As I was preparing for Christmas Eve, and working on my Christmas Day notes, the Exultant ("The Light of Christ...thanks be to God") kept running through my mind. That's an Easter hymn, not a Christmas one! But this idea of singing praise for the light just wouldn't leave me alone. Isaiah and the Psalms for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day call us to sing with joy a new song; to make a joyful noise for liberation and justice; to sing with all of creation in our restoration. These are the same themes of Easter readings and hymns. And so I had my own "ah-ha" moment, perhaps an early Epiphany if you will. We can't talk about Christmas without thinking about Easter. Christmas begins for us the story of the Incarnation and Easter is both an end and a beginning of death and resurrection life. Christmas and Easter, when understood in this way, are the life of the church. Well, duh!?!
The opening of the Gospel of John is one of my favorites because it requires a new set of mental gymnastics. Whereas Matthew and Luke draw us into the ordinary lives of Mary and Joseph as they question and ponder the birth of Jesus, John brings us into a new way of relating to Jesus. John claims that the Word, the logos, has been with us and all of creation since the beginning of time, and that this Word is the light of life. John is working out big theological concepts of Jesus' divine identity. His gospel is the foundation for our doctrine of the Trinity and the creeds. And while all of that is fascinating to study, I want (at least for now) to focus more on what it means for us to encounter the Incarnation.
In the birth, life and ministry of Jesus, the Incarnate God, we are invited to know God in new ways. God is not just the creator and warrior of the chosen people from the Hebrew Bible; God is also our counselor, teacher, healer, redeemer, sustainer and lover of our souls. God is the creator of the cosmos and will restore all of creation. God eases our tears and freely gives us love, forgiveness and grace. Maybe we would have experienced all these things without the Incarnation, but somehow, the mystery of Jesus, the light of the world, makes all these things more real. Because Jesus was born to an ordinary woman, because he was a teenager, because he grew as a man and experienced joy and sadness, because he suffered, we know that God understands us, loves us, and wants to be in relationship with us. Somehow Jesus reveals who God is, has been and will be.
Part of the metaphor of "walking in darkness" is about not knowing or understanding. For John's first audience, and I think for us as well, to be in the darkness means to not really know or be in relationship with God. As the light of the world, Jesus illuminates the path to God. As the light, Jesus shows us how to live as children of God--how to participate in the restoration of the world. Living in the light as children of God calls us to rejoice, sing new songs, make joyful noises, and proclaim the good news, which has been made manifest to us in Christ. The light of Christ...thanks be to God!