Jesus’ light shines

Isaiah 9:2-7; Luke 1:26-35, 38; Luke 2:1-7; Matthew 2:1-11; John 1:1-14

Today, we are reading 5 of the traditional 9 lessons for a service of Lessons and Carols. The readings all tell us in various ways: just who this Jesus is. Since we add a sermon and Holy Communion, 5 lessons is all we can manage in the usual hour allotted for worship.

Since John’s image of Jesus is different from that of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, I will focus on that today. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels, since they are similar to each other in many ways. Synoptic means seen together: syn for together, optic for seeing – like when you go to get new glasses at the optician.

The synoptic gospels all portray Jesus as a man who grew into his identity as God’s Son. Over three or so years, Jesus figured out who would be good disciples, trained them to do what he did, and to believe that he was sent by God. It’s only toward the end that people make the connection that he was indeed God.

On the other hand, John tells the story with a cosmic identity for Jesus from the beginning. Many of you may have memorized at least the first verse of John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Jesus enters the story as the divine being incarnate, doing what God the Father sent him to do, because he is one with the Father. Jesus brings the true light into the world because he is the true light. John gets a one-line mention here: John was sent by God to testify to the light that Jesus brings.

The Bible translation The Message puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” When Jesus moves into the neighborhood, he shines light into everything. Good things are highlighted as life-giving; evil spaces are illuminated so they can be recognized as evil and dealt with appropriately.

The light that Jesus brings is life-giving for all who believe and receive him. Unfortunately, there were those who refused to see his light, and did not accept him. Those who do receive him, who accept him as the Light of God, become children of God. And we see his truth, his glorious light.

John writes this section for our reading today as a prologue to the rest of the story. After the prologue, John recounts the signs and conversations in which Jesus helps people see his power and God’s light: water into wine, discussing being born from above with a Pharisee, accepting water from a foreign woman with a questionable reputation, feeding multitudes, casting out demons, giving sight to the blind, raising Lazarus from the dead.

With John’s Jesus, it’s clear that no one is unacceptable. All are welcome and invited to receive the light and life that Jesus brings into the world. Those who receive healing, whose eyes and hearts are opened are so enthused with God’s Spirit, with the light and life Jesus brings, that they are unable to keep the good news to themselves. They run – RUN – immediately to tell others about Jesus.

… People ask me all the time, “How do we grow the church, bring more people here?” I first say with a wink and a smile, “We need to have more babies!” When I was on internship in Iowa 25 years ago, many of the families’ older generations had 10 or more children. With that birth rate, it was easy to grow the church, if most of the children stayed in town. But the more recent generations had 4 or less children and many of them moved away from small rural towns.

Today, we are learning we need to be proactive if we want to grow the church. We need to run with passion to tell others about Jesus. The trouble is that we are afraid to talk about God with others, we don’t know how to invite people, and we don’t get it that Lutherans have something special.

So, we need to learn to brag about ourselves a bit. Lutherans regularly say we know we are sinners and we know we are forgiven, saints and sinners at the same time. We are usually authentic, saying and doing the same things on Sundays and Mondays. Around the world, Lutherans are known as the people who are among the first to show up at a disaster, and stay the longest, to make sure all is well when they leave.

It’s time to recognize within ourselves that we all carry Jesus’ light and life within us, and it’s time to let it shine for others to see. Yes, you are probably not going to get your Catholic or Pentecostal or Baptist friends to join you at church on Sunday.

But you might have a chance with those who don’t know God the way we do. You might have a chance with the neighbor who is afraid God can’t possibly love him, or with the friend who worries that she has a secret she considers unforgivable.

That was exactly the point of the TV show Touched by an Angel. The team of angels showed up as regular people in the life of someone who was hurting, taught them about God’s love, and in the end, God’s light shone all around Monica, revealing that she was an angel bring God’s light to hurting people.

This week, I hope you can find ways to let God’s light shine through you onto someone who needs to see it. Amen