Lessons & Carols Homily - Fr. Aaron Damiani

And I was thinking about the role that light has played and

continues to play in our life as we think about the light shining

in the darkness. Just consider going through your

day without any light, without any artificial light, without

any natural light. Can you imagine trying to

navigate on the Kennedy Expressway without any light or

just even parking at the grocery store?

Parking at Costco? Zero light, let alone getting

your groceries, let alone making dinner.

No light to guide you. Can you imagine what it would be

like to try to meet people or even form, relate, form lasting

relationships if you had no light to to illuminate someone's

facial expressions and you think about what it would be like just

to stay, to keep yourself out of danger without any light.

If you think about the role of light, it just becomes clear

that physical light makes physical life possible, makes

human life possible. It allows for us to

differentiate what is what and allows for us to navigate and

form a life of love. Now, one of the claims that

Jesus Christ made about himself was that he was the light of the

world. Now in that he was not claiming

to be physical light. That was, that's what the sun

does. It already takes care of that.

He was claiming to be spiritual light.

In a world where we often feel confused and overwhelmed, Jesus

promised to answer the big questions of life like this.

Is there a God? And can we be in relationship

with that God in a meaningful way?

What's our purpose and calling in life when we hurt ourselves,

When we hurt other people and live with regret?

What do we do with the guilt and shame that we carry?

Is there anywhere we can take it to be free when we suffer?

Is there any meaning in our suffering?

Is there any hope when we're experiencing pain?

And where can we find love and belonging that will always be

there no matter what kind of day we're having?

See The thing is that we need spiritual light to navigate

those questions in life. And we all have these questions

and that's what Jesus Christ offers when he says I am the

light of the world. We're looking today at the 1st

or sorry, at the final lesson, the Gospel of John, page 16 in

your programs. You're welcome to follow along

if you'd like. And this, this poem, which

introduces a biography of Jesus, reveals 4 powerful functions of

spiritual light. And each of these are going to

sort of illuminate a different aspect of the human experience.

And as you hear these four functions of spiritual light, I

want to invite you to consider this question.

Where could we let the light in this Christmas?

Now the first function, the first powerful function that

John claims about Jesus is this light creates life.

Light creates life. John introduces his poem here

and he introduces Jesus here with with a word in Greek.

It's Lagos. And one of the ways we can

understand what Lagos means is it's like a divine blueprint.

It's translated as word with a capital W and it's and it's

Jesus, but Jesus bringing in God's blueprint for the world.

And he says this in the beginning was the word, in the

beginning was the Lagos. And he's John's sort of drawing

on the ancient book of Genesis. Some of you are familiar with

how Genesis begins in in the beginning, you know, God created

and what did God create? God let said let there be light

and there was light and then creation followed that light.

You don't have to be a religious person per SE to appreciate how

physical light brings about physical, physical light brings

about physical life. Scientists tell us that light in

the form of these ancient UV rays actually once played a very

significant role in carving out galaxies and sort of trapping

and maneuvering light and particles, waves and particles

into the world. We now know that light took an

active role in shaping even our Galaxy, and in our own gardens

we can see that like plants grow, when photosynthesis

happens, it takes and metabolizes the power of light

so that our tomato plants are nice and juicy.

Artists know this. In fact, the word photography

means to write with light. Light gives shade and color and

shadow, and it speaks a wordless beauty into any canvas or frame

or sunset. John describes Jesus as light

that gives way to life. When he says this, all things

were made through him and then in verse three he says in him

was life and the life was the light of men, the light of

humanity. Jesus, the light of the world

creates life. He once said this, you know, the

thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come

that they may have life and have it abundantly.

So you think about like, has anything stolen your hope?

And there's plenty of things in this world that can steal our

hope. But you know, Jesus, as the

light of the world promises, he comes to restore it.

Has anyone destroyed our trust? Has anyone left us hurt or

traumatized? Jesus came to restore that life

that was taken, and he speaks a wordless beauty onto the canvas

of our soul, no matter how much damage or hurt has been done to

it. Are we dying on the inside from

shame or guilt? Jesus offers forgiveness, a

fresh start and a never ending relationship with God.

You know, after a long spiritual winter, Jesus is like that

springtime Chicago sun that comes out and everyone's so

excited to bask in the light and be like, yes, restore me after

what was taken from me these last six months.

He's life giving, He's restoring, He's full of hope.

But the light doesn't just give life.

It has another function which which might feel bracing at 1st,

and that's this. That light doesn't just create

life. Light confronts darkness.

Light confronts darkness. John tells us in verse 5 that

the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not

overcome it. The light of Christ disrupts and

overcomes the darkness of this world.

We might think of this as like the tough love way that the

light that the light shines. We can take an example from

everyday life. Imagine being deep asleep,

blackout curtains drawn. It's really cozy, it's really

warm. You're dreaming your best dream,

but you're also in that moment. In reality, you're missing your

flight unless you get up, or you're going to miss the

presentation at work, or the callback audition, or your kids

orthodontist appointment which has been scheduled for nine

months. And so unless someone shows some

tough love and opens the door and flicks on the light and

pierces your psyche with pain from like opening the curtains,

you're going to miss it. And and yet, once they do, once

they wake you up with that light, once the light shines in

the darkness, you're grateful for the light.

It doesn't feel good at first, but it's setting you free to

live the calling that you have for that day.

Light confronts darkness. Light exposes the truth, no

matter how painful. Now, this is true in the realm

of justice in society. The light of truth brings

accountability wherever there is corruption, and one Chicagoan

who lived this truth was known as Ida B Wells.

Ida B Wells Wells was a successful journalist in the

late 1800s. She was actually born to

enslaved parents and spent her life savings on starting a new

paper which became renowned. It was called the Memphis Free

Speech lived in Memphis. And as her career took off,

something happened which changed the whole trajectory of her

career. Three of her friends ran a

grocery store, and that grocery store came under attack from the

local white mob, which saw it as a threat and wanted to get

vengeance. And so in an act of defending

their store, these men, these three friends of hers, were

arrested. They were imprisoned and then a

mob came, broke into the prison and and put them to death by an

act of mob violence. Now, this was normal at the time

and people kind of were afraid to question this practice of, of

mob violence. And so she wrote about it in her

paper. And guess what?

The mob came after her paper and destroyed every piece of

equipment she had and they came after her too.

Where did she escape to? She came to Chicago and for the

next 35 years she continued exposing the ways that mob

violence was happening against people of color all over the

country. She tracked it down as one of

the first instances of investigative journalism and and

eventually it was outlawed. Now, here's a a quote that she

lived by. She summed up her life's work in

this way. The way to right wrongs is to

turn the light of truth upon them.

The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon

them. Now here's my problem.

I'm all for the light of truth being turned on someone else,

but it when it comes to my darkness, I'm much less willing

and comfortable for the light to shine on the dark corners of my

soul. And I'm so grateful that when

Jesus shines his light, it shines not only with truth, but

also with grace. Now, during his earthly

ministry, we see that Jesus found people who were sort of

like trapped in spiritual darkness, some kind of personal

darkness, and his light actually set them free.

Zacchaeus was a corrupt government official.

Everyone hated him. Jesus befriended him, came over

to his house. By the time dinner was over, he

was helping Zacchaeus pay back what he had stolen from other

people in society with interest. And Zacchaeus joy was restored.

There's another woman that he met in a town called Samaria,

and Jesus got into a conversation with her.

Again, very few people wanted to be her friend, but he brought up

this thing that was going on in her life, which was kind of a it

was an open secret, but she had a history of toxic

relationships. And he brought it up in such a

way that liberated her and set her free and her life was never

the same. Even the guy who wrote today's

gospel, John had an anger problem.

And Jesus had a nickname for him.

He was one of the sons of Thunder.

And by the time Jesus had shined his light in John's direction

for a number of years, just slow in a slow life on lifeway, John

was known as the Beloved Disciple.

He was known for love, tenderness, became a pastor and

lived for many years shepherding A flock, going through

suffering. Now this, these stories are

being multiplied over all over the world right now.

Millions of stories for billions of stories, quite frankly, of

the way Jesus shines his light on people and changes them from

the inside out. It's not to condemn them, it's

to bring them liberation. He just rolls back the spiritual

darkness. His light shines in the darkness

and the darkness doesn't overcome it.

Now maybe you have felt judged by someone's light before and

that's a terrible experience and I just want you to know it

wasn't right and that when Jesus shines his light in our

direction, it comes with grace and healing and joy and

unconditional love. If all that he did with his

light was to confront, it would be discouraging.

And that's why John goes on to describe 1/3 function of the

light of the world and that's this.

The light claims us as his own. He doesn't just confront the

darkness, He claims claims us as his own.

Ultimately the light of the world wants a relationship with

us. And that's why John says in

verse 9 the true light, which gives light to everyone was

coming into the world. Now John goes on to say not

everyone received the light. Not everyone was up for that.

Verse 12 says this. But to all who did receive him,

who believed in His name, He gave the right to become

children of God. Now in the ancient world, your

identity, your sense of existence and having a self

largely came through your family.

If you were orphaned, you had no identity.

You had no self. People didn't think of you as a

person. Sometimes people will get named.

They would just get a number. Your number is 4, your number is

5 because they didn't have a self.

So if someone were to adopt you, to claim you and bring you into

their family, not as a servant but as a child, it changed

everything for you. You didn't just get a place to

sleep and eat. You have an identity now.

You have a self. You're recognized.

You have a family to belong to, a legacy to keep, a blessing to

inherit and pass on. Your existence now matters.

So to be adopted was a profound act of grace in the ancient

world. It still is.

And that's what the light of the world came to offer.

He came to say no matter which family we came from, he came.

He comes to say, look, I know you, I love you, I choose you.

I claim you as my own. Welcome to the family of God.

Our context is a little different from the ancient

world. In the modern world, our

identities largely come through our accomplishments, and this is

especially true in the city. Many of us feel that if we

haven't made good, we don't matter much.

We believe that if we could just sort of advance ourselves a

little bit more, we would finally be recognized, that we

would finally have a self. And what does this do?

You know it gives way to punishing seasons at work, or

training to the point of injury, or painstaking hours of

posturing online, or just constantly searching for the

next self help hack self help book self advancement routine.

In the modern world, we find ourselves in this exhausting

cycle of trying to belong, being good enough to belong, being

good enough to be remembered or included, and just feeling that

ambient sense of shame that we haven't done it yet.

So if you're exhausted from proving you belong, but are

never sure, this light is for you.

This is a warm light that has come to claim you.

Just imagine in your life if you never had to strive again, if

you never had to prove anything else, if you never had to pull

yourself up from your bootstraps again because you knew you were

already loved, already chosen by Jesus, the light of the world,

who knows us and names us and claims us as his own, just as we

are. That's what he came.

That's what he's ready to do. Now, once he claims us, what is

the light of the world offer? And this is how John concludes

that the light communes with us. The light doesn't just claim us

as his own, He communes with us. John uses some poetic language

in verse 14 to describe how Jesus Christ, God's Son, became

a human being. He says this and the word that's

Jesus became flesh. That means that he was born as a

human being 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 is helping us see this

truth. The light of the world became a

real person. He was born as a human baby to

to His mother was named Mary. His adoptive father was named

Joseph. He needed care.

He needed feeding and cleaning and love and attention just like

any of us did. He grew up to become a man and

he became a day laborer. And after a time of being a day

laborer, he, he invested himself in a small group of people where

he taught them how to love and how to live and how to lead.

He taught them what was worth dying for.

He taught them how to have a relationship with God.

He became friends with them. He ate around, he invited people

around the table. He walked in a suffering world

without any modern conveniences. He knew what it was like to

sweat and suffer and rejoice and feel lonely and, and pray.

The word became flesh. It was a human being and he

connected with people. He loved people, he befriended

them and through his spirit, he still does.

He still befriends people. This is what John talks about

when he says, we, we've seen his glory.

You know, the light became a human being and shone through

his life. A national study by Ohio State

University discovered that 2/3 of parents reported isolation

and loneliness. You don't have to be a parent to

know that like, depending on the season that you're in, you might

feel lonely. Sometimes you have more friends

in your life than other times, especially when responsibilities

pile up, when you're moving to a new town, when you have a

medical set back, and the holidays are an especially

lonely time for many people. The end of the day, Jesus

Christ, the light of the world created, who created us, wants

to have a relationship with us, not just in the good times, but

in the hard times, not just when we're riding high, but also in

our lowest moments, not just in the life we have, but also in

the life to come. He will never reject us, He will

never hurt us, and no one else in this life can promise that.

He once spoke these words. He said.

I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and

opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and He with

me. In these words, Jesus is saying

that He is pursuing us, He's seeking to connect with us and

this is still true. This invitation still stands.

It might be 6 months before we can get outside and bask in the

sun. That time is a long way off,

relatively speaking. And when that time comes, we

will probably put on our shorts and pursue the light and bask in

it and get warm and it will be great.

But this Christmas time, we do not have to wait at all to bask

in the spiritual light that has come to the world and is shining

right now. And my invitation to you is to

to be as. Intentional to bask in his

light, as you will be in six months.

To bask in the physical light. Let him recreate you from the

inside out. Whatever's died, let him

recreate you. Let him fill you with hope and

purpose again. Let him forgive any guilt.

Let him release any shame. Let him speak a better word over

your life and over your future. Let him claim you.

Let him commune with you. This might mean just taking a

moment to sort of pray to him directly in your in your mind

and heart. Simply Jesus, you are the light

of the world shine on me. It might mean reading the rest

of the book. That is, you know, we we read

the beginning of it tonight, the Gospel of John.

Whatever you do, my invitation to all of us is let's let the

light in. Let's let the light in.

And as we do, friends, I want to invite you to receive this

ancient blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep

you. May the Lord make his face to

shine upon you. May the Lord be gracious to you.

May the Lord look with favor upon you and give you peace.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,

Amen. Let's just take a moment of

silent prayer to give you an opportunity to invite the light

in.