If we haven’t met yet I’m Shauna. I’ve had the immense privilege of being a part of this church family since it was but a prayer and a seed. And you are such a beautiful part of this family no matter how long you’ve been coming. Let’s get to know each other. You can say your answers out loud to me or to the person beside you.

What is your favorite sight of Christmas? Decorated trees, lights?

What is your favorite sound of Christmas? Handbells, Pentatonix?

What is your favorite taste of Christmas? Gingerbread, eggnog?

What is your favorite scent of Christmas? Frasier fir, what’s cooking in the kitchen?

What is your favorite feeling of Christmas? Warmth, nostalgic?

While we might think we are more imaginative at Christmas because we’ve been given these stories, carols, traditions, Actually our imaginations are lost.

Our curiosity is bound because we let modern technologies, we let smooth and sparkly marketing rob us of dreams, rob us of wonder. It boxes us in. If we’ll admit it - We’d rather have answers as our gift rather than saying yes to an invitation that requires faith and is full of mystery.

Because it’s the holidays, we are okay with a little bit of wonder but then back to data, formulas, and logistics.

This Advent season, I’ve gone down a rabbit trail to find out the explanation of the Christmas Star. The star the wise men followed to find Jesus with his parents. I came upon lots of theories, lots of skeptics. But I didn’t come upon an answer. I found myself growing excited that I could be satisfied and drawn to the mystery.

In our time today, I invite you into the mystery. What I mean is this: could you be content being curious? Not knowing the outcome? Practicing faith?

Before Daniel knew the outcome as he was summoned to interpret the king’s dream, he gathered his friends and prayed. God revealed the mystery to him and here’s Daniel’s response, “God reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him.” (Daniel 2:22)

King Nebuchadnezzar says to Daniel about his God,

“your God is God of gods and Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries.” (Daniel 2:47)

Keep yourself open to the mystery and wonder we just experienced in worship. God’s presence is here. How will you respond to His presence? The mystery of His Spirit? The wonder of His Son Jesus?

Father Alfred Delp, who I’ll introduce you to him later on, wrote this in a Nazi Prison, December 1944, 80 years ago this month

“Christmas will never come if we are unshaken, untouched, unmoved, asleep to the coming of Jesus.” -Alfred Delp

Pray: recognize what the Holy Spirit is doing corporately and individually.

Worship Jesus for He is life and the light of men.

Thank God for his word.

Ask the Spirit to continue to hover over us.

Let there be light.

This is the title of today’s message but it’s more than that. It’s a declaration. It’s my prayer. It can be your prayer too.

Look at Genesis 1:3-5 again that was read in our Advent moment:

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

When God separated the light from darkness, the Hebrew word here is havdal.

havdal הַבְדָּלָה

It is the act of dividing something into distinct parts. God made two distinctions. There is light and there is dark. There is separation.

This is where the Jewish practice of Havdalah comes from. Shabbat is what we know as Sabbath and Havdalah marks the end of Shabbat, separating the holy Sabbath day from the regular days. There is Sabbath and there the other days.

Can you distinguish between light and dark?

This requires a faith filled imagination and embracing the God of mystery. Yes, we can look around the room and see the light coming in around the shades, the light from the candle, the light from the phone in their hand on your row. That doesn’t take a faith filled imagination.

Truth is, we can function in the dark. We can recognize light and not receive it.

It’s easily deceptive to think we’ve got a grip on light and dark. We can turn lights on or off. We can use our words to lift up or tear down. We can see a situation as positive or negative. We can choose to intervene or let it be.

It’s not either/or. It’s both/and. God didn’t abolish darkness. He separated it with light. There is dark and there is light.

He makes a distinction between the two.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:4-5

Whatever is dark, formless, void, the Spirit of the Living God hovers over you, hovers over it. He’s been doing so since the beginning of time. You might need to write this truth down on your phone, paper right now and this is what God is giving you to hold to.

John 1 mirrors Genesis 1

Light exists because of God and God alone (Genesis 1, John 1)

Jesus has been in creation. Jesus is the light. In Jesus, you have life and this life is your light. (On Screen) Jesus = Life = Light. No Jesus = no life = no light.

I pose to us the same question: can you distinguish between light and dark?

John 8:12  ”Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ’I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

Jesus is distinctively light. You realistically and actually have to be following Jesus to not walk in darkness. There are plenty of artificial lights, but only one true light. Those of you who are coming on Sundays to step into the light but are not followers of Jesus yet, receive Jesus personally this Christmas. Jesus is life. Jesus is light. He wants to lead you every moment of every day, not just give you a peek at it on Sundays.

For followers of Jesus and the curious of Jesus, how can we see light in darkness?

Because we all know that darkness comes to us all.

How can we see light in darkness?

The imagination can play a different game in the dark. My mind can go places in the dark I never thought possible. I don’t know if that makes you feel better about me being up here or worse! Life can appear (key word) alive, open, vibrant, moving. People walk in darkness. They manage. They make adjustments. You and I do too. This is not what we’re going for here. We don’t want adjustments. We want a real encounter with the Light of the world.

I am blessed to have 4 kids, 3 born of my womb and 1 born of my heart. They are the most precious gifts to me. When they were born and in process of coming home, I experienced some of my darkest moments.

Holding one of the boys, sitting by the window, no energy to do much, not wanting to eat, but needing to eat, demands of motherhood 24/7 for several months and yet the sun still rose, days still bright outside, people going about their days, and internally it was dark.

Adoption process so long and challenging and a battle; got to a point of darkness of my soul that I was in a stare sitting in the backyard one day and I knew I needed to spend some time with a Christian therapist.

That’s just 2 of my dark moments.

It’s not always easy even as I have followed Jesus for almost 40 years. We need others speaking His light in our darkness. We need to speak light into darkness.

Let there be light because it is dark.

Let there be light because I need help.

Let there be light because I can’t see a way out.

Let there be light because this is disorienting.

Job tells us,

“God brings deep darkness to light.” (Job 12:22)

Because God separated it, we are invited to bring light into the darkness. To call the dark what it is & invite the light. Thinking of a mother at Epic whose grandson is choosing to live in the darkness. And his life looks dark, it looks hopeless. He’s indulging in dark practices, dark beliefs, dark spirits. Together, we named the darkness and prayed, Let there be light.

Prayer time soon: let there be light because _____. Name what is dark and invite the Light of the world.

Will His light be enough?

Will His light be enough? Yes!

One of many dark moments in history is recorded in Scripture in Matthew 2. Herod is in power. Wise men went to Jerusalem looking for a king. It makes sense to me they’d start at the palace. I love they asked, “where is He…for we saw his star!” Where is He? We have seen His light.

“And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts.” (Matthew 2:9-11)

I wonder…it must have literally shone just over the stable or they would have had to make a few knocks on doors. There’s the mystery again!

I’ve researched this star and for the intellectuals in the room, the scientists and astrologers can’t explain it. For the creatives in the room, the artists and painters can’t capture it.

In my search, I came upon this thought:

“Having created the stars, God is well able to set off an explosion in one of them whenever He chooses.” (Institute for Creation Research)

What Scripture tells us is that His light brings joy. The wise men rejoiced exceedingly with great joy when they saw His light.

Scripture also tells us that the wise men fell down and worshipped Jesus.

His light causes joy and worship.

I know what it feels like to feel my way around in the dark and I know what it’s like to learn that lesson the hard way and then try it again with the light on. His light will be enough. You and I get to practice faith ongoing with this. The wise men followed the Light and it led to joy and worship.

“Now when they [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt.” (Matthew 2:13-14)

Will His light be enough?

Mary and Joseph left at night with the LIGHT of the world in their arms.

They escaped in the night. They were told to do it.

You might be in the dark. It might feel like night in your soul.

You carry the light of the world.

His light goes with you.

Psalmist says to God, “even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” (Psalm 139:12)

His light was enough for the wise men. We’re still reading about it today. His light was enough for Mary and Joseph. It literally saved their family.

His light is enough for me and you.

I mentioned Alfred Delp earlier. You might be more familiar with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his Protestant contemporary.

I’ve been reading his Advent sermons that he gave in his church in Berlin and his Advent sermons he wrote in Tegel Prison. The ones he wrote in the Nazi prison he did with his hands bound by handcuffs. These sermons were smuggled out of prison as secret messages.

Alfred Delp was a part of the German resistance group to Hitler as a Catholic and helped many Jews escape to Switzerland. He wrote, “Advent means a heart that is awake and ready” for his 1943 sermon. He was arrested 8 months later and executed 14 months after this sermon. Alfred was offered freedom if he renounced Jesus. He refused and was hanged. On his way to be hanged, he told the prison chaplain, “in half an hour, I’ll know more than you do.”

Mission/Action/Response:

One of the messages struggled out of prison -

“Christmas will never come if we are unshaken, untouched, unmoved, asleep to the coming of Jesus….The shaking is what sets up the secret blessedness of this season and enkindles the inner light in our hearts…the shaking, the awakening merely begins to make us capable of Advent.” - Delp

We are limited. We are helpless. We are needy. Only upon this confession can we be filled.

Call out the dark in your life first.

Call on the Light of the World.

Not as another light or one of many lights, but make this the confession of your heart: Jesus you are life and you are light.

We want to speak and release His light all across this room. What better place and what better time to do this? Why don’t you stand in a posture of prayer.

If you need light in any part of your life, I invite you to raise your hand and if you are standing around someone who has their hand raised, place your hand on their shoulder, this is what it means to be family. They will call out the dark in their life and while they are praying in their hearts, you are calling on the light of the world, “let there be light.” You might be doing so for multiple people. You might find yourself then raising your hand. Let’s fill this room with prayer. Call out the dark. Call on the light of the world.

Thank you, Jesus. Jesus you are the light of the world.

Stay standing.

STOP. EXPERIENCE.

I want to extend an invitation to those Resistant to the Light of the World: too real, too bright, too challenging, too much

Shake off the worldly attachments you are holding onto, other lights you’ve been attracted to

John 1:12 says, “to all who did receive Him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Our prayer, our cry, our advent song: Let there be light.

Last invitation from me (Holy Spirit might have another for you) perhaps some of us need to be shaken, moved, touched, awakened to the Good News again, the coming of Jesus, hours before Christmas 2024.

Call out the darkness.

Call on the Light of the world. Let’s respond.

Pray with someone near you. Pray with our prayer team up front. You’re invited to the altar to pray as well.

Let’s fill this room with prayer.

Let’s fill this room with praise.

His light causes joy and worship.

The Light of the World is here with us.