Shining Light

I preached at IPC last Sunday, the day before Epiphany, using one of the lectionary texts for Epiphany from John 1:1-18.  The key passage for me contained these words speaking about Jesus: "In him was life, and the light was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."  I talked about the reality of the darkness in our individual lives and in the world, and powerful light of Christ, that shines in the midst of it and is not overcome.  I ended the sermon by talking about the ways in which Christ asks us to shine--to be his light in a dark world, to share the Light of Christ in dark places.

This week, I have seen so many examples of those who are shining the light of Christ into a dark and weary world, giving hope, giving comfort, giving love.  It has been bitterly cold in Birmingham--less cold than many parts of the country but even here, in the deep South, on our coldest day on Tuesday our morning temperatures registered in the negative range when you factored in the wind chill.  On both Monday and Tuesday, those horribly frigid days, we noticed that many of the children who come to our STAIR after-school reading program from the Birmingham City School were not wearing coats.  I made a quick mention of that fact on my Facebook status and before I knew it, it started raining coats at the church!  Over the last couple of days, church members have gone out and scoured thrift store racks and have bought multiple coats, they have cleaned out their children's closets, they have gone out and bought brand new coats and brought them to us.  By next week, we expect we will have enough coats to give one to every STAIR child--60 children!  Yesterday, another IPC member arrived on our doorstep with 60 brand new fleece throws she had gone out and bought and both yesterday and today we sent the STAIR children home with a fleece throw each.  The excitement and looks of joy on their faces was marvelous to see.  This afternoon, one little boy was standing in the hallway lining up to get on the bus to go home and he had his fleece blanket up next to his face, rubbing the soft material against his cheek.  His eyes were closed and he had a huge smile on his face.  Simple acts of kindness that registered great joy.

Two other groups at IPC have also been shining this week, preparing to share the light and love of Christ in dark places.  The relatively new young men's bible study group and the Sunday School class that many of those young men attend with their wives have taken on providing some maintenance and renovation help for a small Child Development Center in the Kingston neighborhood where so many of our STAIR children live.  All of the children, infants through four years of age, who attend this CDC live in poverty.  The Center is housed in a small, older bungalow in a very poor neighborhood, surrounded by boarded up housing project apartment buildings and run-down homes.  The staff of the Center are wonderful people doing all they can to give the children in their care a good pre-school education to help them be better-prepared for kindergarten.  The children are happy and well-loved.  But the Center is in desperate need.  So, these two groups from IPC, many of whom have children this same age, are stepping forward to provide hands-on labor to improve the Center as well as toys, playground equipment, supplies and plenty of love.  They are a light in the darkness of poverty in which these children live.

I invite you this week to consider ways you can be a light shining in the darkness of our world, which is in such desperate need of light, of hope, of compassion, of justice, of love.  If you want some help for you or a group of folks to find ways to shine, feel free to contact me.  Let's start shedding light, whenever and wherever we can!