Welcome to 2026! We are back and meeting at 7:30pm at the Tavern and Galley. It would be great to see as many of you there as can make it. We start exploring our new themes this week and this one looks at light, dark and the incarnation! We will also be starting to use some of the liturgy within our gatherings – if you are not able to be with us we will look to use the words below at around 9pm so if you are part of our dispersed community you can say them at a similar time.
We are a community of faith Strandlopers on a Journey
With the author of creation.
Connected and scattered
Roots linked together
Nurturing and supporting
Living this way
Now and always
Both near and far
And so we go
Creator’s Word became a flesh-and-blood human being and pitched his sacred tent among us, living as one of us. First Nations Version New Testament
I have done a lot of thinking about light and dark this week in preparation for this. When I walk T-dog in the morning it is still pretty dark at the minute, the streetlights are sometimes on but not always and with the ice and frost of the last few weeks it can be interesting trying to walk along the path. Some times it is only the moon glistening on the ice that tells me I shouldn’t walk on certain bits of pavement.
At the beginning of Genesis we are told that all that existed was darkness and water. Commentators often speak of the water as chaos. An unformed, unordered existence without meaning, structure or substance. It is unsurprising that the first step in creation was for light to come into the world.
Darkness allows for uncertainty and the unknown. When I walk the dog it means I have to be extra careful about where I tread, taking my time, especially when conditions aren’t ideal. When we walk into a room with no lights on it means we have no idea what’s inside. Watch a horror movie and a lot of it is filmed in dark rooms and forests. If you want to create a tense atmosphere in a tv show, hand the protagonist a torch and let them run around in some pitch black tunnels. The dark keeps things hidden and causes us to question what might be inside…1
When we read in John 1 that Jesus came as light in the darkness, I think are minds often picture a 200,000 lumen torch being turned on blinding all around. I wonder though if John had something much subtler in mind. There are lots of descriptions in the Bible of God or other divine beings, like angels, shining like lighting or the sun or in the Old Testament like burning bronze. These images do speak of intensity and brightness. Here in John’s telling of Jesus coming into the world ,John tells us that he took on flesh and blood and came to live as one of us, pitching his tent in our midst and dwelling with us. This image doesn’t strike me as one of blinding light but of simple presence.
Light no matter how small cannot be overcome by darkness. A match, a candle, pin prick of light cannot be smothered or put out by darkness. What light does do, no matter how small is begin to make the unseen and unknown a little less uncertain. Its light begins to reveal a little of what is present in its midst. Maybe this is what John had in mind when he talks of Jesus coming as light, as flesh and blood and dwelling in our midst. Not blinding light that reveals everything, but as tiny flicker that slowly begins to burn and begin to reveal what is hidden. To show us that everything in the dark isn’t as scary as we might have imagined and that we can maybe see the next step we need to take on a journey.
John mentions in these open words that this light that came in Jesus wasn’t recognised by some. Maybe they were expecting the burning bronze and bright light. Those that noticed this light enter the world were ordinary people. Mary and Joseph, shepherds and foreign mystics, women fetching water and fishermen. For these and many more they noticed that light that was glowing in the dark, that divine spark that dwelt amongst them and they saw that it began to show them how the world really was, how it should and could be.
Questions
What’s the most creative way you’ve ever tried to navigate the dark without turning a light on?
At what point in life did walking in the dark stop feeling adventurous and start feeling like a genuine risk assessment exercise?
What things strike you about the reflection above?
What bits of John 1:1-14 stand out to you?
What might it mean for the way we live to see Jesus’ arrival as small flickering flame or a presence that dwells with us instead of full on light show?
What practices can we use to walk carefully together when the way ahead is uncertain?
1 Our assumption (probably from too many scary films) is that dark = bad. I am not sure that is the case, darkness brings uncertainty but it doesn’t mean that we should be scared or afraid of it.
Photo by Rahul: https://www.pexels.com/photo/lighted-candle-695644/
Has been a part of BeachcomberFX since his arrival in the North East in 2014. He is well travelled (at least in the UK) having lived in Manchester, Nottingham, Derbyshire, Southport, Doncaster, Berwick and Edinburgh. Supporter of Newcastle United, will watch any sport.