Sharing the Light of Christmas through the Year

With Christmas behind us, and the new year set to dawn, the lights are coming down. The town always seems a little darker without Christmas lights. We get used to them on houses here and there, and especially the dazzling display of white lights each year on Devon Drive.

            Christmas is a season of light, long celebrated with candles and then electric lights. This is appropriate at a time when nights are at their longest. But the reason we use lights to celebrate Christmas is that this is when we remember the light of Christ coming into the world.

What exactly is the Light of Christ? Christ is a title for the Messiah expected by the Jews. Messiah, literally means “anointed one.” The Jews were expecting a leader anointed by God to lead them. That’s the Christ part. We know that Jesus is the Christ, but what about the light. John describes Jesus as the “light of all people” and “the true light.” John was a disciple of Jesus and he often wrote using this idea of light and darkness. Darkness represents life apart from God. Light represents God’s presence.

In Jesus, God took on human flesh and lived among us. The light, God’s presence, was made known on earth more clearly than ever before in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus experienced all of human pain and suffering as well as joy and gladness. Jesus experienced both the light and the darkness of our world. In his life and ministry, Jesus revealed to us God’s love and care for his creation. In this he was shining the light of God into the world. Through his death and resurrection, Jesus showed how far God would go to reconcile all creation, to bring all creation back to God.

In showing us God’s love and care, Jesus shined the light of the one true God. The light of Jesus’ life shone into the darkness humanity had let itself sink into as we separated ourselves more and more from God. The myriad lights that surround us each Christmas are dim reminders of the bright light of Truth that was revealed by God in Christ.

God has poured out the light of Christ. The Christmas season is a time to rekindle the light of Christ that burns inside our hearts. Then we shine forth that light in our lives so that others may share in the glow. The love God has shown you is not a personal treasure. If the light of Christ were for you alone, it would be nothing more than a pocket warmer. The light of Christ burns brightest when shared.

The light of Christ shines forth whenever we show true love for one another. A warm smile, a listening ear, a generous hand, and a forgiving heart are all ways we can shine the light of Christ.

Five years ago, I worked as a chaplain intern at St. Elizabeths, a large
public mental hospital in Washington D.C. While I was there I got to know a man who knew all about light and darkness. He said I could share his thoughts. The client, who I'll call Mr. Morgan, had been very combative when he first came to the hospital. Mr. Morgan lashed out against everyone around. He was, as he would later describe it, in a very dark place.

Mr. Morgan and I met on my routine visits to his ward. We talked almost daily. He began to attend our weekly church services in his building. He started reading daily devotions and made arrangements for a Roman Catholic chaplain to bring him communion weekly. After reconnecting to his own spirituality, Mr. Morgan taught me about light and darkness.
            Mr. Morgan said, “If you were in a cave and you were carrying a torch like you see in a movie, what would you do if it went out?”

I replied, “I guess I would try to relight it.”

He went on, “But what if you didn’t have a light?”

 “Well I guess I would wander around in the dark looking for a way out.” I wondered where he was going with his story. I paused trying to picture the scene. What kind of darkness were we talking about? Mr. Morgan was quite philosophical, so I began to think about other kinds of darkness. Depression and despair came to mind, so did loneliness and confusion.

I came up with another solution, “Unless someone else came by with a light. Someone else could bring a light,” I offered.

Mr. Morgan smiled. I was hooked. “That’s what you do. You come around here and shed a little light. Sometimes we don’t even know we’re in the dark until somebody comes by with a light, if you know what I mean.”

I did know what he meant. Mr. Morgan was talking about shining the light of Christ into the dark corners of our world. The light of Christ can be taken for granted by those of us already basking in that light. But to people fumbling around in the dark night of their own souls even a glimmer of the truth that God loves him or her can be dazzling.

But to see Mr. Morgan as being in the darkness and chaplains as bringing all the light misses something vital. It was not a case of me being the one with all the light and Mr. Morgan the one with all the darkness. We always meet the God we want to share in the people with whom we wish to share God.

When I first went onto Mr. Morgan’s ward at St. Elizabeths, I was the stranger. At first Mr. Morgan sat back, watching me. I was the stranger and he offered me hospitality. He began to look for me to visit the ward, to welcome me. He often shared with me other clients’ concerns and introduced me to new people on the ward. It was in his hospitality that I saw the light of Christ. All I did was to reflect some of that light back to him.

I did not go to St. Elizabeths as the one with all the light to work among people in the dark. I went in all my brokenness to St. Elizabeths. I took my own inadequacy, my fears and apprehension about working with severely mentally ill persons. But ministry does not depend on our adequacy, but upon God’s. I met Christ in the clients at St. Elizabeths as they met Christ in me.

With Christmas behind us, the time is coming for the lights to come down. But remember the light of Christ that burns in your heart. It’s not a pocket warmer. The love God gives you will burn brightest when shared.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is the pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

previous         Return to Religion Column page       next