February 6, 2011 - Epiphany + 5

Let Your Light Shine.
Matthew 5:13-20
Epiphany + 5 – February 6, 2011

Wipers on? Lights on.

You've all probably seen that sign as you drive along the highway, here in New York and in other states. It's a not-so-subtle reminder about the law – if your wipers are on, your headlights should be too. Because when you're driving through bad weather – rain or snow or sleet or freezing rain or any combination thereof, like we've been through this past week, – you need your lights on to see. But it's not only you who needs you to have your headlights on; other drivers need your lights on too so they can see you. When we find ourselves in a storm, that's when we need light to go by.

Today's gospel story finds Jesus reminding his disciples about just that, that need for light to go by when we're in a storm. This story is part of our continuing journey through the Sermon on the Mount, which we started last week, and will keep hearing parts of until the end of February. In it, we hear Jesus tell his disciples, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others...” (Mt. 5:13-16).

“Let your light shine,” Jesus says, and he says this because the world was a dark and stormy place. Wipers on? Lights on. Just as today, people wrestled with darkness in its many forms – whether it was the political oppression and injustice they faced under Roman rule, or the hunger and poverty that faced an ancient world peasant class. There were struggles against storms of disease and violence, of ignorance and intolerance. People could live their whole lives in the shadows of fear and death, looking anxiously for some source of light. And so, Jesus says, “Let your light shine, “ not just for yourself, but for others, because other people need your light to go by. Let your light shine, and it will give light to the whole house.

To us too, Jesus says, “Let your light shine.” Our world is just as dark and stormy as 1st century Palestine was. We face literal storms, sure – blizzards and flooding, earthquakes and hurricanes – the kind that disrupt and destroy countless lives. The developing world faces the darkness of poverty and diseases in ways that we find hard to imagine – famine & starvation, people dying of things like cholera and malaria because they lack access to clean water and basic preventative and medical care that would stop the problem before it starts. And we have seen recently how injustice and oppression can lead to uprisings and revolutions as people seek to find a different source of light in the darkness of their existence.

But of course the world's storms aren't all external. Many of us are challenged by interior storms – anxiety, depression, addictions; anger, bitterness, regret, all of these things we carry around, that cloud us.

And so when we hear these words from Jesus to let our light shine, we wonder if we have what it takes. We've got our wipers going at full speed, and still we're lucky if we can see a few feet ahead of us, let alone help someone else see the way! Besides, in the face of such darkness all around us, what good can our little lights possibly do?

And yet, Jesus says to his followers, then and now, “You are the light of the world.” Not “You will be.” Not, “You should be.” No, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” Even when you're not sure how or why this could be so, Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world. And the Isaiah passage gives us some ideas of what that looks like. It says when you loose the bonds of injustice & undo the thongs of the yoke, when you let the oppressed go free, light breaks through. When you share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your home, light breaks through. When you dress the naked and take care of your family, light breaks through. When you do these things, Isaiah says, “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn... then your light shall rise in the darkness.”

Because you see, there is something we can do to be a light in the darkness of our world. Especially when we combine our lights and shine them together. One candle in the darkness doesn't seem like much, it only lights up a little piece around itself, but when you join it with 10 or 100 or 1000 more, that light becomes a brilliant glow to hold back the darkness, to point out the way. And it's not because it's our light. We are light for the world only so far as we are connected to Jesus, who himself is the Light of the world, the light that brings life to all people, the Light who shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. It's only through the light of Christ shining in our lives that we can bring light to the dark places of the world. His light fills us up and spills out through us to shine through the storms of life.

When Christians are connected to the light, we cannot help but reflect that light to others. This week I saw it in the picture that was making the rounds of the Internet, of Christians in Egypt who held hands and encircled a group of Muslims at prayer, providing them a place of peace and protection in the midst of upheaval and unrest, even though they practice a different religion. I saw how this light spreads when I read again of the work of Lutheran World Relief in Haiti. We've all heard the reports about how the money isn't getting to the people, but despite the challenges they face, Lutheran World Relief has distributed over 25,500 quilts to people forced to sleep outdoors; over 77,500 health kits to help maintain basic hygiene; 17,500 tarps to provide temporary shelter; 35,700 school kits to help children learn; 1,500 layettes to help new parents care for their babies, and $1.1 million to local partners to provide food, water, sanitation services and shelter. They are working to provide water filters to combat cholera, and providing medical supplies to help health facilities as they respond to this epidemic. Light spread through the youth of the ELCA as they gathered in New Orleans in 2009 for the National Youth Gathering and spread out throughout the city as volunteers to help rebuild and repair areas ravaged by the hurricane – and that light will continue to spread when they return to New Orleans for the next annual gathering in 2012. The light of Christ is reflected through the work of our national church, the ELCA, as it seeks to combat malaria in Africa. And yes, Jesus' light shines through all of you here too, through the ways that you serve and give – both here in the church – with donations of food and clothing and money to Lutheran Social Services' New LIFE Center in Uniondale and the many organizations who receive some of the proceeds of the Harvest Festival each year, and in the wider world, as you work and serve and volunteer on your own, and through the money that you give here that leaves our congregation and goes to the synod and the national church. In these and so many ways, you are being the light that Jesus says we are – whether you know it or not. But the world is still a dark and stormy place. There's more work to be done. Wipers on, people? Let's get our lights on too!

Amen.