The theme for the gospel for Christmas day was all about light and life, much like the Advent themes of joy, peace, love and hope. That theme of light rings through the readings for the whole season of Epiphany, the Twelve Days of Christmas.
The community scattered is not a safe place. To enter the world to be God’s light calls us to take risks, calls us to do new things in new ways, to engage in the world around us as God’s children.
The theme of light and life is nowhere more prevalent than in the gospel read on Christmas day, the prologue to the Gospel of John. Drawn from the creation account in Genesis that reads: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. And God said Let there be light. This celebrates the coming of Jesus for in him was life and that life was the light of all people. That light and life is now embedded in the community of faith, the church.
The church, the community of believers is and can be a sign of life and light in the world, a sign of hope, the Kingdom of God in action. Consider the food collections for community care, and money for PWRDF and the crisis in the Ukraine. These are things that our parish and many other congregations support, a culture of giving to others as a sign of God’s light and love.
At the same time, however, there is a call for us to reshape the church, to reconsider the role of the church as God’s action in the world.
Many people are talking about the essential characteristics of the church. On end of a continuum the church is a worship community, a community gathered for prayer and fellowship and mutual support.
On the other end of the continuum the church must become an incarnation of God’s love and light in the world not just a giving community but a community which stands with the suffering and the oppressed. A community which works in the world to relieve injustice, poverty, violence, and pain.
These two images of church, gathered and scattered must coexist, clearly we cannot be just one or the other.
The community gathered is a safe place, sheltered in prayer and ritual, word and sacrament.
The community scattered is not a safe place. To enter the world to be God’s light calls us to take risks, calls us to do new things in new ways, to engage in the world around us as God’s children.
And thus let us pray today:
That the light of faith which we celebrate in the birth of Jesus will light up our words and deeds, and that God among us and light in the midst of us will bring us to light and life.