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Sunday, December 19, 2010
Letting God’s Light Shine Through Us
By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz
Matthew 5:14 - 16 New Revised Standard Version
14You 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.
There are several reasons why Mark and I wanted to include the Mary Chapin Carpenter’s song Come Darkness, Come Light in worship today. I love the way she tells us that darkness and light are part of the Christmas story then and now. We have been seeing that in the scripture from the prophet Isaiah, the one Jesus quotes from the most. Isaiah says that the people who did walk in darkness have now seen God’s great light.
Secondly, I love how she includes all the feelings, all the mixture of doubts and longings and hurts and hopes that we feel in our hearts all the time, all year long. Perhaps the mix is especially visible at Christmas when we think we should be joyful but may not feel that.
The Christmas hymn, O Little Town of Bethlehem, also has that mix, “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee, in Bethlehem, tonight.” Mary Chapin Carpenter’s song has more detail. We can come to the manger broken or whole. We can come with our wounds, with our doubts, and with our fears, and if we bring all those, we will see what love is for. Do you feel included in the list so far? I do.
Come running, come walking slow, come weary on your broken road. Some see Him and shed your heavy load. That’s God’s promise. Alleluia.
I think when we really hear those words, and hear through them the invitation from the Prince of Peace, we may have heard most of what we need to hear today to make Christmas real and true in our hearts and souls.
There are a couple of other things for us to integrate inside ourselves. One is a Christopher Fry poem that will be on the front of the Christmas Eve bulletin, and it also talks about the Christmas mix of dark and light.
Give Hope by Christopher Fry
The darkest time in the year
The poorest place in the town
Cold, and a taste of fear
Man and woman alone
What can we hope for here??
More light than we can learn
More wealth than we can treasure
More love than we can earn
More peace than we can measure
Because one child is born.
We said last week that it is so fitting to celebrate the birth of the light of the world at the time of the winter solstice, December 21, because it is the turning point for the days that have been getting darker to begin getting lighter!
There was so much darkness and discouragement and despair when Christ came into the world. People were poor, and there was grinding poverty. There was not much of a middle class. There were the powerful and wealthy, and most of the rest were right on the edge. When Jesus gave them the words in the Lord’s Prayer about praying for daily bread, just having enough to eat to survive was a serious concern for most people.
The Roman system of taxes was oppressive and enormously unfair. The Romans themselves were cruel and harsh rulers. If you have seen, or want to see again, the film, The Nativity, these next few days, you will see this cruelty well portrayed.
Christ was born in a dark time in human history. He was born to a young construction worker father, who was more likely a stone mason than a carpenter, because stone was, and is today, the common building material in Israel. He was born to a construction worker father and his 14 year old fiancé.
At the birth they were surrounded by the most humble and least respectable people in first century culture, scraggly, smelly shepherds. Fear quickly overtook Mary and Joseph as they ran for their lives to Egypt when they heard that King Herod, to protect his position and power, would do anything it took, including murdering all the male children in the region of Bethlehem under the age of 2.
The first Christmas was marked by joyful angels singing Glory to God over the frightened shepherds, and it was marked by darkness and fear.
Christmas can still contain that mix, and our pastors and staff see it weekly. In a time of joyful music and shopping and time with friends and family, we also meet with people who are experiencing grief and illness and financial reversal. And still God’s light sees us through.
One of our most effective Bishops in Colorado Methodism was Bishop Mel Wheatley. He was with us in the 1980’s, and he is the source of our four part formula for life that is on our wallet cards.
FACE THE WORST
BELIEVE THE BEST
DO YOUR MOST
GIVE GOD THE REST.
Mel Wheatley tells about being in London for a few days when the weather was rainy and dark. He was getting into a cab at his hotel one morning and he commented to the cabbie about what a dark and dreary looking day it was. The cabbie responded, “Oh, it will be bright enough.”
Bishop Wheatley sat back in the seat and thought for a bit and realized that what the cab driver had said was not really a comment about the weather, it was a statement of faith! It was a spiritual outlook that whatever life or circumstances can throw at us, God’s light, the light of Christ, the light of Christmas will show us the way through the darkness.
Do you believe that? Do you believe the message of Christmas, the message of the one born to be light for our world, the message that there is nothing that can happen that you and God and your community of faith cannot handle together?
Jesus tells us, I am the Light of the world, and those who follow me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.
Let me offer two examples of that posture of faith. One is from a woman who would not fit into some traditional definitions of “religious” and another is from a Methodist Pastor in New York City.
Last month our world lost a great champion for the disadvantaged and the vulnerable and for people who might be labeled as “misfits.” Laura Hershey died at the age of 48 after a sudden illness. Judy and I knew Laura. She was born with a form of muscular dystrophy and lived in a wheelchair. She was not expected to live to be an adult but she did. She lived in Denver with her partner Robin Stephens who also has a disability.
Laura’s body did not work well, but her mind and spirit worked extremely well. She was a graduate of Colorado College, not only with a bachelor’s degree but was recently awarded an honorary Doctorate from that esteemed school. She was a writer and poet. She was an activist, not only for those with disabilities, but for others as well. She attended two United Nations Conferences on women’s rights, one in Nairobi, Kenya and the other in Beijing. Her last essay was written two days before she died. It was a blog post for the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation that focused on gratitude and about finding joy in the simple and purest moments of life.
Laura would not be seen, by some, as a proponent of a traditional religious outlook, but for Judy and me, she has been a great example of letting light and hope shine through her spirit as she dealt with whatever circumstances she was handed by life.
Dr. Ralph Sockman is the other person whose example I mention today. He is living a life of trust and faith in spite of darkness. For many years Dr. Sockman was pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Midtown Manhattan.
Dr. and Mrs. Sockman had only one son. Several years ago, while he was in college, he fell to his death from the balcony of their Park Avenue apartment. A good explanation was never found for why and how that happened. These parents went through one of the most horrible experiences we can have as parents, the tragic death of a child. Later on Rev. Sockman offered this statement of faith, a witness to God’s light shining on in the darkest of times.
Speaking personally, may I say that things have happened to me that I cannot explain, nor can I say that they were sent from God. When I read in Romans, “All things work together for good for those who love God,” the only way I can understand this in my own case is after the analogy of a ship. There are parts of a ship that, taken by themselves, would sink. The engine would sink. The propeller would sink. But when the parts of a ship are built together they float. So with the events of my life. Some have been tragic. Some have been happy. But when they are all built together, they form a craft that floats. Even more, one that I believe is going somewhere. And I am comforted.
Just as in the darkness and tragedies of that first Christmas, God sends the light of the world and, as we will read from John’s gospel on Christmas Eve, even all that darkness has not been able to overcome the light of Christ. That light still shines in the darkness, shines in our darkness.
There is one more word of wisdom on this last Sunday of advent, and we will dramatize this when we hold up 1,000 candles. We will start by lighting one candle from the Christ candle on the altar table and then we will share that light with each other so that the darkness of our room is transformed by that shared light.
We previewed this second Bible insight last week, and we heard this contrasting sentence from Jesus in our scripture reading, but there is a story that shows it to us as well.
In a different church, in a Christmas play, a five year old had forgotten his line at the end. He was supposed to say what Christ says, “I am the light of the world,” but he suffered a memory loss, and had to rely on his mother who was the play’s director and who was standing in the wings. She was whispering to him.
“I am the light of the world.” He did not understand at first, so she whispered louder: “I am the light of the world.”
He finally got it and with a huge smile on his face announced to the audience: MY MOTHER IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD!!
Jesus comes close to that in the Matthew text today. “You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and then honor God.”
We are privileged to do this in such a generous congregation as ours through the Christmas gifts that have poured in for disadvantaged persons these past few weeks, and through our Christmas offering that will go to food banks and homeless shelters for families.
We will talk a bit more about this on Christmas Eve. How can we keep this generous and compassionate spirit of Christ and Christmas past December 25 and live this spirit all year long? Will you think and pray with me about that as we work to live lives that show others the joy and compassion of Jesus Christ?
We will end with the poem from theologian Howard Thurman about the work of Christmas and about what happens after we have opened the presents and finished the parties and put away the crèche and decorations. The poem is on the front of your bulletin.
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled
When the star in the sky is gone
When the kings and princes are home
When the shepherds are back with their flocks
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers and sisters,
To make music in the heart.
From The Mood of Christmas by Howard Thurman