weren’t good enough, but also cleansing from all unrighteousness. An inner transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit by which we come to love sin less and less and love God more and more. We are cleansed from all unrighteousness. Praise be to such a forgiving, cleansing, gracious God.
Finally then, we must cling to our righteous advocate Jesus Christ for redemption. Verse 10 of our passage reads, If we say we have not sinned, we make him, that is God, a liar and his word is not in us.
It is one thing to deny sin’s relationship-breaking effects in our life. It’s another thing to deny sin’s guilt in our life. But it is entirely another thing to deny sin’s very presence in our lives and to do so makes God himself a liar. To do so demonstrates that we have not his word within us. Why? Because his word so clearly states that sin’s relationship-breaking effects take place in our life, that we are guilty of sin and that we are stained by its presence.
Consider Psalm 14.3. They have all turned aside. Together they have become corrupt. There is none who does good, not even one.
Or Isaiah 64.6. We have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf and our iniquities like the wind take us away.
And I could go on and on and on. Those are just two examples from the Old Testament. The Bible’s filled with them. His word so clearly exposes our sin.
And it’s as if the gravity of that last false claim if we say we have not sinned, it’s as if the gravity of that false claim makes John break his pattern here. Because in chapter 2 verse 1 of 1 John he says, My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. He shows his cards on the table. That’s why I’m writing this book to you so that you may not sin. That’s the goal here of John’s whole book. Freedom not just from sin’s power but its very presence in our lives.
And that’s a noble goal to be sure but if John’s thought ended there, if I just sat down here, my goal for you is that you may not sin. Okay, try harder. Amen. A life free from sin? I mean, come on, who is sufficient for this? Am I the only one here who’s tempted towards despair by that? That seems like such an unreachable goal. Who is sufficient for this?
It’s the Sunday school answer. Jesus is. Christ is. So John continues, but if anyone does sin, the implication being that he will. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
We usually think of the Holy Spirit as our advocate but here Jesus Christ himself is described as our advocate. As the one who never sinned speaking with the Father in defense of those who have sinned. Furthermore, Jesus can be a perfectly effective advocate because he is also the propitiation, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His life, death, resurrection, and ascension do at least two things. They remove our guilts of sin and they also appease God’s righteous wrath. They remove God’s wrath and it also removes our guilt.
Now to some, that idea that God’s wrath is removed through Christ’s death is a very primitive notion of God they claim. That makes God into this arbitrary deity who needs to be appeased by blood like the pagans used to believe in the ancient days. But keep in mind here that God’s wrath at sin is not arbitrary. He’s not just mad just because because he wants to be.
His wrath is perfectly righteous because sin is so evil and destructive. Sin threatens to destroy and unmake the entire universe that God made and that God loves. And so God as the creator has every right to hate it. And he does hate it. He hates sin more than any of us ever do. You know, we think we get really upset at the latest tragedy in the news, at the latest unspeakable atrocity that has been committed. Our anger, our righteous anger at evil pales in comparison to God’s.
And furthermore, when we consider God’s wrath and that somehow being a primitive notion, we need to remember that Jesus is not some third party who sneaks us in. Right? Sometimes we explain the gospel, it’s almost as if Jesus shows up and he’s like, hey guys, dad’s really mad, but I think I can sneak you in the back door and it’s okay, even though you’re breaking curfew, all right, I’ll get you in, count on me. Right? And it makes the gospel nonsense because God ends up, you know, Jesus ends up being this unwilling sacrifice who just sort of puts up with his angry father. You get all sort of notions of like, oh, well, that’s divine child abuse.
No, this is where the doctrine of the trinity really, really carries water here. Jesus is God. Jesus is God the judge. Jesus is God who has unspeakable wrath at sin, and Jesus is the one who dies on our behalf. He’s not a third party to sneak us in the back door so that our angry father doesn’t whoop us, all right? Jesus is God himself worthy to judge us and willing to save us.
Consider the words of 1 John 4 10. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. God did this. God died on our behalf. And as if this weren’t a glorious enough truth, Jesus is the propitiation not for our sins alone, but also for the sins of the whole world.
This does not mean that Christ’s death automatically redeems every sinner. As we’ve seen throughout this passage in the rest of the Bible, confession, repentance, and faith are required. We are free to refuse our freedom. We are free, quotes, to stubbornly walk in the darkness while the light shines on. But we are also free to take off our masks, confess our sins, and receive true forgiveness, true cleansing, true redemption.
But you might be thinking, you don’t know what I’ve done, Josh. You don’t know the unspeakable deeds I’ve committed in the shadows, how often I’ve chosen the shadows. And you’re right, I don’t. I don’t. You can fool me. You all look like wonderful people, right? Very pretty masks.
But God already knows. God already knows exactly how much time you’ve spent in the shadows, what you did there, and how much you enjoyed it. And he still sent his son to die for you. He still sent his son to rescue you from your darkness and your sins. He knows your stains better than you, and he still is willing to die on your behalf. And Christ’s blood is a powerful enough detergent to wash away the guilty stains of the entire world.
It’s powerful enough. Do you trust it? Do you trust that it’s powerful enough? Or do you just trust that Jesus is good enough to save the good people but not you? No, it’s powerful enough. I don’t care how bad you are, how dark and how much you love the darkness. Christ is powerful enough to save you, to rescue you from sin’s grasp.
To the extent we see and experience God and Jesus Christ, we do die, but we die as shadow dwellers and are raised as daughters and sons of the light. Today and every day, may we walk in the light by confessing our sins and clinging to Christ. Amen.
Finally, you can read my other sermons here.
Grace and peace,
~Josh