Your Light Shall Rise in the Darkness

Isaiah 58:1-12, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, Matthew 5:13-20

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany (Lectionary 5)

In my reading this week, I was struck by this passage from Paul’s letter to the Galatians: “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.”[1]  It’s amazing how Paul’s warning is so applicable to us today.

Tuesday mornings, our local pastors gather to talk about the readings for the coming Sunday.  In recent weeks, politics and their effect on people in our churches, in our country and around the world have been dominating our conversations. Within our congregations, there are differing opinions on every issue we face.  People embrace God’s mandate to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God, but there are disagreements on how best to do that.[2]

In listening to the news, reading comments on FaceBook, and hearing conversations, I’ve become more aware of how we label people, thereby dividing them into categories. Those labels then become people’s identity, as if that is all there is to a person.  Now days when we hear “the conservatives, the liberals, Republicans, Democrats, Muslims, Christians, Jews, whites, blacks,” it is usually said with judgment attached.  There is not one day when anger and divisiveness are not made public. How we see each other, and ourselves, is channeled through this lens.  “There’s something strangely sweet about negative or accusatory feelings,” writes Richard Rohr.  “It’s a strange way to achieve moral superiority…”[3] The impact of all this on our well-being cannot be understated.

That people divide into factions is nothing new.  The Corinth community had their own difficulties with this.  Before Paul came to them preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, they were known for their unruliness and promiscuity.  For a year and a half, Paul taught them the gospel, and showed them how to live as a holy people of God.  Then he left for Ephesus.  Sometime later, Paul received a report that “factions had developed, morals were in disrepair, and worship had degenerated into a selfish grabbing for the super-natural.”[4]

Paul’s letter in response to the Corinthians, part of which we read this morning, does not preach the wrath of God.  Paul does not label people; they have labeled and divided themselves. He does not pit one faction against another.  Paul’s letter to the Corinthians focuses on love.  In fact, the first thing he says to them is, “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus…”[5]

How can he say this to a quarreling community? What gives Paul perspective is Christ and the cross.  “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” Paul states.[6]  The cross signifies God’s intervention into the dark places of our humanity.  It stands for love that culminated in Christ’s giving his life for all people, both the righteous and the unrighteous.  Paul views everything through this lens.[7] Paul begins with the cross of Christ.  When we begin from a place of judgement or fear, we cannot see accurately.  When we begin from a place of judgment or fear, we struggle to get to a place of love.

Paul’s vision of the world through the cross challenges how we see.  It looks beyond our view of power, and beyond the letter of the law.  Looking at our world through Christ crucified clears our vision so that we recognize our common humanity.  It provides a way for us to speak our truth in love.[8]

In order for us to speak our truth in love, we first must know that we are loved.  Scripture frequently assures us of that.  “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ]—by grace you have been saved,” St. Paul writes. [9]  This morning we hear Jesus tell us, “You are the salt of the earth.”  “You are the light of the world.”  Not, “I was hoping you would be,” or “if you do this,” but “you are.”

As salt and light, how do we respond to our current climate?  First, look at the cross of Christ, and then look through the cross to our neighbors.  Know that you are loved. Know that your neighbors are loved, too.  From that perspective, speak the truth in love, without judgment, and without condemnation.  David Lose, president of the Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia, suggests that, “Perhaps part of our congregational calling is to be places that gather people who may differ on approach to being salt and light but commit to pray for deeper understanding, for wisdom, and for courage to speak and act in line with our faith, and for each other.”[10]

Listen again to the words of Isaiah:

If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
 if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail. [Isaiah 58:9-11]

Let your light rise in the darkness, in the name of Christ.  Amen!

~Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin

[1] Galatians 5:14-15

[2] Micah 6:8

[3] Rohr, Richard.  Everything Belongs.  New York:  The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2003.  p. 109.

[4] Peterson, Eugene.  The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language.  Colorado Springs:  NavPress, 2002.  p. 2064.

[5] 1 Corinthians 1:4

[6] 1 Corinthians 2:2.

[7] Marcus Borg [read Convictions:  How I Learned What Matter Most.  New York:  HarperOne, 2014. p.144.] points out:

[Paul] doesn’t simply say that Jesus died, but that he was crucified.  In the world of Paul and Jesus and early Christianity, a cross was always a Roman cross.  The gospel of ‘Christ crucified’ intrinsically signaled that the gospel challenged the way the authorities, the powers, put the world together.  The gospel was an anti-imperial, [anti-Roman Empire], vision of what the world should be like.

[8] Galatians 5:6 states, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.”

[9] Ephesians 2:4-5.  See also John 3:16 and Romans 8:38-39.

 

[10] Lose, David.  …In the Meantime.  Epiphany 5A – Promises, not Commands.  Web, accessed 1/31/2017.

Author: Pastor Cheryl Griffin

Pastor Cheryl Ann Griffin thinks God has a sense of humor for leading her into ministry, but can’t imagine doing anything else! Pastor Griffin received her BA degree from the College of William and Mary. She worked as an accountant before God led her to the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, where she received her Master of Divinity degree. In the Virginia Synod, Pastor Griffin is a member of the Ministerium Team and frequently leads small groups at synod youth events. She is also a representative to the VA Synod Council.

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