Excerpted from 2024 Advent Guide: Hope is Near, an Advent Guide for Lectionary Year C from the North Carolina Council of Churches.
John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And 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.
The irony of discussing light during the time of year when a day has more night than light should not be missed in today’s reading. The winter solstice—the shortest day of the year—was a mere three days ago, so we’ve still got a lot of night on this eve of Christmas. Literally.
Figuratively, it’s also fair to say many of us feel surrounded by night, persistent wars across the globe, rebuilding after fall hurricanes, political dis-ease in our nation, just to name some big ones. Then there is the personal night all around each of us known best to each individual living through it.
All the more reason to hear the Gospel truth about light. John’s Gospel tells us the light that proceeds from the life that proceeds from The Word that proceeds from God, dwells among us. Even at night.
John fashioned these first few verses of his Gospel to remind us of the first few verses in Genesis. “Don’t you get it?” John seems to be saying. The first thing God creates is light. And now, John tells us, the light of creation dwells among us. When we wake with the first light of Christmas Day, slightly earlier than it was three days ago, we will be on the upside of increasing light. We will celebrate the grace of a loving God who comes among us in complete vulnerability to show us what true light means for our lives. Can you see it now? The sun is rising over the horizon, pushing back the night, opening our hearts to light and life.
