Light a Candle by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat – December 24, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Matthew 1:18-25

A last-minute, late-breaking development – I want to read a passage of scripture to you that’s not listed in our bulletin. It’s one that’s familiar to many of you. It is the first 14 verses of the Gospel According to John. Please listen for the word of God speaking to you and remember you can hear the English word “light.” It’s a translation of the Greek word; the base of the Greek word is “phos.” Transliterated into English it’s spelled “phos,” the “ph” pronounced as an “f.” It’s “phos,” and it’s where we get words like “photograph” and that sort of thing, but when you hear “light” it’s the word “phos.” When you hear the word “world” – actually, when John wrote this, he didn’t write it in English, he wrote it in Koine Greek and he wrote “cosmos.” That’s the world referred to, and where does the cosmos begin and where does the cosmos end? Cosmos is everything, everything. So here’s John:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and without Him not one thing came into being. What has come to be with Him was life, and this life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light.

“The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He came to what was His own, and His own people did not accept Him. Yet to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God – who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us. And we have seen His glory, the glory as of God’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. Bob read it earlier, he read it because I wrote it, and what he read was if Christmas is about anything at all it’s about light. John’s “phos,” light that shines in the cosmos. And please notice that John says that the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. He does not say that the darkness dissipates. He does not say that the darkness goes away. He’s saying there’s light and there’s dark, so what are you going to be? And what am I going to be? Are we going to curse the darkness, or are we going to light a candle? Am I the only person here tonight on this Christmas Eve who has never cursed the darkness? Do you believe that? I’m so holy, so pure. Don’t be with me in a football game if my team isn’t doing what I want them to do.

If Christmas is about anything at all it’s about light, and I’m going to give you permission to curse the darkness if you want to but don’t stay there. Eventually find a way to light the candle. I’ve brought some of my things to share with you tonight. These are sources of light for me, because that’s what tonight is about. It’s about light. I shared with some of you in a message a couple of Sundays ago so I’ll make it brief, but I want to lift it up to you again tonight and I’ll never forget it. Nothing really happened. It was all so very ordinary and so very mundane and made such an impression on me. My wife, Vicki, and I were living in Chicago at the time, I was serving a church in the Chicagoland area, and I came home. My hometown is Marysville, there’s at least one of you tonight who knows about that, and I came home for my high school reunion, from the big city. I had a good time at the reunion, and it was Saturday night, it was very late in summer and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I don’t remember who, but somebody needed a ride home, so me and another one of my classmates took this person home. They lived somewhere in the middle of Union County, Ohio, far away from all ambient light. And I will never forget it. This hasn’t happened to me very much in my life. I will never forget dropping our friend off in their driveway, and I got out of the car and I looked up into the sky and I just couldn’t believe the stars in the darkness. It’s such a cliché and it’s so true. Isn’t that what cliches are, the truth? You can only see those stars in the darkness. Life is contradictory and life is paradoxical. Write that down. Life is paradoxical and life is contradictory. And tonight, it’s about lighting candles.

So these are some sources of light in my life that I want to share with you. I think I’ll start with this one. Say a little prayer for Charlotte. Charlotte’s job tonight is to videotape me as I walk around, so good luck with that, Charlotte. I’m not going to walk all over, but I wish all of you would take a minute and look at this after the service tonight. I’ll leave them up here, for a few minutes anyway. Can you tell that this is a Santa Claus? I’m looking around for some of our children here tonight. Is Santa Claus in the Bible? Yes – Matthew, Chapter 25, look it up. How’s that for trouble, mom and dad? But I want you to see that this is a Santa that comes out for us every Christmas. You know what it is? It’s a piece of driftwood. It’s a piece of driftwood that some artist transformed into Santa Claus. I just love this. Trust me on this; if you get up close the detail is exquisite. What I’m holding in my right hand here is the theological notion of transformation, transformed from a meaningless piece of driftwood into art. This is what our lives can be tonight, now, because of the gift of light. We are transformed from driftwood into artwork.

What do I want to show you next? I’ve got my watch here; I’m probably not going to have time to show you everything but I’m going to show you this one next. This is one of my favorite Christmas ornaments. Again, it’s another artist, and it’s made from wood. Can you tell what this is? You can see that, some of you, right? What is that? It’s the sun. The sun is a source of light. How many stars do we have in our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy? Be careful now, it’s a trick question. How many stars do we have just in our galaxy? One, you’re looking at it. All those other stars that we see are beyond our galaxy. Do you want to guess what’s on the other side of the sun? The moon. One is a source of light, and what does the moon do? Reflects the light. What I’m preaching to you now is that on our good days we’re the sun. On our tough days we’re the moon, we reflect the light. It’s about light.

I’ve been looking forward to this. One of the baselines of my ministry always has been that God can work through anything, anybody, anywhere, anytime, anyhow. God can do that. God can even work through this. This is another one of my favorite Christmas ornaments. Can anybody up in the front tell me what that is? It’s the state of Florida, and this state of Florida has an alligator on it and it says Florida at the top and there’s an orange and there’s a mockingbird there. I meant to look it up today; the mockingbird must be the state bird. I’m getting some nods. I know they’re prevalent. I want you to watch very closely up here in the front; the alligator tail moves. Can you see that? This is on our tree. The reason why we have a state of Florida map on our Christmas tree every year is when we bought this years ago my in-laws lived in Florida. This represents family for us. They don’t live in Florida anymore; they live in North Carolina now. They got tired of the heat. But when I look at this I think of family, and I think of my mom, who died in 2019 on the fourth Sunday of Advent. The fourth Sunday of Advent is traditionally the Joy Sunday, it’s the Sunday that we light the Joy candle; one of the candles up there is the Joy candle. My mom was 85 years old, the last couple years of her life, her body, she had really, really struggled. And ultimately those of us saw her death as sort of a gift, she’s at peace now. My mom, Joy, died on Joy Sunday. I think of her certainly more than every Christmas, but I think of her at Christmas, and I think of family. When I look at you right now, I’m thinking of the person that you’re missing tonight, and the person that you’re thinking of, the person that you’re separated from, either by death or miles. I want to give us all a moment of silence in the midst of this message right now, and I’m inviting you to think and remember the loved one this Christmas season that you’re missing.

OK, two more, I’m going to do two more. Can any of you gardeners – by the way, this is not fake, this is real – can anybody tell what this is? Yeah, this is holly. We have a holly bush by our very small and humble front porch, and I happen to be married to a gardener. I’m a gardener’s assistant and have been for 42 years. We moved into our present house a little over 10 years ago, and part of that purchase involved a real scrawny looking holly bush at the front of our house. The gardener who lives in my house got her hands on that holly bush and it’s thriving now. Did you know that anthropologists actually study these things? (Baby cries.) By the way, they teach us at seminary when the baby starts crying, wrap it up. That’s the truth, so I’m going to wrap it up, because they know. Anthropologists actually study these things. Do you know why the Christmas colors are green and red? There are a lot of experts who say it comes from the Druids. The Druids were around at least 500 years before Christ, most in what we call Northern Ireland and Scotland now. The Druids loved holly, and they felt that it had magical qualities. Sometimes they’d even wear it in their hair because they felt that it kept the evil spirits away. Holly, during the wintertime and during the winter solstice, a lot of historians think that it assimilated into Christianity. The early Christians were wanting to fit into society. And the holly, this is green. It almost looks green, doesn’t it? And it will be green, everlasting life, all winter long, and offering its seeds. Its seeds are new growth and new birth.

And with that, here’s the last thing, and then we’re going to move on. I’ve shared this with you at least once before that I can remember. This is my maternal grandfather’s railroad lantern. My grandfather, who died in 1974, worked for the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, lived in Monessen, Pennsylvania, and after he died, I inherited this because nobody else wanted it, and I absolutely love it. (Lights lantern.) For you railroad train buffs, the P&LE was part of the New York Central system. This is an antique and this says NYC on it, this glass – I need to be very careful with this – for New York Central. What did these railroad guys use these lights for? For signaling, for communication. John tells us that the light comes into the world. Can you see the way that the engineers constructed this globe? Can anybody see that the further away you get from the light the larger the flame gets? Wait until you see it in the dark. The true light that enlightens all people of the cosmos has come into the world. You see, Christmas is about light. Christmas is about lighting the candle. Amen?