Christmas is God lighting a candle; and you don't light a candle in a room that's already full of sunlight. You light a candle in a room that's so murky that the candle, when lit, reveals just how bad things really are.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how hope and illumination are most needed in times of darkness.
N. T. Wright's quote uses the metaphor of lighting a candle to illustrate the idea that Christmas symbolizes the introduction of hope and clarity in difficult and dark times. Just as a candle shines brighter in a dark room, the message of Christmas shines most poignantly in situations of despair or confusion, helping people to recognize the challenges they face and the hope that can guide them through.
In practice
This quote can be used in a sermon to emphasize the significance of hope during the holiday season.
The resurrection completes the inauguration of God's kingdom. . . . It is the decisive event demonstrating thet God's kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven." "The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.
True worship doesn't put on a show or make a fuss; true worship isn't forced, isn't half-hearted, doesn't keep looking at its watch, doesn't worry what the person in the next pew is doing. True worship is open to God, adoring God, waiting for God, trusting God even in the dark.
Most of the things that really matter require faith. How do I know that my wife loves me? How do I know that Mozarts Jupiter Symphony is sublime and beautiful? There are all sorts of things which come at a more lowly level than that - How do I know that two plus two equals four? There are different layers, different types of knowing.
To get overprotective about particular readings of the Bible is always in danger of idolatry.
Without God's Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God's kingdom. Without God's Spirit, the church simply can't be the church.
I'm not a universalist, and the way I talk about final loss is this: People worship idols - money, whatever. Their humanness gets reshaped around the idol - you become like what you worship. That's one of the basic spiritual laws.
I say thank God for government waste. If government is doing bad things, it's only the waste that prevents the harm from being greater.
The surest mark of true conversion is humility.
Before a brain can register a thought, a mind must think it... every step of the way is mind over matter... We override our brains all the time.
All I'm saying is that you should show some respect for what other people see with their eyes and feel with their fingers, even though it be the exact opposite.
All of us are made up of the stories that we listen to, the ones we disagree with and the ones that we agree with.
Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.
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