The Light of the World in Everyone

    There is an interpretation of scripture I want to address.  There is a passage in Matthew 5 that says "you are the light of the world."  Many believe, I think reading this incorrectly, that only the church is the light of the world.  And many jump to the conclusion that others outside the church are therefore in darkness.  The darkness part I think actually comes from taking an incomplete snippet from something Jesus says, "[many will come from far and wide] to recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven and while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out in the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."  See the irony?  The sons of the Kingdom who don't follow God's will and take on his ways will be thrown out in the darkness. In Jesus's parable, it is the insiders, NOT THE OUTSIDERS, who will be thrown out into darkness. The outsiders, the bible says will storm the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. And in Matthew 25:4, Jesus is telling parables and says, “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."  But he is not talking about those inside the church going to heaven and those outside going to hell.  Our concepts of heaven and hell did not exist in Jesus' time. The church in its current form, did not exist in Jesus' day. He is talking about those who align themselves with God's will in this parable. What is God's will?  It is for us to love each other in tangible ways. And I firmly believe that anyone can do God's work.  God's work is on display in the world.  And anyone inside or outside the church can align themselves with his will and do his good works. Not to earn salvation, but to walk it out because it is already coming to them. Over and over the New testament and Jesus are very clear that salvation and forgiveness are not earned by what we do.  Because most of the world is not inside the man-made church boundaries, this does not mean they can't do God's work and align themselves with his will.  Many do good works, and this is God's will. God's will, I believe, is for us to learn to love and bring this love to the people around us. Someone close to me, for instance, came into some money and set up a program to feed school children lunches in a depressed former mining town in the upper peninsula of Michigan where he grew up.  God inspires people, though they may or may not know him, that we would be inspired too to do his will. I believe that God inspires others so that we too would be inspired by God and Jesus's work to and go out into the world and bring the light of the Kingdom of God to it.  And not everyone in the church is bringing the light of the world.  In fact, there are whole churches that I think are in complete darkness.  I am reminded here of a story I heard about a church in Florida that was going to have a ceremony centered around burning Korans.  What a terrible misinterpretation of these scriptures taken to an extreme conclusion: that all others outside Christianity and the Christian church are in darkness and worse, are evil. Because burning the Koran is not just burning a book.  It is a judgement on a way of life many have chosen to follow.  And I believe there are plenty of people inside and outside the church, in other religions, and without a religion at all, who know God and will find heaven in their lives and perhaps beyond, whatever that means.  Heaven may be now or in the future, it doesn't matter in this respect. All people following God can enjoy the benefits of salvation. I believe he'll use anybody, any time, any way, with a complete disregard for the containers and labels man puts on people. Because I believe that salvation happens in the middle of life as our flaws and failures and all the trials we have been through are redeemed.  "Redeemed" in Christianese  means that they are turned in a way, by what we learn from them with an ear to the ground, with an ear open to God, that brings the light to us that Jesus wanted us to give to the world.  I believe that salvation is a process that happens here, now.  It may go on for eternity, but that doesn't matter today. For me this means that my depression that I have dealt with my whole adult life is being used to reach out to those dealing with similar trials.  And the insight and compassion it brings to my writing touches many people's hearts. It touches people who have dealt with trials in their lives. For many outside the Christian faith and the church in particular, their knowledge of what is good to do, things that are close to God's heart, aligns them with his will as they bring the Kingdom of Heaven to Earth through their inspired actions. They bring the light to the world one action at a time and are inspired by a loving Father God (themselves perhaps not even knowing the source of the inspiration), and inspired by others doing God's will. Many people in churches would do well to see the light of the world coming to outsiders and follow their lead! Jesus was always for the outsider, the person outside man's systems of Religion, especially the misguided religion of the Pharisees and Sadducees in ancient Israel.  Lets pay attention to the outsiders.  Instead of damning them to hell and excluding them.  Can we just try to see that people outside our little tribal walls are our brothers and sisters, fellow children of the kingdom of God?  And if we align ourselves with the will of God, we will be shoulder to shoulder with them, doing God's work, the work of bringing the kingdom of Heaven to Earth.

     This reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite Christian authors, Henri Nouwen. He says, 

"Because salvation is by Grace through faith, I believe that among the countless number of people standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands (see Revelation 7:9), I shall see the prostitute from the Kit-Kat Ranch in Carson City, Nevada, who tearfully told me that she could find no other employment to support her two-year-old son. I shall see the woman who had an abortion and is haunted by guilt and remorse but did the best she could faced with grueling alternatives; the businessman besieged with debt who sold his integrity in a series of desperate transactions; the insecure clergyman addicted to being liked, who never challenged his people from the pulpit and longed for unconditional love; the sexually abused teen molested by his father and now selling his body on the street, who, as he falls asleep each night after his last trick, whispers the name of the unknown God he learned about in Sunday school.

'But how?' we ask.

Then the voice says, 'They have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'

There they are. There *we* are - the multitude who so wanted to be faithful, who at times got defeated, soiled by life, and bested by trials, wearing the bloodied garments of life's tribulations, but through it all clung to faith.  

My friends, if this is not good news to you, you have never understood the gospel of grace."

But I take issue with this statement from Henri Nouwen on an important point: My belief is that we are not "saved by grace through faith," as some would interpret this phrase. I know some would be inclined to read it in a way that we have to "have faith," in the sense that we  must believe Jesus is divine in order to receive Grace.  Reading so much of Henri Nouwen's work, I don't think this is what he meant, even with his Catholic background.  I say faith is not subscribing to a belief or the Disciples Creed or the Apostles Creed.  And Henri makes the point elsewhere that I think really hits the mark, faith is not belief in a creed or an idea, faith is "trust in God."  And God is not "this God" or "that God" or "my God" or "your God,"  In the story of Moses, when Moses fled to Midian as a young man after killing an abusive Egyptian slave driver, God gave himself a name so that the Jewish people could understand. God gave himself the name "Yahweh." Yahweh literally means "I am He Who Is."  God is above our efforts to define him.  He is who he is, not who we would have him be, in our little minds. In my theology, Grace, the unmerited, unearned, no-strings-attached, gift of the favor of a loving father God has NO REQUIREMENTS.  It is without condition.  Some say this is "selling cheap grace."  But they are mixing two concepts up here.  I believe Grace is not "cheap" for us, it's completely, utterly, no-strings-attached, free.  There is nothing we can do to earn Grace.  And this includes holding a belief.  Grace is poured out on all. "So that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" as Jesus said when he spoke about forgiving our neighbors, our enemies, and ourselves in the Sermon on the Mount. -Matt 5:45 (NRSVA). But Jesus, and so many of the countless people who came before and after him, often paid dearly for us to be able to see it.  In that sense, it has been extremely costly.  Perhaps the most costly gift ever given. The church can be one light to the world, when its members carry their gifts to a world in need of healing, and it and often is. I'm going to hand out some advice here: take what you want and leave the rest. Find yourself a church. When you walk in the door, see if someone shakes your hand, looks you in the eye, and says "Welcome. I'm glad you're here."  Don't pay attention if their coffee is good or their seats are comfortable. I say, get straight to the point: find out what their ministries are. You can go right to the pastor and sit down with him or her and ask.  If you are in the right place, they will be happy to take the time to thoughtfully answer all your questions to the best of their ability. If the that churches' members are reaching outside the church and doing good in the world, you may have just found your second home. You may have just found somewhere that will harness your  own inherent gifts as you, a member of the body of Christ on earth, live out your purpose on this planet. If they are only ministering to their own members, you have my full permission to head for the doors. But if they are acting out Jesus' love on earth, you have just walked into the loving embrace of the "body of Christ," so the church is called. "God's hands and feet on Earth." Stay a while. Get involved in something that strikes you, that stirs something in you. This is the "deep calling to deep" in you. In James 2:14, the author says that faith without works is dead. The church is only a light when the individual members of the church, doing God's good will, are lights in the darkness.  But there are so very many lights in the world burning so bright in the darkness. I have found it to be so true that the darker the darkness in the corner of the world you visit, the brighter our own little light shines there.  Something insignificant that you may do while going about your daily routine could very well have a ripple effect that could actually quite literally change the world in small or even in big ways. When we work together, accepting our fellow laborers as they are, with no strings attached, Grace travels through us to them, and likewise through them to us, and on out into the world. And God orchestrates it all through each individuals nudging's, gifts, listening, aptitudes, and experiences.  Some experiences you have had, or some trial you have been though, or some wisdom you have gained in the battles in life that we all individually must face sooner or later, could help someone in a way that no one else on this Earth could ever help. And with so many lights glowing so brightly, if we can have the eyes to see them, the darkness will surely be overcome.