Today at noon the sun will be at the southernmost part of the sky, for today is the winter solstice. It’s hard for us, living in this tropical paradise, even to imagine there is such a season as winter, but let your imaginations take you to a more northern clime, perhaps to the place from which you have come to Sarasota to escape the winter. Then go back thousands of years to the time before there was any scientific understanding of the universe, a time when what was harvested in the fall had to carry you and your family through the winter, a time when the cycles of nature were not taken for granted, but were believed to be at the whims of the gods.
Imagine your thoughts as you experience the dying of nature and the gradual diminishing of daylight. For all you know, the process will continue, darkness will eventually be complete, the cold unbearable, the food from the harvest depleted, and all living things will die just like the rest of nature.
And then tomorrow comes. The daylight was actually a little longer, and the next day it was longer still.
What a glorious day it is when the process appears to reverse itself and the sun decides it will not die. All sorts of pagan rituals developed around that day which has become known as the winter solstice and which happens every year around the 22nd of December. This year it happens to be on the 21st.
The choice of the 25th of December to celebrate the birth of our Lord is connected to this cycle of nature. We celebrate the birth of the Redeemer just as nature itself seems to be saying that when things seem darkest, there is hope.
Advent is about over. If I understand the solstice correctly, today is the shortest day of the year, which means that last night was the longest period of darkness of the year. And as the darkness has grown, our Advent Trindle has become brighter and brighter, until on this fourth Sunday of Advent it is ablaze with light. Light shining in darkness is a wonderful symbol for who we are as Christians.
The image of the light shining in the darkness doesn’t speak too well of the world, for it is the world without Christ that is characterized by darkness. Indeed, it shouldn’t take much persuading to convince the average person that the world is in darkness. The newspapers are full of stories about violent crime, mass murders, terrorists targeting and killing even schoolchildren.
It was probably 25 years ago that I attended the Triennial Convention of the National Association of Episcopal Schools in San Francisco. I attended because my parish at that time had a school and I can still remember the unofficial theme of the conference, for all of the speakers, highly acclaimed educators, echoed the same theme without having collaborated. That theme was the need for schools to teach values and morals; the need for schools, in other words, to be a light in the darkness. They said that schools needed to educate for character because that education in many cases was not happening elsewhere, including the home. A corollary to what these educators were saying is that television and popular music were having a tremendous impact on weakening the moral fiber of society. Today, of course, we would add the Internet as a major part of that list.
One response to this situation is to wring our hands, to despair of hoping for any change. But that is not a Christian response. The Christian response is to do what we are doing today. As the world gets darker, we light more candles. The motto of the Christopher society says it well: “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.” Children in our society generally are suffering from a lack of values, and though the children in the families at Redeemer generally do not fall into that category, we work harder to reinforce values in the children who come to Sunday School and youth activities. Business practices by many are unethical, but the Christian business person continues to hold the line and deal with people honestly and fairly. People continue to get sick, and we cover them in prayer, visit them, and do all in our power, as instruments of God, to effect their healing. Of course, sin continues to be a part of our lives, we are all still well acquainted with darkness, but we confess and receive God’s forgiveness, and we forgive; society becomes more inhuman, and we work in our small corner of society to be more compassionate. These things are all candles shining in the darkness.
We light these candles because we do not lose hope, and we do not lose hope because God has not given up on us. Today’s Gospel is God’s answer to the darkness of the world. He sent an angel, Gabriel, to a Virgin by the name of Mary; and the angel told her that she would conceive and bear a son who would be the Son of God. Mary consented, and through her the Savior of the world took flesh and entered this world as a human being. He is the light that shines in the darkness. As Simeon spoke of him, he is the light that lightens the Gentiles.
Whenever I am tempted to think that the darkness of the world is winning, it helps me to recall that God never loses hope in us, that he has already won the victory over darkness in sending his Son Jesus Christ. Most of all, what gives me the greatest hope is our life together in Christ. I see how you deal with the chances and changes of this life; I see you taking your precious time and ringing bells for Salvation Army, teaching Sunday school, singing in the choir, serving on committees, on the vestry; I see your Christian values and convictions being lived out in your work and in your families, and I see the light shining in the darkness. Yes, we are a flawed community. We make many mistakes and we fall from time to time. But it is the Christian community, with all of its weaknesses, through whom God has chosen to continue to make himself known. I give thanks to God for you, and I pray that for you I, too, can be one through whom Christ’s light shines.
Sermon preached by the Very Reverend Fredrick A. Robinson
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota Florida
4th Sunday after Advent
21 December 2014