"The light of peace" Pgh 12/7/03 Phil 4:4-13 

One of my favorite Advent practices is the lighting of the Advent candles. Each year I await the lighting of the first candle that stands for hope. Hope that is not based on wishful thinking, but on deep conviction. The belief that God will come among us again this year. The commitment that if I keep watch, if I prepare new life will be born in me and in us. The candle of hope reminds me that God's possibilities will break through, will blossom even in the worst of circumstances. On the second week of Advent we light the candle of peace. Peace that is not only the absence of war and conflict, but peace that is brings out the best in one another. Peace that builds up, peace that makes for wholeness and contentment. Next week we will light the candle of love. Love that is reflected through God's love in sending a Savior to our world. God's love that reaches out in all times and places. The same love that Christ wants us to have for one another. And finally on the fourth Sunday we will light the candle of joy. Joy that causes us to sing in our souls. Joy that radiates from the knowledge and experience of God's presence in our lives. On Christmas Eve we will light the Christ candle as we celebrate Christ's birth anew this year and then as a community we will share Christ light with one another as we pass the light from the Christ candle to the people around us. And so we will come full circle in the light of the season.

I must tell you I am a person who loves light. I don't like the longer days of winter when we have more darkness. At any place I have worked or lived I need windows so the sun can touch me. I love the lights of Christmas as people decorate their homes and bring light to the winter evenings. There is a peace that comes to my soul sitting around a campfire or in front of a fireplace looking at the flames that warm my spirit.

And it is not often that I don't have a candle burning in my home office or the church office - for me light visibility symbolizes God's presence as I study and prepare sermons, when I meet with someone who has a problem, when I’m praying for people in our congregation.

And yet there are things in my life in our lives that we don't feel the light of God's presence. Many spiritual writers have written about the dark night of the soul. Those times in our journey when we don't feel God's presence, when our problems and concern are so overwhelming that it seems like the night will envelop us. Any one who has experienced even a short bout of depression knows what that night can feel like physically. Hope, peace, love, and joy struggle to get break through.

Someone once gave a painting years ago that was almost completely done in dark colors, like a storm was raging. And down in the bottom right corner of the canvas was a small flower struggling to grow. The words on the picture said through the darkest storms God's love will carry you. The artist could have entitled the nightblooming. Even in the worse of circumstances a glimmer of light, of life will shine. When the night of worries seem to overwhelm us - the light of peace will shine. Someone will come along with just the right words. Our situation will change. The problem may remain but we will see it differently. In a passage that we read ever Christmas the writer of John says:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through God, and with God was not anything made. In God was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that enlightens every one was coming into the world."

Ours is God, the Word, who made all of creation. Our God is the one who

brought light out of chaos. Our God of Hope is the one who brings life in the spring when it seems the trees have died but are only resting. Our God

of peace is the one who calmed the raging storm and walks on water. Our God of love breaks down the barriers that would keep us isolated from one another and gives us community. Our God of joy is the one who brings eternal life out of the darkest tomb.

May your Advent season be filled with light. Let God's hope come to the dessert of your problem with the refreshing water of new life. Where their is discord and unrest may peace be the way. Be filled to overflowing with love for one another and our world. And let joy fill every fiber of your being for what God has done. For as we wait, as we prepare this Advent season that the Word will become flesh and dwell among us."