The Light That Becomes Flesh - Christmas Morning 2025

“The Light That Becomes Flesh”

Merry Christmas, everyone.Many blessings to you and your families during this holy season.

I want to begin by holding in prayer anyone in the world right now who is unsafe, suffering, or afraid to leave their homes. You deserve better and you are not forgotten. May we do everything in our power to make the world a place of peace, may this ground us as we gather this Christmas morning.

Christmas brings a lot to the surface. For some, its very joyful. For others, it is painful. And for many of us, there are multiple truths we hold at the same time. All of that is welcome here. Life is complex and messy, and we deserve places where we feel welcome to be our whole selves.

That invitation to wholeness I think is at the heart of John’s Gospel and his proclamation of the “true light which enlivens everyone.” This language invites us to ask: what does it mean to live in Christ’s light?

When we think about light, most of us experience it as a spectrum of color—the rainbow:red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Our ol pal Roy G. Biv. Seven colors revealed from one source.

For those who are blind, color blind, or experience the world differently, perhaps light is felt as warmth, or imagined in the mind’s eye. However you experience it, I hope you can find a way into this image.

Think of a prism—or the Dark Side of the Moon album cover. One beam of light enters, bends, and suddenly its fullness is revealed. I have a small sticker in my living room window that, on sunny days, scatters rainbows across the walls. Ordinary sunlight, transforms the room. 

It’s spectacular.And so are we. We too are this spectacle of light. 

John tells us:

“A man named John was sent from God.He came to testify to the light,so that all might believe through him.He was not the light,but came to testify to the light.”

Christmas is the day the Word became flesh—when divine light did not hover above the world, but entered it fully. And for this true light to be known, the light that shines on everything, it needs witnesses. It needs something to reflect off of, something to refract through. The human body becomes like a prism. As we open to receive the light, through us its many colors are revealed. This light is for everyone, without exception.

John also says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”This tells us something important: Christ’s light is not at war with darkness, and at the same time cannot be defeated by it.

Think of a candle in a dark room. The darkness doesn’t attack it when its lit. The candle shines brighter because of the darkness. Darkness helps us see the light more clearly, it reveals the path. And when light enters darkness, the room is transformed—not through force, not through fear, but through illumination. Shining a light on something. 

So how might we live this?

I think of a time my sister called me for support. She was struggling to forgive herself for something she regretted—something she had said in the heat of an argument. She wondered aloud, “But, If I forgive myself, won’t I just do it again?”

I recognized that question. I remembered going through that same conundrum with myself. I thought it was really insightful of her to ask and probably a lot of people could relate. (My younger sister has also been a brave model to me of not being afraid to let her whole self be seen, she always been that person who “lets it all hang out”). I on the other hand have not. I still struggle to bring all my colors online. When I dug deeper into this question, there is a belief that punishment is what keeps us from doing “bad things.” I’m ready let this belief go. 

Punishment does not build connection or trust. Its cold and distant. But forgiveness is reaching out to reconnect. Forgiveness restores peace. Forgiveness allows us to be complex and to learn from our mistakes. It tells us we deserve mercy and grace, no matter what. We always have access to this. Christ’s true light shines on everyone. It's forgiveness that actually makes it less likely we’ll do something harmful again, because now we are standing in peace, and that is by definition, non-violent. 

I used to see the world in a very black/white way, and now I find myself trying to hold and make room for many truths at once. Its more complex than black/white - its colorful. I am deeply committed to serious social justice issues—and I love irreverent stand-up comedy. I am deeply passionate about local food—and occasionally I stop for fast food. I love my family—and I also need real distance from them at times to be healthy. I know myself as a two spirit/ nonbinary person who is a blend and masculinity and femininity and I dont want to fully give up my identity as a woman either. I can hold all of this. I can be happy, angry, frustrated, and calm all on the same day. 

Following Christ has not simplified me. It has integrated me. It has taught me that faith is not about choosing one acceptable version of myself, but about learning to live honestly with the full spectrum of who I am—without splitting myself apart or pretending that only certain parts are holy.

I am not qualified to be a Deacon because I lived a flawless and put together life. I am qualified because I risked making mistakes, I followed my intuition instead what I was told would be best, and I strayed really far from Loving myself so that now I know what it is. Christ was born in the darkness. 

So when we let our light shine into the places that feel dark, messy, or unresolved, we are not agreeing with the darkness, but we are setting something free by offering it what it needs. Shining our lights onto dark and messy people even, isn’t us saying I love this darkness, its saying, this place really needs my light right now.  My attention, my care, my honesty. 

The lotus grows from muddy water.Corn is fertilized by manure.Christ is born in a manger.

The light shines in the darkness.A full spectrum of colors. In relationship with the dark, not at war with it. We can’t end war with war, only peace can do that. The True Light. 

Leonard Cohen once said, “There is a crack in everything, that is where the light gets in.” 

Jesus was not born in a clean house, but in a dirty stable.So instead of trying to clean everything up, can we allow the light of truth to shine on all of it — and trust that this really is where beauty and peace are born?

Merry Christmas all! May you go in peace to love and serve the Lord. 

Amen