He Is, They Were, We Are
He Is, They Were, We Are by Rev. L. John Gable
February 21, 2021
The final step in the long process toward ordination in the Presbyterian Church for pastors is an examination on the floor of the Presbytery during which the delegates can ask the candidate any questions they want. As you might imagine, it can be an intimidating. During my examination one questioner asked me to explain how the Word which God speaks and the Word of God we call Scripture and the Word of God I will preach and teach in my ministry all relate to one another? After first giving the questioner something of a blank stare, I recall thinking to myself, “That is a really good question…about which I have never given any thought”, I then made some attempt at a coherent answer which apparently satisfied because they voted to approve my ordination.
I was reminded of that as I read our passages for today which refer not to the use of the word “Word”, but of “Light”, another repeatedly used metaphor throughout Scripture.
If I were to ask you, “Who is the light of the world?” your immediate answer would be, Jesus. In a story told in the 9th chapter of John’s Gospel we read of Jesus healing a man blind from birth, instructing him to wash in the Pool of Siloam. When challenged by the rabbis for doing so, Jesus answered, “We must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” So, who is the light of the world? He is. And the analogy fits.
Light, we know, is the source of all of life. In the opening verses of Genesis we read that before anything else God created light. Jesus is the source of our life spiritually and our relationship with God because He is the light of the world.
Light also serves the purpose of illumination. When we shine a light on something we are drawing attention to it, we put a spot light on it, making sure others are aware of it. In Colossians we read: “Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation…for in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him God was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself.” (Col. 2:15,19-20). This means, as we look at Jesus we see the face of God. If we want to know what God is like, we need only look at Jesus. This was the primary purpose of His ministry: to point to the Father, to make Him known and knowable, and to do His work and will. In this, He is the light of the world.
Light also serves the purpose of revelation. Turn on a light and it casts out the darkness and reveals what is present, all of the beauty around us as well as the dirt and dust in the corners and those parts of our lives and our hearts we wish could remain hidden. Jesus came to make us aware of our need for God’s gracious love and forgiveness, that we too might be useful in the work of His Kingdom.
Light also gives us direction. It guides our path and shows us the way. In this, Jesus shows Himself to be the Light of the World when He says, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6). Jesus came to show us the way to live, both now and in His Kingdom yet to come.
So, who is the light of the world? There is but only one true answer. He is.
But interestingly enough the prophet Isaiah gives yet another answer. Speaking to and about the nation of Israel, Isaiah says, “They were.” 600 years before the time of Christ, Isaiah speaks of the Suffering Servant of God who will be the carrier of the message of salvation. Whether the prophet is speaking about a particular individual or a remnant of the house of Israel or of the entire nation of Israel scholars will debate and disagree, but what is not up for dispute is the charge and commission the Suffering Servant was given. We read in chapter 49, God, speaking through the prophet, says, “It is too light/too small a thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel. I will give you as a light to the nations that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Israel was called and commissioned from among all the nations to be His special people charged with sharing the message of salvation. So who is the light of the world? They were! That was their God-given reason for being.
However, if that chosen people of God had a fatal flaw it was on this point, they came to see themselves not as willing bearers and sharers of the Good News, but as exclusive recipients of it. While they had been called to be proclaimers, they became instead protectors of the divine truth, and, as a result, their focus became inward and self-directed, rather than outward and other-directed. They came to pride themselves on being God’s chosen people rather than seeing their privilege as a calling to responsibility and being useful and used by God to shine the light of His goodness and blessing to the nations. But called they were to this task.
So again, who is the Light of the World? He is and they were.
And then, just to push the analogy one step further, we come to Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. Speaking to His disciples and the crowd who gathered there, He said, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Sounding very similar to the commission originally given to the nation of Israel, who now is the light of the world? He is. They were. And now we are, we being all who are followers of Jesus Christ.
Clearly here He is giving His marching orders and laying before His followers the scope of their, our, responsibility. As the light of the world, we are not producers, but reflectors of God’s light. In all that we are and say and do we are to reflect the light of life which God has given to us. Just as Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, so now that same responsibility has been given to us to be bearers of the light of Christ in to every darkened corner of our lives and of our world. We are intended to illuminate the light of God in the face of Christ to all we meet, showing His love, His mercy, His grace and justice. In this, we are the light of the world.
Just as God called, shaped and molded the children of Israel to be His servant people, so we believe God calls and prepares us, His Church, as followers of Jesus, to His service and glory today. We are mistaken however if, like Israel, we begin thinking that God has blessed us only to make us comfortable and contented. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago: “Saved, satisfied and stuck.” That is not God’s intention at all. We have been “blessed to be a blessing”, both to God in our worship and praise, and to others in our acts of service and mercy. This is our reason for being.
As followers of Christ, as witnesses of His truth and bearers and reflectors of His light, we cannot allow ourselves to become useless in His Kingdom work. Jesus says, “A city built on a hill cannot be hid.” That means that the light of our witness is going to shine whether we think it is, or even want it to, or not. People who don’t know Christ will look at us and say, “So this is what a Christian looks like, acts like, this is how a Christian behaves.” The saying is true, “All the darkness in the universe cannot extinguish the light of a single candle”, so we must make every effort to ensure that our light is shining, reflecting the image of God in all we say and do, in each and every good work, not so that others can commend us and say how good we are, but to give glory to our Father in Heaven. This is what God has made us to do, to shine, so shine we must. Shine right where we are and as brightly as we can, because this is who we are, bearers of God’s light to the world because there are people who are still seeking the way.
John Rankin lived in a small town in southern Ohio in the middle 1800’s. His house just happened to be located at the highest point in that town. So every night he would place a lantern in the highest window of his house and that lantern would burn all night long. To the townspeople it was nothing more than a peculiar habit, but to run-away slaves who were trying to find their way north to freedom it was a lighthouse, a refuge, a signal for safe passage and much needed hospitality. It was a city on a hill.
The proclamation of the Gospel of salvation is the service the Church owes to the world. We have been called by God and blessed with this Good News, not simply to make ourselves satisfied and complacent in our favored status, but in order that others may hear and believe as well. For this reason, we dare not hoard this saving message for ourselves.
Jesus says, We are the light of the world. Notice that He doesn’t say we should be, or could be or one day will be, but that we are, which means we must remain diligent and committed to being who God has called us to be and doing what light is intended to do: giving life, illuminating, reflecting, directing others to the love and life which can only be found in Jesus Christ, through our words and actions, our acts of ministry and service, our works of compassion and justice.
I’ll close with this story. There is a small lighthouse that stands at the mouth of New York harbor, on a sunken shoal, called Robbins Reef. For many years the keeper of the lighthouse was an elderly widow who one day told her story to a local reporter who in turn gave it to the world.
She said, “I was a young girl at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, when I first met my husband. He was the keeper of the Sandy Hook light, and took me as his bride. I was happy there, for the lighthouse was on land and I could have a garden and raise flowers. Then one day we were transferred here to Robbins Reef. As soon as we arrived I said to my husband, “I can’t stay here! The sight of water everywhere I look makes me too lonesome. I won’t unpack!” But somehow all the trunks got unpacked.
“Four years later my husband caught cold while tending the light. The cold turned to pneumonia and he died. We buried him on a hillside in Staten Island. Every morning when the sun comes up I stand and look out a porthole across the water toward his grave. Sometimes the hill is green, sometimes it is brown, sometimes it is white with snow; but it always brings a message from him – something I heard him say more than anything else – just three words: Mind the Light!”
Who is the light of the world? He is. They were. And now we are. Whether the hills are green or brown or covered with snow, every morning when the sun comes up, our highest calling and greatest joy and blessing is to “Mind the Light of Christ.”
Let us pray:
O Lord, may it never be said of us that having come to an open door we closed it; that having come to a lighted candle we quenched it; that having heard the pitiful ones of earth begging for food we made denial. Rather, may we become, for Jesus’ sake, God’s faithful servants, carrying a light to guide others traveling in the dark. May we, as recipients of Christ’s life, allow it to live through us, making us nourishers of life and sharers of the abundant life offered to us through Christ our Lord, in Whose name we now humbly pray. Lord, hear our prayer.