Christmas
Cycle B
December 25, 2014 Midnight
Saint
Margaret Parish, Bel Air
Candles
Tonight
I am picturing in my mind one of those jarred Yankee Candles.
I can
almost smell the scent of Balsam and Cedar, or, at this time of year, Christmas
Cookie Dough. Many of us use lighted
candles like these in our homes to create a warm, cozy feeling.
Restaurants
often use them to create an atmosphere for fine dining. On news reports, we sometimes see crowds of
people holding them as they remember a loved one who has died or been
killed.
Advent Wreath Candles
Here in
church we also use candles and we use them for a purpose. For example, during the four weeks of Advent
that just ended, we had a wreath here with four candles.
Three
of these candles were purple and one was rose or pink. And those Advent candles – I believe, at
least for me – they spoke to something rather deep in our human spirit.
They
expressed my sense that things can be better and especially I need to keep
growing spiritually. They also expressed
my trust that this can happen if I allow God to come and permeate more and more
who I am as a person.
Christmas Wreath Candles
Those Advent
candles have now been replaced by these white candles with a gold banding.
I
believe that these candles express, above all else, our faith in Emmanuel – a
name which means God-is-with-us. They
express our faith that through the birth of Jesus, God is with us throughout
our entire journey on this earth.
The
light of these candles expresses our faith in the light of Jesus – that he shows
us the way to relate to one another and to God.
And the warmth that they give expresses our hope in the One who teaches
us that warm, thoughtful words and actions are the way to dispel darkness.
In the
long run, I see these candles saying that Emmanuel will fulfill our absolutely
deepest hope. He will lead us to that
heavenly light and warmth that, deep down, we all seek.
We as Candles
Now there is one more important thing about the candles.
Eventually, these, like any candles, will burn out. The wax and wick will be fully consumed and
exhausted.
Spiritually, this means that we who are here tonight
need to catch this fire. Because of this
special, holy night, we are to accept the light and warmth of Christ into our
lives and then bring it to those around us, especially those who are
experiencing darkness and cold.
So, for example, we make sure to invite for dinner a family
member who is grieving the death of a spouse.
We phone or text a friend who is suffering from a painful divorce.
We affirm a young adult who just feels that she or he does
not belong. Maybe we bought a set of
towels for a family or a video game for a kid whose name was hanging on the
parish Giving Tree.
Maybe we take the first step in reaching out to someone after
years of not speaking. These are human,
in a sense, everyday ways of sharing the light and warmth of Christ.
Conclusion
So in a way, the idea is so simple.
We are to be like candles.
We are to be and give light and warmth.
That’s how our deepest desires and hopes really get
fulfilled. And for this to happen, we
just have to get the fire and keep getting the fire from the One who came into
this world on that holy night in Bethlehem.
