"Moonless Christmas" | The Rev. Heidi Thorsen | December 25, 2022

Sermon Preached: Sunday, Dec. 25, 2022 at Trinity on the Green

Christmas III: Isaiah 52:7-10 | Hebrews 1:1-4,(5-12) | John 1:1-14 | Psalm 98

May I speak in the name of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with Us. Amen.

This year, Christmas just about coincides with the New Moon. It’s a strange thing to think about on Christmas Day, in the morning, when the sun is shining bright outside and all is “merry and bright.” But perhaps you’ve noticed the darkness, over the past few days. Just a few nights ago was December 21, the winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere, the darkest day of the year. And then two days later, December 23, was the New Moon - the day when the moon is completely covered in shadow, and we are left in near darkness. I don’t think I used to notice the phases of the moon so much - but now, as a new parent, the extra light of the moon makes all the difference at 2am wake-ups to feed the baby. No wonder we deck our houses in strings of lights and light advent wreaths in this season. In the midst of the darkness - the beautiful, winter darkness - we find ourselves turning towards the light.

This year I discovered a new poem that speaks to me so perfectly about the darkness of this season, and the hope we find at Christmas. It’s a poem by the 19th century English poet and Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins. Since it is short I will read it in full. This poem is called, “Moonless Darkness”:

Moonless darkness stands between.

Past, the Past, no more be seen!

But the Bethlehem-star may lead me

To the sight of Him who freed me

From the self that I have been.

Make me pure, Lord: Thou art holy;

Make me meek, Lord: Thou wert lowly;

Now beginning, and alway:

Now begin, on Christmas day.

I love this poem because it reminded me that Christmas is about beginnings. It is about the sun rising on this day, Christmas morning, as children eagerly wake up to gather with their family, and perhaps open presents. It is about Jesus being born into this world, the beginning of a new era of how we understand God and God’s presence with us. It is about how God formed this plan of salvation from the very beginning, as we read in today’s Gospel passage from John. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Christmas is about beginnings.

We human beings love beginnings. I think, on the whole, we tend to like beginnings more than endings. We love the thrill of setting out on a journey, when the bags are packed and the door behind us is secure and there is no way to go but forward. We love the feeling of cracking open a new book, not knowing where it will lead. We love watching sunrises, if we happen to be awake; watching the light fill the sky and flood the world around us with color. And we love babies. Especially if it’s a baby that you just happen to know and don’t have to take care of 24/7 (ha!) - we love babies. We love the promises they hold. We love the new life they represent. We love the idea of a life without burdens or regrets; a life that is full of hope and possibility.

The challenge of Christmas, for some of us, is how to embrace that spirit of hope and newness when we ourselves are no longer new. All of us here today who are hearing, and actually understanding this sermon, are significantly older than a newborn baby, that image of hope and goodness. Even if you are five years old - even then! - you’ve lived through some things. Even at 5 years old I think we know what it is to feel loss, or regret. We know what it’s like to miss a friend, or to have done something selfish when you realize, in hindsight, that you could have been a bit kinder. The older we grow, the more we learn - and the more we realize what we could have done differently. We think of people who we’ve lost touch with. We think of moments when we were angry or impatient, and could have been much kinder. We complicate relationships with people that we love deeply. Sometimes, we feel like we have gone too far into the muck to fix it. Sometimes, we would do anything for a fresh start; for a new beginning.

Christmas, as I said before, is about beginnings. But here is an important thing to remember: it isn’t about just one beginning, but rather many beginnings. It isn’t just about Jesus being born into the world over two thousand years ago. It’s about how Jesus is born into our lives again and again - with new hope, with new meaning. Christmas is about how God became human so that each one of us can have a new beginning whenever we mess up, whenever we lose our way, whenever we fall short of the goodness that God intends for us. Jesus became human so that we might be forgiven; so that we might find, in Christ, a better way to live.

That is what Gerard Manley Hopkins understands, and shares so beautifully in his poem. He celebrates Christmas as the day that frees him from the self that he has been, opening up the future to new possibilities. “Moonless darkness stands between,” Hopkins writes, evoking that image of the new moon, of the solstice. “Past, the Past, no more be seen! / But the Bethlehem-star may lead me / To the sight of Him who freed me / From the self that I have been.”

What an incredible gift that is: the gift of a new beginning. That is the promise of the new moon. That is the promise of the winter solstice. That is the promise of a sunrise. That is the promise of freshly fallen snow. And that, above all, is the promise of Jesus Christ. The promise of a new beginning, a fresh start - not just once, but every time we turn to God for help, for guidance, for love.

Today is Christmas. The sun is shining, the temperatures are freezing, and the moonless darkness of the winter solstice is now behind us. What is the new beginning that you want to step into? What is that self that you are trying to leave behind? The anxious self. The grieving self. The tired self. The lonely self. The selfish self.

And who is the new person you are becoming? How can you see this day, and every day as a new beginning? How can you acknowledge the presence of God in this lifelong process of becoming? Because that is what God did on Christmas. God became a part of it all when God sent Jesus to enter into our existence - to enter this life just as we came into this world: born from the womb of another human being.

Christmas is about beginnings. It is about Jesus coming into the world. It is about the light of Jesus Christ - the light that shined brightly in the darkness from the beginning of time, and the darkness did not overcome it.

What light do you need to shine into your life today? What kind of new beginning are you hoping for?

I pray that this Christmas is full of the best of the past. I pray that each of us is filled with the wonder of what it is to be alive in this present moment. And I pray that this Christmas holds the spark of a new beginning, for whatever you long for in the future.

Let us pray, once more, with the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins: