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Alone among all the creatures, the eagle has the ability to look

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firectly into the sun and not be casried. \the ancient world knew that,
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sonchor. \Nodern naturalists have confirmed it\ The eagle is not blinded
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by gazing directly into the intense brightness .ofthe-sam,
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On this night it is customary to think about shgep.and cattle

and humbie donkeys, \1 should like to add the eagle to the cobbection
and this is why,

The eagle can look directly into the Light with its uncanny,

penetrating gaze.\ he eagle by from the earlgtdays of the Fe Ca sp8 ( ace pnd

Fourty Go oped, ned 4
has been the symbol of the Geapei—tecortine—be-denm el “Chex, 4 Laer
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begins, not with a story about" human birth, but with these words .,
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“In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and
the word was God,.}. In him was life ang the life was

th e light of all people .\, The light shines in the
daximess and the darkmess has not overcome it.” 1

That's a little Like looking firectly into the sun.\ Others told

the story beautifull fa story about a young yonan, barely bethrothed,
a

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suddenly and ‘pkidbebasesoes BY magnants lan unlikely birtiin an unlikely
places\astory about angels and shepherds tending their flocks and

three mysterious kings from the east following their astrological

calculations about a dramatically bright star to Bethlehem in Judea,
Thc siery Could wet we tmproaved vbaas
When John wrote his Gospel, at least a haif-centry had elasped and

it was time to look intensley, directly, with the penetrating pase

of the eagle,

Yenc es
He chose vivid Jkitbewemy imageomy, which Biblical writwers before

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him had employed. white the myth-makers of ancient religion projected cpensts
wool §- fantasies of wars between the gods, and bizarre fertility rites,
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the ancient senifs who wrote out of his people's experdence with a
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faithful and loving God put it this a 2
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,
and the earth was without from and void, and darknessw
was on the face of the deep, And God said, “Let there
be light.” And there was light.”
As they reflected on their experience, these people who knew

themselves chosen turned again and again to the same images to describe

life apart from God and to describe what transpires whn God is present.

:The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them
has light shined."
We know ,-<iemiiiate, the power and timeless relevance of those images.
We are reminded that the human race observed the lenghtening shadows
| nal ba a ail
of December with deep forboding for milleni®y wondering, annually,
about the beturbn_of the light.
We know that darkness is an apt representation of the part of
ruse He sory of War +\ge & \Ajus hee * 4
the story psychology calls thy shadow side,

And we know, each of us,the personal manifestations of darkness:

of disappointments los personal loss and subsequent griet;\or separation

and the subsequent pain of LoneLiness:\of depression and near despair,
We know - each of us ~ at a level beneath the surface of our Lives,
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that the timeless battle between light and darkness continues.

3

There is something about darkness that makes & single light more
a
radiant. \And there is something about the birth of Jesus which is more

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visible ing@ the daziness.\rt is not merely the romance and warmth
of candlelight .\1t is, rather, our experience that when God makes his
presence known in history, or in the modest confines of cur own

lives, at is like 1 ne [rt is not nostalgia, or even the quiet
=e

beauty of OUT sxiengieedbemrntres nem candlelight mingled to lighten

this sanctuary - although it is certainly tat xt is our sense that
, amas ed ae
when God comes into our lives it will be experienced as love,
De a a cara

teloirc Ye
healing, peace, and the strong seunetserree of hope,.
a Se

The eagle - wathpnbt inking intensity gazes directly into

the sun. » 2 ae the beginning was the word. . . In him was life

and the life was the light of all... the Light shines in the

darkness." 4

It is God's right \ 1 is December Light.\ re is light which becomes
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as vulnerable as Love\ Tt is light as fragile and gentle as the light

of a candle.
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And suddenly, for those whe can sustain their gaze at the light,

——y
there is life« even in We the midst of death,\and there is hope

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even in the midst of despair;\ and in the dani Fight there is joy

and laughter and singing and great BARRRX beauty.

In the darkness of a stable behind a Bethlehem MZ Inn, Jesus
Ci, Sina
Christ was born.\ The light shines in the darkness and the darkness
Te eo,

has not overcome it.
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