Loading...Sermon December 24, 2015
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, LSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen, Newport, PA
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness--
on them light has shined.
Isaiah 9:2
Please be seated.
Some of you know that I love country music. I love the twangy old stuff almost better than the newer music. When I get tired of talk radio, I often switch to the country music station. Part of it is that I love the twists and turns of the lyrics. They also usually tell a good story.
Recently as I was listening to some country music on the radio, I heard this song by Trace Adkins:
"Every Light In The House" by Trace Adkins
I told you I'd leave a light on
In case you ever wanted to come back home
You smiled and said you appreciate the gesture
I took your every word to heart
'Cause I can't stand us being apart
And just to show how much I really miss ya
Every light in the house is on
The backyard's bright as the crack of dawn
The front walk looks like runway lights
It's kinda like noon in the dead of night
Every light in the house is on
Just in case you ever do get tired of being gone
Every light in the house is on
Sometimes when I listen to popular music, I feel like the words give a terrific image of God’s relationship with us. Listening to this song was one of those times.
Here we are on Christmas Eve, celebrating the birth of Jesus, God coming down to earth just like we were born…living just like us, knowing our pain and our joy. Loving us so much and wanting to show us how to live in this world.
Teaching us that loving our neighbor as ourselves is the real way to live in this life. Love is the key! Unconditional love that does not expect a single thing in return.
Teaching us that God forgives us and forgives us. How many times? Seventy times seven, which means a whole lot.
Teaching us that each person is created in God’s image and is worthy of love and dignity, regardless of the many differences we use to divide humanity. Teaching us that when hierarchical power, and rules become more important than compassion and love, we’ve chosen to live in ways that displease God.
And Jesus’ teaching …Jesus light to the world… meant he died a terrible death. He so threatened the powers of his time…he so threatened the culture of his time…that he was killed by the government of his time. Yet, Jesus was willing to do that, because his teachings and his example taught and demonstrated the abundant life God wanted us to have.
And yet…our lives feel so hard sometimes. We become angry with God, maybe out of grief for the death of a loved one…maybe because something didn’t go the way we’d hoped…. We get angry and we move away.
Sometimes we think we’ve done something so awful, that there’s no way we’ll be forgiven or accepted again.
Sometimes our lives become so busy and we get out of the rhythm of being part of a worshipping community. We figure we can be spiritual all on our own. Before we know it, we’ve stopped taking care of our spiritual selves.
Sometimes we’d rather rely upon ourselves. We don’t want to forgive the person who hurt us. We don’t want to love everyone or see them as God’s creation. We want to live by the measures of the world. We move away from the community.
Sometimes we just aren’t sure what we believe, so we leave…
However, what I hope you’ll take with you tonight…this holy night…this night of celebration…is that God has left all of the lights in the house on…God leaves all of the lights in the house on in case and when we’re ready to come back home.
Yes, Every light in the house is on
The backyard's bright as the crack of dawn
The front walk looks like runway lights
It's kinda like noon in the dead of night
Every light in the house is on
Just in case you ever do get tired of being gone
Every light in the house is on
Amen..
