The Light & The Darkness: A Christmas Eve Sermon
It's Christmas Eve , and once again our community of faith is gathered to celebrate the birth of the Christ child . There's something about this night that brings us together---even those of us for whom church is not part of or regularly scheduled programming. I have a soft spot in my heart for the non-Church-y people who find their way to church on Christmas Eve. There were a lot of years when I wasn't really the church going type, you see. In fact, not only was church not part of my regularly scheduled programming, I had pretty much cancelled it from my life altogether. But when Christmas Eve would come around again, as it seems to do each year, I'd discover myself sitting in a pew, showered, shaved and wearing somewhat respectable church clothes. I think the reason why I showed up was because there was part of me that wanted to believe everything that everyone around me was singing and praying. I wanted to believe in the story of Hope that the various pastor...