“Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of
great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a
Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord!”
The great thing about tonight is that I don’t need
to preach—not really. I mean, everything tonight preaches itself. These are words
that shatter the darkness where the shepherds are standing. Whatever I say is
just pointing back at what angels have already given us. Then again, many who
receive a great promise hear it suspiciously, as if it, like most things in
life, are really too good to be true. Sometimes it’s not enough to hear the
words; we have to actually believe and trust in them.
You
see, the shepherds knew the words of the prophet Isaiah when he said, “You who
stand in great darkness shall see a light” (Isa. 9:2), but who really thinks Isaiah
meant that for them specifically? Which people actually believe they are the ones
to whom God is speaking? Do any of us? Into a world of darkness comes this word:
Tonight, a Savior is born for you! The reason I have to preach and the reason
we need to do communion and light candles and all of this is because you need
to hear these words tonight over and over again: this is for you. For every
last one of you!
We who stand in the darkness will see a light. There is a
long history in the Bible with darkness. God created out of darkness. Genesis
1:1: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth
was wild and waste and darkness covered the face of the deep…” That’s where we
always start: Sitting in darkness… waiting, watching.
This has been our history: From the time before there
were stars, before the sun, before the universe came—bang!—out of the mind of
God into the reality we call “life.” This is the story we tell over and over
again. Darkness versus light. Good versus evil. Dark is scary; it has a weight
and a power to it. Deep darkness seems eternal, overwhelming, impossible to
overcome. And, yet, the strongest darkness cannot match the tiniest flicker of
light.