Sunday, February 6, 2011

Letting Our Lights Shine

13“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. 14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In 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.
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
I’ve seen and heard and read the statistics a lot recently, as I’m sure have you. As a minister in a denomination considered to be “graying,” or growing older, and as a minister who works primarily with young adults, the statistics are alarming. While I’ve seen them in many places, I’ll quote them from one source, mainly because lots of different numbers and sources can become overwhelming. The Barna group works primarily with religious groups, resourcing them with research services, helping them to be more effective. In a study from 2007, the Barna group reports that a new generation of adults, ages 16-29, is “more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity that were people of the same age just a decade ago.” The skepticism has grown in this group during the last decade, along with their sense of disillusionment and disengagement with the Christian community. The study looked at 20 specific images, 10 favorable, 10 unfavorable. Among the non-Christians who responded, nine out of the top 12 perceptions were unfavorable—87% of the non-Christians said that Christianity is judgmental; 85% said Christianity is hypocritical; 78% too old-fashioned; 75% too involved in politics. And it didn’t stop with the non-Christians. Half of the Christians interviewed agreed with the same perceptions—judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned. They said that Christianity is “too out of touch with reality.” Half. Of the Christians. These stats are pretty alarming to me, and I hope that they are pretty alarming to all of you sitting here today. These stats struck me, but this response really broke my heart: “When young people were asked to identify their impressions of Christianity, one of the common themes was ‘Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus.’”

Christianity in today’s society no longer looks like Jesus. OUCH. Big ouch. It looks like Christians have lost some serious ground on how we reflect our Savior, on how we do what our Christ tells us to do. How do we look like Jesus? Jesus tells us himself and makes it pretty clear for us. In his sermon from the mount, he lays it out: Be with the poor, both in riches and in spirit. Comfort those who mourn—be with them just when they need their community the most. Be with those who are trying to comfort. Live humble lives. Live in vigilance, constantly seeking God’s will; seek God’s will as if you are starving and dying of thirst. Give mercy and receive it when it is offered. Be pure, in thought, in word, in deed. Make peace. Make peace in a world that so desperately needs it. Stay strong when people are coming out against you.

To look like Jesus, we are called by Jesus himself to remember that we are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Jesus says to us, “’You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? 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 lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let you light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your [God] in heaven.’”

You know, every time I say the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving when we have communion, I give thanks to God that God sent Christ to earth to be a light for each of us, to illumine us as to how we are supposed to live with each other, serve each other, love each other. Jesus has come to illumine us, to be our light. And he calls us to do and be the same. Jesus calls us to listen and understand instead of being judgmental. Instead of being hypocritical, Jesus calls us to say that we love each other and then actually back it up by loving each other. He calls us to be the light of the world, to be light for others by listening to them, by sharing with them, giving to them, by living for them. Jesus Christ calls us to reflect his light in the world. It’s all that easy, right?

Right. I’m not sure how many of you watched the State of the Union address last week. I thought it was vital that our Senators and House members made an effort to reach across the aisle and sit with folks whose political parties differed from their own. It has always bothered me that they have sat so separately before, that ½ of the room would stand up and cheer for the president of their party, while the other sat on their hands. I was glad to see our congressional representatives sit together, especially in response to the horrific shooting of Representative Giffords. For some time now, a lot of the political narrative and rhetoric in our country has scared me, that our politicians and pundits on every side of the aisle have used violent images as they spoke about people with whom they disagreed; that our politicians and pundits on every side of the aisle have thrown out the term “Nazi” to describe their opposition. Every time I have heard it, I have thought to myself, “You do realize that the Nazis were responsible for the imprisonment and murder of hundreds of thousands of people, don’t you?” And while I don’t believe that our rhetoric compelled a gunman to kill those innocent people that day in Tucson, I certainly don’t think it helped. So, I was very glad to see our elected representatives come together for such an important occasion in our country. But as the address came to an end that night, I found myself wondering what would happen next. Maybe it’s the cynic in me, but I found myself thinking that it was probably pretty easy for these folks to sit next to each other for an hour—an hour in which the President did the speaking, so they really didn’t have to speak to each other, an hour that was televised for the cameras, an hour that probably went by pretty quickly for them. I found myself wondering what would happen next. Would the promise for new rhetoric, for new civility, for new life really change when the cameras go off, when the time comes to truly reach across the aisle and compromise, when the really hard work of working for our country begins? Will the light truly shine then?

I think the same thing goes for us here. It’s easy for us to come here each Sunday, to read the Gospel and hear and see that Jesus calls us to be the light of the world, to see Christ’s light lit by our sweet acolytes. It is pretty easy for us to pass the peace during the 30-second time interval allotted in our service, easy for us to sit next to each other as we are preached and sung to, easy for us to praise God when words and hymns are printed for us, when prayers are said for us. That’s the easy part. But what happens next? What happens when our worship in this place comes to an end and we have to go out and live, love, and serve in our world? What happens when this sacred time ends and the real world of work, school, sports events, homework, band concerts, social events, and so much more takes up the rest of the time in our busy lives? What happens when it’s time for Christ’s light to be carried outside of these sanctuary doors and into the real world? What happens when we are faced with trials, with difficult decisions and difficult people, when we are faced with things that make us uncomfortable or scared, things that challenge every notion and ideal we have ever had?

What happens when, after having gathered here to hear Christ’s word, it is time to leave this place and do Christ’s word, bear Christ’s light, and be Christ-like? As Christ’s people, we can leave this place and be like society expects us to be—hypocritical, uncreative, stale, judgmental. We can hide Christ’s light under a bushel basket, never allowing it to shine so others can see it. In a lot of ways, that is the easiest way to exist in our world. We live in a world where it is easier to quickly walk past a homeless person than to take the time to stop, listen to their story, go buy a meal and a blanket for them. We live in a world where it is easier to demonize someone who disagrees with us rather than sitting and listening to them and trying to understand where they are coming from. We live in a world where it is easier to hurl insults and shoot weapons from afar than to actually look at the whites of someone’s eyes to see that they are a child of God just like we are. We live in a world where it is easier to think in absolutes and blacks and whites than to realize that there is a lot of gray area, a lot of gray area that leaves us uncomfortable with doubts, questions, and uncertainties. The world believes one thing about us and expects us to do it their way, but Jesus Christ calls us to another way of life. Our Christ calls us to something bigger and greater than that. Our Christ calls us to take the time, to make the hard choices. Christ calls us to the hardest things imaginable—to give what we have to help our neighbors, to love our enemies, to be peacemakers, to perhaps even give up our own families or our lives. This isn’t easy stuff, but we are called to do it. We are called to be bearers of Christ’s light in word and deed—by sharing God’s love with others, by showing God’s love for others.

You know, I really do see glimpses of this light-bearing every day. I see it in all of you as you open the doors of this sanctuary, of this church to our students, to other folks in the community who are desperately seeking some financial help through PCM. I saw it in our students 2 weeks ago as they went to Atlanta to share with our homeless brothers and sisters—they made meals and gave out warm clothing, but most importantly, they sat and listened to the stories of their new friends whom they met that day. Those are images that our students will carry with them for the rest of their lives. That is some light-bearing.

There was picture circulating on the internet this week, and I hope some of you saw it. It was a stunning, beautiful picture taken by a newsperson in Egypt. In the midst of hundreds of thousands of protesters, in the midst of chaos, really, a small group of Egyptian Muslims realized that it was one of their times during the day for a call to prayer. When Muslims pray, they fall on their knees and bow. In this position, it would be easy for these prayers to be run over in the mass of protestors. A small group of Egyptian Christians, seeing the potential harm, gathered around the Muslims—they gathered in a circle and held hands around the Muslims so that they could pray during this dangerous time, protected them so that they could pray in safety. Instead of being judgmental of folks who practice another religion, those Christians were open and loving. Instead of being hypocritical by saying that only Christians should be allowed a time of prayer, they opened up that prayer space for their friends. That small group of Christians shared God’s word as they held hands that day, spread Christ’s love as they allowed their brothers and sisters to pray. Wow. That is some Christ-bearing, some light bearing, if I’ve ever seen it.

I do see these glimpses of light every day, but we are obviously not doing enough. There is a lot of pain, a lot of destruction, a lot of hurt in the world. We see it every time we walk down the street, every time we turn on the television, every time we pay attention to each other. That is why we need to turn our small glimpses of light into everlasting light, light that can never be hidden.

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