"Blinded by the Light" - Eipiphany 5A

Isaiah 58:1-5, 9b-12
Saint Matthew 5:13-20 

One of my favorite preachers is Dr.  James Howell, who holds forth from the pulpit of Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.  I listen to their worship as I am either driving back and forth to work or out-and-about on errands. 
 

Last week he began his sermon by telling his congregation that he was going to start by going down to the piano and playing “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.”  He decided not to do so because he was sure that, if he did, the only reaction his people would have when they walked out of church would be, “He plays the piano?”  He went on to say, “I don’t want you to leave church saying, ‘He plays the piano?’ I want you to go out of church saying, ‘Jesus is amazing.’”1
 

I know that Dr.  Howell is right from an experience I had with a wonderful New Testament professor named Dr.  David Rhodes.  Dr.  Rhodes was also an actor who committed the entire Gospel of Mark to memory.  He performed the piece, in costume, at churches around Chicago.  It was wonderful.  People loved it.
 

Like any convert Dr.  Rhodes believed that if he could do it everybody could or should.
 

When I took his class he had all of us memorize and present some portion Mark’s gospel so that when we got back to the parish we could recite the gospel for the day from memory instead of reading it from a book.  The curmudgeon that I am I didn’t think that would be such a good idea.  I was right.
 

The proof came when I was on vacation and attended Bethany Lutheran in Englewood, Colorado and their pastor, Wayne Weissenbuhler, recited the gospel from memory and preached an excellent sermon.  When I asked the people I was with what the sermon was about all they said was, “He memorized the gospel.”  I knew that but I pressed on asking again if they could tell me what his very fine sermon was about.  They replied, “Did you see that!  He had the gospel memorized.”
 

His sermon got overshadowed by his skills at memorization.
 

In today’s gospel Jesus calls his followers to be “the light of the world” but their light is to celebrate not  their abilities but how amazing Jesus is.
 

That is what went wrong with the worship of the children of Israel.  Their faith life pointed to themselves and not how amazing God was.

The community Isaiah addresses seem to be hoping that worship might be a sufficient condition for God’s blessing rather than being  . . .  a necessary or desired practice.  Instead, the prophet sears those with ears to listen, reminding us that God is interested in religious formalities only after demands for social justice are met.2

Here is what was happening.  While the people enjoyed worshiping God, they also were trying to leverage their worship into earning God’s favor.
 

They had a very functional idea about how worship worked.  We came, we offered sacrifices, and God was supposed to bless us.  This is a very utilitarian  notion of worship.  Saint Augustine put it this way: I worship something  not in itself but because I can use it for something I really want. 
 

This is also the message of the prosperity gospel preachers.  Want a blessing from God, go to church.  Want more money in the bank, tithe or at least send an offering to their ministry.
 

There is another kind of worship that, says Saint Augustine, is built on love. I love something  whether I get something else out of it or not.  Anybody we know wants to be loved like that and so does God – but sometimes we approach God in a very matter-of-fact manner. 
 

The focus of this kind of worship is on us.  It is what we are giving God just by our being here. 
 

The people fasted, they used up gallons upon gallons of expensive oil, they sacrificed stockyards full of animals but still the LORD was not moved one bit. 
 

As one scholar put it, they wondered: 

"Is there anything we can do to appease you, or will you always be holding that exodus thing over our heads?  Sacrifices?  Multiple sacrifices?  Ultimate sacrifices?  Because if your going to play the guilt card, nothing can suffice."3

The prophet declares that nothing would suffice because they were using their worship as an excuse not to take care of each other and especially the poor, the down trodden and the helpless in their midst.

 Here, in the wonderful paraphrase by Dr.  Eugene Peterson, is how the LORD responds:

"This is the kind of fast day I’m after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts.  What I’m interested in seeing you do is:  sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.  Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once.”4

Once they took the focus off of themselves and turned their light toward others, the LORD said, things will begin to turn around.

Think of what that would mean for society if we stopped asking, “What can I get?” and started asking, “What can I do?” 
 

Think of what that would mean if we stopped wondering “Whose going to help me?” and started wondering “Who can I help?”
 

Think of what that would mean for our nation if we had leaders who stopped telling themselves that what they were doing was politically expedient by “standing with the team” and instead took seriously their responsibilities to themselves and to the republic and, in the words of the junior senator from Utah, kept their “promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and political biases aside.”5
 

Maybe the light wouldn’t just be shining on them but shining as a testimony of their faith for others.
 

Maybe then we could start working together again.
 

Jesus called us to be “lights for the world” and “salt of the earth.”

Each time [Jesus] uses the word “you” in this passage, he is actually using the plural form of that word, which we don’t have in English…unless, of course, you live in the South. He is saying, “Y’all are the salt of the earth. Y’all are the light of the world. Let y’all’s light so shine before others.”  In other words, it is not each person’s ability to shine that Jesus is focusing on, but their power as a collective.  

By the power of the Holy Spirit the disciples of Christ learned to work together to display the love of Christ, to share their bread with the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into their houses, to cover the naked, to offer their lives for the sake of others…and when they did so their light broke forth like the dawn.

In these tense times when it seems there is so much that wants to pull people apart, when there are clear, competing visions and desires for what our human communities and even our country wants to be, the light of Christ evident through the church is especially important.6

Every time we get blinded by our own light and swept up, in the words of Bruce Springsteen, in “some brimstone baritone . . . rolling stone, preacher from the east” others won’t be able to see Jesus.
 

But if we shine our lights on him and let him shine his light on us we remind ourselves that we aren’t just a bunch of ‘you’s,’ but one great big ‘y’all’ Christ’s light can begin to shine on us but in us and through us.
 

If what we do in this place causes us to stop shining our light on ourselves and allow Christ’s light to draw others in our light is shining!  If what we do helps them see in our witness something that can say that we exist as a community in the world to remind the world that God loves it, cares for it, has died for it so that all may truly live our light is shining! 
 

If we remind ourselves that we are not to blind others with our light but help them experience  Christ’s light people who still live in darkness may come to say, “Jesus is amazing.”
 

If all this happens then our worship will be worth it.  Don’t you think?
_______
 

1. James C.  Howell, Sermon,  Sunday Morning Worship.  Myers Park United Methodist Church. February 2, 2020.

2. Ken Evers-Hood, “Commentary 2: Connecting the Reading With the Word.” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship.  Vol.  1; year A. (Louisville, KY: Westminister/John Knox Press,2019): 228–29.

3.  Patricia K. Tull,“Micah 6:1-8. Commentary 1: Connecting the Reading with Scripture.” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship.  Vol. 1; Year A.   (Louisville, KY: Westminister/John Knox Press, 2019): 209–12.

4.  Isaiah 58:6-9.  (MSG) [MSG=The Message]

5.  “Full Transcript: Mitt Romney’s Speech Announcing Vote to Convict Trump.” The New York Times, February 5, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/us/politics/mitt-romney-impeachment-speech-transcript.html.