The light shines in the darkness

Have you ever noticed that when you get together with your family and start telling stories about when you were growing up, or what happened years ago, the same events sound very different as different people tell the story. I watched the film "Lady in the Van' recently, with Maggie Smith and thought it was a moving and funny film, perhaps the best I have seen this year. But I have spoken to others who did not like the film for various reasons. Same event, different points of view.

Try thinking about this very human business of memory and story telling in light of the wonderful poetry of the first 14 verses of John's Gospel. This is the Christmas story, the third time the Bible tells it. It is the same story we heard in Luke's Gospel - the story of the manger and the shepherds and the angels. It is the same story Matthew tells in his Gospel, with Joseph's dreams and the wise men - but the point of view is different. John's Gospel sounds strange to ears more accustomed to descriptions of crowded inns and angel choirs. That is because different people are telling the same story.

You see, Luke, who wrote the familiar story, was keen on locating everything in time and space. He was almost certainly a Gentile, and was very concerned about the role of people who, like him, were considered outsiders. So he is more concerned with shepherds, who were social outcasts, than about kings. And Luke tells the story from the perspective of Mary, a radical move in itself, since women were even lower on the social ladder than shepherds!

Matthew was a Jew and was very concerned with making it clear that Jesus fulfilled all that was required by the ancient prophets for him to be the promised Messiah. So shepherds did not interest him as much as royal wise men. And he wrote about the flight to Egypt, the return to Israel paralleling the Exodus. Matthew told the story of Jesus' birth from Joseph's perspective.

And then came John. John knew, in one way or another, about the stories in Matthew and Luke, and he assumes that we know about them as well. But John is a theologian,a philosopher. and a mystic. So since he (and we) already know the 'historical' details of Jesus' birth, John writes of its meaning, and writes from his knowledge of philosophy, theology and a from a lifetime of prayer.

But it is the same story, all three are talking about the same birth. John does  begin the story earlier, he reminds us that Christmas really begins just before the dawn of creation. So using language reminiscent of Genesis, John begins by talking about the Word of God. The Word of God here is God in action, God creating and revealing. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Then he tells the Christmas story in nine words, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.' Jesus was as completely human as you and me. Poetic words for the most down to earth thing that ever happened. But still the Christmas story. Matthew, Luke and John may approach the event in different ways but there is one image, one symbol, that all three use to talk about Christmas.

They all talk about light, the light of a star, the light that shone around the shepherds, the true light that enlightens every person. They all combine Isaiah's vision of light shining on those who live in darkness.

The light shines in the darkness John proclaims. We all know what it is light to live in and with darkness. I often get up in the night and wander around the house in darkness. I can get disorientated and bump into things or misjudge the number of steps on the stairs.

We also know what is is like live in broad daylight.What John, Luke and Matthew all say about Christmas is that a night begins to shine, suddenly, quietly, but absolutely certainly. And by that light we can begin to see. By that light we can begin to see who we are and who we were created to be. Because it is in the person of Jesus that what it means to be a human being is finally made clear. In him we see that our lives are made whole as we give ourselves in love and service. In him we see that really being alive means risking everything for the love of God and the kIngdom of God.

By that light that has come into the world we begin to see God clearly for the first time. 'No-one has ever seen God' John reminds us but God is made known in Jesus. Who God is, in relationship to us, is fully revealed in Jesus. Not in one saying, or one parable, or one sign, but in all of them. In his life, death and resurrection we finally have the light to see God.

The light of Christ, the Word made flesh, comes among us at Christmas. That first Christmas, the light shone, and continues to shine so we can show the world what we have seen. By that light we have been given power to become children of God. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.

Christmas sermon 2015 based on John 1 v 1-14