The Reason for the Light--February 7, 2023

The Reason for the Light--February 7, 2023

[Jesus 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 the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light so shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." [Matthew 5:14-16]

At the risk of saying the obvious, the point of turning a light on is to illuminate something.  

You settle down into your living room couch after it's dark out and turn on a table lamp so you can read your book, maybe.  Or you are driving down the road and want to see what's in front of you, so you turn your headlights on.  Or you are out walking your dog through the neighborhood and take along the flashlight on an evening, because you need to be able to see if there are any pet-related "deposits" you need to pick up along your way.  You can think of a hundred other scenarios, too, I'm sure.  But what they all will have in common is that the light is there to illuminate something else, not to be stared at directly--at least not for too long.

The reason for the light, in other words, is not merely to draw attention to itself.  You don't point the flashlight in your eyes and turn it on so you can bask in the brilliance of the beam--you point it into the darkness so you can see what's there.  And if it's too much, too bright, or too severe, it can actually make it harder to see--that's why you turn your high-beams off when another car is coming in the opposite direction, and why you avoid staring at the sun directly.  The light's purpose is to point beyond itself.

It can be easy to forget that in the age of light-pollution, blazing LED billboards that flash messages along the highway, and novelty "light-up" products from kids' sneakers to wheel rims to glow-bracelets.  We do live in a time where we use neon lights to advertise or attract, and where the glow of city streetlights makes it hard to see the stars unless you can get far enough away from the orange urban haze.  But in Jesus' examples, light is there to give itself away for the sake of what is not illuminated.  Light is there to serve a purpose beyond dazzling, distracting, or deal-making. The light is at its most glorious, you could say, when it is giving itself away.

I can't help but think of that beautiful fragment from the Persian poet Hafez, which goes, "Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.' Look what happens with a love like that--it lights the whole sky." I think he's on to something there.  Even the sun, which dominates the daytime sky, isn't there to demand more praise or attention, but just gives its light away--illuminating everything else.  And I think Hafez is right to recognize that self-giving is "love."  The way light gives itself away might be the closest visualization we have of how love actually works.

That's what Jesus has in mind, too. To be "light for the world" isn't about making ourselves into celebrities--not even celebrities for God--but about offering our presence into the world to brighten places that are dim. It is about something beyond ourselves, something that doesn't need to draw attention to itself, but which makes other things visible that might have been hidden or overlooked.

Honestly, I wonder if that's not a piece of what it needs to look like in our time and place to be light for the world.  Rather than hearing Jesus' words as a call to aspire to stardom or "influencer" status that will make us well-known and popular, what if our purpose as "light" is to help others to be seen who are too easily forgotten, ignored, or pushed aside?  What if being "light for the world" doesn't mean getting more social media followers or airing our personal petty grievances in the comments section, but helping to lift up and amplify other voices that would be otherwise unheard and lost in the noise? What if the point of whatever platforms we have is to help lift up others, rather than to draw attention to ourselves?

Because here's the thing: the world doesn't need one more angrily entitled post about whatever culture-war talking-point I want to pontificate on, or one more self-absorbed video showing off that I follow the latest trend.  But maybe I can help call attention to the victims of a disaster who need more support from around the world, or to amplify others' good work that is going unrecognized around me, or to help shine a light on some injustice being done that everybody else has collectively decided not to notice.  Maybe in this day, shining my light will look like spending my energy, influence, and attention for the sake of others.  

Maybe being light for the world is really just another way of saying "learning to give love away in every direction."

Lord Jesus, let us shine in the ways you have taught us to--giving ourselves away in love.