Whose Celebration is it Anyway? IV:

“The People Who Walk in Darkness…”

Isaiah 9:2-4

A Sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

December 23, 2007

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            In Handel’s oratorio, Messiah the bass soloist proclaims with great fervor that “the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.”  Quoting Isaiah 9:2, the bass goes on to proclaim that “those who dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath that light shined.”  This is the coming Messiah who comes even in the midst of our gravest and darkest hours, reminding us that we are not alone and we are not left comfortless. 

We need this reminder that darkness and bleakness and seeming dead-ends are not the final word.  We need the arrival of the light of God at Christmas time, if for no other reason than to give us a sense of light to overcome the present darkness.  You know as well as I do that there is plenty of darkness to go around.  There is plenty of gloom and doom underneath our Christmas cheer.  But despair does not have to be the last word.  That’s the gift of Christmas. 

            Throughout the season of Advent, we have been considering whose celebration it is anyway.  We have looked at the traditions that have blended into our Christmas celebrations.  We’ve looked at ancient December 25^th birthdays of god-figures.  We’ve looked at St. Nicholas’ generosity toward the poor and how that image has been appropriated by the consumer-driven machine with Santa Claus as the savior or the marketplace.  We have looked at the amazing birth stories from the Bible and how Jesus’ illegitimate and seemingly insignificant birth set the stage for the kind of leader he would be and the kind of God he revealed to humanity. 

There are only four Sundays in Advent, so we’re going to dispense with looking at the pagan origins of many Christmas symbols like the Druid Christmas tree, holly, ivy, Yule log and the mistletoe aphrodisiac.  Then there are those flying reindeer.  Need I even monition the Christmas Bowl games or the Holy Christmas credit card?

Today, we’re going to look at the fulcrum of the change of season from darkness to light that we celebrate at both the Winter Solstice and the birth of Jesus.  We’ll see how this change of seasons can help to reveal the new light of Christ this season.  We may at least say that we will walk a bit less in darkness as the days progress for the foreseeable future. 

            Think about what you would like to see illumined this season. 

Think about what bleakness has slowed you down. 

Think about how you may well want to turn the corner on the coming months.  If you do that, then you are onto something powerful and even holy.  

            Many gods were said to have been born on or around the Winter Solstice including, Dionysius, Hercules, Appolo, Attis, Baal, Helios, Horus, Mithra, Osiris, Perseus, and Theseus.  In Ancient Rome, they eventually had a celebration for all the gods and goddesses on a single festival called, not “Festivus”, but the "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun" which occurred on December 25^th.  When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire, in the 4^th century, many of those other birthdays were forgotten. (www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm)

            The ending of darkness and the returning of the sun is a central and sacred transfer of power in many cultures.  It is when the long dying of the days ends and we turn the corner and begin to reawaken, even though there are several more months of snow.  We know in our bones that, because the days are longer, hope is being born in us again.  We can better face the prospect of winter if we know that spring is on the way.

This transplanted Midwesterner always found Christmas to be a bit odd during the six year that we loved in San Francisco.  It was often 80 degrees and sunny. There were flowers in bloom.  People hardly noticed.  I missed the change of seasons.  When you live in a climate with a real winter, the eventual thaw and the flowers that accompany it is a welcome sight.  That’s part of what we look forward to even at Christmas.  We know that Spring will eventually come and that winter is not the final word.

            We are not so tied into the seasons as folk were back in ancient times.  We have shelter and heat and the comforts of home.  City lights cloud our view of the stars and we are just not sky oriented like folk were in the old days.  They took there solstices very seriously.

When I was on my Sabbatical, I visited Chaco Canyon in what is now Northern New Mexico.  There are a dozen or so ruins of ceremonial great houses of the Anasazi people in that canyon.  Because of the relative dry climate and the fear of the unknown magic that might linger in these long-abandoned ceremonial houses, they have been left largely undisturbed since they were vacated almost 800 years ago at least by the other Native American tribes.  Excavators and archeologists have studied and mapped these ceremonial houses with the round worship centers called Kivas.  They have discovered that the walls of each house are lined up on a perfect axis with the sun on the solstice and equinox.  There are calendars etched into the rocks not only showing the solstice markings but also showing how they change ever so slightly on an 18-year cycle. 

These ancient astronomers knew their solstices.  They marked something extremely important and central to their belief systems.  What was it?  We don’t know.  But they certainly remembered that they were dependant upon each successive year and each generation.  Maybe that’s something for us to remember as well as we exist in this individualistic world.  It’s not about our own individual salvation.  It’s a reminder that we are all somehow connected to each other in the deepest parts of our beings.

            I think of the fact that we often live in darkness even in the brightest days. 

We don’t recognize what is right in front of us.  

We don’t reach out for the support that is there.

Worse, there are even times when we do downright evil things. 

We deny, betray and fall asleep on people who need it the most. 

We wage wars on people and on the environment. 

We protect business interest at the expense of human interest. 

We sit idly by when peoples homes and rights are trampled upon, saying it’s too big, too complicated, too much of a bother to get involved. 

We can be so self-centered that we do not look out for someone else for fear that they may take our spot away.  As popular Christianity has focused so much on individual salvation we have lost that communal spirit.  This is certainly a way of walking in darkness.  Sometimes we wonder if the darkness is all there is.  Christmas is one of the only times when we actively and collectively try to turn our selfishness into generosity, maybe because we have been confronted or encouraged by that child of God smuggled into the world into a homeless and suspect family.

            You probably remember the running blackout that occurred a few years ago.  It was when a power surge somewhere in the Midwest knocked out power for days in the north east.  Luckily it was the summer.  The days were long and the nights were short.  But people were not prepared to be in the dark.  They were not prepared to not have artificial light.  My mother tells me that she joined her neighbors outside and she saw something she had never seen before in a Cleveland sky, the Milky Way.  She said that people needed to come out of their houses.  They needed to eat up their food before it went bad.  There were plenty of cookouts.  And the people who walked in darkness saw a bit of light they had never seen before.  They shared with each other.  They gave.  They remembered that we are all in this together.  This happened in the early aftermath of the 35W bridge collapse.  We recognized how much we need each other and how we are connected and not just by a highway bridge.

            Think of the places of darkness.  Think of those dark nights of the soul that pervade us from time to time.  The hope that we tack on to Christmas is an ancient hope.  It’s that the darkness is not the final answer.  There is a light that is coming.  And whether it is a star in the distance or a candle lit on Christmas Eve, or even the few more minutes of sunshine we have each day, the message is that there is hope on the way.  There is new life being born this day.  There is a change that is happening outside.  Maybe that change can happen inside, too. 

I’m especially looking forward to this Christmas because my younger sister will visit with us.  It has been several years since she has felt up to being with family, especially at the holiday time.  As I have told you, she has struggled with depression, not unlike many of us.  The prospect of seeing family on our turf was too much for her.  But this year, she made the plans.  She’s feeling so much better and there is light in her voice.  I cherish that sound and I continue to pray for it to be there each time I hear it.  I pray for it to be her real voice.  I want everything to be just like it was.  What an unrealistic thought.  Of course it will be different.  I’m looking forward to seeing her light, her healing and what she will teach me as we renew our family bonds.

Is there something that you want to change? 

Are there binders and blinders that have been holding you down? 

Is there some way to claw your way out of those shadows, maybe with the help of some caring people? 

God is telling us each Christmas that there is hope being born again.  Its Advent is what we have been preparing for.  Its coming is what we celebrate on Christmas.

            So pick your theme this Advent Season as you ask yourself whose celebration it is anyway. 

It may be the culmination of all of the celebrations from the birth narratives to the jolly old St. Nicholas to the dawning of light to the remembrance of the other gods who have gone before us.  But I hope you will celebrate the fact that God continues to move in mysterious and joyful ways. 

We are a people who walk in darkness.  But darkness is not the last word.  Today, there is the Advent of light.  It symbolizes hope, opportunity, companionship, community.  God is not done with us.  There is new light on the horizon, beckoning us forward, removing the shade, making our nights not so long.  As you emerge from the darkness this season, may something be born anew in you today and every day.   That could be the greatest Christmas gift you can give yourself, your community, and the world.