Shining Light
Lenten Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount
This past winter, some friends and I spent a few days in New York City. We didn’t do much of the typical touristy stuff. This trip was more of a foodie tour as we traveled from one restaurant to another - three pizza joints, a classic bagel shop, an old school delicatessen, and several trips to the best coffee shop I’ve ever been. It was a blast. And in our comings and goings around the city and its boroughs, I would frequently see the Statue of Liberty perched on her island, holding her torch high for all to see.
Way back in 1886, France gifted Lady Liberty to the United States as a celebration of our country’s 100th birthday as a free nation. It holds several layers of symbolism, the foremost being that statue’s torch represents “the light that guides the path to freedom.” Later, Emma Lazarus’s iconic poem, The New Colossus, was inscribed in the statue’s base, reinforcing its symbolism forever thereafter.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-lost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
At times, the statue and its poem have been reflections of our country. Other times, we have been antithetical to it. In most, it’s probably fair to say that it has been aspirational for our nation.
As Jesus continues teaching how one is to live as a member of His Kingdom, He shares: “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill that cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let you right shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Much may be unpacked from this short paragraph, but, for today, I am thinking specifically about the words I bolded: You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works…
I didn’t know until this morning that Jesus was drawing from several passages of scripture, particularly the book of Isaiah. In chapters 42 and 49, the prophet calls God’s people a “light to the nations.” They are so because they are people who “walk in the light of the LORD” (Isaiah 2:5). Rooted in the Abrahamic promise, God’s people are to be a blessing to all nations. They are to be bearers of peace, those who make sure all are provided for, the emancipators of the oppressed, the stewards of creation. A life lived in such ways cannot help but radiate Light.
Throughout our nation’s history, especially so in the last 60 years, presidents have coopted the scripture’s language and superimposed it upon the United States. John F. Kennedy used Jesus’ imagery, claiming that our country “be as a city upon a hill.” This was also a favorite refrain for Ronald Reagan who, in his January 11, 1989 farewell speech said, “I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace…” Nearly every president since has drawn upon this language as well.
It’s not surprising. For most of our country’s history, and particularly in our nation’s westward expansion of the 19th century, a prevailing belief has existed called “Manifest Destiny.” It holds that the United States has a “God-given right and duty” to expand its territory across North America. I wonder if that sort of ‘holy’ entitlement is playing itself out again with our current president’s preoccupation with Canada and Greenland.
The problem, of course, is that our nation is not the Kingdom of God.
To conflate the two as such is to misread, misunderstand, and misuse Jesus’ instructions.
I have a colleague who says that politics and partisanship are the great idols of our age. I can’t help but agree with him. American Christians are too often more strongly formed by their party’s platforms than they are by Jesus Himself, so much so that they are no longer able to distinguish the teachings of God from the convictions of their preferred politicians, completely incapable of critiquing or speaking against their own Republican or Democratic leaders. To say that being a Christian and being an American are two different things is nonsensical, even offensive for many.
But The Way of Jesus invites us out of our nationalist proclivities and into a Third Way of living, a way that, in this highly partisan time, offers Light to the world.
Jesus tells those who wish to follow Him, that they are to live differently than the world around them. When living a Jesus-shaped life, one marked by “good works,” we shine light into the darkness around us.
Today, I am challenged by Jesus’ words in two ways.
I am challenged to do a good work today. To not just talk (or type) about it, but to be about it. What good work can I do today? How can I be God’s blessing to someone else this Lent?
I am challenged to listen more to Jesus than I do the world around me. This has been and continues to be my personal growing edge, to “silence in me any voices but God’s own, so that I may hear God’s Word and also do it.” This is my prayer and it is my discipline. I’ve stepped away from Facebook because it was leading me to not love my neighbor as myself. I’ve been more judicious in my news consumption. And I am more intentionally placing moments in my day to listen to the scriptures (the Lectio 365 App has been especially helpful for me; maybe it could help you too! - https://www.24-7prayer.com/resource/lectio-365/). If I am serious about following Jesus, then I need to get more serious in taking steps to listen to Him.
These are some of my challenges. What are some of yours? How will you shine with the light of Jesus today?