Dr. Seuss knew that every Christmas has a Grinch. Every positive experience, it would seem, has a dark side, a negative side. Every Christmas has a Grinch to steal away its joy.
Maybe you are one of those people, and there are quite a few of them, who just get tired of the whole murky business before Christmas Day comes. Maybe you are one of those who get weary with Christmas carols (sorry about tonight!) and particularly weary with "Little Drummer Boy, Pa-rum-pa-papum" five hundred times, as elevator music! Maybe you are tired of it all and are skating dangerously close to the "Bah humbug" syndrome!
I heard the other day about a hotelkeeper who had booked a chess players convention at the Christmas break. These chess enthusiasts gathered night and day, it seemed in the hotel lobby, chattering away about their tournaments and their gambits, their knights and their rooks. After about three hours of this the hotel manager came out from behind the desk and shooed them all out. "Just get out of here, just go to your rooms, just go out on the street, anywhere, anything, but get out of here!” “But why?” someone asked. “What harm can a convention of chess players talking about their game possibly do?” "Because," said the hotel manager, "after a while you get tired of chess nuts boasting in an open foyer."
Christmas can bring out the best in people, but it can also bring out the worst. Especially the worst puns.
Maybe you are tired of Christmas by the time Christmas comes. Of maybe for you it was that last-minute shopping experience. You thought you had plenty of time, you knew exactly what you wanted, and off you trotted to pick it up this afternoon, knowing that things might be crowded, but believing that all would be well. Ah, but if it turned out for you as it turned out for me, I picked up my couple of items, I got in what I thought was the shortest check-out line, only to be held up by three price checks, one register void, a check approval, and the woman in front of me, at the last instant, decided she didn’t want to spend more than $100 and took simply hours negotiating which items to credit and which ones to keep! What a Grinch experience!
And when it became my turn, and I thought it’s Christmas time and the livin’ is easy, she had to send for a SKU number, whatever that is, and it took so long that when I got to the parking garage they said, "Sorry, sir, you have to pay. You only get one hour free." Ouch!
Every Christmas has a Grinch, every positive experience a negative, every joy a sorrow, every gift a price tag. That’s what we tend to think. That seems to be what we experience.
But John, in the preface to his little letter, says that God revealed his life in Jesus Christ, and that God is light in Him is no darkness at all. And then John says that he is telling us this truth so that our joy may be complete. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all; joy complete, unsullied, unalloyed, and pure.
It must have seemed to anyone who had followed Jesus from His birth to His manhood and to the end ... it must have seemed to anyone privileged to know Him all His life that in His life there was that element of the negative, that somber side. Despite His crystalline purity, despite His matchless teaching and His incredible healing powers, despite all that He had going for Him, from the very beginning there was a shadow, a threat, having over Him.
At His cradle, while shepherds watched and angels sang, all seemed wonderful. But not very far away, in a palace in Jerusalem, a king was planning malice and mayhem. Scores of infant children slain because of the birth of this one. A shadow side, a curse at the cradle.
On the eighth day, when they took this little one to the temple for naming and circumcision, after the custom of his fathers, an aged priest marveled at Him and thanked God for allowing him to see this child, but then spoke of a sword which would pierce the heart of His mother. A shadow side, a dark side, a curse at the cradle.
And as He grew and began to teach, day after day, week after week, the careful reader of the Gospels can sense the gathering of storm clouds. He made powerful enemies, right from the start. Pharisees, Zealots, Scribes and priests, Romans, few of them appreciated what He had to say. You can see, very, very soon, as you read His story, that an end is coming, a violent end, a bitterly disappointing end. A curse at the cradle and a curse, it seems, during His life. A curse that would lead to a cross.
And yet, here is the witness of John, made more poignant tonight as we have lighted candle after candle and made this room more and more aglow with the warmth of their lights. Here is the witness of John, "Eternal life was with the Father and was revealed to us … in Jesus Christ ... God is light and in him there is no darkness at all ... We are writing these things so that your joy may be complete."
The astounding truth of the Christian gospel, to which we bear witness tonight, is that the cradle, the curse, and the cross, do all go together, and that all together they are God’s light, God’s gift, God’s salvation. The awesome message of the Christian faith, at Christmas time or at any other time, is that we have not been deserted, we whose lives are under the curse of sin and evil. We have not been deserted, but there is one who has come from heaven’s height for our souls, for all that we need. He has come from the realms of light and has invaded this darkness of ours, and even though it looks for a time as though evil will have it way and harm will rule, even though it looks dismal for a time, the eternal message of the Christian faith is, as John wrote in another place, "Light is coming into the world, and the darkness can not put it out."
The darkness cannot put it out. Friends, you and I know without being reminded of the terrible things that are happening all around us. Fires, murders, poverty, evictions, hostility, international crisis, the failure of integrity at the very highest of places. I need not detail all this. It’s obvious.
And yet, against all of that we take a stand tonight. We take a stand and insist the God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. We take a stand and witness that as God in Jesus Christ invested Himself at the cradle of Bethlehem, taking upon Himself the curse of human foolishness and sin and paying the price in His own blood upon the Cross … we witness that that same God has conquered. He is victor. He has won the battle. And the forces of darkness, powerful for a while, will have their day, but they have not won. No, they have not. Christ is the light of the World. In Him is no darkness at all. And the darkness can never put Him out.
In another December, more than fifty years ago, as war spread over the world, a British statesman wrote sadly, "The lights are going out all over Europe, and it is not likely we shall see them lit again in our lifetime.” But, you know, there is a Christian organization, called the Christophers, whose motto is "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” I submit to you that that is exactly what God did at Bethlehem. He lit a candle named Jesus that shall never go out. And I submit to you that that too is our job. To light candles, even if only one candle. A candle of truth, a candle of witness, a candle of love. And it shall never go out. God is light and in Him and in what He has done is no darkness at all.
One of our members, Bryon Grant, wrote a poem a few months ago, and gave me permission to use it. This poem was written after the death at a very great age of Dr. Arthur Flemming, the grandfather of Bryon’s fiancée, Amy. Some of you know that Dr. Flemming was an eminent scientist and a former cabinet member. He also served in many Christian roles and was president for a time of the National Council of Churches. Of Dr. Flemming Bryon wrote:
"Rain falls relentlessly from the sky,
The harbinger of death creeps faintly in his eye.
Outside a storm rages in full fury,
Inside he lays listless, still and weary.
The rain slows to a drizzle, continuing to wet,
So does his heartbeat, but not gone yet.
Finally, the rain past, there is quiet and peace.
And too, he has passed without pain in the least.
The tale of the storm is debris here and there,
The tale of his life, good deeds everywhere.
The passing of he rain leaves another yet to come,
The passing of his life leaves a legacy never undone."
Our fellowship; is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in whom there is no darkness at all. Let your joy be complete. It is better by far to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
