"You Are the Light of the World". A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church.

"You Are the Light of the World"

Matthew 5:13-16; Isaiah 58:1-12

            We’re in the second of five weeks of passages from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mountain, as told by Matthew.  In last week's gospel lesson we heard Jesus speaking the Beatitudes:  "Blessed are the poor in spirit...  the mourners...  the meek... the merciful...   Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you....  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven."^[1]

            How must these words have sounded to the motley gathering of Jesus' followers-- the cast-down, cast-off, downtrodden riff-raff that had latched onto this rabbi from Nazareth and were his congregation that day on the hillside.  In Jesus they caught a glimpse of a new way, the way of love and life.  They caught a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven.

            Then Jesus moves on from comfort to something we might hear as more challenging.  "You are the salt of the earth,"  he says.  Switching metaphors, he continues, "You are the light of the world."

            But did you notice?  As Professor David Lose reminds us, Jesus doesn’t say,  "If you want to become salt and light, do this...." Or, "before I'll call you salt and light, I'll need to see this from you...." Rather, he says both simply and directly, in the present tense:  "You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world."[2]  These are words of blessing… affirmation… and commissioning.   We are salt and light now, not in some distant future.  Jesus’ teaching is not only about what the Kingdom of God is, but about who we are, and what our lives in this new realm look like. 

            You are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world.

            Do we believe that?  In the eighth chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus says, "I am the light of the world."  Through Jesus Christ, like no other, we have seen the light of God shining.   Who else has so illuminated our hearts, enlightened our minds, and guided our paths?   Christ is the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

            But for Jesus to turn to us and say, "You are the light of the world."  Are we ready to believe it--that Christ sees in us the very light we have seen in him?  Because that's what our text tells us.: "You are the light of the world."

            The light that shone in Christ shines in us.   The light shone in Christ with a special brilliance which we can only dimly reflect.  But the light is still here, and it's our job to draw back the drapes in our lives and let it shine.  We are called to make a difference for others in the world.  

            The good news is that—to be the light of the world-- you don’t need to be an expert in theology.  You don't need to go to seminary.  You don't need to be able to speak eloquently.   All you need to do is have love--and share it.

            Christ gave us a gift of unspeakable worth when he told us that we are the light of the world. We have something precious to offer one another and the world. Our lives have great meaning, because we're part of God's plan to save the world. We are the light of the world.

            Now, Jesus must have anticipated the resistance to his trust and confidence in us. So he used a playful image to make his point. "No one lights a lamp and then hides it under a bushel," he said.  "They put it on a stand, and it gives light to the whole house.  Let your light shine so that others may see your good works and give glory to God..."

            As Christians, we're called to let the light shine in our lives, for all to see. Christ calls us to be lights that illuminate...lights that brighten the world...lights that light up the lives of others. 

            So-- how are we to do this?  The passage we heard from Isaiah can help us.  Those few verses list one specific thing after another: "Loose the bonds of wickedness...  undo the thongs of the yoke... let the oppressed go free...break every yoke."   In other words, we need to care about the disadvantaged.  If the system is unjust, we need to work to reform it.

            "Share your bread with the hungry," Isaiah says.  Help to feed those who don't have enough to eat, as we do when we collect our Two Cents a Meal offering and in our work with Gleaners and in other ways.

            "Bring the homeless poor into your house," Isaiah says.        "Don't hide yourself from your own flesh." Stop avoiding certain areas of Dearborn or Detroit as though the people there aren't part of our human family.  Stop thinking about calamities in far-away places as something that happens to someone with whom you have no relationship.  We are all family.

            Remove the pointing of fingers and speaking wickedness, Isaiah says. Stop blaming others and gossiping and treating others with contempt.

            Do these things, says Isaiah, and "then shall your light break forth like the dawn...then shall your light rise in the darkness."  Let your faith find expression in concrete acts of justice and love. 

            God knows we can't do all this on our own.  In Christ, God comes to us, broken in heart and broken in body, to be with us in our brokenness, to lighten our darkness.  God comes to us, not with rules and demands that overwhelm us, but with gentleness that invites and attracts and encourages and empowers and lightens our darkness.  God comes to us, claiming us and sending us forth from this place to illumine the lives of others...  to be the light of the world.

            What does being salt and light look like?  I think it may look different in different times and contexts.

            I know I’ve shared the story of Le Chambon before, but not for a while, and I think it’s a beautiful and amazing story.

            There’s a small mountain village in south-central France called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.  The people there are descendants of the Huguenot Protestants, who were victims of religious persecution.

            When the Second World War broke out, Jewish families began to arrive in the train station at Le Chambon, trying to escape the Nazi death camps, and the residents made their village a refuge for them. Most of the village went to the same church.

            Now, of course, it was illegal to help these refugees, and the region was under occupation. But this small village of around 5,000 people defied the law. They took Jewish families into their homes and into the school, fed and clothed them, helped them obtain forged identification papers, and smuggled them across the border into Switzerland.  It is said that in the years from 1940 to 1943, there was not a wine cellar, an attic, or a hayloft in the village that had not sheltered a Jewish child.

            There was never a report that any refugee had been turned away or betrayed to the authorities by the citizens of Le Chambon. During the course of the war, it is estimated that this town saved the lives of somewhere between 3,500 and 5,000 Jews, mostly children and young families.   

            In 1990, the town was one of two collectively honored as the Righteous Among the Nations by the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Israel for saving lives in Nazi-occupied Europe, along with the Dutch village of Nieuwlande.

           

            After the war, the pastor of the local church was interviewed and was asked what motivated the heroic courage of this community to risk their lives and property for people they did not even know? The pastor responded that they were not trying to be heroes. They were simply trying to be Christians. This is what it means to be salt for the earth–-to so believe in the love of God and the call to justice that we stand apart from what is expected and normal.[3]

            Friends, you and I are the light of the world.  We are called to be the light that makes plain the justice way of the kingdom of God, in our time. Jesus calls us simply to be the people God has created us to be--to exercise the gifts we have been given, faithfully, and lovingly.

            So-- be the light.  Be the salt.  Be the person God created and called and gifted you to be.  Don't try to be anyone else.  Rejoice in the uniqueness of who God created you to be.  Brighten the corner of the world where you find yourself, and don't hide who you are.

            Let your life radiate with the love and joy and peace we have in Christ. Put your light out there for all the world to see.  Let it shine, friends!

             Let it shine!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

February 5, 2017

---

^[1]Matt. 5:3-12

[2] David Lose, “Commissioned to Be Salt and Light”, at http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=3062

[3] If you’d like to read more about this, I highly recommend Philip P. Hallie’s book, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There (Harper, 1994).

"The Power of Persistence." A sermon on Luke 8:1-8 and Isaiah 58, on Bread for the World Sunday. (With some reflections on the campaign season)

"The Power of Persistence"

Luke 18:1-8; Isaiah 58

Our faith tells us that God is merciful, loving, and powerful.  But the injustice and suffering we see all around us challenge that conviction. 

As Matthew Skinner suggests, “The system is rigged.  It always has been.”[1]  And so, as Skinner points out, people of faith have been complainers. 

“Justice never prevails,” the prophet Habakkuk complained to God.  Job lamented why God remained silent and apparently indifferent while he suffered:  “I call aloud, but there is no justice.”  [Habakkuk 1:4]

            Describing the abuses perpetrated by those who wield power, the prophet Micah said, “Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire. Thus they pervert justice.”  [Micah 7:3]

            People of faith complain—not because we’re whiney or grumpy.  When we complain about injustice, we’re insisting on a different world.  We remember that God created the world and called it good…and intends goodness.  We ache to see God’s intentions for human flourishing become realities.   So we keep doing what we can to help our hopes become a reality.

            In the gospel lesson we just heard, Jesus tells a parable about a widow who refuses to put up with an unjust system.  Luke says the  parable is about the disciples’ need to pray always and not to lose heart. 

“In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.  In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my opponent.’”

For a while this unjust judge refused, but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”

This widow uses the resources she has:  her voice and her persistence.  In time, her continuing advocacy for justice eventually gets results.   

Jesus said, “Will not God grant justice to God’s chosen ones who pray day and night?” 

In her society, the widow in the parable would have been marginalized and powerless, but she did what she could:  she prayed always, persistently.  Rather than wishing passively for things to be better, she advocates actively for justice, in her commitment to do what she can to work for a better world.

            Jesus tells about the persistent actions of this widow to show us what Christians are called to do.  Our Christian faith invites us to channel our frustrations with the brokenness of our society into prayer, and then into prayerful action.  Our faith calls us into advocacy that demands a response from God and from our society.  As people of faith, as individuals and communities, we are called to advocate for justice from those who have the power to grant it.  This advocacy uses whatever tools are available.  Whatever it takes to get the system to change, even if sometimes it’s only a little.

            Right now we’re in the midst of the ugliest political campaign I can remember.  I know many of us are very troubled by the lack of civility and how the mud-slinging has distracted us from the kind of serious discussion of important issues of vital importance to our nation.  It’s hard not to feel hopeless at times about the polarization in our nation.   

            Elections are pivotal moments, with outcomes that will last into the future, and there’s a lot of anxiety around this.  All the drama and debate and rhetoric could distract us from our basic calling as followers of Jesus.   

            In the midst of all this, we need to remember that there is no perfect candidate.  No one person can solve all the problems.  So it’s good news that we aren’t electing a Messiah—because we already have our Messiah: Jesus Christ, whom alone we worship and follow.

            All of the candidates have shown us who they are and what their strengths and weaknesses are.  So we need to pray for discernment, that we may use our votes to support the candidate who is best equipped to lead our nation through this time of great change and challenge.  

            No matter who wins the election on November 8, we know that we are beloved children of God.  We know that God is good, all the time.  We know that God continues to call us to embody God’s love in the world, and to work for justice and peace, to be repairers of the breach, the restorers of our communities and our nation.  We are called to work to promote the well-being of our neighbors and especially those who are denied justice.  This is true now, and it will be true on November 9 and the days that follow.

           

            Now and every day we are called to be a servant church.  When we are most faithfully being the servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick and visiting the home-bound.   We’re serving those in the community who are needy and hurting, through friendship and practical kinds of help.  We’re standing with those who are marginalized, and with victims of  violence and assault.   When we’re being the servant church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.

            And—something I’ve been thinking a lot about the past few weeks—we’re being a servant church when we work to build bridges of understanding, when we work to bring about reconciliation.  I hope we’ll be praying about this in the days leading up to the election and following.  This congregation has committed itself to peacemaking.  So how can we build bridges that cross partisan divisions and work toward healing?  

           

            Now and every day, we are called to care for those in need.  Today has been designated as Bread for the World Sunday.   Yesterday was World Food Day. 

            We who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t, and that many of those who are hungry or food insecure are children. 

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States, in one of the richest countries in the world — that’s almost one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have jobs and work hard, but whose wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.
            So our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition,  nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important. 
            A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years, in terms of intellectual development --not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year. 

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Two Cents a Meal offering… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door or Focus Hope or volunteer at Gleaners.

            But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger.   For a lot of us,  hunger and poverty seem overwhelming.  But we don’t have to do it alone. 

            Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years.  The reason I personally support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable record of helping win passage of bipartisan legislation that addresses hunger.   As a result of this advocacy, children in the United States receive vital nutrition.   Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa.  Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

            If you want to help Bread for the World with this important, persistent advocacy work, you are invited to give them a donation.  Or you could commit yourself to sending letters to your elected representatives in Congress.  I’ll post a link on the church Facebook page and send one in an email to help you do this advocacy work if you feel led to do so.

            It took me between five and ten minutes to personalize the form letter at the website, which was then automatically sent to my congressional representatives.  It’s a small thing, but it’s important.  It’s a way to act prayerfully and faithfully.

            As Teresa of Avila famously put it, "Christ has no body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours…  no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which God’s compassion will look upon the world.  Yours are the feet with which God will go about doing good.  Yours are the hands with which God will bless others now."

            We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.

When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist. 

            We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

            Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone.  When we call, the LORD will answer.  When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[2]

            If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

            This is a blessed promise and vision:  

The LORD will guide you continually,

and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden,

like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt… 

you shall be called the repairer of the breach..

the restorer of streets to live in.

            

So be it!  Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor

Littlefield Presbyterian Church

Dearborn, Michigan

October 16, 2016

Here's a link to Bread for the World.  You are invited to contribute to their  Offering of Letters to advocate with Congressional representatives to end hunger, with an emphasis on women and young children.

https://secure3.convio.net/bread/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=310&_ga=1.61618218.703944482.1475094274

        

        

---

[1] http://www.onscripture.com/no-justice-no-peace

[2] Isaiah 58

"God's Hands and Feet In the World". A sermon from Littlefield Presbyterian Church on October 20, 2015, for our observance of Bread for the World Sunday

"God's Hands and Feet in the World"

Mark 10:35-45

The twelve disciples had been going around with Jesus for some time.  He’d been teaching them about the way of self-giving love.  But they don’t seem to get it.  Mark tells us that James and John “come forward” to Jesus, pushing ahead of the other disciples. 

            “Teacher,” they say, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.”

            Jesus says to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”  And they say, “When you come into your GLORY, grant one of us the privilege of sitting at your right hand…and one at your left.”

            Now, some people dismiss the Zebedee brothers.  They see them in this conversation, at least, as pushy, ambitious seekers of a place of honor and power. 

            But I think it’s obvious that James and John had great faith in Jesus.  They believed in him, and their personal hopes were completely woven into his destiny.  They loved Jesus.   But what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples about being a suffering servant is hard!  It’s hard to understand--  and harder to live.

           

            One of the reasons that the Christian message has been twisted and distorted and misunderstood—is that it’s so paradoxical.  The Christian paradox is that our Lord and Savior came as a suffering servant to save us… and to show us the WAY.

            Jesus defines greatness very differently from the ways we’re used to thinking about it.  When we follow Jesus, as his disciples, we need to struggle with the paradox that—in God’s kingdom—we gain by losing.  We become great by serving.  And we get to be first by being last.  In the kingdom of God, things look very different than they do in the world.

            “Whoever wishes to be great among you must be a servant.”  This teaching is so critical to understanding Jesus’ ministry…and such a key to being a disciple—that the gospels record it no less than eight times.

            What does it mean for us to follow a servant savior?  

            Among other things, it means setting aside self  in order to take up the cause of others.  It means serving our neighbors.  It means living out our faith in terms of kindness, openness, empathy, and compassion.    Never perfectly, never fully—for we’re not capable of perfect servanthood.        

            As part of Christ’s body, when we’re at our best, we are a servant church.   When we’re not at our best, we’re an organization filled with people each trying to get their own needs met…  trying to get something out of church… and trying to get the church to be the church we want it to be.

            When we’re being the servant church, we’re feeding the hungry, calling on the sick…visiting the homebound.   We’re serving those in the community who are needy and hurting, through friendship and practical kinds of help.  When we’re being the servant church, we share in Christ’s ministry in the world by generously supporting the mission of the church with our tithes and offerings.

           

            Today has been designated as Bread for the World Sunday.   Friday was World Food Day. 

            We who have plenty to eat are reminded that many people don’t… and many of those who are hungry or food insecure are children. 

            Bread for the World reminds us that nearly 16 million children in the United States — one in five — live in households that struggle to put food on the table. Many of these children have parents who have job and work hard, but their wages aren’t high enough to cover the high costs of rent, transportation, and utilities — and daily meals.[1]
            So our federal government’s feeding programs serve as a lifeline for vulnerable children and families. Because children are hit especially hard by the effects of hunger and malnutrition,  nutrition programs aimed at children are particularly important. 
            A healthy start in life — even before a child is born — pays off for years,  not only for individual children and families, but for communities and our nation as a whole.
            Only one out of every 20 grocery bags that feed people who are hungry come from church food pantries and other private charities.   Federal nutrition programs, from school meals to SNAP (formerly known as food stamps), provide the rest.   Our government’s child nutrition programs serve millions of children each year. 

Locally, and in the short term, we are helping to alleviate hunger when we give to the Presbyterian Hunger Program through our Two Cents a Meal offering… when we support Church World Service…when we support the mission of the Open Door…or Focus Hope… or volunteer at Gleaners.

            But we also need to work on the systemic causes of hunger.   For a lot of us,  hunger and poverty seem overwhelming.  But we don’t have to do it alone. 

            Bread for the World is a faith-based education and advocacy organization that I’ve belonged to for some years.  The reason I support Bread for the World is because they have a remarkable 
record of helping win
 passage of bipartisan 
legislation that addresses hunger.   As a result
 of this advocacy,
 children in the United
 States receive vital 
nutrition.   Emergency food reaches refugees from famine and conflict in Africa.  Agricultural development is enabling hungry people in various parts of the world to grow enough food to feed their families.

            As Teresa of Avila famously put it, "Christ has no body now on earth but yours… no hands but yours…  no feet but yours.  Yours are the eyes through which God’s compassion will look upon the world.  Yours are the feet with which God will go about doing good.  Yours are the hands with which God will bless others now."

            We are called to serve—to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world.

When we respond to Christ’s call and work together, we can help to change the conditions and the policies that allow hunger to persist. 

            We are called to share our bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into our house… to care for basic needs of those who are marginalized.

            Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises us that we will not have to do this alone.  When we call, the LORD will answer.  When we cry for help, God will say, “Here I am.”[2]

            If we remove the yoke, the speaking of evil, if we offer our food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,

Then our light shall rise in the darkness.

            This is a blessed promise and vision: 

The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places…

you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…  you shall be called the repairer of the breach.. 

the restorer of streets to live in.

           

            So be it!  Amen!

Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
October 20, 2015

 

           

---

[1] http://www.bread.org/

[2] Isaiah 58