Message from the pastor

I dislike the darkness of December. By 4:00 PM in the afternoon, the darkness makes it seem as if it is already night. When I leave and return to my home in western Massachusetts from Cresskill, the first and last hour of my three hour trip is on narrow, winding two lane mountain roads without street lights. Complete blackness is broken only by headlights.

No wonder that I have come to appreciate and even long to see the small glitter of lights that shine in house windows and on trees during this time. They are indicators of life that allow me to find my way on long stretches of desolate and dangerous roads.

How appropriate then, that light is the dominant symbol displayed in December for Christmas. We need the hope that light brings. We need reassurance and guidance. We need its strength as does a flower that leans toward the rays of the sun for nourishment. Indeed, light, however small, spoils darkness.

Human temptation is to despair in the face of darkness: we are witnesses to the cruelty and savagery of religious terrorism as it wreaks chaos, cruel death, destruction, and fear on innocents of country after country. We fear that it may succeed in overcome our values of tolerance, justice, and freedom. We continue to see the horrors of poverty, disease, and crime in our own country.

Jesus was deeply aware of the power of light over darkness. He celebrated Hanukkah, known as the Festival of Lights or the Feast of Dedication. John 10:22-23 states, "And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch." Jesus celebrated the victory of light over darkness--the defeat of the monarch Antiochus IV, 165 years before his birth (165 BCE). Using religious terrorism, Antiochus had demanded and brutally enforced total submission and religious conformity. Jews were banned from worshipping the God of Israel. After a three-year fight, a small band of Jews recaptured the Temple in Jerusalem, purged it and rededicated it to the God of Israel. A twenty-four hour supply of oil miraculously burned for eight days. The light was not over come by darkness.

The birth of small baby Jesus in Bethlehem was the birth of light to the darkness of the world of the gentiles. John says, "In him was life, and that life was the light to the world. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it."

It is this light that gives us hope and helps us find our way on the long and often dark stretches of life's highway.

May this light guide your path this Christmas and in 2005.

Peace

© 2004 by Kathleen J. Rusnak. All Rights Reserved. This page may be copied and distributed only with author's name attached, giving the author credit.