The Light Flickers and Does Not Go Out

December 28, 2003 (First Sunday after Christmas)

By The Very Rev. James Hubbard, Dean Interim

- Isaiah 61:10-62:3
- Psalm 147
- Galatians 3:23-25;4:4-7
- John 1:1-18

(From The Lectionary Page)

There is no vista at all. It is black to the horizon. Nothing can be seen. The winds howl, the banshee wails, whistles and bangs and explosions occur in a cacophonous, unrhythmic, fearful fashion. All is chaos. And suddenly a revolution occurs. A light, a tiny flickering flame of light appears somewhere in the inestimable distance. [“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Through God all things became, and without God nothing was created. In him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light in the darkness shines and the darkness overtook it not.”] The blackness all around, encompassing, smothering, eating up everything except the little pinprick of light. That the darkness could not swallow. That light was and is the divine life of God. Around that light, around that life, around that divine word comes order out of chaos, light out of darkness, love out of nothing, hope out of despair.

In Jesus that life took form, took flesh. In Jesus that light was borne. In Jesus, God’s life, God’s divine word was clearly visible. And John Baptist recognized this and because he did, the life and light of God burned with him too, and in the near total blackness there was a second pinprick of light. For anyone who recognizes and receives the light that is God also begins to burn and to push back the darkness. You too can become one who receives the light, the Word, the God who dwells in human life. You too can help bring order out of chaos, love out of nothing, God out of oblivion. The light of God shines in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it. The light flickers and does not go out.