The Power of One (Candle)

Homily for Christmas Eve 2009

John 1

I’ll say “The light shines in the darkness, and you say “and the darkness did not overcome it.”

This is a moment I look forward to each and every year.  Not only because the candle lighting is a beautiful and moving ritual, but also for what it symbolizes.

Now you might think the candle you’re holding represents the baby Jesus, the light come into the world. No. This candle represents the new born king, the Christ—Jesus.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Did you see how the light spread? Starting from just a small circle hovering around that Christ candle, then begetting pinpoints of light to pushed back the darkness, then cascading from person to person to person—adult to child, teen to octogenarian, engineer to schoolteacher—on and on, people being drawn to the flame and then touched by the fire of Christ. Enlightening them, and they enlightening others.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The candle that you hold in your hand is the light of Christ given to you. Passed down from generation to generation, through mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, and siblings, and Sunday School teachers and youth workers, and pastors and compassionate  friends and neighbors.

Your light is a symbol of the Christ child’s presence for you, and, together with all the other candles, it is a representation of the great cloud of witnesses who struggled against the darkness.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Now you have light. Now you have Christ. Now you have a decision to make. Are you going to keep the light of Christ on the down low? Passing it discretely from fellow just-like-me to other fellow just-like-me? Or are you going to follow God’s lead and hold up Christ and proclaim him and his coming as a baby, his miracles and teachings and his death for me and you.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

Because that’s why we go out in the freezing cold of a December’s night, when darkness is at its most full, when all rational people would be home by the heater counting sugar plums. To proclaim the name of the one born to save—Emmanuel, Messiah, Jesus! To lift up the good news that in Jesus Christ the kingdom of God is at hand—forgiveness is possible, transformation is possible, new life is possible, anything is possible—because…

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.