You are the Light of the World
by Rev. Cory Coberforward
Readings
Matthew 5:14-17
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
Micah 7:8-9 (responsive reading for live service)
Do not gloat over me, my enemy!
Though I have fallen, I will rise.
Though I sit in darkness,
the LORD will be my light.
Because I have turned against him,
I will bear the LORD’s wrath,
until he pleads my case and upholds my cause.
He will bring me out into the light;
I will see his righteousness.
Read the written message below with music videos
“You are the light of the world.“ These empowering words were spoken by Christ, not as an elitist view of his “Christian” followers, but as a description of the very nature of each of our spirits – especially when we allow ourselves to shine. Like the Buddha, Krishna, and the voices of God across the ages, Christ seemed to have made it his mission to point to the Great I Am inherent within each of us, our rootedness in Divinity and its angelic light. He tasked us, as many sages do, to turn to this light within, noticing continuously that it is from this very light that we see our issues, attachments, conditioning, and both the good and the bad times. From there, we can let our light shine in all its cascading beauty, as it naturally should.
His words continue, “A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.” If there’s something to be said for the social media age that we live in, it’s that on the surface we seem to have started to embrace this idea that we should put our light on a stand. But even amidst such shining, it’s clear how easily this can be coopted or even spurred on by ego and all the manifestations of our mis-empowered minds.
But, on the other hand, often when we think about the humility that spirituality can invite us to, we forget that in the same vein we are called to continue to express ourselves and shine. How do we do both of these things, or is that even needed? Like others, Christ seems to tell us through his humble teachings that to do this we must realize that even in our diversity our consciousness is rooted in the same source, and further, that we have but to turn inwardly toward it to start to naturally shine, letting go of the pressure and the undermining masks of the past – a combination of changeful ideas and feelings we often call “myself.”
Part of the beauty of Christ’s words about an eternally loving God, beyond change in its divinity, is that at the same time he strived to tell us that this is the very nature of our souls – not part and parcel from the light of God itself. Although coopted for other uses, his message was one of empowerment and kindness, not seeking to create another religious silo for trauma, but to spread the message of our very nature – the nature he had discovered within himself.
Lest we forget, Jesus was also called “the light of the world,” even though “the darkness knew him not.” We can easily take this criticism of “the darkness” as a condemnation of what and who we are when we don’t “know Christ,” but in the light of Christ’s words today I think we can come to see that this castigation was for the false parts of us, the projections, habits, and attachments we over-identify as even given their changeful, judgmental, hurtful, pained natures. This false self, the ego, doesn’t know better in its ignorance, but even so, this ignorance is seen in the very light of God: our very consciousness. We just aren’t used to turning to our very seat of awareness itself, the part of us that is closer than any concept or feeling as these are seen in its light. The humility of this light is in its peaceful, widespread nature, not in falsely distancing ourselves from the light of God.
Whether there is a heaven or hell, reincarnation or one earthly life, there is one aspect of our being that always stays the same and is shared across our diverse expressions. That is the very light of consciousness, what you might call the light of “I am.” This is as true for a cat as it is for us. But as the sages tell us, our human expression serves as an opportunity to truly notice this light, and to actively turn to the part of us that is always naturally just there. As we do so, we intuitively start to realize that we are that light and we start to behave like it: as Christ asked us to do it loves everyone as itself, it embraces across politics and religion, it empowers the poor in spirit and the downtrodden, and it naturally shines.
In order to practice this further, Christ’s other words come back to us, those that are also similar to the buddhas’ and the sages’. He tells us that we are more than our attachments, ruminations, and lusts, describing how we should remember this as they arise. This idea of what some call “sin” is less about rejecting certain prescribed “bad things,” but is more about noticing the light even amidst the narrowness of our egos, allowing remembrance of ourselves to start to easily transform the shadow just as light always does. We can often create ideas of ourselves that we live from, like the idea that we are addicted to this or that, that we are our feelings and reactions, that we can’t rise above, but even this false depiction of ourselves (which may seem real for a time) is seen in our very light even when we aren’t used to noticing this.
And that’s the call, not just to “know” we are all God’s children and the light of the world, but to notice this always, to see it! Christ’s words empower seeing the truth of ourselves for ourselves, which at the same time means coming to know the beyond-closeness of God. We are the light of the world, even if our egotistical minds know it not. May our lights shine even amidst the darkness, may we come to know our natural, intrinsic self, and may we empower the light of others even in their diversity.
Peace and love shine from you,
Rev. Cory