[RCL]: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Canticle 9; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technically, Christmas lasts 12 days. It starts at sundown Christmas Eve and continues until January 6, the Epiphany. In the old days, Christians refrained from Christmas celebration until Christmas Eve. Not even the tree would go up before then, as people respected the holy anticipation of Advent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, faith often follows practice, and practice has effectively changed the timing of Advent and Christmas Advent no longer occupies the four weeks before Christmas. To the extent it exists at all, Advent falls between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Christmas is inaugurated by a regal Santa floating down 34th street, at the end of the Macy\u2019s parade. It continues until Christmas Day, when it stops cold in its tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here it is, nine days before the end of pop Christmas, and we\u2019re weary-worn, tired of hearing \u201cSilver Bells\u201d waft through the canned-goods section at the grocery store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But why complain like Scrooge? This isn\u2019t the first time Christians have folded to pop culture. Both Christmas and Easter arrived at their current locations on the calendar in part because of pagan celebrations: Easter, mimicking both popular spring fertility rituals and the vernal equinox; and Christmas, honoring winter solstice celebrations. So what if retail stores command Christmas observance long before the exact day? Who are we to complain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem is, John the itinerant Baptist does complain. He refuses to let you or anyone else skip Advent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John is shouting at the top of his lungs: \u201cYou brood of snakes! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You just wanted to buy one more Christmas present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m talkin\u2019 to you!\u201d John continues as you walk down the sidewalk toward him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who? Me? You look up to see this homeless guy pointing his boney finger at you, spittle coagulating at the edge of his thick beard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGod doesn\u2019t need your so-called-faith,\u201d he continues. \u201cGod can turn these stones into Christians!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can tell \u2013 this guy is crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only he isn\u2019t crazy. He is tenacious; but he isn\u2019t crazy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time to live your faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You mutter to yourself about the city and how it won\u2019t take care of the riff raff, all the while fishing in your pocket for a $5 bill to drop into the Salvation Army bucket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat paltry donation isn\u2019t going to buy anybody anything! I\u2019m talkn\u2019 to you. Who told you to flee the wrath to come?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man is exhausting your already waning Christmas spirit. If he hopes you\u2019ll give him a ten, he\u2019s sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only, he doesn\u2019t want your money; he wants your soul. He wants to know: What difference do you really make? In this confused world of complex darkness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The man\u2019s eyes are God\u2019s eyes, and now you can\u2019t help but wonder the same thing: What difference?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Complex darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The winter solstice takes place this coming Friday, December 21, at 11:12 a.m., Greenwich Mean Time. At the solstice, the complex darkness of an empty winter expands like bellows inhaling light, exhaling darkness. Darkness overwhelms and crushes; the soul is lost in a sea of nihilism. It is winter yet again? And your imagination wonders, just like John asks, What am I doing here? Do I have purpose?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seasonal affective disorder, holiday blues, simple self-questioning. What\u2019s it all about, anyway? Winter darkness can seem so very, very oppressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only, don\u2019t you know? Darkness is not the same as eternal night. Paradoxically, light is hidden within darkness, in its corners, beneath thick blankets. Playing hide and seek, light waits eternally for you to discover grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In her poem, \u201cTwelfth Night,\u201d Laurie Lee writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo night could be darker than this night,
no cold so cold \u2026
O never again, it seems, can green things run \u2026
from this dark lung of winter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Darkness and cold, night and eternal sleep. John the Baptist frames the darkness for you: What are you doing here, anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What you don\u2019t know is this: Hidden in the dark words of John\u2019s question is resplendent light. When John wonders, \u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d he is actually claiming, \u201cYou have purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But John is not one to let you off the hook easily. Meaning: Faith is not simple; it isn\u2019t easy; it takes attention. \u201cGod can turn these stones into Christians!\u201d he reminds us. Don\u2019t take your faith for granted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this is Christmas, and all you want is a little peace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou brood of snakes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Revelation of Peter is an extra-biblical text that was discovered in 1945 among the Dead Sea Scrolls. When written at the end of the first century, Christians faced fierce persecution, and many, Peter included, were being tortured and killed. Christians needed to know that God had not abandoned them \u2013 in the stadiums, facing lions, being crucified upside down. They needed to know their life was not being given in vain, that they had purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The times were dark, and these people needed light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Revelation opens with a visit to Peter from Jesus. Peter sees himself in the Temple, when a murderous hoard of people run up to attack him. Peter is afraid, but Jesus reassures him: \u201cPut your hands \u2026 over your eyes, and tell me what you see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter covers his eyes, and answers, \u201cNothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus tells him to do it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This time in the darkness, Peter sees a bright light \u2013 brighter than the sun. Only the light is not new, it is a light that had been there all along, only Peter couldn\u2019t see it. This light infuses Peter with strength and hope, enough to face persecution and ultimately death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enough to share with the other Christians, also facing death. Light \u2013 hidden under the thick blanket of darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Light \u2013 and hope and confidence that there is more to reality than what you see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the same light neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander observed and described in his new book, \u201cProof of Heaven.\u201d During his very real, near-death experience, Dr. Alexander was ushered into a pitch-black void, a darkness that Alexander described as paradoxically and simultaneously brimming with light. Complete darkness containing absolute light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, Dr. Alexander quoted the 17th century poet Henry Vaughan to explain his experience: \u201cThere is, some say, in God a deep but dazzling darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In God, a dazzling darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John the Baptist, full of the Spirit of God, interrupts your dull light of Christmas cheer with disturbingly dark words. But these dark words are meant not just to break, but to heal; not just to crush, but to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do you need real light this Christmas season? Do you need real hope?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Perhaps you will find tucked deep into John\u2019s dark accusation some ray of hope. For there you will find the promise that God refuses to leave you, or anyone else, alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laurie Lee continues her poem: \u201cFor see, beneath the hand, the earth already warms and glows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it is out of utter coldness that the babe is born. That hope is born. Which is what Isaiah meant when he beat John the Baptist to the punch and proclaimed, \u201cThe people who lived in deep darkness, on them a light has shined.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fear not, for I bring you good news of great joy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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