You are the light of the world!

Sermon preached at 9.45 am Holy Communion (BCP) at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton on Sunday 6th February 2011. Shorter versions of this sermon were preached at St Mary’s Lapworth at 8.30am and at 11am.
Epiphany 5, Year A (Fifth Sunday before Lent)

Readings: 1 Corinthians 2: 1-12 Matthew 5: 13-20


Recently I read about an experience of a young child, we’ll call him Peter, at school in Texas. It was playtime, and Peter was playing with his friends, but the friends did not want the children from the other class to join in with the game. The Teacher on duty ticked the friends off for being selfish and asked them to play with the other children. There was an awkward pause, but Peter knew in his heart that the teacher was right, and that the generous thing to do, the loving thing to do, was to include the other children. He called out to one of them and began to involve him in the game. A few moments later he looked round, and he was amazed to see that his friends had also welcomed the children from the other class, and now all the children were playing together.
It is a very simple story, but it is a very good example about how generosity and goodness has an infectious quality; how one good deed leads to another, how if one person sets a good example, often others will follow.
I remember I had an experience of this myself a few years ago. My morning drive to work involved an awkward right hand turn. When traffic was heavy it was often necessary to drive in way that was rather pushy in order to make the right hand turn. Gradually I found that my driving style was becoming pushier and more aggressive in general because I was practising this attitude at this particular right hand turn. Then, one day, when I had just arrived at the junction and was preparing to pick my moment to go, suddenly a car on the main carriage way slowed down for me, and signalled for me to come out. I moved out straight away, and waved to the man, to whom I was very grateful. But as I drove on I found that the incident had somehow lifted my soul. Suddenly the world seemed good, and everybody was a friend and I found myself driving very courteously, and letting people out of congested side roads myself.
And it seems to me that stories like this illustrate what Jesus wants from us when he asks us to be the Light of the World. Last week we remembered Simeon in the Temple, saying that the baby Jesus would be a “light to lighten the gentiles” (Luke 2: 32) and we remembered that Jesus really adopted this understanding for himself when he himself came to say, “I am the light of the World” (John 8: 12). When I spoke about this last week I said that we needed to walk in the light of Christ ourselves, and then we, as the body of Christ, had to offer that same light of Christ to the world. Well Jesus in his statement today, “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5: 13) emphasises that second of these two points. We are called to be the light of Christ for other people, so that they me see our good works and give glory to our father in heaven.
So how do we do that in practice? How do we be the light of the world? Well let’s remember that this light does not come from us. The light that we give to the world has to be the light of Christ, shining through us. It is not as though we generate this light ourselves, rather it is about allowing the light of Christ to shine within us.
So I think it boils down to the same message as last week. First and foremost we need to walk in the light of Christ ourselves. We can’t be light to the world if we don’t have the light of Christ within us. The light that Christ gives us comes especially from his teachings and his example. We need to live by his teachings and follow his examples, so that we are filled with his light. Then it is a question letting this light shine out, and not keeping the light under a bushel. This means being open and transparent about our faith, not hiding it away in a box and only taking it out on Sundays! Above all it means being generous to others, like Peter in Texas, or like the car driver who let me out at the junction. As these acts of generosity spread, we are being light to the world. Amen.