“It’s beginning to look a lot like
Christmas……” The Mayan calendar has
ended, but we have not – and so Christmas day will soon be upon us.
I don’t know about you, but I
always enjoy the last day or two before Christmas. The days immediately following Thanksgiving
are filled with crowded malls and office parties and cards to mail and such – much
of which feels like chores to be done rather than blessings to be enjoyed, much
of which leaves me exhausted rather than exhilarated. But
finally, at some point, the mall crowds and office parties are past, and any
last minute cards likely won’t get to their destination in time anyway, so why
bother….and so I can exhale…..and inhale….and take in something of the spirit
of the season.
Mary and Elizabeth lived in a
world in which there was great darkness – looming behind every aspect of their
lives was the Roman occupation, the heavy taxes that went to pay for Herod’s
building projects, the harsh dealings with Rome’s army of occupation and with
their tax collectors. And yet God said
nothing about somehow turning off the darkness, making the darkness go away,
but rather shining a light in the darkness that the darkness could neither
comprehend it nor overcome it. The
darkness was based largely in fear – Rome’s fear of threats from within and
without, Herod’s fear of losing his throne, the peoples’ fear of incurring the
wrath of Rome – and their fear of incurring God’s wrath if they failed to
follow the dictates of the religious establishment of the day – and at least
the Jerusalem temple religious establishment was working hand-in-glove with
Rome. But remember the words of the
angels to Zechariah and to Mary – “Do not be afraid.” Because perfect love casts out fear. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it.
We also live in a time of great
darkness. We live in a country in which
fear runs rampant – fear of being attacked by other countries, fear of being
attacked by our neighbors, fear of not having enough, fear of losing what
little we do have, fear of those who are different from us, who we consider
“other” – and in America we’re very good at “othering” our neighbors - fear and
regret over the past, fear and anxiety for the future. Like the Roman empire into which Jesus was
born, ours is a violent culture, and just as Rome did, in America we respond to
our fear, among other ways, by arming ourselves to the teeth.
The words of the angels to
Zechariah and to Mary are the words of the angels to us – “Do not be
afraid. God is still in the process of
bringing new life, and so our lives, and the life of this congregation, are
expectant, pregnant with possibility.
And so we acknowledge the darkness – kind of hard not to, though many
try – but we are not controlled by the darkness. Instead, we let the light of Christ shine in
us, and so our lives, and that of Emanuel Church, are like candles against the
darkness…seemingly insignificant, seemingly always on the verge of being blown
out by a stray gust of wind, but still there.
In this connection, I’d like to share a 2009 article, from the newspaper
USA Today, of all places, about the power of candles in the darkness.
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By Deborah Potter, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly
LEIPZIG, Germany — St. Nikolai Evangelical Lutheran Church
hasn't changed much since the 16th century. Bach once played the organ here and the music
remains alluring, but it is the church's more recent history in the last days
of the Cold War and its role in the fall of
the Berlin Wall that draw tourists today.
The Rev. Christian Fuhrer became the pastor at St. Nikolai in
1980, when the world was divided by the Cold War between the Soviet Union and
the United States. Germany itself was split in two, most visibly by the wall
the East German government — the German Democratic Republic—
built in Berlin in 1961 in an attempt to keep its people from fleeing to the
West.
In the GDR, atheism was the norm. Churches like St. Nikolai
were spied on but allowed to remain open.
"In the GDR, the church provided the only free
space," Fuhrer said in an interview with Religion & Ethics
NewsWeekly. "Everything that could not be discussed in public could be
discussed in church, and in this way the church represented a unique
spiritual and physical space in which people were free."
In the early 1980s, Fuhrer began holding weekly prayers for
peace.
Every Monday, worshippers recited the Beatitudes from the
Sermon on the Mount. Few came at first, but attendance grew as the Soviet
Union began opening to the West.
The prayer service, Fuhrer said, "was something very
special in East Germany. Here a critical mass grew
under the roof of the church — young people, Christians and non-Christians,
and later, those who wanted to leave (East Germany) joined us and sought
refuge here."
As a college student in those years, Sylke Schumann was one of the hundreds,
then thousands, who joined the vigils in the sanctuary at St. Nikolai and
then marched in the streets holding candles and calling for change.
"Seeing all these people gather in this place ... from
week to week and more and more people gathering, you had the feeling this
time really the government had to listen to you," Schumann said.
In October 1989, on the 40th anniversary of the GDR, the
government cracked down.
Protesters in Leipzig were beaten and arrested. Two days
later, St. Nikolai Church was full to overflowing for the weekly vigil. When
it was over, 70,000 people marched through the city as armed soldiers looked
on, but did nothing.
"I remember it was a cold evening, but you didn't feel
cold, not just because you saw all the lights, but also because you saw all
these people, and it was, you know, it was really amazing to be a part of
that, and you felt so full of energy and hope," Schumann said.
"For me, it still gives me the shivers thinking of that
night. It was great."
"In church," Fuhrer said, "people had learned
to turn fear into courage, to overcome the fear and to hope, to have
strength. They came to church and then started walking, and since they did
not do anything violent, the police were not allowed to take action.
"(East German officials) said, 'We were ready for
anything, except for candles and prayer.'"
Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount were Fuhrer's primary
motivations, but he also drew inspiration from German pastor and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Fuhrer said King "prepared and executed this idea of
nonviolence, peaceful resistance, in a wonderful way. Then it became our turn
to apply the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount here in Leipzig."
Just a month after the massive demonstration, the wall between
East and West Berlin came down. The church had sent a powerful message to the
world: the East German government no longer controlled its people.
"If any even ever merited the description of 'miracle'
that was it," Fuhrer said. "A revolution that succeeded, a
revolution that grew out of the church. It is astonishing that God let us
succeed with this revolution."
Fuhrer, who retired last year at 65, as required by the
church, has written a book about those historic days. St. Nikolai itself has
gone back to being a parish church, its congregations not much larger than
before the demonstrations.
But Fuhrer said he and his fellow worshippers didn't do what
they did back then to draw people to the church.
"We did it," he said, "because the church has
to do it."
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And let me close with these
words from Howard Thurman, whom the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. counted as one
of his spiritual mentors:
“I will light candles at
Christmas
Candles of joy, despite all
sadness,
Candles of hope where despair
keeps watch.
Candles of courage for fears
ever present,
Candles of peace for
tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy
burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all
my living,
Candles that will burn all the
year long.”
Amen.
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