I was on the end of the choir tonight-- as I usually am-- and I lit my candle from that of the pastor (who had, in turn, taken her flame from the Christ candle), and then held it out to the singer next to me. I watched the glow travel slowly down the row, one person sharing with the next, each face illuminated in turn.
That is what this season means. I have spoken of it before-- the coming of light, in so many ways and traditions. A good time to celebrate Jesus' birth since we're not observing at the proper time, this time of year when our friends in the Pagan traditions are also celebrating light and hoping for its return in the months to come. So are those of us who love astronomy, for whom the longest darkness of the year that heralds the slow return to light is a matter of science, not religion (but holding no less wonder for all that).
And have I spoken of this before, that we are God's hands and feet and voices in the world, the answer to "why doesn't God do something"-- because we are called. Tonight's passing of the light was an apt metaphor for the real passing of the light, of peace and love and knowledge and justice and camaraderie and all of those other things that we would term as "light," from one person to the next, pushing the darkness further and further back. We give strength and hope and inspiration and impetus to each other, and this way we help each other spread the light, because none of us can do it alone.
It's true that once God said, "let there be light," and light just was. Now Jesus says to us, "let there be light," and has shown us the way to create it: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.* Now it's up to us. I hope we all find a way to take his light, and make it our own light, and share it, this season and the next; Christmas and Easter and summer and next Christmas and always.
Merry Christmas to you; may we all, one by one, light the whole world, the way tonight we lit the whole church with our candles. Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me (and you!).
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:6 (NIV)
*Matthew 22:37-40 (NRSV)
