Kevin Montgomery- Taize Homily

Sunday, February 6, 2011

“You are the light of the world.”  Appropriately enough for this season of the church year, we have this saying from Jesus.  On one hand, it’s kind of nice to hear this.  Sort of that soft, warm glow that you like to bask in.  On the other hand, the more you sit with it, the more uncomfortable it can be.  “Um, Jesus, it’s getting a little bright here.  My eyes are starting to hurt . . . and I’m starting to burn.  I don’t think I want so much light.”  Personally, I find light fascinating.  So seemingly simply yet so amazingly complex.  Now don’t worry, I won’t start going off into quantum theory and the dual wave-particle nature of light. . . . Unless you want me to.  Really, just say the word, and I’ll do it. . . .

Okay, we’re the light of the world.  So what?  “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the 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.”  You mean I actually have to do something?  I can’t just sit there and look pretty and shiny?  Aw, shoot. . . . Well, Jesus does say that we are the LIGHT of the world, not the LAMPSTAND.  Now there’s one thing I find really interesting about light.  It’s never not moving.  By its very nature, it travels constantly at the speed of light.  It’s never frozen in some, I don’t know, lightsaber blade.   It travels out to the very edge of the universe.  In a way, that’s what we’re called to do.  We’re not supposed to just keep it to ourselves under a bushel.  We’re supposed to let it shine out for others, to help guide the way, to dispel the darkness so many of us find ourselves in.  In a way, the church is sort of like the lampstand or like a lighthouse.  By itself, it is not the light.  Instead, it is the place from which the light shines.  It is to facilitate the going out into the world.  We, being the light, don’t just sit there but are actually sent out. 

I’m reminded now of other places where light occurs in the Bible.  Moses, having spoken with God on Sinai and received the Law, comes down the slope with his face shining brightly, so brightly in fact that people can’t look on him and he has to hide his face.  Later, and even more importantly, we have the Transfiguration of Christ on Mt. Tabor.  According to Matthew, “Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.”  While Peter wants to set up dwellings there so they can sit there and enjoy the show, Jesus won’t let them.  After it’s all over, he takes them back down the mountain, back into the world of mission.  Again, going out to do the work he was given to do, the work we are now given to do. 

That mission, however, is a lot to handle.  We’re not just the light; we’re the light OF THE WORLD.  I don’t know if you’ve realized it or not, but the world’s a big place.  “Jesus, you mean to say that I’m the light for the whole world?!  I don’t want that responsibility.  It’s too much.  I can’t do it!”  The bad news is that it is a lot to do, it’s a huge responsibility.  The good news, though, is that it’s not my responsibility alone; I only share in it.  I also don’t have to worry about producing the light.  I’m not the source.  That’s NOT my responsibility.  So who is the source?

There’s another place where we hear about Jesus and light.  Right at the beginning of the Gospel of John, we read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”  Later, Jesus tells the people, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”  The light that he have, the light of life, is not ours alone.  Instead, Christ is that light that shines through us.  We, being the Body of Christ, share in that light, in the sending out, in the mission.  Jesus is the light, but without us that mission of light cannot continue.