At a time of year that is often wet and gloomy it’s a joy to see the many lights that spring up around the city and make things that little bit more colourful and joyful. I see homes with lights outside, Christmas tableaux, inflatable snowpersons, wreaths, and so many glimpses into a bigger joy that is a part of this celebration.
I am so glad, I must admit, to have left behind a certain ‘snobbery’ both on my own part, and others where I used to live, which saw lights as somehow tacky or tasteless – though it is an attitude that is still a part of some of the English reserve I grew up with. On the contrary, I see the many and varied lights on display around Christmas-time as a sign of hope and happiness, something that says no matter what is going on in the world there is still hope and life and colour.
It’s common amongst the religious traditions of the world to have ‘Festivals of Light’ or to have symbols of light in celebrations– Diwali. Kwanzaa, Chanukah, Eid al-Fitr , Winter Soltice, and of, course for me as a Christian minister, Christmas. I think this speaks to a deep human need to hold on to light and the warmth that it brings, to have hope, and to celebrate the values of community, culture, family and friendship. This seems to be a part of who we are as human beings.
Recently I have been made aware of how easily we slip into dividing things into black and white/light and dark/good and bad; this has been used as a justification in some situations to equate darkness with wrongdoing, and light with goodness, and at its worst has contributed to an often unconscious racism which has – in European eyes – somehow made darker skin a justification for looking down on others. Such a viewpoint is not consistent with the God for whom, the Christian and Hebrew Scriptures say, ‘darkness and light are both alike’ (Psalm 139.12). Barbara Brown Taylor in her excellent book ‘Learning To Walk In The Dark’ talks of the Divine who is as present in the cloud and the darkness as much as in the common images of light and flame. In the writings of Christian Contemplative author Richard Rohr we read that dividing the world too readily into ‘black and white’ misses the truly Technicolor nature of both the Divine and the world and other within which and whom God is present.
This dualistic or ‘binary’ approach to life, which only sees black or white, light or dark, good or bad, right or wrong in absolute terms misses out on the nuances and textures that the real world brings. When we appreciate the need for darkness in order to be able to see the light, when we can approach people as people not as ‘bad’ or ‘good’ people, when we can look at the complicated, messy, painful situations in our own lives and in our world and not jump to conclusions but seek to understand and learn, rather than judge or condemn, then we grasp something of the depths and the riches of life.
So I celebrate the lights – not because they are in opposition to the darkness, but because they enhance one another. I celebrate the lights because they share joy and celebration, and they make a statement that in the coldest and gloomiest part of the year there is hope and warmth – the promise of what is to come in Spring, and the promise of life and love here and now.
I celebrate the lights because in them God is seen, but I celebrate too the unseen God, the God of mystery, the God of the cloud, the God in darkness – because then I become aware of the God who is far beyond anything I could grasp. I become aware that the darkness doesn’t need to be considered negative or frightening but a place where God is as much present as daylight. I become aware that my tendency to slip into oversimplifying life does not do justice to a world which is infinitely more exciting and scary, joyful, beautiful and disturbing than I could ever imagine, and to forget that the God behind it all does not need to be explained but encountered. Have a blessed Advent, a Happy Christmas, a hopeful New Year and enjoy the lights!
Alastair McCollum is from the West Country of England; father of two and husband of one; Rector of St John the Divine Anglican Church in Victoria. He has a passion for the Gospel, motorbikes and bike culture, worship, philosophy, theology, guitars, single malt whisky, real ale, cinema and all things French.
Church website: www.stjohnthedivine.bc.ca blog: fracme.blogspot.ca
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