Solstice Light

December 2005

I love to sing. So when my friend, the gifted choir director at a small, vibrant church where I’ve maintained my membership, called to ask if I would join the choir in December to help with holiday music, I was happy to say yes.

And so it was that I found myself last Sunday listening to the sermon being delivered by another dear friend, the pastor. One line leapt from the others in my ears, making me reach for a pen to jot notes.

“We are called to witness that there is a light.”

So simple, yet it startled me like a diamond with its clarity and depth. Witness– that is, be ready to tell others who want to know– that there IS a light.

At the word “light” a ray pierced me with the oft-touted joy of the season. The light that guides me through my day. The light that brings healing to others through my hands or words or love. The light of hope, integrity, and unlimited potential.

The Christian Gospel of John contains in the first few lines these famous words: “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.” Life and light, synonymous.

Another book unearthed in our time and recently translated is the Gospel of Thomas, a Gnostic work. Some today make a case that John’s gospel was actually written to refute the highly-popular Gospel of Thomas. An early church father, Irenaeus, insisted on our current canon of Matthew-Mark-Luke-John as the only true gospel, and called works like Thomas a heresy against the church.

Arguably, this may have been as much about power politics as it was about orthodoxy, but what is so radical about Thomas that it aroused controversy and was eventually lost till the 20th century Dead Sea scrolls discovery?

Scholar Elaine Pagels (author of The Gnostic Gospels, The Origin of Satan, and Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas) writes:

For John, identifying Jesus with the light that came into being “in the beginning” is what makes him unique . . . John calls him the “light of all humanity,” and believes that Jesus alone brings divine light to a world otherwise sunk into darkness. John says that we can experience God only through the divine light embodied in Jesus. But certain passages in Thomas’ gospel draw a quite different conclusion: that the divine light Jesus embodied is shared by humanity, since we are all made “in the image of God.” Thus Thomas expresses what would be come a central theme of Jewish – and later Christian – mysticism a thousand years later: that the “image of God” is hidden within everyone, although most people remain unaware of its presence.

Indeed, the notion that we are flawed, wicked, and undeserving of fellowship with God, or All-That-Is, is so universally pervasive that a case could be made that it is the source of the host of ills plaguing our world society. The Gnostic assertion that we have always been a part of God/ATI, that our source and very being are the same light that John says came into the world “to enlighten men,” revives new hope and inspires real joy.

When we recognize the light within us, we do not think ourselves to be god, as some fear, but rather find new respect for ourselves, for others, and for the Source of that light, by whatever name. By recognizing our light, we discover a new way of walking through life, allowing our divine nature to express itself each hour of the day, in healthy, affirming ways. Our despair at life’s ills lessens, and our ability to care for those around us increases. What could be more Christ-like?

On Wednesday, December 21st, many of us will observe the longest night of the year, the deepest darkness, called the Winter Solstice. Some keep a Yule vigil till dawn, when the days begin to grow in length again, bringing light – and life – back to earth. This Yule I will think of every light I see on a tree or home as representing a soul keeping its vigil through the long night, waiting to be awakened to its own immortality.

As the Sunday service moved on through the familiar liturgy, music, prayer, and sharing of joys and concerns, I sensed the light of Christ in each person around me, and then rose to sing.