Ready-to-use Reflection: Light of the World

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BRINGING OURSELVES TO THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD

Introduce the reflection by acknowledging the busyness of the time leading up to Christmas, and invite the group to pause and spend a moment in silence. After 30 seconds, with a calm voice, encourage each person to notice what pops into their minds, and to write or draw each thought on a different sticky note. It may be big things, such as global tragedies they’ve heard about in the news, personal things such as people or relationships, or even seemingly silly things like food or phone apps.

Collect all the notes in a wide bowl or plate. Prepare a table with a large candle on before the session, and at this point place the bowl with the notes in front of the candle. Pray something like this:

Father God, we acknowledge all these things that are on our mind, from the mundane to the sacred; from the serious to the ridiculous. We don’t try to forget all these things, or say they don’t matter – but we trust that you know what to do with them better than we do. So we hand these things that fill our minds over to you, as we spend some time remembering how you sent your Son into the midst of this busy world.

[Light the candle] We light this candle to remember Jesus coming as the light, sent into a dark world. We light this candle as a symbol of your presence with us now. As the candle light flickers over the thoughts that occupy our minds, Jesus Christ, we ask that you will be not just the light of the world, but also the light to our hearts and the light to our minds. Amen.

Groups who enjoy singing together may at this point want to sing a song on the theme     of Jesus as light, for example ‘Light of the world’ (Tim Hughes) or ‘Christ be our light’ (Bernadette Farrell). Others may want to listen to a song while looking at the candle.

LECTIO DIVINA: ISAIAH 9:1-7  

Introduce the next section by saying that you will be spending time with God, hearing from him and responding to him by using an ancient practice called ‘lectio divina’, which means ‘holy reading’.

Begin by praying a prayer of prepara­tion, inviting God to speak through his word, by the Holy Spirit, and then encourage the group to take a moment in silence to prepare their hearts. After some silence, read Isaiah 9:1–7 slowly and clearly. Leave some silence before reading it out loud again. After anoth­er moment of silence, encourage the group to listen out for any words or phrases that God may highlight for them in the text. Read the passage once or twice more, leaving plenty of space between. Encourage everyone at this point to chew over the word or phrase that has struck them; to turn it over in their minds, look at it from all angles and examine the emo­tions and thoughts that it evokes in them.

After a time of silence, give an instruc­tion to turn their thoughts into prayers: what prayer is their word calling them to? Do they feel led to confession, petition or perhaps intercession, prayer for others? Encourage the group to lift their prayers to God in their hearts. After a moment or so, invite everyone to simply rest in God’s pres­ence, to contemplate his goodness and beau­ty, and feel safe enough to just ‘be’. Allow some time in silence for this.

A TIME OF INTERCESSION

Before the session, prepare the following display: place a large, white piece of paper on a table or floor surface. Place a desk lamp, or other strong light, to shine on the paper from one side. You then need to put some sort of blockage in front of the paper, in the way of the light. The aim is to create a clear, large shadow on the piece of paper (this may involve turning other lights in your room down). If you have the time and the inclination, the strongest symbolism would be to stick the day’s news stories from a newspaper on high, plain boxes and use these to block the light, but any fairly plain blockage would do.

Gather around your display, and light your desk lamp. Explain that you are going to spend some time reflecting on a phrase in the passage that you just meditated on, the sec­ond half of verse two, ‘Those living in the land of the shadow of death’. Ask the young people the following questions to reflect on (again, provide pens and paper if appropriate), leav­ing plenty of space between each question:    

What does the phrase ‘land of the shadow of death’ make you think of? What emotions, colours and thoughts does the phrase evoke in your mind?

What do you think could be causing the shadow?

What do you think it feels like to be in the land of the shadow of death?

Do you think that there are geographical places in the world which are in the shadow of death at the moment? Where are they?

Do you know of any people who would describe themselves as living in the land of the shadow of death? Who are they?

Ask each member of the group to share some of their thoughts after this time, ensuring that each person has the chance to speak without interruption. After a time of sharing, ask the young people to draw or write things in the shadow on the piece of paper; the people, geographical areas or persons who feel like they are in the shadow of death at this time (or anything else that your reflection has brought up). Pray something like this:     

Father God, we read in Psalm 139 that ‘even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day.’ We are so thankful for the dawning of the Light of the World, as Jesus was born among us. Thank you that where you are there can be no shadow[at this point, move your large can­dle into the shadow and light it again, if not lit already]. May this action be a prophet­ic act; may your light shine brightly and change the shadow[at this point, read what has been written down in the shadow], into life-giving light. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

To take this reflection one step further, plan time to consider the action that the group’s prayers may require. Ask questions like, ‘Does the Bible text demand action of us?’ or ‘What other parts of Scripture may cause us to believe that we ourselves could be the answer to these prayers?’ or ‘How should a Christian respond when they encounter the land of the shadow of death?’