Let Your Light Shine!

Rev. Ron Campbell
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 15, 2006

Text: Matthew 5: 13-16

Jesus in our scripture today encouraged the hearers of the Gospel to “Let your light shine!!” Jesus certainly understood that as humans we are tainted by sin, but he looked past the sin in a person's life to the goodness of God's original blessing in every soul. To Jesus every person he met was created in the image of God and each person had the light of God within them. He affirmed God's light in everyone and encouraged every person he met to let their light shine. That's perhaps why he was so popular and why so many people loved him and liked him!

So how do you and I “Let Christ's light shine through us?” There's a clue hidden in the context of these passages we read today. The setting is the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew organized Jesus' Sermon on the Mount into three sections. The first section is the Beatitudes , Chapter 5, verses 1-12. The second section, verses, 13-16, our text today, the middle section, and the third section, verse 17 through the end of chapter 7, we call the Teachings of Jesus, or Jesus' Instructions on how to live a life of faith and discipleship.

Our passages today, the middle section, these metaphors of salt, a city on a hill and a lamp held high, is the hinge that holds the Beatitudes and the Teachings together. Matthew by his organizational scheme wants us to see that the light of Christ, the spiritual and moral light of Christ , is to shine through our attitudes, as expressed in the Beatitudes, and through our actions, as instructed by the Teachings. In short we are to be Christ-like in our attitudes and Christ-like in our actions as we reflect the light of Christ to the world around us.

Let's look at each of these two ways that our light is to shine, first in our attitudes, which is the focus of the first section. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus first addressed the attitudes that lead to internal blessedness, or happiness, which we call the Be-Attitudes. “When Jesus saw the crowds he went up the mountain; and after he sat down his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit…those who mourn…the meek…and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…Blessed are the merciful…the pure in heart…and the peacemakers…Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake…and Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

At Tarrytown we recognize the importance of Christ-like attitudes like the Be-Attitudes which Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount. Our definition of the church has two parts. The first part states, “We are to be the people through whom God's grace is make known.” This is the qualitative dimension of discipleship: Who we are in our attitudes toward others. This part of the definition comes from the emphasis Jesus placed upon the internal aspects of our motivations toward others that are to be Christ-Like.

Let me tell you a story that helps us see that the negative or positive attitudes we take toward others makes a difference in our reaction to them. This is a true story told by Gerald Jampulski, psychologist and writer. Gerald took a friend to lunch to a restaurant which he often frequented. The waitress was rude and neglectful. His friend wanted to complain to the manager and refused to give her a tip. Gerald told his friend there was something he should know about her. Her husband had died during the past year and she was working two jobs to support her three children. “She's just swimming to keep her head above water,” he said. His friend, now knowing this, first altered his attitude toward her, and then his actions changed as he gave her a big tip and a word of encouragement.

You see when we put a positive frame around the picture of a person whose attitudes and behaviors reflect negativity , we often find that our attitude toward them softens, and also we can become Christ's light to them which brightens their darkness. To illustrate this Gerald shared a visual image which I think captures what Christ taught in the Be-Attitudes. Imagine a lamp with a bright light under a dark shade. We can choose to look at the dark shade, or to look under the shade to see the light shinning underneath. We can choose to respond to each person we encounter according to their darkness on the outside or to the light inside. It's a matter of framing our attitudes towards others. If we view each person we meet as someone who is inherently valuable and sacred, we can choose to react to them by looking past their sin and ugliness to the person inside who was created in the image of God. And all of us have stains on our shades and dark places which hide our light. So having Christ-Like attitudes toward others and focusing on their goodness is having the same attitude toward them that we want Christ to have toward us.

Also don't ever underestimate the value and impact of letting God's light shine through us in our attitudes! Here's a story that illustrates this: On our mission trip last June to Guyana , four of us made a visit to a hospital where we prayed with patients with aids. We went to the bedside of a woman who was overflowing with joy in her reaction to our coming. In our prayer for her we voiced our gratitude that God's light was shining through her in her smiling face, eyes, and the warmth that radiated from her to the other patients around her, to the doctors and nurses who cared for her, and to us! She was God's blessing to others, not for what she could do for others, but who she was for others in her attitudes. This was her ministry of discipleship, her way of letting the light of Christ shine through her.

We've looked at how the light of Christ is to shine through our attitudes. Now let's look at how the light of Christ is to shine outward in our actions. In the third section of the Sermon on the Mount Matthew collected various sayings of Jesus instructing how to live in the world with others , s ayings about: how to pray; how to live blessedly in marriage, how to deal with others with compassion, including our enemies, and how to let our light shine with righteousness and justice in the world that has so much darkness in it. These Teachings of Jesus are practical theology, showing us how we're to live in our external world with others.

Earlier I mentioned our definition of the church at Tarrytown which has two parts. The first part states that “We are to be the people through whom God's graces flows to others.” The second part adds that “We are to make disciples.” This is the doing part, the action part of what it means to be a disciple and what it means to be the church. We spell this out by identifying five functions that must be present to be the church. We are to: Invite and welcome (Those inside and outside the church); Identify and meet needs (Both physical and deeper spiritual needs); Be the spark that awakens faith in God's grace; Deepen the faith of believers in God's grace and teach how to live a life of discipleship; and we are to impact the world!

To impact the world with the light of Christ is the ultimate target of discipleship. John Wesley , whom we look to as the Father of Methodism, began a spiritual and social revolution in England by renewing disciples, who renewed the church, that the church would impact the society with the goodness of God. The result of that spiritual and social movement to make the world better materially and spiritually through the Church is credited by many historians as the reason why England avoided the extremes of bloody revolution that France experienced.

We have the same discipleship task before us; to renew disciples, that those disciples might renew the church, that the church might impact the world for God. Tarrytown is poised to lift the light of Christ higher within our community of the Austin area and beyond, that God's love shining through us might make a greater impact in our world for good. Our Church and Society Committee is organizing an event which will facilitate the process of our becoming a brighter light for Christ and help us discover how can we be the church in the world with more impact for Christ. Friday and Saturday, March 3 and 4, we are hosting a dynamic churchman, Tex Sample, author, professor, pastor, theologian, workshop leader and once a cab driver, who will lead us and other churches in Austin in a dialogical conference of clarification, inspiration, and confrontation and hope. The specific theme is: “Praying Thy Kingdom Come with More Than Words: Moving Beyond Charity to Healing the Causes of Pain.” On Sunday Tex will be preaching at all three morning services on this same theme. Put this on your calendar and join us, and bring your friends, as we as a community of faith seek to lift the light of Christ high that the world may see our good works and praise God.

I want to close now by relating one more story, for as soon as I settled on this text for the message today, my mind and my emotions went straight to this illustration . In June of 2001 our beloved John Gulley died, a dear friend since the early 1970's. John and Dell raised their kids, Kathryn and Chris, as members of Saint John's Methodist Church along with my wife, Jeri, my son, Brent, and me. Our lives diverged, and then five and a half years ago we were reunited here at Tarrytown when I received my appointment here. I was privileged to walk along beside John during his struggle with cancer, as a friend and as a pastor. As his physical life declined his spiritual life gained strength, and as his body wasted away his spirit was renewed each day. The light of Christ shone brightly through John Gully. He showed us how to live and how to die in faith. And he showed us how God's light can shine through a person in their Christ-like attitudes and in their Christ-like actions.

The family has a video made shortly before he died of John sharing with them his memories, wishes, wisdom, and his faith, hope, and love. In that video John lifted his finger high before his family and encouraged them to let their light shine brightly in the world . He sang with them the first verse of the little song we sang earlier, “This Little Light of Mine.” I invite you to sing it with me: “This little light of mine, I'm goin'a let it shine; This little light of mine, I'm goin'a let it shine; This little light of mine, I'm goin'a let it shine; Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”

Dell later reflected upon that moment. She said, “That incident says to me that John set such an example for all of us. He always put God first in his life and was a shining light for our children and his family. His example encourages all of us to lead our lives as he did, always letting our light shine.”

Let us pray: Oh God, help each of us this week to reflect the attitudes of Christ to everyone we meet and to act like Christ in our living.

Amen!