Shine Christmas Eve 2009

Shine

.The common candle for years has been the traditional symbol for christmas.

Choirs sing by candlelight and Christ the light of the world is lauded as the baby who became the saviour.

Angels from heaven bathed in a sky lit by the glory of the Lord worshipping and praising God.

It reads like this:-

Luke 2:8-20

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

(from New International Version)

I was having one of those “what if” moments while putting together this message.

In this “What if ?” moment my thoughts wandered to light – You see our world is used to light – every morning light comes into the world and every evening it grows dark only to lighten up again the next morning. We are one hundred percent dependent on light.

What if the Christmas account was interpreted in light from a 21st century knowledge base and perspective – if we combined our biblical knowledge and interpreted it in relation to today not through a 17th, 18th, 19th or even 20th century knowledge base?

Wherever there is not light – like at the Antartica for six months a year – then artificial means of staying alive have to be introduced.

Light was introduced to the planet at the dawn of time by God – With the simple words:” let there be light.” God directed and ordered light on earth through that incredible source

Of light called the sun.

The Sun is one out of billions of stars. The Sun is the closest star to Earth. The Sun rotates once every 27 days.

The Sun’s surface is called the photosphere. The temperature of the photosphere is about 10,000° Fahrenheit. Its core is under its atmosphere. The temperature at the core, or very middle, of the Sun, is about 27 million° Fahrenheit. That’s pretty hot!

The Sun’s diameter is about 870,000 miles wide. The Sun is 109 times wider than Earth, and is 333,000 times heavier.

The Sun is only one of over 100 billion stars Over one million Earths could fit inside the Sun. . The Sun is tilted.

Without the Sun, Earth could not support life. The Sun is the largest mass in our Solar System.

The number of stars in the known Universe exceeds one billion.

On the night that Jesus was born the sun sent it’s light at an amazing (approximately 186,282 miles 300,000 kilometres per second). To bounce off the moon and to light up the night sky for the shepherds – that is amazingly cosmic activity in it’s own right and is incredibly hard to understand by looking at a candle. Or even by listening to a choir singing light of the world. But friends this is only auxilary, bounced of the moon type lighting, The original source of this light is God the creator of the heavens of the earth but in a down stream effect this light is bought to the Shepherds by an interactive process between the suns central componaents 92% hydrogen, 7% helium and low number gasses? The Sun’s core is the hottest part of its matter. It is 27 billion° Fahrenheit. If the Sun was hollow, you could fit 333,000 Earths inside! But none the less since God created it since the dawn of time it has been acting in response to that direct creative command of God let their be light.