The Light of Christ. A talk for midnight Christmas Communion 2025
We had a Christingle this afternoon.
This is my Christingle. It looks like one of those old sputniks
The key thing about the Christingle is the candle – signifying Christ the light of the world.
But it got me thinking. If the orange represents the world, how many oranges would I need to fill the real earth? And the answer is 5 septillion, where a septillion is 1 with 24 0’s after it – give or take one or two!
And if we had 5 septillion oranges we would need 5 septillion candles. They would produce as much light as the entire global energy output for one year multiplied by a trillion times. That is quite a long way short of what the sun produces, but it would still make the earth quite a bright bauble in the celestial sky, which could be seen from 15 trillion miles away
John writes that in the Word, in Jesus Christ, was life and the life was the light of all people.
I guess John is remembering the opening chapter of the Bible.
This is my Christingle. It looks like one of those old sputniks
The key thing about the Christingle is the candle – signifying Christ the light of the world.
But it got me thinking. If the orange represents the world, how many oranges would I need to fill the real earth? And the answer is 5 septillion, where a septillion is 1 with 24 0’s after it – give or take one or two!
And if we had 5 septillion oranges we would need 5 septillion candles. They would produce as much light as the entire global energy output for one year multiplied by a trillion times. That is quite a long way short of what the sun produces, but it would still make the earth quite a bright bauble in the celestial sky, which could be seen from 15 trillion miles away
John writes that in the Word, in Jesus Christ, was life and the life was the light of all people.
I guess John is remembering the opening chapter of the Bible.
‘In the beginning God created ..’
And the wind of God, the breath of God, the life of God sweeps over the world.
And then God says, ‘Let there be light’.
Interestingly, in Genesis the light is created before the sun and moon are created.
This light – and the light that John is speaking about - is different from the light that we would get from 5 septillion candles.
This is not the outer light, but the inner light.
This is the light which means that we can see the outer light.
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Psalms 36:9
The light that John is speaking about
1. Fights against the darkness
‘The light shines in the darkness’
There is much darkness in our world: hatred, fear, lies, cruelty, self-centredness, using and abusing other people
And there is the darkness of emptiness, of futility, of despair, grief and death.
There is much darkness out there, and more worryingly, there is darkness in here.
A couple of days ago I was in Greggs behind a man, when someone came in and said to him, ‘I haven’t seen you around for a bit. What have you been doing?’ And he replied, ‘Oh, you know how it is. Ducking and diving. It is what you have to do to survive in this world’.
Now of course he was just saying it, and it sounded rather like a, ‘I’m not going to tell you what I’ve been doing – certainly not in the middle of Gregs’.
But in some sense, it was true. Because we all, some obviously, some not so obviously, duck and dive. We live as children of darkness – doing dark things for dark reasons in a world of darkness.
But Jesus came to make things different. He came to bring light to our dark world. He fights against the darkness: he brings truth – in his light we see things in a right way, in the light of God. And he gives us meaning in our emptiness, and purpose in our futility and hope in our despair. He gives us life.
2. And this light cannot be overcome by the darkness
‘and the darkness did not overcome it’
We are children of darkness and the darkness comes into us.
But Jesus was different. He never gave in to the darkness. He lived in the deep assurance of the love of his Father. He spoke the truth, he lived love. There was no hiddenness, no deception, a refusal to give in to fear, no attempt to prove himself, no self-seeking.
And the darkness tried to snuff him out.
The darkness crucified Jesus. Hatred and lies and jealousy and fear and cruelty tried to extinguish him. And as he hung on the cross it seemed that darkness and death had won.
But the conviction of those first Christians, shared by millions of people since then, is that the darkness did not have the last word.
On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. They saw him, touched him, ate with him.
And that light continues to shine.
3. We can receive this light
‘We have seen his glory’
Interestingly, in Genesis the light is created before the sun and moon are created.
This light – and the light that John is speaking about - is different from the light that we would get from 5 septillion candles.
This is not the outer light, but the inner light.
This is the light which means that we can see the outer light.
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Psalms 36:9
The light that John is speaking about
1. Fights against the darkness
‘The light shines in the darkness’
There is much darkness in our world: hatred, fear, lies, cruelty, self-centredness, using and abusing other people
And there is the darkness of emptiness, of futility, of despair, grief and death.
There is much darkness out there, and more worryingly, there is darkness in here.
A couple of days ago I was in Greggs behind a man, when someone came in and said to him, ‘I haven’t seen you around for a bit. What have you been doing?’ And he replied, ‘Oh, you know how it is. Ducking and diving. It is what you have to do to survive in this world’.
Now of course he was just saying it, and it sounded rather like a, ‘I’m not going to tell you what I’ve been doing – certainly not in the middle of Gregs’.
But in some sense, it was true. Because we all, some obviously, some not so obviously, duck and dive. We live as children of darkness – doing dark things for dark reasons in a world of darkness.
But Jesus came to make things different. He came to bring light to our dark world. He fights against the darkness: he brings truth – in his light we see things in a right way, in the light of God. And he gives us meaning in our emptiness, and purpose in our futility and hope in our despair. He gives us life.
2. And this light cannot be overcome by the darkness
‘and the darkness did not overcome it’
We are children of darkness and the darkness comes into us.
But Jesus was different. He never gave in to the darkness. He lived in the deep assurance of the love of his Father. He spoke the truth, he lived love. There was no hiddenness, no deception, a refusal to give in to fear, no attempt to prove himself, no self-seeking.
And the darkness tried to snuff him out.
The darkness crucified Jesus. Hatred and lies and jealousy and fear and cruelty tried to extinguish him. And as he hung on the cross it seemed that darkness and death had won.
But the conviction of those first Christians, shared by millions of people since then, is that the darkness did not have the last word.
On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. They saw him, touched him, ate with him.
And that light continues to shine.
3. We can receive this light
‘We have seen his glory’
We cannot see the risen Jesus or touch him (usually, although I do know some people who have seen him) – but we can receive him, we can welcome him into our lives. We can hear him because he has spoken and he speaks. Perhaps he is speaking to you now.
We can eat with him: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)
And we can let the light come into us – like a good infection, as CS Lewis put it. It works its way through us, transforming and changing us – not for bad, but for good.
And although we are talking about an invisible light, sometimes this light becomes visible.
It became visible for Peter, James and John when they saw Jesus shining like the sun when he took them up the mountain with him and he was transfigured. It was just for a few minutes, but they saw his glory.
And sometimes we can see that light on the face of people.
It is not very scientific, but all I can say is that they shine. I can think of several people who I have met, often people who have suffered terribly but have met Jesus in that, and their faces – and the only word that I can use is – shine.
And one day, if we receive this light, we too will shine. Not with our radiance but with a reflected radiance, his radiance.
And so we come back to the Christingle we used earlier today.
One orange, one candle. Nothing like 5 septillion!
And yet the wonder of Christmas is that the true light of the world did not come as a blazing sun – he could have done, but God knew we could not take that. So he came as a light we could handle, a child in a manger
A single flame in the darkness.
But that child, small – frail – vulnerable – is the light that fights against the darkness, that cannot be overcome.
We can eat with him: “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16)
And we can let the light come into us – like a good infection, as CS Lewis put it. It works its way through us, transforming and changing us – not for bad, but for good.
And although we are talking about an invisible light, sometimes this light becomes visible.
It became visible for Peter, James and John when they saw Jesus shining like the sun when he took them up the mountain with him and he was transfigured. It was just for a few minutes, but they saw his glory.
And sometimes we can see that light on the face of people.
It is not very scientific, but all I can say is that they shine. I can think of several people who I have met, often people who have suffered terribly but have met Jesus in that, and their faces – and the only word that I can use is – shine.
And one day, if we receive this light, we too will shine. Not with our radiance but with a reflected radiance, his radiance.
And so we come back to the Christingle we used earlier today.
One orange, one candle. Nothing like 5 septillion!
And yet the wonder of Christmas is that the true light of the world did not come as a blazing sun – he could have done, but God knew we could not take that. So he came as a light we could handle, a child in a manger
A single flame in the darkness.
But that child, small – frail – vulnerable – is the light that fights against the darkness, that cannot be overcome.
He is the light by which we see light.
He is the light that can enter us, transform us and one day will make us shine.
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