Fifth Sunday a. Epiphany, Immanuel Chapel Matthew 5:14-16
Last Sunday, when storm predications threatened power outages, Becky and I stocked up on supplies at the nearby Johnnies Market. I also checked our supply of batteries and Becky bought candles. We did not want to be like the people of Israel described in Isaiah 59:10, “We grope like blind men along a wall, feeling our way like those who have no eyes.”
Israel is groping like blind men because they have lost the light and are stranded in darkness. It isn’t that they were short on candles. They had lost the light of God’s grace and mercy. They had been taken into exile in Babylon. “We hope for light, and behold, darkness and for brightness but we walk in gloom.” God’s mercy has not caught up to them. They were stumbling at noon like it was nightfall. They were under God’s judgment for their failure to do what was right toward those who needed deliverance and mercy.
Our Old Testament lesson lists the acts of grace and mercy. Share your bread with the hungry. Bring the homeless poor into your house. When, you see the naked, cover him. Don’t turn your face away from your own flesh. “Then shall your light break forth like the dawn.”
It isn’t that their deeds will cause God’s light to dawn upon them. God’s light long ago dawned on them when he chose Israel as his own, and accompanied their forefathers in the desert as they made their way to the Promised Land. God’s glory led them by a cloud by day and stood guard in a pillar of fire by night. Israel, was poor in spirit when God brought them up out of the land of slavery, leading them to sing, “The Lord is my strength…he has become my salvation…the Lord will reign forever and ever.”
God’s blessings go hand in hand with doing deeds of grace and mercy toward those poor in spirit who need to be uplifted to see God’s light of hope at the end of the tunnel. It does not compute that those who have received God’s deliverance from their own poverty and slavery to sin should then leave those in need stranded like motorists this week on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Those blessed by God become sources of blessing to others. That was Israel’s purpose extending all the way back to Abraham.
It is not God’s will that anyone live under his judgment forever. Therefore, we soon read, “Then his own arm brought… salvation, and his righteousness up held (His servant).” God promises that a Redeemer will come to Zion. In the very next chapter the prophet announces, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”
Israel’s story is our story. We are the poor in spirit who have been blessed with the kingdom of heaven. We are the blessed ones who hungered and thirsted for God to deliver us from the dominion of darkness in which we were bound as slaves to sin. We are the ones of whom Jesus spoke as he opened his ministry, that those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.
Last Wednesday was the Day of purification of Mary and Presentation of Jesus. That day the Lord came to the temple of His heavenly Father carried in the arms of his earthly father. In his Father’s house he was met by Simeon who sang a song we sing often after Holy Communion. Simeon was ready to walk into the “shadow of death” because his eyes had seen God’s salvation in the person of the 7 week old Jesus. Simeon declared him to be “A light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” What Israel of old had seen in the cloud and the pillar of fire in the wilderness is now contained in the flesh of Jesus, the presence of almighty God in all his grace and mercy.
The Almighty God contained in the flesh of Jesus stumbled to Calvary under the weight of his cross. Though, more than the weight of the cross pressed him down. God had added our sins to that instrument of execution. As he hung on the cross, those around him stumbled at noon as if it were nightfall. That was a symbol of our sins that separate us from God as we stumble through life. As a result, justice was far from him, but near to us. Righteousness did not overtake him, but it was coming to us speedily. No one would rescue Him from death, but he would rescue us. He was the promised Redeemer. He was light and the glory of the Lord, that dawned upon us.
Jesus, crucified and arisen, turns to us in our gospel lesson this morning and says, “You are the light of the world.” The Greek here is emphatic. It should be “You, you, you are the light of the world, because you are my disciples.” You can’t get away from it. It won’t do any good to duck behind a pew because you are like a city set on a hill, and the light can’t be hidden. You are light because Christ has made you the Light. He has made you the light that gives light to everyone else around you. We hear it said of certain people, “When he or she walks into a room they light up the whole room.” That’s you. You are that person, because you are a disciple of Jesus. When a light is lit it lights up the whole room. That’s you. Peter, Andrew, James and John were by the shore of the Sea of Galilee when Jesus called them to be his disciples, his lights. You were by the shore of the sea of the baptism font when Jesus called you to be his disciple, his light.
So how are to be lights in the world? It’s as simple as the song we will sing a bit later says, “This little gospel light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” In Jesus words, “Let your light shine before others.” You are light and the sole purpose of light is to light the way for others. We are lights in the ordinary course of events in the day. For instance, Jesus interprets murder to include anger toward a brother that leads to insulting the person. Well, if you are about to put your offering envelope in the plate and remember that there is something between yourself and another person, first go and be reconciled to that person and then bring your offering. Since you have been blessed with mercy, be merciful toward others. When you come upon someone grieving in some way, comfort them with the comfort by which God has comforted you. Is there trouble brewing where you work or in church or among your friends or in your family? Since you have been blessed with peace from God in Christ, act like a child of God and be Christ’s peacemaking disciple. Are there people around who are acting in devious ways, deceitful and dishonest? Be pure in heart in any and all circumstances. Where did I get all these suggestions of how to behave in the presence and company of others? I took the words right out of Jesus mouth.
You see, the goal of being a light of the world is so that folks will see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. The Holy Spirit uses your word and your works to lead others to believe and thus become lights of the world themselves. In the brightness of Christ’s light, our light will shine for the blessing and salvation of the world. You don’t even have to check your batteries or turn your light on, you are light.
“You, you, you, let your gospel light shine. Let it shine, let it shine, all the time.”
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