Daily Re-ignition

 “You are the light of the world.   A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp-stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”   - Matthew 5:14, 16

 In the entirety of the Bible there are about 220 references to light.  It is one of the Bible’s most frequently employed metaphors.

 In the gospels, light is most frequently and almost exclusively associated with and identified as the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 In the gospel of John are 22 references to “light” and every one of them is a reference to the Lord Jesus.  The most familiar being where Jesus says, “I am the light of the world” (9:5), or where John declares in reference to Jesus, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”  (1:5)

 However, in our gospel verses for today, which are lifted from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, it is the disciples that Jesus identifies as being the light to the world and challenges his disciples to “let (their lights) shine before others…”  “You are the light of the world,” says Jesus to the disciples. 

 The beauty and power of light as a metaphor is that it is so straightforward, so common, so everyday, so understandable and can send us in so many wonderful directions.  We could probably engage in a discussion for the rest of the morning, or even rest of the day, talking about the implications of Jesus as “the light of the word”, or ourselves as “the light of the world.”

 I will focus in on a couple of things that I believe these verses from Matthew, the words of Jesus, are proclaiming and teaching us.

 When you were baptized it is quite likely that the pastor or assistant took your baptismal candle, representing you, and lifted it to the Christ Candle, representing the risen Lord Jesus Christ, and lit your candle from the burning flame of the Christ Candle. 

 The symbolism is obvious and straightforward.  Jesus Christ is “the light of the world.”  Jesus Christ is the “light that shines in the darkness that the darkness did not put out.”  Jesus Christ is the light that still shines, and Jesus Christ shines for you and shines for me, and shines for the whole world.  Jesus Christ is the source of the light of God’s love, grace, forgiveness and salvation.  The predominant New Testament message is the Jesus Christ is the light. 

 Jesus said to His disciples, “You are the light of the world.”  What he meant was that his disciples, then and now, you and I and the whole church, are not the light in that we can generate light by our own power.  You and I are light only in so far as we receive it from the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 Martin Luther talked about daily returning to our baptism.  In fact to paraphrase Luther from the Small Catechism he said the every believer should be daily drown in the waters of baptism through repentance and contrition so that a new person might come forth and arise.  It’s not a one time event, but a daily repeating return and rhythm. 

 Using the metaphor of light we could say that every day we need to return to the light of the world in humility, confession and repentance to have our lights reignited everyday.  There is much in the world that would extinguish our lights and does extinguish our lights.  We live in a world of hurricanes and hatred; terrorists and treachery; self-indulgence and self-righteousness; indifference and indignation; anger and arrogance, prejudice and pride, hopelessness and haughtiness, death and despair, and we get caught up in it every day, and in little ways and big ways we surrender to some aspect of it every day, and our little lights get damaged and dimmed, snuffed and extinguished. 

 For Luther the central repeating rhythm or the Christian life was a daily return to baptism, which using the metaphor of light, we can say is a daily return to the light of the world to have our lights re-ignited.

 I know a man who has a Christ candle in his home similar to the one we have here.  Every morning he begins his day on his knees in confession near the Christ Candle and then he lights his personal candle off of it and prays that today he would carry the light of Christ into the world: to his family; to his work; to his community.   

A very meaningful daily practice I would say, for everyday in a powerful symbolic ritual he reminds himself of this central core truth of the Christian faith walk: daily forgiveness and daily empowerment by the love and grace of God.  For him it is a daily re-igniting of his walk of faith with Jesus Christ.

 The issue then becomes, which is the issue in these verses, “Will we let our light shine?”  Will the world know Christ through us, or not?

 Will you let your light, the light of Jesus Christ, shine in your household today?   Or will you hide it under the bushel of always striving to get your own way?

 Will you let your light, the light of Jesus Christ, shine in your workplace today, or will you succumb to climbing over a co-worker to get ahead? 

 Will you let your light, the light of Jesus Christ, shine in your school today or will you let peer pressure snuff it out?

 Will you let your light, the light of Jesus Christ, shine in your personal life today when it comes to attitudes about others and viewpoints on issues, or will you extinguish it under the clock of denial? 

I believe that one of the opportunities, if there is one, in the wake of chaos and suffering left by the hurricane is the illumination of the plight of the poor in our nation and the exposing of our national denial of just how many Americans are living in poverty, and the exposing of a prevalent ideology that, for decades now, has seriously undermined the idea of the common good.   

As a direct result of the hurricane and its aftermath, and for the first time in many years, the media are reporting on poverty, revealing to Americans that New Orleans had an overall poverty rate of 28% and a child poverty rate of almost 50% - half of all the city's children. Ironically, the annual U. S. Census poverty report came out during the Hurricane's deadly assault showing that poverty had risen for the fourth straight year in America with 37 million Americans stuck below the official poverty line and tens of millions more on or near the line.

The hurricane unmasked what was already there; an invisible and mostly silent poverty that we have chosen not to talk about, let alone to take responsibility for in the richest nation on earth.   

Perhaps the crossroads we find ourselves at as a nation is will we even attempt to take the light of Christ to the plight of the poor in America and allow the light of Christ to shine and reshape our personal, political and national habits.  It will take much.  It will require a combination of public and private initiatives, the merger of personal and social responsibility, the rebuilding of both families and communities, but also the confronting of hard questions about priorities – both personal and national. Most of all it will require all of us to make different and perhaps hard choices.

“Let your light so shine” implored Jesus.  The question is will we?  Will you?  Will I?  It’s a very personal question that Jesus asks and a very personal answer we must give – to the Lord.

Will we?  Will we, you and I, begin for the first time or continue with new commitment, our own rituals of daily re-ignition; daily confession and empowerment

Of course, the bottom line of this passage is a promise.  When we return for daily re-ignition, it is not for our glory, and if that’s our motivation then we might as well not bother.  It is for the glory of God and for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ who through his cross and resurrection is “the light that shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Jesus says to His disciples, “You are the light of the world.   A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp-stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”