The Adventures of Letterman

A Series on Advent
The Christ candle – Jesus
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
John 1:1-18 

[Advent is the period of preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Tradition includes lighting four candles: hope, love, joy and peace. To celebrate Advent, we will be looking at four people plus one who were intimately involved in the Christmas story, and then relating their part of the story to one of the Advent candles.]

  

In the 70’s, there was a children’s TV show called The Electric Company. During the show, they had a daily vignette called “The Adventures of Letterman”. The plot revolved around some problem with a word that Letterman would fix. But before he could come to the rescue, the narrator would say:

“Faster than a rolling ‘o’. Stronger than silent ‘e’. Able to leap capital ‘T’ in a single bound. It’s a word! It’s a plan!! It’s Letterman!!!”

 

Suddenly Letterman would fly into the story and fix the word making everything right. In one episode, Letterman changed ‘night’ to ‘light’ with a simple switch of a letter. By changing the word, everyone would live in daylight rather than night. Letterman saved the day!

 

John’s opening verses tell a similar story.

¹ In the beginning the Word already existed.

    The Word was with God,
    and the Word was God.
² He existed in the beginning with God.
³ God created everything through him,
    and nothing was created except through him.
⁴ The Word gave life to everything that was created,
    and his life brought light to everyone.
⁵ The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness can never extinguish it.                NLT

 

“The Word gave life to everything that was created”… that includes you and me. “And his life brought light to everyone”.  Like Letterman, if you’ll forgive the comparison, the Word brings light where the “darkness can never extinguish it”.

 

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.         NIV

 

Jesus is “the Word who became flesh”. He did this by making his home not just “among us”, but within us. Paul confirmed this in his letter to the church in Colossae.

 

²⁷ For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.              NLT

 

As you light the Christ candle of Advent, may Christ live in you today and throughout the coming year.

 

Copyright 2022 Joseph B Williams