This is a sermon that I preached at the Gold Canyon campus. The church in Gold Canyon is tucked very neatly away at the base of a couple of different hills/mountains of various heights. It is a beautiful location and it is also very symbolically appropriate for a sermon about Jesus preaching from a mountain.
The Text for this Sunday was Matthew 5:13-20 which is a part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says "You are the Light of the World." I love this passage. It is a beautiful scripture and it, along with a song based off of it that we sang at my wedding, have long been among my favorites. As I was preparing this sermon I realized that it was very important that the congregation take ownership of their own "LIGHTness" so along with preaching to that effect I also included a little litany at the beginning of the worship and then had them repeat it to close out the sermon. That litany is as follows:
P: You are the Light of the World.
C: So may we shine.
P: You are a city on a hill
C: We cannot be hid
P: You are a candle in the dark
C: We will give light to the house
P: You are the Light of the World
C: So may we brightly shine
Sit Tight and Buckle your seatbelts, secure your belongs and hold on to your loved ones, because today we’re in for a bumpy ride. The wildest roller coaster you’ve ever been on doesn’t hold a candle to the ride that’s in store for today. Today we’re going to come face to face with the deepest darkness of our world and we’re going to find the light that breaks in and we’re going to find out who the real salt of the earth is. Because today Jesus rolls up his sleeves and looks at you to do the same, today Jesus gets into the down and dirty of life in this broken world of ours, but first let’s talk about the background story… let’s build the suspense, let’s paint the picture….
The background story is , basically, that there is a problem. We have a problem…. You’ve heard that before right? Tom Hanks said it in Apollo 13… “Houston, we have a problem” That’s such a great line. He just drops a bomb of a one liner… in that one little sentence you’ve got terror and suspense, doubt and drama, sadness and maybe even hope. And that’s got to be one of the most quoted lines in all of cinema, it seems like every other time or so that somebody realizes something isn’t as it should be…. “Houston, we have a problem”. Poor Houston, get’s brought up every time something goes wrong. Which is kind of a lot right? Cause here’s the other great thing about that line…. It has a lot of potential for use… because there’s a lot of things that go wrong in the world, and this brings me back around to the reason I brought up this bit in the first place: “We have a problem”
We have a problem that we have so many problems…. Our world is not perfect… not even close…. No, there’s a lot of pain and sadness and grief in the world… And you only have to look as far as our art to see that it’s true… Of course we could focus on our own realities to see it too, whether that’s on the news or in our personal lives… but one of the beauties of artistic expression is it gives us a way to talk, concretely, about those emotions without bringing up those events that have caused us pain and sadness.
So let’s take a quick tour of some art…
The first example I want to point to is one that I wish I could have a visual aid for but hopefully you’ve all seen the painting: “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. When you see the look of anguish on the face in that painting you can clearly see pain and a troubled soul … and darkness.
How about music? It’s not hard at all to think of songs that help paint this picture as well. For example there’s Frank Sinatra’s Summer Wind, in which he sings “And still the days, those lonely days – go on and on, And guess who sighs his lullabies – through nights that never end.” or In the wee small hours “she’d be yours if only she would call, and there’s Hank Williams singing “I’m so lonesome I could cry” which I’m not even going to try to quote to you because it just wouldn’t be fair for a sunny Sunday morning.
And then there’s our movies… now movies are an interesting case because they tell a story, and very often they have enough time to tell a pretty complex story, not like a song that just has enough time to convey the basics…. In this way movies are more like books, or short stories at least. And what this means is that there’s a kind of journey that often happens in a movie, so whereas “The Scream” or one these songs is really just capturing a single moment, a movie gives us the chance to see how we got to that moment and where we go from it. In some cases that journey tells a sad story and the credits start rolling in the midst of that sadness and that’s just how it is… a good example of this would be any of the movie versions of “Hamlet” or “Romeo and Juliet” the movies end when everybody’s dead and we are left to lament terrible circumstances and twisted fate. But then there’s those movies that end triumphantly but go through a period of sadness along the way. Just about every Romantic Comedy you will ever see follows that formula… there’s always the point, about 2/3 - ¾ of the way through when everything’s been going great but something terrible happens, some secret gets discovered and now we’re not sure if they’re really going to end up together. But it doesn’t have to be just Romantic Comedies… many of the dramas that we watch go through a low point for the main character, the protagonist get’s beat down, and our doubts are cast… lot’s of movies have these moments, and lot’s of books do to but there’s a reason we’re talking about movies.
Talking about movies in these instances makes it really easy to address a particular stylistic point. Movie producers like to use all the elements of a scene to guide you through the story and this includes things like the music, and the shot angles, and the …. Lighting… If you notice when the protagonist goes through that trial the moment of doubt, the sadness, the scene goes slightly dimmer, the lighting is darker and there are less bright colors…. There is darkness in the movie… just like there is darkness in our world…
There is darkness…. And then what happens? Now in this situation my normal inclination is to give you an example, some specific instance that illustrates exactly the point I’m trying to make… but this time I’m not going to do that because I want you to watch for it…. Next time you watch a movie where there is sadness and darkness watch for what happens when that single element of hope is introduced, it doesn’t always happen because not all producers use lighting elements in their movies, but watch for it… because if it’s there, you can literally see it happen.
In the midst of the darkness whatever character or item represents the hope will enter in light… it may be a person dressed in white or standing in the bright sun, or maybe the lights just rise slightly when they enter, but if it’s there you’ll see how they literally light up the screen….
Okay, so we can that the world is broken… there is darkness in the world, you know that it’s true and you can see it reflected in our art. But we have this sense, don’t we? that our pain is not without relief, that our suffering is not without hope, that our sadness is not without the prospect of joy… that our darkness is not without the promise of light.
Maybe you’re saying to yourself right now… “Oh I think I see where this is going…. This is the part where DC tells us that Jesus offers us hope for our sadness and relief for our suffering…. Right?... right?”
Well… Jesus does offer those things… But that’s not really what the Gospel is talking about today… In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks up and he says nothing about himself he turns to those around him and says: “You are the light of world….”
Okay maybe now you’re thinking “But… why would he say that… isn’t Jesus the light, the savior, the messiah”
Well… he sure is a light… and perhaps THE light. BUT, Jesus tells you…. YOU are the light of the world… I want you to all picture this because we have a unique opportunity here in Gold Canyon to picture the scene here…. Imagine Jesus is right out that door… across the road and up on that little mountain… because that’s probably about what it looked like… And Jesus is sitting up there talking to you, and sharing his blessings… and then he tells you that, You are a city on a hill…. You are a candle in the dark… You are the lamp that is placed on the stand to give light to the house, the house that would otherwise be mired in darkness. You are the light that shines to give glory to God. You are the hope breaks into the pain and the sadness and the suffering…..
My friends, today Jesus is telling you to roll up your sleeves because it turns out that this journey is not like a tour bus where we get to just watch the sights roll by. This is a trek, a marathon, a pilgrimage, this is where Jesus tells us that he wants our help. Jesus wants our help because we have the opportunity to continue the ministry that he worked for…
You see, one thing that I maybe didn’t make clear when we were talking about those movies is that when that person comes in all dressed in white, or bathed in light… we’re not talking about a superhero , or an angel, or Jesus himself . We’re talking about you… plain regular, standard, glorious, compassionate, blessed You.
We can absolutely be that person that changes the whole movie… that sets the resolution in motion. Because the light of the Holy Spirit is here and alive in the world and it spreads when we let our lights shine. You know what the love of Christ is like, what the grace of God is all about because you’ve been here under this roof and you’ve felt it as you’ve shared in worship together, and now you can be the hands and feet of Christ that help your neighbors and friends, and anyone else, feel that Love and Grace as real tangible things in the world. You can live your life out of concern for those around you, you can be present in people’s lives and be in community with them, so that no matter who they are or what they are going through, they may feel, in a very real way, the love of God.
That is the light that you are, the Light that shines the love of God into the lives of everyone around you, the Light that loves recklessly and without fear of judgment or hurt. Because God has given you your identity, God has named you as God’s very own, and God as set you free to shine, brightly that light out into the world.
Now I know I’m being a little vague about what exactly it is that God is calling us to do in the world, but you see that’s the point… it’s not about this one specific action or another… this isn’t about converting the non-Christians or preaching on the street corners or anything else… this is about living a life that reflects the Light of the world that you are… this is about living your life, not as battle to protect your own interests but as a mission to live in community, to care for your neighbor, to have compassion for those who are dealing with their own personal darkness.
Now I know I’m giving you a pretty steep challenge today, but I want you to stay with me because there’s something really cool about how this works… you see there are… what 150-200 people in this room… ? now if every one of you lived your life watching out for and caring for those around you, every single one of you will have 150-200 people caring for you… instead of if every single person just looks out for themselves and then there’s only 1 person looking out for each of us. Now imagine if we expand that to all three campuses… or the whole Synod… or the whole ELCA… or the whole country… or the whole world. This is the heart of God’s call for you today… to live your life for others so that they may live their lives for you…. Because just as you, individual you, are the Light of the World… so is the person sitting next to you… and on the other side of you… and in front of you…. And behind you…. And diagonally to the front… and…. Well you get that idea…. You are all the light of the world and when you shine in the lives of those around you… living your life with compassion for them… you will find that their light shines just as brightly back to you. And when everyone is shining their light to all others then we are all bathed in the light of Christ that shine through us and truly the kingdom of God has arrived here on earth.
P: You are the Light of the World.
C: So may we shine.
P: You are a city on a hill
C: We cannot be hid
P: You are a candle in the dark
C: We will give light to the house
P: You are the Light of the World
C: So may we brightly shine
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