Shine
.The common candle for years has been the traditional symbol for christmas.
Choirs sing by candlelight and Christ the light of the world is lauded as the baby who became the saviour.
Angels from heaven bathed in a sky lit by the glory of the Lord worshipping and praising God.
It reads like this:-
Luke 2:8-20
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
(from New International Version)
I was having one of those “what if” moments while putting together this message.
In this “What if ?” moment my thoughts wandered to light – You see our world is used to light – every morning light comes into the world and every evening it grows dark only to lighten up again the next morning. We are one hundred percent dependent on light.
What if the Christmas account was interpreted in light from a 21st century knowledge base and perspective – if we combined our biblical knowledge and interpreted it in relation to today not through a 17th, 18th, 19th or even 20th century knowledge base?
Wherever there is not light – like at the Antartica for six months a year – then artificial means of staying alive have to be introduced.
Light was introduced to the planet at the dawn of time by God – With the simple words:” let there be light.” God directed and ordered light on earth through that incredible source
Of light called the sun.
The Sun is one out of billions of stars. The Sun is the closest star to Earth. The Sun rotates once every 27 days.
The Sun’s surface is called the photosphere. The temperature of the photosphere is about 10,000° Fahrenheit. Its core is under its atmosphere. The temperature at the core, or very middle, of the Sun, is about 27 million° Fahrenheit. That’s pretty hot!
The Sun’s diameter is about 870,000 miles wide. The Sun is 109 times wider than Earth, and is 333,000 times heavier.
The Sun is only one of over 100 billion stars Over one million Earths could fit inside the Sun. . The Sun is tilted.
Without the Sun, Earth could not support life. The Sun is the largest mass in our Solar System.
The number of stars in the known Universe exceeds one billion.
On the night that Jesus was born the sun sent it’s light at an amazing (approximately 186,282 miles 300,000 kilometres per second). To bounce off the moon and to light up the night sky for the shepherds – that is amazingly cosmic activity in it’s own right and is incredibly hard to understand by looking at a candle. Or even by listening to a choir singing light of the world. But friends this is only auxilary, bounced of the moon type lighting, The original source of this light is God the creator of the heavens of the earth but in a down stream effect this light is bought to the Shepherds by an interactive process between the suns central componaents 92% hydrogen, 7% helium and low number gasses? The Sun’s core is the hottest part of its matter. It is 27 billion° Fahrenheit. If the Sun was hollow, you could fit 333,000 Earths inside! But none the less since God created it since the dawn of time it has been acting in response to that direct creative command of God let their be light.
Despite all the scientific fact behind the moonlight that the Shepherds were basthed in on that night God did not especially have their attention because they were familiar with all of this stuff. It would take more than an ordinary moonlit night to grab the attention of the shepherds.
But then something quite out of the ordinary happens:- It must have been extraordinary because these hardened Shepherds used to confronting whatever comes to protect their sheep are terrified. These are tough, front row forward type blokes.
What happens is recorded in a book called Luke 2:8-20
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
Suddenly there is some new light shining around these Shepherds and it is different to the light that has just come to them from the moon – back to the sun and indirectly back to God. This is l;ight from the same source but following a completely different route altogether – it comes from God himself.
If the light isn’t enough – there is an angel there and he is the source of the glowing. This angel is no glitter covered – character from a childrens play but The Bible uses the terms îìàê àìäéí (mal’akh Elohim; messenger of God), îìàê éäåä (mal’akh Adonai; messenger of the Lord), áðé àìåäéí (b’nai Elohim; sons of God) and ä÷ãåùéí (ha-qodeshim; the holy ones) to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels. These characters terrify the Shepherds at first and any religious doubters among them would now be firmly convinced. The light that is now shining on the Shepherds as the good news about Jesus being born is relayted to them both by the angel and then a whole host of angels is light direct from God and has a quality – character of it that somehow conveys the love of God. I can’t say how fast this light travels but it has a profound effect on the shepherds.
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
There were two other lights that night that I think we should take some interest in – The first is the star.
When they heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star,
which they saw in the East, went before them...
And, lo, the star, which they saw in the East, went before them,
till it came and stood over where the young child was.
They saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and fell down,
and worshipped him; and when they had opened their treasures,
they presented unto him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Thes Magi or wisemen are men who studied the heavens – they knew the roadmap of the heavens and were trained to look for the unusual and the extraordinary – This study led them to the understanding that one star up there in the heavens was acting unusually and with a combination of science and theology they understood it to be a sign from God – and further investigation revealed where Jesus was to be born and it ultimately led them to the place where Jesus was born.
Cosmically this is a huge event – What God did we do not know – but it would be second nature to him – but from our perspective it is unbelievable. One special star created and chosen byu God with a particular destiny – to announce the birth of Jesus – is moved across the heavens to congfirm to his followers that Christ is born.
Maybe it was a star like Sirius (which means "scorching" in Greek), also known as the dog star, is the brightest star in the sky (except for the sun). It is in the constellation Canis Major (The Great Dog). Sirius is a main sequence star that is about 70 times more luminous than the sun. But whatever the star was – God used it’s light travelling at 300,000 kilometres an hour to help convince the world and ultimately you and me that he was doing something of eternal significance on earth in a small obscure cattle shed located in a small middle eastern village.
Thirdly there is Jesus himself – Jesus self description was - In John 8:12 Jesus proclaims-seemingly out of the blue-"I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." What Jesus refers to here is something that transcends time and space.
The baby Jesus contains all of that promise in himself. The kind of light that Jesus brings is hope and salvation for all people. The light that Jesus contains is both beautiful and incredibly pwerful.
It has lit up a dark world, that has preferred the shadows for the last 2000 years.
A friend of mine sadly passed away two weeks ago – I remember the day when light came into her life. She had been through a bit of a struggle and I was invited to pray for her – i put my hand on her and Christ’s light shone into her heart and she was instantly changed. Forget 300,000 kilometres per second – Christ’s light shone into her heart instantly and she has followed him faithfully ever since until her recent death.
The effect of the light of Christ is instant and the effect of the light of Christ is total.
Acts chapter 9 verse 3AS. he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied.” Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
Paul’s conversion is instant – it also echoes the experience of the Shepherds – the light leading to Christ is similar in both events – the Shepherds rush off and tell everyone – Paul preaches to the world.
Tonight what will the light of Christ do to our lives. Will it cause us to step back into the shadows? Will we flee from it offer Christ lip support but only shallow obedience.
The choice is ours. Christ’s light will only shine for a season.
Scientists havew predicted that the sun is a middle aged star and will only shine for another 5 billion years.
We have far less time – amiddle aged person may only have only 30 more years to take advantage of the light of salvation that Christ has shone into the world.
As we conclude let’s return to an old hymn but lets sing it with a contemporary heart turned to Christ the light of the world.
