Luke 2:25-35
Some of you might have noticed on Christmas Eve that the Christ candle was burning low as the Candlelighters lit their candles by it. By the time Earl’s turn came, it looked extinguished. Unable to light his candle by it, he used mine. So, you can imagine my puzzlement when Ellen announced the morning after Christmas that she found the Christ candle still burning in the sanctuary. I shared her concern for safety, but then I asked, “What if it is a sign?”
You might be thinking: Don’t make too much of it, pastor. Someone simply forgot to put it out. Okay, but think of this Christ Candle burning through the night of our dear Savior’s birth, and throughout Christmas Day, in the Lord’s temple, this church. A small flame, barely burning, appearing to go out, somehow kept aglow. A sign? Perhaps a sign of our times? A sign when people are writing the church off their nice list at Christmas, saying we have no light, no faith, no future? What do you think? What do you believe?
What if the same Holy Spirit that moved Simeon into the temple is the same Spirit that still moves the righteous and devout of Christ to this sanctuary? Have not our eyes seen the Sovereign Lord’s salvation in the Christmas promise, a light for revelation to us sinful Gentiles and for glory to God’s people who struggle with God? Maybe it was a fire hazard, but I see that flickering flame as a sign.
If we believe Simeon, and if the Christ candle is a sign, then we can expect it will be spoken against. Don’t make too much of it, pastor? As I read this scripture, I think I will.
A Church Father, Origen, said everything about Jesus is spoken against. This child reveals the thoughts of hearts – and it is not all sweetness and peace. Even as this child shows us salvation, his light reveals humanity’s fallenness and brokenness.
The same day we found the candle, Sheila got a message from a young mother we’ve gotten to know. On Christmas morn, as they opened presents – signs of God’s generosity and Christ’s kingship – beneath a Christmas tree and lights – signs of Christ’s revelation and the promise of eternal life – the mother opens a present from her husband to find divorce papers! Such a disrespectful act on Christmas Day, in front of the children, was like a sword to her heart.
For her, the candle looked extinguished, but it was not. The flame of Christ kept burning as the church arranged for food and help until her next paycheck. They are going to be okay.
Is the candle a sign? It burned Christmas Day as protesters for peace unleashed violence in NY streets, disrespecting the Prince of peace, speaking against the sign, blind to the light of God’s salvation, and, ironically, for the glory of God’s people Israel who they deplore.
The scripture says she marveled at what was said about him. Simeon then blessed them and told Mary that her child would cause many to decide for or against God, and that her own soul would be pierced. But, as the song we heard asks: Mary, did she know?
Did she know the pain of watching her son spoken against, despised, and disrespected in the streets, revealing thoughts of hatred, evil, bigotry, and pride? Could she have known the piercing sword of pain as she watched her holy child hang on a cross that would become a sign of God’s salvation, a sign still disrespected?
She marveled that day, and we now know, as did Simeon, what the Sovereign Lord has prepared for us. We have Christ’s light. Some may think it has gone out, but it still burns, and it still causes people to rise with him or fall.
I believe the candle a sign because I believe in the promise of Christmas, just as I believe the Holy Spirit moves us to worship and to hold Christ in our hearts, praising God. It may just be a candle to some, but when it is Christ’s, by the Holy Spirit it becomes a sign to us that His light will never go out! So, let sing from our hearts, Break Forth, O Beauteous, Heavenly Light! And be blessed!