Sermon preached by The Rev'd Richard Tombaugh

St. Paul’s on the Green, Norwalk, Connecticut

The First Sunday after Christmas, December 30, 2007

May the words spoken and heard this morning be spoken and heard in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. .

In the beginning was the Word…. St John tells us today that no matter how far you peer into the dim past you will never come on God alone. Always from the beginning there has been God and with him there has been Another by whom God expresses himself. This Other is called at first the Word. John says about the Word that he created all things and in him was life. John also says that the Word was light, a light so penetrating that it continues to shine in the darkness of this world’s evil and can never be overcome.

And what, may we ask is darkness? Is it simply the absence of a thing, like the hole in a stocking? Shall we simply say that where there is no light, there is an empty space called darkness? I think not. Darkness is the terror that frightens. It is what shames the soul and drags us down. Darkness is what hides truth from us and causes us to lose our way as we seek the great end of holiness.

Consider the confusion that clouds our minds when we cannot decide what direction we should follow in our work or with our family. Is this not like walking in darkness.

Consider the fear we feel, when we think we will lose forever a close and trusted relationship. Is this not like being alone in some dark vale?

Consider the despair that we feel when we are dismissed from a job or from a project we care about. Is this not like being plunged into a dark pit?

Consider the shame we feel, when we recognize we have by our words caused another great pain. Is this not like a dark picture we would like to ignore?

Consider the power of temptation to lure us away from upright actions we know we should take. Does this not seem like wearing temporary blinders that hide what we know to be good and true?

Consider great physical or emotional pain. Does this not feel like being enveloped in a dark cloud that obscures everything around?

Consider the impact of doubt about a relationship with another person or with God. Do we not experience this as being lost in a grey fog that obscures our journey?

Consider the anguish of loneliness. Is this not like a sleepless night that never seems to end?

Darkness is certainly not simply absence. It is the presence of temptation and evil that threatens to deprive us of or dignity and to erode our self-worth. Nor do I think of darkness as silence, even though many of the sounds of daily life are hushed at night. Darkness is blatant and insistent, pressing us to lose perspective and abandon faith.

Life-giving light, “the true light that enlightens every person,” on the other hand, is small like a new-born baby and often difficult to see. Divine goodness which to John is symbolized by light, is like water, which chooses the lowest places, and steals along, hidden by the rushes; and we know that it is there only by the greenness that it leaves along its banks.

It is this light, small yet persistent, that can never be overcome by the darkness in our lives. This is the divine light we hear about in the Christmas story. The message that “unto a Child is born” is the announcement that the blaze of heaven penetrates the darkness of our winter and the torment of our world.

The story says that God’s love is reaching out to challenge the best in us. Despite our sin God seeks to feed in us those impulses which will create a world in which families can dwell in safety, in which children can grow up strong in character and in which all of us can be lured by a hope for a future which promises both fulfillment and care in the beautiful world God has entrusted to us.

The Christmas story also discloses a divine secret. The great God who creates all that is and ever will be chooses to reveal himself in simple, unpretentious ways. He is to be found by following the light of a single star. Having revealed this divine secret the Christmas story gives us at the same time three clues for recognizing the light of God’s presence, wherever it is to be found. These three clues are signs of love at work in our lives. They are joy, innocence and generosity.

The Christmas story is about the joy of new life in Jesus, the innocence of the unspoiled hearts of Mary and Joseph and the generous impulses of all who come to adore the Christ child. Where there is joy, innocence and generosity there is room in the inn.

Where there is joy, innocence and generosity the love of God takes on human flesh as it did in that inn. Richard Selzer is a facial surgeon. In his book Mortal Lessons he tells of one experience after he has performed a delicate operation to remove a tumor from the cheek of a young woman.

“I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face post-operative, her face twisted…a tiny twig of facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed……In order to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut the little nerve. Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private. Who are they, I ask myself; he and this wry-mouth I have made; who gaze at each other so generously, greedily? The young woman speaks. ‘Will my mouth always be like this’, she asks. ‘Yes, ‘I say, ‘it will. It is because the nerve is cut.’ She nods and is silent. But the young man smiles. ‘I like it, he says. It’s kind of cute.’ All at once I know who he is. I understand and I lower my gaze. One is not bold in the presence of a god. Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I am so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works.”

The message of the events in that little town of Bethlehem on that wintry night so long ago is a promise that the light of God’s love will continue always in our midst to cast out the darkness of fear and despair. The story holds up the promise that even in our darkest nights and in our most tormented days we can have hope. The story reminds us that even in a dark world filled with horrors and regardless of the deformities caused by our sin, God will twist his own lips to accommodate to ours, to show us that our kiss still works.