A long time ago, possibly even in Bethlehem, a story about a little owl called Plop was very popular. The main thing about this story was that Plop, the baby owl, was scared of the dark.
I wonder, who here is, or used to be, scared of the dark?
And how many of you sometimes think that there are monsters or bad things in the dark? Or that the darkness is something bad?
And when a light appears do you feel better?
The opposite of dark is light. So if darkness is bad or scary then the light is good and friendly.
The magical thing about light is that you only need a teeny tiny spark to transform the darkness.
That light, that tiny spark, shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.
There is a lot of darkness in the world, selfishness, greed, things that cause hurt, sin. But a light came into the world and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Jesus is the light of the world, the light in the darkness. And like when one candle shines in the darkness and then another is lit, and then another and another; soon all there is is light.
Jesus starts with us, forgiving the darkness in us so that we can shine; and as each of us are filled with His love, light and forgiveness, the light shines brighter and the darkness diminishes.
Jesus shows us the way to live a good life, full of light and offers us His power to live that way. When He comes again and God’s final judgement comes upon the world the darkness will be banished forever.
When you hold your Christingles look at the candle, as it is lit remember Jesus, the light of the world, whose light vanquishes the darkness.
Let that light into your hearts and lives lighting the way for others to find their way out of darkness into light.
Our task is to be those Christingles (it’s okay, dressing up is optional) to share the joy that comes to us through Jesus and to be His light bringing hope to those in the dark.
In the beginning there was nothing but God. And God created the world and everything in it. He filled the world with all sorts of good things – plants, animals, mountains, rivers, seas, the sun, the moon, and even people. And God saw that everything He had made was good.
But it didn’t stay good. The people did things they should not do. They did not look after what God had allowed them to borrow. They did not look after the world or each other.
This made God sad because He loves us. So He sent us a rescuer, but not just any rescuer. He sent us the best rescuer of all – His precious Son.
Jesus came to be the light to the world, to defeat the darkness and help people come to know God.
A light for everyone, shining in our world, our lives and our hearts.
Even though we are celebrating Christ’s birth (his first coming) on Christmas Day, we are already looking ahead to Easter when Jesus died on the cross and rose again to defeat all the powers of darkness, to defeat all those scary monsters, and to be our salvation.
The ribbon which represents the outpouring of Jesus’s blood also reminds us of the great outpouring of God’s love for us which encompasses the whole of creation.
Christmas and Easter are two parts of the story of God’s love for us. May we live out the truth of that story in our own lives, may we accept again this Christmas the greatest gift of Christ’s light and may we let our little light shine out of the darkness to the glory of God. Amen.
Just because 