Christmas Eve Sermon

Last week we had our Christmas Clericus Eucharist and luncheon. For those of you who may not be aware, Clericus is the name of the group of Anglican clergy from the same local area or deanery. Our deanery, the Peterborough deanery, has about 12 regular attending Anglican clergy. The reason I bring this up is because, during our luncheon, we got to talking about the Christmas readings and someone mentioned how tonight’s Gospel, the Gospel of John, was too philosophical, metaphysical and someone even said, incomprehensible. I didn’t add anything to this conversation, I just kept quiet and listened and the reason for my silence is this, I love this Gospel reading. The Gospel of John is my favourite Gospel and this reading is one of my favourite readings. 

I like to think. I like to think hard about things that I can’t understand, that push my capacity to comprehend, that remind me of my limited ability to understand the vastness of the universe and our place within it. This is also probably why I love science-fiction books and movies - not for the fantasy but for the possibility of a reality that I cannot comprehend.

The Christmas story isn’t just about the miracle of the Messiah, our God and saviour, born to a virgin in a stable. The Christmas story is actually a cosmic creation story.

Isaiah and the Psalms prophecy about the arrival of a Lord who will be witnessed by all nations and that the entirety of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

To the Hebrews, Paul says that God has spoken to us through the incarnation of Christ, “through whom he also created the worlds.” Paul also writes about creation stating: “In the beginning Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.”  

And of course, the Evangelist John, in his Gospel writes: “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”  

Tonight, as we gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Christ, we are also gathering to celebrate the birth of all creation - including ourselves.

In John’s creation account, we read about “the Word”, Logos or Wisdom - the essence of God that eternally existed before creation - and that all things, all beings of creation came into existence “through him” and “In him was life, and was the light of all people.” God, the creator spirit, is the source of all physical life and spiritual enlightenment. This enlightenment, this spirit, our spirits, shine in the darkness and the “darkness cannot overcome it.” John is referring to the power of our Sacred Illumination - the light within us, that triumphs over darkness - over evil and ignorance.

Now, that’s a lot, especially for us here tonight at 7 o’clock, to think about so let me try to break it down a bit.  

• God, aka the Word or Wisdom, existed before creation.

• God created all things - everything we know that exists in the universe comes from God. 

• We are part of God’s creation. God’s light is within us. Another way to think about it is that we are made from God’s DNA.

For those of you skeptics out there who are thinking, “Ya, ya, this is just Bible story religious faith stuff” I’d like to refer you to the words of one of the world’s most famous and renowned astro-scientists, Carl Sagan. In his book “Cosmos” Sagan writes: "The Cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." 

Isn’t this exactly what John is saying?

All we have to do is replace the word “Cosmos” with the biblical term “The Word”  and it makes sense.  “The Word is within us, we are made of star-stuff.” Carl Sagan, the scientist, and St. John, the Evangelist, both tell us that our essence comes from an eternal energy.

As beings of God, John also tells us that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  So the Gospel has now moved from the creation story to the Christmas story, the birth of God in human form, but they really are inseparable. God the creator is that baby in that manger, Christ our Saviour. The essence of God is within us all, and God came to us as Jesus, fully God, fully the Word, fully the Cosmos, to redirect us on our path to salvation so that when we die, when our created existence comes to an end, we may be reunited with our God, with that eternal essence of creation, with The Word.

In my opinion Christmas is the most complicated, mystical, metaphysical, hardest to understand and believe, festival of the Christian year. It really is also the most love-filled, wonderful, magical time of the year (just like the song says).

For me, I need to pare down all of the metaphysical theology and brain-cramping-thinking about the mystical miracle of Christmas. I need to simplify my concept of God and God’s purpose for me so that I can most easily live out my life as a Christian. So I simply think of God as Love. God is love.

It is Love that created all that exists.

It is Love that caused Jesus to come for us.

It is Love that we return to when we leave this life.

It is Love, believe it or not, that brought you here tonight.

Not because it’s Christmas Eve and oh, we better go to Church. Love brought you here because the reason you felt you better go to Church is because something powerful moved you to do so, compelled you to come here tonight, to join in this worship, to share in the Eucharist and to light a candle. 

Something compels us all to be together tonight, to celebrate the birth of Christ. I truly believe that the power behind that compulsion is the force of gratitude, a sense of obligation that comes from acknowledging the gift of love that God has for us in the form of that baby Jesus.

I also hope and pray that, as we sit together, as we pray and sing together, as we share in Holy Communion together, and when we light our candles and sing Silent Night together, you will feel love and you will feel loved, because you are.

Tonight we celebrate not just the birth of a baby a long time ago. Tonight we celebrate the creation of all that is, including ourselves. We celebrate the gift of our existence that is born to us because of God’s love for us.  A love we make known this night in our love for one another.

After we share in Communion, we will light our candles, symbolizing that God in Jesus is the light of the world and that we, like Jesus, also carry that light of love within us and into our world. 

Which reminds me of another great mind and philosopher. It was Star Wars’ Yoda, who said, in the Empire Strikes Back,  "Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter." We are luminous beings, as Christians, illuminated with God’s love and called to emanate this love throughout our life - into the lives of others.

Christmas is a magical, mystical season of light. I pray that your light of love shines beyond this night, into your many tomorrows. I pray that, in those moments when you may feel in darkness, someone brings a ray of loving light to you. I pray that when you see someone in their moment of darkness, you will be their light of love. 

In closing, I’d like to refer back to the great mind of Carl Sagan, who said in his book Contact, “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” Tonight, this Christmas Eve, we celebrate that infinite love given to us by God as Christ.  May this enduring love fill our hearts this night and be the light we carry into the world for all to see.

Amen.