{"id":1967,"date":"2025-12-16T08:55:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=1967"},"modified":"2025-12-16T08:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T13:55:31","slug":"lighting-the-candle-of-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/lighting-the-candle-of-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lighting the Candle of Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Sermon for the Salem United Church of Christ of Harrisburg, PA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

by Rev. James Eaton, Interim Pastor \u00a92025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Third Sunday in Advent – Year A \u2022 December 14, 2025<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Isaiah 35:1-10 \u2022 James 5:7-10\u2022 Matthew 11:2-11<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Seasons of the church year have a luminous aspect. Easter is all light. There was a time in my life when I\u2019d get up before dawn, preparing to lead a sunrise service. I know some people do sunrise services at a more convenient time, but I\u2019ve never been an easy pastor; I always insisted on literally gathering before sunrise so it would happen during the service. Lent is dark: we start with ashes, we think about suffering culminating on Good Friday and the cross. Christmas is all lights: we put them on Christmas trees, and I\u2019m old enough to remember the annual chore of climbing on ladders, helping my dad put up outdoor lights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Advent, Advent is unique; Advent is both dark and light. It began as a little Lent; when I was first in ministry, we wore the same colors for Advent as for Lent. I was gone for a few years and when I came back, someone had decided we\u2019d wear blue for Mary. But still, Advent has a darkness to it, balanced by the candles of Advent. So there is light as well. Christmas Eve is the best example: the next to the last thing we do on Christmas Eve is darken the worship area, just before we all light candles. I\u2019m looking forward to sharing that moment with you in a couple of weeks. Advent light comes in stages, one candle at a time. A candle for hope, a candle for peace, and next week a candle for love. All these are blue; one candle alone is pink, the candle for joy. The reason for the tradition is that in the Latin mass, the word \u2018Caudate\u2019, which means \u2018Rejoice\u2019 began the service. So our challenge today is how can we light the candle of joy not only here but everywhere?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s scripture readings have that light and dark in them. We started today with Isaiah\u2019s prophecy that gushes out like a warm soda bottle someone shook up. He starts with all creation rejoicing. We often forget how central creation is to God. But there it is overflowing: desert blooming, \u201c\u2026it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and shouting.\u201d [Isaiah 35:2b]. Wow: my English teacher would never have allowed \u201crejoice with joy\u201d, it\u2019s too much, it\u2019s over the top. But it doesn\u2019t stop with creation, it\u2019s people too, and not just the healthy ones either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”  [Isaiah 35:3f]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That really feels like I\u2019m being personally addressed because honestly, my hands are not as strong as they were; I have trouble gripping the line on the boat these days, and my knees, well, my running days are over for sure. And the highway taking us home to God is so well-marked, so straight, so perfect that, according to Isaiah, \u201cnot even fools, shall go astray.\u201d What Isaiah seems to have in mind is joy coming from heaven like a snowfall or a rain shower. You can\u2019t escape it; it\u2019s going to get on you even if you have bad knees, arthritic hands, even if you\u2019re a fool. God\u2019s light is going to shine so powerfully that every corner is lit up, every person is lifted up, and even creation itself is full of the joy of God\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s the fun part of today\u2019s Word: all God\u2019s children parading together in joy. But there\u2019s a darkness too. Before we get to carried away, we need to listen to the gospel. There, things are not joyful, there things are not light. There we are taken to a prison cell in a dark dungeon. King Herod Antipas was a famously bad actor and among his may sins was having his brother killed so he could marry his brother\u2019s wife. John has been speaking about this and just like today, political violence from leaders was common. So John\u2019s been thrown in prison. I\u2019ve visited in prisons and they are not fun places. They\u2019re noisy and drafty and there is an air of pervading violence. Even if nothing bad is happening right now, you feel like it could at any moment. The only light in that time is from candles or lamps of burning oil and those are expensive; no one\u2019s going to waste them on a prisoner. I imagine John sitting in the dark, hearing the cries of these, wondering if it all is ending, if he was wrong. So he gets a couple of friends to contact Jesus and ask, \u201cAre you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?\u201d [Matt. 11:3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would you say? How would you answer? Jesus doesn\u2019t do theology, he doesn\u2019t demand faith in him, he simply says, \u201cGo and tell John what you hear and see\u201d and then he points out the fulfillment of Isaiah\u2019s prophecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. [Matt. 11:5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s quoting Isaiah 35:5-6 but surely he also has in mind what we read this morning. Where Jesus goes, the candles of joy are lit and the light of God shines. There\u2019s no demand to come to Jesus; instead, there is this invitation to open your eyes and look around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t this our challenge? How do we also light those candles. How do we say to our world, our city, our friends, \u201cLook here if you want to see Jesus? This week I listened to an NPR show with a man who talked about how important his mother was to him. He said that she was 89 and had some medical challenges these days, and he admitted, in all honesty, taking care of her is sometimes a burden. He talked about how he has to wash her, help her use a bedpan, and that she isn\u2019t always nice about the whole process. Then he said this amazing thing, \u201cWhat I\u2019ve learned, though, in caring for the one who brought me into the world, is that it is a kind of prayer.\u201d He went on to say that too often we think of prayer as asking for something; for him prayer has become this act of service, this care for another. He\u2019s found a new purpose and a new relationship not only with his mother but with God as well. Because he\u2019s lighting a candle of joy in the process of doing something difficult for another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a whole novel about a woman who was terribly burned as a child. Taken to a healer, they are only able to save her life, not fix the damage. What the healer says is powerful: \u201cWhat cannot be healed must be transcended.\u201d So our question is how to we take the dark parts of life, transcend them, make them into prayer, make them a candle of joy to light?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that in my life, one of the most difficult things was when Jacquelyn started working as a flight attendant. I don\u2019t have that reflexive fear of flying many have but I do know that thins happen on airplanes. Somewhere in the background of my mind are the flight attendants on 9\/11 and in 2009, not long after she started, an airplane landed in the Hudson River. Planes do crash and even when they don\u2019t, sometimes Flight Attendants get hurt on the plane. Jacquelyn has gotten hurt. So when she started going off to fly every week, it was hard, it was very hard. I didn\u2019t sleep at night; I worried. Every time I said goodbye it felt like it might be the last time I\u2019d see her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But we\u2019ve been doing this a long time, now. I still have problems some nights when she\u2019s gone, but I\u2019ve learned this important thing: my original thought was right, when she goes off to fly, I might never see her again. But she\u2019s here now. She\u2019s with me now. So it\u2019s up to me to use this time to make a good life with her, and we work at that together. That\u2019s become my prayer: thank god she\u2019s here now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend Jefferson gave me a book of Maya Angelou\u2019s poems last Sunday. One that spoke powerfully to me says,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to thank You, Lord,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For life and all that\u2019s in it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you for the day<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for the hour and for the minute<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know many are gone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m still living on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to thank You.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to sleep last night<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I arose with the dawn<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know that there are others<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who\u2019re Still sleeping on<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve one away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve let me stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to thank You.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t know why we\u2019re here, always. Yesterday, I know you heard about the terrible shooting at Brown University in Providence, RI. I can\u2019t imagine what that\u2019s like: to be calmly preparing to take an exam and have violence suddenly burst in. One of them said this,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer Yang, 18, who was shot in the leg in his Brown classroom on Saturday afternoon, described helping a fellow student who was seriously injured as they hid behind seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo keep him conscious, I just started talking to him, so he didn\u2019t close his eyes and fall asleep,\u201d Mr. Yang said in an interview from the hospital, where he was being treated for a wound in his leg. \u201cI handed him my water,\u201d he said. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t able to respond that well. He was just there nodding and making noise.\u201d \u201cHe\u2019s stable now, thankfully,\u201d Mr. Yang added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Mr. Yang got up that morning, he didn\u2019t expect to help save a life. When he went to that classroom, he didn\u2019t expect to lie on the floor. But thank God he was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s it really: I don\u2019t know if I will be here tomorrow, I don\u2019t know if Jacquelyn will be here tomorrow, but she\u2019s here now, I\u2019m here now. When we realize what a wonderful, miraculous thing that is, it can become in our lives, a kind of prayer. Thank you, Lord. I\u2019m still here: help me let my life light a candle of joy because you give me this life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m here now. When we realize what a wonderful, miraculous thing that is, it can become in our lives, a kind of prayer. Thank you, Lord. I\u2019m still here: help me let my life light a candle of joy because you give me this life.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[68,109,3,2,69],"tags":[9,96],"class_list":["post-1967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-matthew","category-sermon","category-worship","category-year-a","tag-joy","tag-presence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1967"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1968,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1967\/revisions\/1968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}