Uncover Your Light & Let it Shine

Scripture

Isaiah 42:1-4 NIV

"Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

    my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my Spirit on him,

    and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out,

    or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,

    and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

    he will not falter or be discouraged

till he establishes justice on earth.

    In his teaching the islands will put their hope."

Matthew 5:14-16

"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."

Uncover Your Light & Let it Shine

by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

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Such a positive message from Christ in our book of Matthew reading today: "You are the light of the world... let it shine before others." It beams of love and empowerment, telling us to shed our shame and spread our fame, in a sense. I think that's why we sing

This Little Light of Mine with our kids in so many churches and beyond, we see such light in our children and we want them to lean into it. I don't think it's a coincidence that we connect shining our light with children, Jesus and other spiritual sages tend to repeatedly connect with both metaphors when encouraging others: telling us to become more like children and shine with innocence, love, truth, and a child's wisdom.

But sometimes in the light of the Bible's emphasis on humility it can seem a little confusing as an adult, something like, "Be humble as you try to shine before others." Especially when our reading also says: "that they may see your good deeds." How are we to be both humble, not making a selfish show of ourselves as the scriptures tell us, and yet still show off our good deeds? Well, I think that the rest of that final line may clear this up, "that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."

The crux of the message then is our motives in expressing good deeds, and, in a way, doing good because it's good is what the Bible means by telling us to become more like children. We ought to uplift goodness to glorify God(dess) and to encourage others to glorify God in the same way. We're still called to pull back on our vain glorious actions, but at the same time we must work to glorify the Holy One by allowing her to shine through our good deeds.

As we've explored in the past, in a very real way God is goodness itself - Christ is present in all the goodness and love in all peoples, and most of the world's scriptures repeatedly encourages us to be good over almost everything else. The caveat is that we must be good within and without to glorify, to shine, God - who in many traditions is often described as a Divine Child (from Christianity and Judaism to Hinduism, lines of Taoism, and the Baha'i faith). Not because he's young, but because a wise purity, a wise innocence and play, seems to define Divinity. Why else tell us to become like children in order to enter heaven, as Jesus does? Children naturally express themselves without most of the internal judgments, hurtful constructs, and oppressive orientations that we start to adopt. And a spiritual child exemplifies the best of what it means to be a child.

Further, Jesus says that this is what we are made to be, a childlike light. We're like this when we're born in many ways: innocent, playful, wise, although still often burdened by ancestral trauma and genetic, selfish baggage (ever meet a 2-year old?). But despite the caveats, Jesus says that this is what we are: "the light of the world," and we shouldn't hide that under a bowl or a bushel. Indeed, as we've learned in recent years, even our genetic tendencies can be overcome, and science says that our gene expression (epigenetics) can change with something as little as a change of attitude!

This idea of humanity in right relation to God as being the light of the world is interesting also because it again connects to how we are empowered by God. Scripture often highlights that God is the Light, the Truth, and the Way, and so we can easily guess where we get our own light from. Divinity is itself our awareness of a higher path, our consciousness and understanding, albeit filtered through our finitude, limited by our internal wick perhaps, and especially dampened by the bowl or covering we place around our flame.

"What is that bowl and how do we get rid of it?" you may still wonder. We can learn a lot about what covers our light and how to shed it by turning to our higher power, by reading scripture, from the Bible to the Tao Te Ching (see last week's reading), as well as by talking to therapists or by being willing to hear and respond openly to the repeated, heartfelt constructive critiques of those around us. In all, our world traditions tend to call on us to release the aspects of our personalities that often turn toward selfishness and the not-good with healthy spiritual practices. To work to find ways to rid ourselves of the constructs that we've accumulated for one reason or another (many of which begin as protective habits) that dampen the Christ, the Allah, the Sophia Krishna light of compassion and peace within. So, in order to follow the words of Christ we should be willing to reflect on ourselves and be willing to grow and change where we need it most: the places of true unchildlikeness: those of oppression and shame, of ego and mistrust. And because this childlike light is from the Infinite Light, we can receive and share as much of it as we allow ourselves to, each in our own way as we allow the hurtful practices and limitations of our past to subside.

I think that this is how we avoid forever having the "bowl" over our light, by essentially rejecting anything that blocks Divine Love, the Source of all of our lives, from shining through. Instead, let's allow ourselves to be a "town built on a hill." A town built on a hill is full of life & full of the light of goodness, open to being an example for others, open to sharing its goodness with others, for their sake & for its own so that we may each glorify God in celebration and emulation of the goodness in each other. Yes, it's a balancing act being a town on a hill: it's hard to separate out ego from servanthood, selfishness from goodness, and yet that is our God-given task in traditions the world over. Emanuel Swedenborg obviously thought so, as his key message seemed to be, "Reject evil and do loving, good-deeds, while acknowledging your source - whatever you call him."

 And we can learn more about what it means to be the light of the world just by reflecting on what that would look like, can't we? A light shines, warms up, and brings clarity to both the good and the bad, not shying away from ugly truths or higher ones, instead inspiring people to right understanding in all things and away from rigid coldness. On the flipside, our shame, our pain, and selfish constructs can dampen that light - smothering it until all we give off is a little smoke: the debris of our constructs. 

So, I think that one major step into this process is to acknowledge that we have more room to shine - that we're not perfect and have hurtful habits. Often, even when we think we're shining, it's for our own glory and not for God's, it's not to empower others, and thus it's a destructive light: what the Bible often calls a "deep darkness." 

Another step is to accept what our scriptures emphasize today, acknowledging that we receive light and heat, insight and goodness, from God and not from ourselves. We're called to be an active, accepting servant of Divinity so that she can "uphold" us and "delight" in us, so that we can "bring forth justice" and not "be discouraged." (Isaiah 42:1-4) 

To be a servant typically means to patiently hear and listen to someone else. It means to humble ourselves to another's will - and in the case of God, he asks us to turn toward our own enlightening spirit and allow ourselves to shine forth goodness for his glory and the benefit of others. 

By definition, doing good means helping others and our world. It means uplifting social, environmental, and economic justice as well as uplifting healthy motives and actions. It means empowering others to do good and find their own Divinely enlightened light within. And finally, it means acknowledging where it all comes from, and that we are further empowered the more we turn toward the Prince(ss) of Peace, Love, & Wisdom. 

As Swedenborg explores and Christ explains, this doesn't mean forcing others under our own bowl, no matter how good or helpful we think our light or covering is. A city on the hill in the mode of Jesus doesn't leave to ransack and destroy, forcing others behind its walls. No, it invites other towns to build up their own cities, gently sharing what it can to uplift others as a spiritual child would.

Thus, like a child, we're offered the gift of sharing without dominating, of playing while maintaining the peace, of being innocent without being selfish. I believe this because it speaks to me throughout Christ's humbling message. We are each made in the likeness and image of the Shining Child and should see her in others, helping them to shed their hurtful constructs and to fuel their own light to shine through.

Amen.

Blessings,

Rev. Cory