Light in the Darkness

by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 12/12/24

Many of you have shared pictures of your Christmas tree either on social media or via text. During the (literally) darkest season of the year, many of the PMBC families are lighting up their homes and neighborhoods. My own Christmas tree is set up and decorated with our collection of Christmas ornaments dating back to my birth year and collected from our various travels. Many were made by my mother.

Did you know that in the first few centuries of the church, Christmas trees and greens were condemned? As the church was trying to figure out what it meant to be the church in a world already full of other religious holidays and was wrestling with its own temptation to exert power and control, Christmas greenery was hotly contested. Literally.

The second century theologian Tertullian condemned Christmas decorators to the fires hell: “Let them over whom the fires of hell are imminent affix to their posts laurels doomed presently to burn: to them the testimonies of darkness and the omens of their penalties are suitable. You are a light of the world, and a tree ever green. If you have renounced temples, make not your own gate a temple.” He argued that decorating with Christmas greens was idolatrous and unfitting for a Christian.

Clearly Tertullian lost the Christmas tree dispute!

While I agree with Tertullian on the need to be attentive to what we have idolized, let me say a word in defense of Christmas trees. Lights only shine bright when the world around them is dark. We learned this as children playing with flashlights. As we stand in the midst of the darkest time of the year, in a time in history that also feels dark, shining our lights - Christmas or otherwise - seems prophetic. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed, “you are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16). Jesus wants his followers to live lives of justice, of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of purity of heart, and of peacemaking - and he wants us to live that out so that we shine light by which others can navigate a dark world.

So, this year as you enjoy your own or others Christmas lights and trees, let those lights remind you that you are called to be a light in this world. As much as we might not like the dark, the dark needs your light. In fact, lights only shine bright in the dark.

Blessings,

Pastor Amy

Blessed are You Who Bear the Light

Blessed are you

who bear the light

in unbearable times,

who testify

to its endurance

amid the unendurable,

who bear witness

to its persistence

when everything seems

in shadow

and grief.

 

Blessed are you

in whom

the light lives,

in whom

the brightness blazes-

your heart

a chapel,

an altar where

in the deepest night

can be seen

the fire that

shines forth in you

in unaccountable faith,

in stubborn hope,

in love that illumines

every broken thing

it finds.^[1]