A sermon for Christmas Day
December 25, 2025, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Hot Springs, AR
Readings: Isaiah 52:7-10; Hebrews 1:1-4,(5-12); John 1:1-14; Psalm 98
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” That’s how St. John puts it today. Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. That light is born into the darkness in Bethlehem. The darkness pursues that light, like dogs on a hunt. Herod’s soldiers chase down the Holy Innocents: darkness. The religious elite plot and plan: darkness. The Romans will execute him on a tree: and darkness covers the whole earth. But the light is not extinguished. The light that fills all in all grows and grows, and the light grows even now.
Today’s gospel reading is quite different from yesterday evening’s. Then we read from Luke, with shepherds and angels and Mary and Joseph. Our reading today, from John, centered on Word and Light coming into the world, is more subdued, quieter, understated in presentation. That’s because John wants us to see beyond the shepherds and angels, beyond the narrative, beyond the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem, in order to arrive at him Who is Truth. We arrive at the Word of God, the Light of the World, Who is for us and with us. When the shepherds have gone home; when the angels are back in the courts of heaven; when Mary and Joseph are resting at last; when our carols are hushed and the presents are opened–then we come to “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of One Being with the Father, through him all things were made.”
It is easy to believe on Christmas Eve, I think. It is easy to believe in the promise and miracle of Christmas, that the darkness will not overtake the light. With soaring prayers and ancient carols, we come to believe. But on Christmas morning, in the quiet, the darkness can creep back in. And in the fullness of day we may be tempted to think: maybe it was all a dream. Maybe we are left on our own. Maybe the Christmas story is just a Hallmark card.
It’s not. My friends: Christ has come to you, for you, and he is with you even now. The darkness that we all know, the darkness of sin and death, does not have the final word. For we hear the prophet: Your God reigns. A child is born, a son is given. And all the ends of the earth, even you and me, see the salvation of our God wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.
As powerful as they seem, the darkness of evil, of sin, of death will not win and overtake. For the Word of God who spoke all things into being, Who divided the light and the darkness, has come to us in the flesh. He has come for us. He is Emmanuel, God with us. And the Light from Light, which cannot be overcome, shall illumine all things, scatter all darkness, and bring us into his glory and peace.
Merry Christmas.
Storied Grace 