Let Your Light Shine

Let Your Light Shine

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ and Comforter.  Amen

Poor Hezekiah!  The King of Assyria is breathing down his neck, and the sentinels are crying out their news of gloom and doom.  It’s no idle threat, either!  Hezekiah was the witness of the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians…and now…and now powerful Assyria is coming for the Kingdom of Judah and Jerusalem is within their grasp. What to do?  Where to you go for help, O King?!?  Do you turn to your sister kingdom, Israel?  No, you can’t!  They have been destroyed by Assyria already!  Do you turn to Egypt?  No, they are fighting their own battles with other kingdoms and will not come.  Where will the King turn?

Hezekiah knew where his power truly came from…it came from God!  He had already rebuilt the temple and re-established the priesthood.  Jerusalem was once again the stronghold and the city of God.  He had torn down the high places and made sure the people had remembered the God of their ancestors – the God of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Rachel and Leah. 

So, dressed in sackcloth and ashes, after tearing his kingly garments, he entered the temple along with all the powerful men of the country (also clothed in sackcloth and ashes) and they prayed, and they prayed. 

God heard their prayer and Isaiah’s words were words of true hope and relief.  Sennacherib will not destroy Jerusalem at this time. 

I find it so interesting that our lectionary puts Isaiah chapter 2 after this story.  After all, it was penned 30 plus chapters earlier!  There’s a method to this madness, though.  It’s to remind us this morning of what Hezekiah and company knew…that God was the source of power and God has an ultimate plan! 

Jesus reminds us of this ultimate plan in the lesson from Matthew.  We bear the light of Christ…you do…I do…and we must let it shine!  I find this so powerful, and so threatening for Jesus to say.  He was living under occupation and not freely as we do here in the United States.  Can you imagine how subversive this idea of letting you light shine would be to those Roman soldiers and officials who were milling about as Jesus spoke? 

We who live so freely in the United States cannot imagine the absolute fearlessness and the stand against the powers that be Jesus took that day.  I often wonder as we think about Hezekiah and Jesus and their reliance on God for strength and courage…

What would Governor Brown do, or better question, what would incoming Governor Newsome do…should California be besieged by China or Russia or some other country?  Where would he turn for help and support? 

What about our President?  Where would he turn for support? 

Would we be relying on our allies?  Or would we turn to the God of our ancestors?

Do you remember the Polish and Czech velvet revolutions in the 1980’s?  Do you remember how it happened?  It began by people placing lit candles in their windows to protest against the government. 

Do you remember how the Berlin Wall fell?  The Berlin wall came down by people coming together for a prayer service every Monday night which continued to grow until 10,000 East Germans joined together and with candles in hand over threw their government…not shots fired! 

In Nelson Mandela’s book, Long Walk to Freedom, he says, “And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 

My goodness!  Do we ever need this today more than ever!  We need to let our lights shine and to liberate others to do the same.  We have such an opportunity this week as we sit with friends and family around our thanksgiving tables to not only  be grateful for the gathering and the food but to invite each of us to think…

To think about how we will let our light shine. 

I invite you to join me as we put candles in our windows this holiday season.  Let’s let our lights shine as followers of Jesus to convey to our neighbors that we are Christians and we, the people of Christ Lutheran Church in Long Beach are ready to do something to let the light of Christ move us from darkness and fear into the light of hope and love. 

As the Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb says in his book, Faith in the Face of Empire, “Hope is the power to keep focusing on the larger vision while taking the small, often undramatic, steps toward that future.” 

I have a hope…a hope that goes back generations upon generations…a hope that comes from God’s vision for our world that Isaiah put so powerfully and poignantly into words so long ago…

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall arbitrate for many peoples;

they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

neither shall they learn war any more. 

I’m hoping we can close with a YouTube of The Candle Song by Graham Kendrick.  I invite you to listen to these words in light of Jesus’ words to us…let your light so shine…

Keep Still

“Keep still!”  I bet I could have made my mom and dad millionaires if they had just a nickel for every time they had to say that to me when I was a kid!  I’ve always been a high energy person and to keep still was one of the hardest things I ever had to do – when the doctor was giving me my booster shots, to sitting in church, I just had (have?) an issue with sitting still. 

Even a couple of months ago when my doctor was reading my latest lab results and commented on my low iron levels, she said that it would be nice to get them up to “high normal.”  I told her that it would be a miracle – I’m genetically prone to low iron – and if I did get into the high normal level, watch out!  We both nodded and laughed. 

But it was no laughing matter when Hebrews stood at the edge of the Red Sea.  They had just left slavery in Egypt, and they were laden with all the goodies that their former slave-owners could give them – gold and food, clothing, and household goods…after all, God had just defeated them in a series of plagues that would have any person begging for them to just leave!

So there they were – just moments before filled with the glory of God and how God’s goodness had brought them into freedom…

…and then – and then they looked back and saw that Pharaoh was not going to let them go easily – even after blood, frogs, gnats and wild animals, livestock disease and boils, hail, locusts, darkness and death. 

They look back and see the cloud of dust and start to count the chariots – 10, 50, 100, 600! 

Somehow, death by slavery in Egypt seemed far better than death by charioteers as they stood at the water’s edge. 

They cried out to God. 

They called out to Moses.

And Moses said, “The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.”

Keep still.  Have you ever tried to keep still when you feel your back is against the wall? 

It’s hard, isn’t it? 

God had a plan.  Moses was the instrument.  He raised his arms and dry land appeared and the Hebrews walked through the Red Sea with water on the left, and water on the right. 

As they reached the other side, God’s plan for saving the Hebrews included giving the Egyptians a Red Sea bath. 

Keep still.  It is in the stillness of sleep that Joseph from our Gospel text for today was given the plan.  He, Mary and Jesus would enter Egypt as refugees and stay there safely until Herod was no longer a threat to them.  Equipped with the riches of the Magi – the gold, frankincense and myrrh - they entered the nation that their forbears had exited to be protected and saved.  I thought a lot about the impact being a refugee in Egypt must have had on Jesus as he grew up.

The irony isn’t lost on me – from Egypt into Egypt.  Refugees into the land of the promise and now refugees back into the land of slavery. 

It begs the question, did Jesus come to save the world?  Does that salvation include those we think of as enemies? 

Keep still. 

As I stand under the cross of Jesus week in and week out preaching to you and hoping you catch a glimpse of the vast love of God, it makes me still in the depths of my soul. 

God’s love is the constant – the rock on which I place my eternal trust.  Even when I stand at the water’s edge and wonder if God knows – or cares – where I am, how I am in this moment.

If I can keep still and look to Jesus, just as those Hebrews looked to Moses, I know God has a plan that is far beyond my wildest imagination. 

Keep still.

Keep still.  Keep silent?  Now that’s a different question. 

As Christians in this time and place, with issues that are complicated and complex all over the news, issues that are political, economic, humanitarian, ecological, dealing with refugees, and nominees, we are called to speak out…and speak up.  We who are mainline Protestant have a duty to God and country that brings to the table a viewpoint of Jesus’ actions in the Bible. 

What did Jesus do?  Jesus treated all people as people – regardless of gender, culture, religious belief, or social status.

How did Jesus act?  Jesus acted with compassion and clarity, bringing cure, and care, meeting needs of ALL he encountered.

What did Jesus say to those in authority?  Jesus challenged those in authority to do justice for every person – not just those of their tribe/class/clan.

Rabbi Edwin Friedman, in his book A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, described a chronically anxious society with five characteristics:

Those five characteristics are:    1. Reactivity: the vicious cycle of intense reactions of each member to events and to one another.    2. Herding: a process through which the forces for togetherness triumph over the forces for individuality and move everyone to adapt to the least mature members.    3. Blame displacement: an emotional state in which family members focus on forces that have victimized them rather than taking responsibility for their own being and destiny.    4. A quick-fix mentality: a low threshold for pain that constantly seeks symptom relief rather than fundamental change.    5. Lack of well-differentiated leadership: a failure of nerve that both stems from and contributes to the first four.

What to do when, I believe, this defines our society these days?  How do I continue to function when it feels so hopeless and I feel so helpless?

Keep still. 

Keep still and stand at the edge of the water and know that the LORD is with us.  We experience the Lord’s real presence in bread broken and wine poured; in prayers prayed; and in songs sung. 

Keep still and wade in the waters baptism and let that identity become my source of strength and hope – uniting us people from all walks of life, all cultures and societies as we work, each in our own way with our brother, Jesus, to bring about justice for all. 

Keep still and listen for what God is telling you to do this week.  [pause]  Amen

Who is Your God?

Who is Your God?

Grace, mercy and peace be unto you from God who is Creator, Christ and Comforter.  Amen

In your bulletin today there is a chart of the 10 Commandments from three different major religions in the world.  For those of you who went through confirmation in the Lutheran world, you will recognize the one labeled “Catholic” as the one you learned.  It is also the Decalogue (10 Commandments) for the Eastern Orthodox faiths.  Why show this to you?  Two reasons that I can think of…#1 –in Judeo/Christian understanding of the world, we all agree that Moses and God had a discussion and that the10 Commandments were essential for humans and God to have this new covenantal relationship.  And #2 – even with this understanding, there is some room for disagreement and change of emphasis. 

When the nation of Hebrews left Egypt, they left a polytheistic culture where the Pharaoh was a god.  There were people who in their journey could not give up the need for an image to pray to (there is the story of the golden calf, right).  In keeping with this history it becomes apparent that the need to remember as the first commandment that this God who called Moses from a burning bush to save them is ONE God, not many gods.  The Shema prayer, Hear O' Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One, starts many services in Jewish religious life today. 

When you look at the Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran church histories, we have had many artists and artisans who have created for our worship, statues, icons, paintings, mosaics, graphics of all kinds, to help us in our faith journey – especially as we moved into and out of the Dark Ages where most people were illiterate.  To have as a command “You shall not make for yourself a graven image” would be detrimental to most churches in our faith traditions.  This was an issue for Martin Luther as some of his followers started destroying the interior of churches and he put a swift stop to it – but not without great loss of artwork and some lives as people were trying to stop this destruction. 

When other Protestant traditions grew, the world was out of the Dark Ages, people were reading more for themselves, and life had a different focus – piety and devotion – devoid of statuary, paintings, icons, etc.  and the emphasis on individual salvation and sanctification was preached from pulpits.  Churches became plain and focused on the pulpit, table and cross.  Word, Meal, Jesus.  Today, more modern Protestant congregations don’t even have these foci.  Big screens, bands and singers, and a sage on the stage are what worship looks like. 

Is it not reasonable that the 10 Commandments would be altered to fit the context as the Christian community grew and changed?

There are some things that remain very clear, though the numbering is different. 

You shall have no other gods is the first consistent command in all three graphs. 

Why is that so important? 

What makes this such a big deal?

Why?  Because humans are humans.  We haven’t changed since the first story was written about us in the Garden of Eden.  We ALWAYS want to make something else a god besides God the Creator.  For Eve and Adam, it was making themselves equal to God.  For those Hebrews in the wilderness, it was a golden calf, or Moses himself as he came down from the mountain.  For some of the Jews of Jesus’ day, it was the Law that was god.

What is it for us today?  The temptations are all the same – money, power, prestige – or family, friends, relationships – or cars, clothes, shoes – or influence, longevity, youthful beauty – or stuff, electronic gadgets, technology – or … you name it.

I’ve never forgotten a stewardship specialist coming to our congregation in Albuquerque and saying, “if you want to know what is a person’s priorities, check the day planner and the checkbook.”  (OK, it’s dated – who has a day planner or a checkbook these days? Can we say handheld device’s calendar and bank info to make it more up-to-date)?   In other words, what do you spend your money, and your most important commodity, your time, on? 

We are celebrating our graduates today – high school and college – and the call for you as you move into the next phase of your life is to keep God first.  You know God.  God is the one who formed you in your mother’s womb, who celebrated your entry into the body of Christ at your baptism, who has walked with you as you were confirmed, who continues to walk with you as you move from graduation into this next part of your life – whether that be more schooling or first jobs.  God is always, always, always with you – part of your DNA – and will stay with you every day until your life’s end. 

Putting God first doesn’t mean you have to become one of those Christians who talks about God in every breath.  It does mean that you recognize that God is with you in every breath and every twist and turn of your life’s path.  God never promises that your life will not be without complications, or pain, or hard times – God promises to be WITH YOU in the complications, pain and hard times as well as those times when life is smooth, pain free and easy! 

You shall have no other gods – means that NOTHING can take the place of God first…not your family, or your girlfriend/boyfriend, or your job…because when it all comes down to it – God who created all things has given you your family, and your friends, and your talents and abilities.  It all is God’s – we simply get to use it for a time.

Not super-pious, but super-aware…that every breath, every gift, every growth we have been given is from God –who knows the exact number of hairs on your head, who created every cell of your body - loves you more than you will ever know, and thinks you are the most fabulous you ever! 

Your journey takes a new turn in this graduation season.  The rest of us get to burst with pride at your accomplishments and to celebrate you! 

All of this applies to the rest of us as well – You shall have no other gods – God is God and we are not! 

God goes with us in every breath, in every action and reaction, in every relationship and in every choice. 

God loves us – deeply, passionately, intimately – forever!  And every day we have to answer the question, “who/what will your god be today?” 

I pray for all of us the answer will always be – the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  

Amen

 Posted by Mirtika in Bible, Christianity, Uncategorized