My congregational newsletter article for October 2020
“Let your light so shine before others” Jesus
Christ)
The
other evening around ten o’clock, before jumping into bed, I first stepped
outside to gaze up at the heavens when I noticed for the first time a brilliant
light in the eastern sky. I first thought
it was a “red giant” star because of its color.
I wrongly assumed it was a star because it seemed to be in the wrong part
of the sky to be a planet. So since I
was curious, I got out the “Sky Watch” app on my phone and aimed it at the “star”
and thereby realized that no, it was indeed the “Red Planet” Mars. It was brighter than any other point of light
in the sky except for Jupiter, and also redder than any star I have ever
seen. You too can see this beautiful
sight with the naked eye for several months at least (at sunrise Venus is in
the same place that Mars is in the evening sky). However despite Mars’ brilliance, its’
surface is deathly cold in contrast to the nuclear furnaces which generate the
light of every real star including our own Sun.
So then a question; where do the planets get their light that makes them
so bright? (prior to the Renaissance, planets were regarded as stars that were
only different in that they wandered from one constellation to another). The answer is, they radiate their light in
the same way our Moon does, by reflecting the light which shines onto them from
our Sun. Of course this is a long way of
stating what we know already, that our moon, which outshines every star and
planet in the sky, is reflected light.
Yet this simple truth can profoundly liberate us from imagining that
being “lights for Jesus” is an oppressive obligation that we can never achieve.
When
Jesus said both, “I am the light of the world…” in John
8:12, and to His disciples, “You are the light of the
world” in Matthew 5:14, He was addressing two entirely different sets of
circumstances. With respect to Jesus, He
lives in an unhindered relationship with His Father so that He is perfect and
sinless. Consequently He is as the
Nicene Creed states, “very God of very God, begotten, not made.” His light is innate in a metaphorical way like
the stars are radiating energy which flows from their cores. We, by contrast, are mere creatures (that by
the way is not a bad thing!!!) who are sinners that thereby sin daily by
“thought, word, and deed…and by the things we have not done” Consequently, in ourselves, we have no
power to radiate the light of God. But
the good news begins with the reality that we are both forgiven and
brought into relationship with God. And it
continues in that we are invited to share with others the light of Christ which
shines onto us so that it may reflect it to the lives of others who are in our
sphere of influence. This however is
conditioned on our being in contact daily both with our Lord through His word,
and in contact with the world around us.
Jesus continues his words begun in John 8:12 (above) by saying, “…whoever
follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life,” and
in Matt. 5:14 (above) “…a city on a hill cannot be hid.” Unless we are in contact with the source of
light, we cannot reflect it. However
only if we relate to others can we be God’s source of light to them. What a privilege it is that can multiply our
own joy even as we lift others up with the same!
The word “moonlighter” by definition
means to increase one’s income by working another job. I am convinced however that when we play with
the word a bit, we can draw on the analogy of, as moons of sorts, we receive light
from the Son of God in order to direct the blessing of God for other people too.
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