YOU ARE LIGHT!

(Preached on Sunday, May 1, 2005)

You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.                                                                                    -Matthew 5:14

 

In a brief essay written in 1945, C. S. Lewis recounts an experience he had while standing in a toolshed.

“I was standing today in the dark toolshed.  The sun was shining outside and through the crack at the top of the door there came a sunbeam.  From where I stood that beam of light with the specks of dust floating in it, was the most striking thing in the place.  Everything else was almost pitch-black.  I was seeing the beam, not seeing things by it.  Then I moved, so that the beam fell on my eyes.  Instantly the whole previous picture vanished.  I saw no toolshed, and (above all) no beam.  Instead I saw, framed in the irregular cranny at the top of the door, green leaves moving on the branches of a tree outside and beyond that, 90-odd million miles away, the sun.  Looking along the beam, and looking at the beam are very different experiences?”

 

“You are the light of the world,” Jesus proclaims to us today.

He could not be much more simple, direct, or profound than he is with these words.  He does not suggest that we are to be like light, or to become like a city on a hill.  No, he stated that his followers are light.

 

In other words, Jesus is not calling us to do anything in particular; he is not laying an expectation on us of what we are to do or be.

No, Jesus is stating facts.  He is proclaiming our true nature.

We are light!  Our light must shine, it will shine.

We cannot hide it.  We cannot deny it.  We cannot dim it.

We are light.

 

We are light because Jesus is the light of the world.  We are light because the God who dwells in unapproachable light dwells in us.

“The Glory of God is the human being fully alive,” wrote Irenaeus in the second century, “the life of a human being is the vision of God.”

We cannot dim our light, and we cannot outshine it.

We must simply set it on a lampstand and be that light.

 

What does it mean “to shine?”  What does it mean to be light?

Light illuminates.  It functions not for its own glory but for the glory of others.  When light only draws attention to itself, it is not fulfilling its purpose.  As C. S. Lewis described the beam he first saw, it was only drawing attention to itself.

It was not even illuminating anything within the toolshed.

But, when Lewis stepped into the beam of light, suddenly it showed a beautiful reality beyond that darkened place.

 

When you stand up for that wayward child in the classroom, the one no one else sees much hope for in the future and so wants to just pass him along without getting him the help he needs, you are the light of the world.  When you find it in your heart to forgive that employee who made a major mistake, hurt the company, and so all the other manager’s want to fire her to set an example and follow the rules and guidelines set out in company policy, and so you advocate for her to receive another chance so that the employees will understand that this is a company where people can make serious mistakes and receive a second chance, you are the light of the world.

When you sit next to that new kid in school during lunch, the time when everyone connects with their friends and new people are left on their own, you are the light of the world.

 

By proclaiming that we are light, Jesus is reminding us that we do not live for ourselves, but for God.

We live that God’s glory, God’s love, God’s light will shine forth through our lives to bring light and life to all the world.

The culture in which we live, which surrounds us and marinates our lives, is a “me”-centered culture.

The dominant themes of television and advertising and the media are directed toward “my” benefits. “How will this help me?”

“How will I benefit?”  “What will I gain from this?”

Counter to that attitude, Jesus reminds us that we live for the benefit of others; other people and God.

Light unshared is darkness.  To be light indeed, it must shine out.

It is of the very essence of light, that it is for others.

 

Now we can try to muffle our light.  We can try to hide our true nature under a bushel or under our bed; we can try to live only for ourselves and let others take care of themselves; but when we do, we are not living true to who we are; we are not living true to whose we are.

And we will still put forth a witness, our lives will still shine, but not with the brilliance that God has created in us.

We will also be dampening our own joy if we try to do that, for we will not be living true to our nature.

When we stifle our light, we allow more darkness to surround our lives.

 

The way we live true to ourselves and live out the purpose of our lives, shining out God’s love, joy, and beauty by living for others is by strengthening our connection with God, so that God’s power and light shine forth from us.  One way we strengthen that connection is by worshiping together.  We are not the light of the world by ourselves.

We are the light of the world when we assemble as the body of Christ.

We are most dazzling when we hear God’s call in the word proclaimed and respond by breaking bread and sharing the cup at the banquet table.  When we gather to worship, part of what we are doing is practicing the art of hospitable living and service; by caring for one another around this table, we are learning how to recognize the light in the person next to us and thus improve our ability to recognize the same light in every stranger we meet.

When we gather together we are also reminding ourselves who we are.

We are remembering deep in our beings that we are people who are dead to all the evil and “isms” that darken our world. 

We have been buried in the waters of baptism to the world and rose from those waters to newness of life.

We are also a living people; alive in Christ, in the Spirit, in God’s divine nature.  We are alive to the hope of resurrection — after death and in countless ways before death.  We are people of justice, sharing our bread with the hungry, sheltering the homeless and clothing the naked.

We are a people of hospitality and healing and welcome to all people.

 

When we come together we are practicing and learning how to be the light of the world.  And the results show forth.

Through the 3 C’s Preschool, every year we make a significant difference in the lives of 120 children and their families.

Through our Youth Program, led by Bess Higgs, our Director for Faith Development and Mission Outreach, we continue to have a dramatic impact in the lives of about 15 teens, almost all of whom had never stepped foot in a church before the past two years.

Through our Mission Outreach committee and the work they lead us in, we touch many, many lives ever year in a positive way; lives of women and children who are victims of domestic violence; lives of men, women and children who are homeless, living on the street until taken in by the Homeless Assistance Center in Homestead; lives of farmworkers.