“Eyes Wide Closed”

Once upon a time, back when I was in college and had a part-time job on the lighting crew for all the Broadway on Tour shows that came to campus – as well as all the rock concerts, political debates, and so forth – there was a somewhat tasteless joke that went around on the crew.  It helps if you know that, as Chapel Hill, NC, was far from the Big Apple and the “Great White Way,” we our shows tended to end up with less-than-stellar stars in the cast.  And so, alas, it fell to our stage manager Speedy to announce all the changes to the disappointed audience.  This was his favorite holiday season joke, as if Broadway on Tour were to come to the Carolina campus with a Christmas pageant:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, in tonight’s performance, Joseph of Nazareth will not be played by the baby’s father, but by our stage carpenter Joe Smith, of Nash County; the Virgin Mary will be played by Mary Jones, who we regret to inform you is a sophomore here on campus and thus, of course, is no longer a virgin; and the baby Jesus will not be played by your Son of God and Savior but by a 40-watt lamp filtered by an amber gel.”

Yes, Jesus is the light of the world – and yet we live in a world where most people seem to settle for only dim (40-watt) substitutes.  Most of us seem to stumble through our daily lives, mostly in the dark, as we look for God mostly at church, or elsewhere in prayer, with our “eyes wide closed.”  Yes, we do stumble around – many of us are literally staggering from grief and worry, physical pains and emotional hurts.  And that’s why I encourage you to live this year with your eyes wide open to the light of the Holy Spirit. My challenge to you in this New Year – as I believe Jesus would challenge you – is to look for the light of Christ all around you.  And where you do not find it, I challenge you to bring it into the world – as we in Christ’s church are called to be the resurrected, living, breathing body of the Christ.  Where there is darkness, call on the spirit of Christ to help you bring that hope, peace, joy, and love to the world yourself.

The Holy Spirit – the spirit of Christ – somehow led the prophet Simeon to the Jerusalem Temple that day to find his Messiah. Scripture says the Spirit guided him, but we don’t exactly know how.  God did not e-mail a birth announcement or fax him a baby photo.  Ordinary eyesight was not what revealed his Savior.  It’s just that somehow, through a spiritual “second sight,” he knew things would get better.  He knew to proclaim those immortal words of hope and promise, which Gordon spoke from Luke’s Gospel, “O Lord, my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”  

John too, in his Gospel, calls Jesus “the Word of God,” in whom was “the light of all people.”  This is the Christ light that we proclaim when we hear these verses from John’s Gospel read and raise our candles high at the end of our Christmas Eve worship.  This is the Christ light that we take out into the world within our hearts as we extinguish our actual candles and leave this meetinghouse.  This is the Christ presence that we pray we receive when we “share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table,” when we “join in his passion and victory” over the grave.

Now I realize all this light and vision imagery is not very inclusive of those of us who are sight-impaired or legally blind.  So let me be clear.  You don’t have to literally see to be able to see the light of Christ in this world.  Often we can “see Christ” in our worship, even with our eyes closed in prayer.  And sometimes blind people have the best instincts about where the light of Christ can be found – they have to develop that kind of spiritual “second sight” to survive in a sighted world.  And they can also share the light of Christ with those who have no light – those who have not yet experienced the presence of “the word made flesh” and living so brightly among us, giving us new life.

One of my mother’s college friends, Nancy Willis, had an eye disease that blinded her as a young adult.  She and her husband John had two daughters and raised them less than a block from where I grew up.  They were a great family, a faithful Baptist family.  Nancy made it into the newspaper several times – once because she attended the local PGA golf tournament with her husband, who quietly narrated the action for her; another because she learned to be an official fragrance judge in rose competitions; another time because of the neighborhood club she and my grandmother Lela started for us little kids.  They got us to pick up litter and make everyone’s lawn more beautiful.

But the best story about Nancy happened when their house was burglarized.  They weren’t home, but someone broke in a sliding patio door and took most of the usual things – electronics, jewelry, cash, and so on.  And as it sometimes happens he tried to pawn something and got caught.  But what was unusual was that after he was arrested and convicted, Nancy insisted on meeting the man and getting to know him before he went to prison.  I can’t remember all the details of his story, but as you might imagine, he had led a pretty rough life – growing in a poor family without much education, imprisoned for the first time as a teenager, and so on.  Nancy let him know that she and her family forgave him and that she (and her church) would be praying for him every day until he got out.  And all of them would do their best to help him find an honest job when he was released.

What she said to the newspaper about this was a quote from that famous passage from Isaiah, chapter 9, which we read during our Lessons and Carols service this year, “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.”  She said she just hoped that she had been able to shine the light of Christ into the life of the man who had stolen from her family – because she said that if he had known the light and love of Christ before, as she had, he would never have done what he did. 

You know, there are many ways of preaching the Gospel; there are many ways of doing evangelism and extending “extravagant welcome” to those who are new to the Christian faith – and most of them do not require us to use words.  We are called to carry the light of Christ with us out into the world wherever we go – even, sometimes, into the most challenging situations. Several have asked how I’m doing in this sad season – as we’ve lost both Dom Barillari and Betsy Leniart in the week before Christmas.  Their courage in the face of what they knew was coming inspired me – actually strengthened my own faith.  It made me really believe those words when I lifted up my candle on Christmas Eve – “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.”  That’s what makes us different, people of faith.  We don’t practice a religion that is only private and personal.  Sure, we love the inner warmth and spiritual glow of this holy season, but we don’t just keep our faith to ourselves.  In our actions, in our words, in our prayers, we lift up Christ’s light for all the world to see.

Once you come to know the power of God’s love changing your world – if you see for yourself what love can do – you will recognize the light of Christ in the world everywhere.  And like a true “prophet for our times,” like Simeon, you will want to share the light of God’s transforming love everywhere you go and with everyone you meet.

Thanks be to God for this Good News.  Amen.

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John 1:1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

 

Luke 2:21-40 (NRSV) (dramatized by the Prophet Simeon)

²¹After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. ²²When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), ²⁴and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

²⁵Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. ²⁷Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, ²⁹“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; ³⁰for my eyes have seen your salvation, ³¹which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” ³³And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” ³⁶There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. ³⁸At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. ³⁹When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. ⁴⁰The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.