As people of faith, we believe that God’s love does have the power to change the world. We are counting on it. We are depending on it. As people of faith, we know that God’s love does have the power to transform this world into God’s Beloved Community here on earth because we have experienced it in our own lives.
December 22, 2024
This Little Light
“This Little Light Fills the World with Love”
Isaiah 60: 1-3
John 1: 1-5
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Isaiah 60: 1-3
Arise! Shine! Your light has come; the Lord’s glory has shone upon you. Though darkness covers the earth and gloom the nations, the Lord will shine upon you; God’s glory will appear over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning radiance.
John 1: 1-5
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was with God in the beginning. Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.
This Little Light Fills the World with Love Isa 60; John 1
Here, we are, the fourth week of Advent and today, we are talking about love. You would think this would have been an easy sermon to write. We talk about love all the time as people of faith. I’m not sure we go a Sunday where love isn’t mentioned somewhere in our service. It is usually mentioned in our prayers. It is usually mentioned in the sermon. And I know love is definitely mentioned in the moments when we gather at the communion table. As people of faith, we talk about love all the time.
So if that is the case, why on earth was this sermon, this sermon about our light, the light shining for all the world to see, this light which fills our hearts, fills our world with love, why on earth was this sermon on love so difficult to write?
Let me tell you, as soon as I asked myself that question, I knew I had my answer. Love shouldn’t be something we just talk about in our worship service as people of faith. Instead, Love should be the force which shapes our words and actions. Love should be the force which reminds us that God is still at work in our world. Love should be the force which transforms us, which brings forth new life for all of God’s creation.
Love should be the defining force, the guiding force, the leading force in our world. But sad to say, more often than not, it seems like love does not exist in our world. It is not even a second thought or an impulse which stirs people to action. Rather, it seems love and our call to love one another gets buried as people strive for power and might. On any given day, we hear more about humankind’s brokenness than we do about the transforming power of God’s love.
Maybe that’s why it is so hard to talk about God’s love in our world today. We wonder if it even still exists. It seems like everything in our world, everything about our world tells us that God’s love is a thing from a distant past, that we are fools for believing that love still exists, let alone believing love has the power to change the world. Everything about our world, everything in our world tells us fear will overcome love every single time.
Now before we all get too depressed on this joyous Sunday, thankfully, regardless of what our news headlines tell us, as people of faith, we all still believe love has the power to change the world. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t. We still believe God’s love does have the power to change the world. We are counting on it. We are depending on it. As people of faith, we know that God’s love does have the power to transform this world into God’s Beloved Community here on earth because we have experienced it in our own lives. Which is why these scriptures shared by prophets in our sacred story who experienced the same thing are perfect for this Sunday.
We hear today a wonderful reminder from both the Old Testament and the New Testament that God’s love does have the power to change the world. We hear an invitation to rise and shine, to give God the glory, knowing that God’s love will draw people in. We hear a promise given to us that God’s light was the life for all people.
Our sacred text reminds us that since the beginning of time, our world has been full of God’s love. Long before the angels and the shepherds appeared. Long, long before Joseph took everyone to Bethlehem, our world has been, is now, and forever will be full of God’s steadfast love.
The reason why this matters to us as people of faith is because deep down, we all need to hear once again that the moment, the moment when Love came down to live among the people of God, the moment which makes God’s love real for us is more than just a story. We need to hear that it is more than just a moment in time. As people of faith, we need constant reminders that God’s love is a way of life for us as the people of God here on earth.
And Isaiah and John’s words do just that. They remind us that God has done and continues to do what God has promised us. God is with us. God is for us. God is here among God’s people. God’s very presence has defied the powers of injustice and has disrupted systems of oppression. The Spirit of God continues to bring a newness of life to God’s people. Isaiah and John remind us that the ways of God are not the ways of this world, that God is doing a new thing where the old is made new and the familiar is made strange. Isaiah and John remind us to expect the Holy Spirit to show up in powerful and life changing ways.
Or let me say it this way… the world rushes us to December 24th and then when we get there, it speeds us on to December 25th. Then on December 26th, the world starts rushing us to shove the manger back into the storage shed again. Why? You ask. For one simple reason: Because the world wants us to think that if we rush by Bethlehem, if we minimize the significance of the moment when God became flesh and lived among us, the world thinks if it can limit God’s incarnation to just one day, then it can also limit the impact of God’s love on the world. The world thinks if it can get us to ignore the scene in the manger, then it can also limit the life-changing, the life transforming effect God’s love has on this world. And if the world can do that, then the world wins right?
But we as people of faith know differently. We know that the manger can be put away but the stars at night will tell of God’s love and glory. We know that the shepherds can be put out to pasture again but the world cannot silence the angels’ chorus. As people of faith, we know that the world can turn the page on the calendar and declare that the season of giving is over but that doesn’t change the fact that our world has been given and continues to be given the greatest gift each and every day. We have been given the gift of God’s steadfast love.
Because the good news, the life giving news, the life transforming news is simply this… God is not and will not be the God we want, a god created in our image, a god who obeys our every whim, a god who we control. Rather the good news, the life giving news, the life transforming news is that God is the God we need, a God who loves us more than we will ever know, a God who is faithful from generation to generation, a God who did not come with armies or power or might. But rather came to us a baby, powerless, vulnerable, a baby born to a carpenter and an unmarried mother. God defied the world’s expectations and in doing so, redeems us, renews us, and inspires us to give glory to God now and forevermore.
Because we know, that for us gathered here, for us watching online, for the people in our community and beyond, It has always been about God’s love changing and transforming our world. It has always been about the Spirit moving in and among, waiting for love to be born in us, waiting for love to be born for us. It has always been about God doing a new thing, reminding us, reminding all of God’s people that this world will never have the last word. It has always been about God’s light, our light filling this world will love. So people of God, Rise and shine and give God the glory, because today, and all days…through the gift of a baby born in the manger, a light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn’t extinguish it. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, December 22, 2024 – This Little Light Fills the World with Love Isa 60: 1-3; John 1: 1-5.
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