I heard this
song on Saturday morning last week on WWOZ It's been on my mind and my running playlist ever since. Give a listen
to Kermit Ruffins' rendition of This Little Light of Mine.
In the
meantime, I had already written, but was preparing to preach on the 5th Sunday
after the Epiphany with texts from Isaiah 58 and Matthew 5 which includes the
passage we recite at baptisms as we light a candle, Let your light shine before
others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in
heaven. So, I have been praying about light...This song just hits the
spot!
We almost
sang it as I handed out glow sticks to the kids during the children's
sermon.
Here is this
past weekend's sermon. Maybe take time this week to light a candle, to
let Christ's light shine in the midst of darkness, to cast light and love and
grace on a broken world.
February 5,
2017
5th
Sunday after Epiphany
Isaiah
58:1-12
Psalm
112:1-9
1
Corinthians 2:1-12
Matthew
5:13-20
Please pray
with me,
May the
words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in
your sight, O God, our rock, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
Shout out,
do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Such is the
call we hear from Isaiah today…the trumpet would have been the call to the
temple. I thought about starting my
sermon with the blast of the trumpet….or maybe a vuvuzela…you know…to draw
attention…to call people to focus…or to even wake people up? Because here we are, settled in
worship.
We’ve heard
the lessons, we’ve sung some liturgy and some hymns, and now we settle in for
the sermon. Before our time is concluded
today we will pray, share in the Lord’ Supper and be sent from this place to
serve the Lord until we return.
In essence,
worship is the most important thing we do together.
Yes, loving
and serving our neighbor is important, as is feeding the hungry and visiting
the lonely and praying for our enemies…but the most important thing that we do
together is worship.
“It is the
place that forms us into the people of God.
It is the place where we inhale God’s love and grace, so that we can be
sent forth to exhale God’s love and grace in a broken world in need of
redemption.” (Connors)
The original
hearers of Isaiah’s passage were super focused on worship. You may think, oh, that’s a good thing. You just said that worship is the most
important thing we do together…and yes it is, but the people of Isaiah’s time
were too focused on the acts of worship.
They took the acts of worship, like fasting, bowing down before God and
self-sacrifice as a way to say, Hey God!
Look at us! Look at how pious we
are! Look at our fasting! Look at our self-sacrifice! Look at these rituals that we do over and
over again to gain your attention!
What do you
think is wrong with that picture?
The very
acts of worship were driving the people to think more and more about themselves
and their individual actions than those around them and how their actions impacted
the life of the community.
Isaiah, the
voice of the prophet, calls to the people to remind them that their worship is
not just about their individual actions, but how their actions as a community
of the faithful has an impact on the larger community.
The prophets
were sent to speak out for God. (Sound
familiar Fundocy youth?) Sometimes the words of the prophets comforted those
who were afflicted. Sometimes the words
of the prophets afflicted the comfortable.
In my eyes,
the words of the prophets came from a God who loves God’s people so much…that
sometimes they need to be refocused or redirected to the call of God in their
lives.
And that, in
essence, is what worship does for us each week.
It helps us
to be refocused and redirected to the call of God in our lives.
And maybe,
one of the most important pieces of that call is the call to community.
We aren’t
called to live lives of disciples on our own in our own individual
bubbles. We are called together into the
Body of Christ, into the family of God to reflect and shine the light of Christ
in a broken and hurting world.
Our gospel
lesson today is another reminder of who we are called to be. As you heard the passage read, You are the
light of the world! You are the salt of
the earth! Maybe you started humming the
music from Godspell…I know I did.
But did you
know that as that passage was read that Jesus was talking to the
community. The you in both of those
verses is plural.
As a former
English teacher it is easy for me to say the plural of you is you. There is no need to add an ‘s’ to the end of
it. But apparently in these parts it may
be better heard to say, yous or youins…although both of those make me
cringe.
Y’all works
much better for me.
Y’all are
the light of the world!
Y’all are
the salt of the earth!
Y'all, get it?
It’s plural,
this command and call is being addressed in a communal and corporate way.
It’s the
reflection and sharing of Christ’s light as a community.
Many of you
may have one of these at home.
Especially if you have a newly baptized person in your family. Because at a baptism, we light this candle,
hand it to a parent or sponsor and say, let your light so shine before others
that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven.
I’m not sure
what happens when those candles leave this place. I’ve heard of families that
light those candles on birthdays or baptismal anniversaries. Too often I think these candles are forgotten
about. They are put back in the box they
came in and they are placed in a drawer.
Candles in a drawer don’t do much good.
But candles
lit…that’s a completely different story.
As the body
of Christ we are called to let our light shine before others that they may see
the good works of our community and that those works may give glory to our
father in heaven.
One candle
will always break through the darkness.
That is most certainly true.
But the
light of candles, multiple candles, changes darkness in a bold and powerful
way.
The light of
multiple candles shines light on the darkness, it allows us to see sin for what
it is, the brokenness in our world and the places where we turn from God and
turn in toward ourselves. But it also
shines a beacon of hope. That where
light is shined, God is there too.
Where the
light of Christ is shined shows the promise of the resurrection and eternal
life.
Where the
light of Christ is shined shows our care and compassion for the community,
nation and world outside of our own little bubbles.
I invite you
now to be part of that great light.
To be
reminded of God’s connection to us, and our opportunity and call to share that
light with others.
Please come
up, pick up a candle and light it from the Christ candle….let us see how the
communal light of Christ dispels darkness and illumines the church and the
world.
Let us pray,
Repeat after
me,
Let our
light so shine before others
That they
may see our good works.
And give
glory to our father in heaven.
Let
Christ’s light so shine before others
That it
dispels the darkness,
Gives hope
to the hopeless,
And
enlightens our world
With your
love,
In Jesus’
name we pray
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment