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“Life on the Lampstand”
Isaiah 58:1-12; Matthew 5:14-16
Rev. Jason Alspaugh
First Baptist Church of Dayton
February 5, 2017
Throughout this Season of Epiphany we have pondered revelations about the person of Jesus
as Son of God, as Christ, as Lord. We have seen him as the baby in the manger and the child in
the temple, and we have been given insights about his identity. And now, as a man on a
mission, as he begins his ministry, Jesus begins to reveal some things about those who would
follow him. Ascending the mountain for what some have called his “inaugural address,”i Jesus
begins to explain to his followers and any would-be followers who they are and how they are
to be.
Last Sunday, we read the Beatitudes, and I shared the message that they speak of the blessed
community that Jesus is gathering up—those with no reason to hope and no reason for joy
alongside those who show mercy and give glimpses of God; those who are humiliated and
oppressed and starved for justice alongside those who pursue peace and righteousness and
risk suffering for it. And I said that if you remembered anything from that sermon remember
that the first word is “Blessed,” and that Jesus’ words of blessing “appear at the beginning of
the Sermon on the Mount, before a single instruction is given, before there has been time for
obedience or disobedience…God’s favor precedes all our endeavors.”ii “Blessed are you…” It
remains important for us to remember this grace today, as Jesus begins to give instructions.
One of the first words of instruction may very well be one of the most challenging for the
church today, for it calls us to what Deitrich Bonhoeffer called an “extraordinary visibility.”
When Jesus says, “You are the light of the world” and “no one after lighting a lamp puts it
under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand,” it’s clear that we are meant to shine. But this
is not a call to good marketing, where we create a nice brand, a nice logo, a nice website, and
a nice social media presence. That’s actually not much of a challenge. No, instead, this is a call
to “good works,” to give visible, tangible expression to the grace and love we have received
from God. That may not sound so challenging either, until we consider what constitutes “good
works.”
There are some who are convinced that the “good works” of the church are to be limited to
worshiping, praying, reading scripture, and generally being nice. Some would concede that
the church should also help people in need—for example, feeding the hungry or visiting the
sick. But when the church starts to venture out into the public realm, to address social and
political and economic concerns, some are not so convinced that this, too, belongs to the good
work of the church.
1
And yet being “the light of the world” does have a prophetic quality that calls us out into
world, to life on the lampstand. “The office of the prophet,” Hauerwas says, “has now fallen
on this new community, who has become […] light for the world.” The “office of the prophet”
falls upon us, and we are meant to shine. As disciples of Jesus, we cannot help but be “light”.
We are light, as Bonhoeffer said, “by the call [we] have received” from Christ, and “[we]
cannot be otherwise.”iii This is who we are and how we are to be.
Just as God tells the prophet Isaiah to “Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a
trumpet!” Jesus tells his disciples (he tells us) to illuminate the world’s dark places by living out
the good news of God’s kingdom. The apostle Paul once wrote that “in the midst of a crooked
and perverse generation […followers of Jesus] shine like stars.”iv This identity—being the light
of the world—comes as part of the call to be followers of Jesus Christ; we accept this at our
baptism. Often a candle is lit to signify that we bear the light of Christ.
We may want to deny the responsibility that comes with being the light of the world, we may
not want to live life on the lampstand, but it’s who we are. I’m sure there are some who think,
“I didn’t sign up for that. I just wanted to go to church. I just wanted to get into heaven.” But
if the prophets teach us anything it’s that true religion has as much to do with loving and
caring for people as it does worshiping God. Jesus chastised those who did their tithing but
“neglected the weightier matters of…justice and mercy and faith.”v The writer of 1 John put it
this way: “those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God
whom they have not seen.”vi Even the people of Israel could not hide behind safe, pious
practices such as fasting; not while others suffered.
The prophetic call is to go beyond what is in our own best interest: to seek justice for the
oppressed, to “share [our] bread with the hungry,” to “bring the homeless poor into [our]
house[s],” and to clothe the naked. Doing this in any meaningful, lasting way will ultimately
demand that our voices be heard and that our light shine in the public sphere.
There are many in the church who would rather opt out of this prophetic vocation, relegating
their faith and witness to the same pew each Sunday morning. Fear of physical, social or
emotional persecution would have us hold back the truth, hide our light under a bushel, and
retreat into invisibility, but for Christians this is impossible. Bonhoeffer wrote that:
The followers [of Jesus] are a visible community; their discipleship [is] visible in action
which lifts them out of the world—otherwise it would not be discipleship…Flight into
the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has
ceased to follow him.vii
2
To hide is to deny the call to that “extraordinary visibility,” whereby God is glorified. “Let your
light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father
in heaven,” Jesus says.viii And so we are to be what Christ has called us to be—light that shines
before others and for others—so that God’s love and grace might be known.
It’s tempting to stay put, to hide out. We could take shelter here for a few hours a week, and
take care of our own. And we could probably get by doing that for maybe another generation
or two. But holding back and hiding under a bushel basket still have consequences.
If the prophet Isaiah holds back, if he does not shout out, if the prophet is silent—then the
people will not see their errors, and they cannot mend their ways. And if they do not mend
their ways, then the bonds of injustice will not be loosed and the oppressed will not be freed;
the hungry will be hungry and the homeless will be homeless. The light of the people will not
break forth; their light will not rise in the darkness. And the afflicted, therefore, do not know
healing and help. The same is true if we do not let our light shine.
Many find themselves disillusioned with the church when it is silent in the face of injustice.
When the church holds back, when we do not shout out, when we do not let our light shine,
we let people down. In his Letter From A Birmingham Jail, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote of his
disappointment with the church in the midst of racial discrimination in the 1960s. He was
particularly disappointed with those in the church who were “more cautious than courageous”
and who “remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.” He
was disappointed with those who “commit[ted] themselves to a completely other-worldly
religion which [made] a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the
sacred and the secular.” Walking outside the beautiful edifices of such churches, he often
found himself wondering “What kind of people worship[ed] [there]?” and “Who [was] their
God?”; and “Where were their voices” and “Where were they” when their oppressed brothers
and sisters needed them the most?
I do have such great expectations for the church, and I worry about our witness. But I also
remind myself that we are not the source of our light. “The LORD is my light and my
salvation,” the psalmist sings.ix Jesus says, “You are the light of the world,” but this is light that
is given. As one of my seminary professors might say, “We do not have a monopoly on this
light.” We bear the light, but we do not have absolute control over it. This is the light of
Christ, and it will shine with or without us, church. We must remember the words of John’s
gospel, where it says that “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome
it.” Because just as the darkness cannot overcome the light, neither can our inaction and
silence ultimately obscure this light. Of course, I believe that Christ would rather the light
shine with us than without us. And so, as he is beginning his instruction, Christ is calling us to
follow.
3
There is quite a bit of talk about a “resistance” these days (#resist). And you might have the
impression that this is something new, but I’ve been a part of the resistance since February 6,
1994 (i.e, the day I was baptized). I’ve been resisting ever since I responded to Jesus, who
said, “Follow me.” For example, Jesus said, “Beware of false prophets, who…inwardly are
[like] ravenous wolves” and so we must resist those who espouse violence. Jesus said, “You
know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over
them,” and so we must resist the power-hungry.
In talking about nonviolent, direct action King spoke of the need “to undertake a process of
self purification,” where those who planned to march in protests participated in workshops in
which they repeatedly asked themselves if they were “able to accept blows without
retaliating” or “to endure the ordeal of jail.” King and others had to prepare themselves not
only to resist the violence of others, but the temptation to enact violence themselves; and he
and many others did this because they were followers of Jesus.
And so, not only must we resist the evil and violence and indifference in others, but we must
resist it forming within ourselves. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who
persecute you,” and so we must resist demonizing our opponents.x Jesus said, “You cannot
serve God and wealth,” and so we must resist greed and the fear of not having enough.xi Jesus
said, “Do not resist an evildoer,” that is, do not retaliate; no ‘eye for an eye,’ no ‘tooth for a
tooth’; “Don’t hit back at all”; and so we must resist returning violence for violence.xii
The resistance to “the principalities and powers of this world” began the moment Jesus
started to proclaim that “the kingdom of heaven has come near.”xiii And it began to grow as
he gathered up that blessed community on the mountain, and said, “You are the light of the
world!”xiv It continues to this day, for we are still the light of the world, and Christ is still calling
us to shine. This is who we are, and this is what we do. So let your light shine. And to God be
the glory! Amen.
i
Hare, Douglas R. A. Matthew. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993; 35.
Craddock, Fred B. 1990. "Hearing God's blessing." The Christian Century 107, no. 3: 74.
iii
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. New York: Macmillan, 1959. 116-117.
iv
Philippians 2:15
v
Matthew 23:23
vi
1 John 4:20b
vii
The Cost of Discipleship, 117-118.
viii
Matthew 5:16
ix
Psalm 27:1
x
Mt. 5:44
xi
Mt. 6:24
xii
Mt. 5:38-39
xiii
Mt. 3:17
xiv
Mt. 5:14
ii
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