The Light of Christmas

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

~Source Unknown

“Darkness is only the absence of light. Turn on a light and it banishes the darkness.”

~Terry Pratchett (1948-2015), English author and satirist

“There are two ways of spreading light; to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”

~Edith Wharton (1862-1937), first woman to win Pulitzer Prize in Fiction

“The darkness always passes, and the light comes back.”

~Khaled Hosseini in The Kite Runner (2003)

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”

~Victor Hugo in Les Misérables (1862)

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

~Martin Luther King Jr. in Strength to Love (1963)

“The deepest thing in Christianity is God’s love for earth. That God is rich in his heaven is something known also by other religions. That he wanted to be poor together with his creatures, that…he wanted to and did indeed suffer for his world, and that through his Incarnation he enabled himself to prove the suffering of his love to his creatures: this is the hitherto unheard-of thing.”

~Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988), Swiss Theologian

“The Bible is God’s anthropology rather than man’s theology.”

~Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), leading Jewish theologian-philosopher of the 20th century

SERMON PASSAGE

John 1:1-5, 9-14; 3:16-21, 8:12 (ESV)

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….

9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 3

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 8

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”