This is that time of year when many of us are so ready for spring to come. Nothing against the month of February, but I can’t think of a more depressing weather month on the church calendar.
There was a day last February that for me won the award for the yuckiest possible weather day you can possibly have. It was on February 11th and I posted a picture of the weather that day on Facebook. Here’s the photo…
It was when I was backing out of my drive way. I put this caption under the picture which stated: “I am nominating this day for the worst weather day of the year award.
The sky was as gray as it could possibly be. During the couple of days leading up to that day, we had almost every single weather alert known to humanity. One day, there was a snow alert. Another day there was a fog alert. Then there was a freezing rain alert. The shorter days, the gray skies, and the brutal winter weather are enough to make even the most positive thinking person want to crawl back into bed.
The only redeeming quality of this gray month of the year is that when that first 65 degree and sunny spring day finally does arrive, there is this unbelievable euphoric happiness that emerges. Everyone heads to the lawn and garden center. Neighbors begins to speak to each other for the first time since December. The world is made new again. What a difference light makes in our world.
So much of the Bible describes a world that is filled with gray February type days. Take for example our Old Testament reading. The people of Israel at the time of this writing were living in exile. Torn from their homes and their familiar way of life, they were living during a time of great darkness.
They had lost hope even though they were still God’s people. They wondered if they would ever be able to return to their homeland. At least we have a calendar that tells us that spring is coming. That at least reminds us that better days are ahead.
The Israelites were in such despair that their gloomy situation led them to take out their frustrations on each other. They took on kind of a survival mode where their focus turned inward rather than outward. They became so absorbed with their plight, that they had forgotten to be who God had called them to be, a living witness of God’s love in a dark and hurting world even if that world is filled with gray and dreary skies.
This is what happens to a people who lose hope. We can become so absorbed with all of the bad news in the world, that we either refuse to watch the evening news, kind of like crawling back into bed, or we can become cynical and negative in our attitudes with the people around us including with the people who are closest to us. And it can become this vicious cycle of negativity.
This is why God has an important word of hope to speak to the people through the Prophet Isaiah. In our scripture reading, Isaiah is reminding the people to put their focus back on serving God and others and to spend less time wallowing in all that’s wrong with the world. Be the light that you want to see in the world.
Maybe that’s why during this gray month of February, verse 10 really jumps out at me. Isaiah tells the people who are living in darkness that their “light shall rise in the darkness and their gloom will be like the noonday.”
Like someone who encourages me during this time of year by saying, “I know it’s still February and football is officially over, but just one month from now, we will get to spring forward and we’ll have an extra hour of daylight. Hang in there! The light is going to shine!”
Or in other words, Isaiah is telling the people of Israel to “be the light they want to see.” What does it mean to be the light you want to see? It means caring for the needs of others. It means blessing others through serving. It means having our outward religious expressions like attending worship and reading the Bible match how we treat others and care for the needs of people in need.
But in the meantime, Isaiah reminds God’s people of what they can do to have a little sunshine even during their very dark time of exile. He tells them to serve others and to seek justice. He also tells them to not just go through the motions of their religious activities but to instead be humble and to open their hearts to God. “Be the light you want to see.”
Isaiah couldn’t change the fact that they were living in exile and away from their homes, but he was able to remind them to not give up on being who God had called them to be, a people who God formed to be his people and to be a blessing to others, a people who were called to shine God’s light no matter how dark the days may appear.
Several centuries later, Jesus said something very similar to a people who were also living during a dark time. They too were wondering when God would deliver them from Roman occupation. They too were wondering when God might send them a King who would reestablish them as God’s people.
And so, in this famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells a crowd of discouraged people these words of great hope, “You are the light of the world. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
Jesus was echoing some of the same thoughts as Isaiah did centuries before him. As you wait for light, remember that you are the light, so shine your light before others. Be the light you want to see.
There is a Jewish phrase, Tikkun Olam which means the “repair of the world.” The idea behind this is that if we each allow the divine light from creation to shine in the world, the world can be made new again.
As people of faith, we are called to participate in Tikkun Olam, the repair of the world by shining God’s light wherever there is the darkness of injustice, inequality, and hopelessness.
We know all too well about the darkness. Alcohol and drug addictions can be like this great big gray cloud hovering over our communities. Two Ohio University professors, Dr. Dan Skinner and Dr. Berkeley Franz recently wrote a book about the Opioid crisis. Since the mid 1990s, almost 400,000 people have died from opioid overdoses, almost as many American soldiers who died during World War II.
But there are also many signs of hope as communities are beginning to come together to surround people who are facing these addictions. I think of the six AA meetings that happen on a weekly basis here in our church. Providing space for these meetings is a way that we are being the light that we want to see.
“The light shall rise in the darkness,” Isaiah tells the people.
We also know all too well about the problem of food insecurity here in southeast, Ohio. We often feel powerless. The darkness is so great that we can easily lose hope.
But there are also signs of hope like when a Heisman award winner briefly mentions the extreme poverty rate that exists in his home area in southeast Ohio which then leads to people from all over the country donating over 500,000 thousand dollars to our Athens County Food Pantry.
Every Monday at noon here in our church, the light rises in the darkness as we serve an average of 110 hot meals every single week to the people of our community.
“You are the light of the world,” Jesus tells us.
A couple of months ago, a clergy colleague, Rev. Ed Stallworth shared a powerful story of how one of his older church members continues to shine the light in her congregation.
He says how he has been pastoring his current church for the past five years. And some of his members are now thinking that he will be moving soon and they are even starting to lament and dream of what the future holds. He told them that’s not how it works, and that there’s not a set time line in the United Methodist Church for how long a pastor stays, but his church has experienced short pastorates over the past several years so they have been a little concerned now that he reached the five year mark.
He went on to say that during a recent Sunday morning, a 94-year-old woman in his church kind of startled him by saying, “When you leave, I hope we get a woman pastor. And if my time comes, and you know I love you, I want HER to do my funeral.” He asked her why? Of course out of pastoral courtesy, he would want the new pastor to lead the service, but he was still curious as to why she would make such a statement.
She then explained that she, at one time, wanted to be a pastor herself but was told that she could never be one. She then told him how she has worked hard to change minds, encouraged support of women being pastors, and finished by saying, “When my funeral happens, I want to be in heaven watching, point to the preacher doing my funeral and say, ‘I helped make that happen.’”
But she wasn’t finished. She then told him that she also hopes that the next pastor will be a gay woman pastor but at 94, she isn’t going to hold her breath and she will have to leave that work for him to do.
The woman’s friend who was sitting next to her in the pew as she was telling him all of this scoffed and shook her head in disgust.
After sharing this story, this pastor concluded by saying, “I love my church.”
I can relate to what this pastor is saying because I don’t know what my family would have done without the caring and loving support of our home pastor when my dad died several years ago. She was amazing! And I have been blessed to work with so many gifted and talented woman pastors in my years of ministry.
And as we approach this May’s General Conference being held in Minneapolis, Minnesota, my prayer is that our denomination will finally change our stance on LGBTQ issues so that people who are called by God and have the gifts and graces and qualifications to be a pastor will one day be ordained in the United Methodist Church. And I hope that day comes sooner rather than later.
It was almost a year ago when the General Conference had a special meeting in St. Louis and failed to find a way forward. The skies seemed even grayer this time last year when that vote was taken. But that dark time for our denomination led me to become even more intentional in shining the light of God’s welcome and love for all people. Sometimes our light becomes even brighter the darker it gets.
Isaiah has a word for us in this gray/slushy/freezing rain/raw time of year. “Your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom will be like the noonday.” Jesus reminds us that we are the light of the world. Let your light shine.
Let’s keep being the light we want to see.
Pastor Robert shared the story of a male clergy colleague who was told by one of his elderly parishioners, that she wanted a female pastor to do her funeral. Even though she loved her current pastor, this was her way of supporting women pastors who have often been unfairly treated simply because of their gender. Currently, the United Methodist Church is torn over the issue of equal rights for the LGBTQ community at it pertains to ordained ministry and marriage equality. The upcoming May UMC General Conference meeting will focus on these issues again.
In what ways can we be the light that we want to see in the world especially for people who often feel marginalized in our society?
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