Sermon 1/17/21
Created by: Senior Pastor Sarah West
Sermon Series: Living in the Light
Title: City on a Hill
Scriptures: Isaiah 58:23-25, Matthew 5:13-16
Audio link here.
Isaiah 58:1-12
Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Announce to my people their rebellion,
to the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet day after day they seek me
and delight to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that practised righteousness
and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;
they ask of me righteous judgements,
they delight to draw near to God.
‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day,
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard.
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.
Matthew 5:13-16
‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, 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.
Sermon:
We began our worship with a scripture from Revelation. A vision of a world that is to come. The eternal city of God. In this city there is no sun or moon for God is its light and Christ the lamb is its lamp.
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. - Revelation 21:23-25
It is a beautiful vision of what will be one day. A world in which everyone lives in the glory of God and the beauty of Christ’s love. A world in which nations and rulers come together, and because there are no threats or enemies there is no need to shut the gates - they are open to everyone day or night.
But it is not the world we are living in today. Far from it. We live in a time when nations compete for resources and wage war against one another. Our own nation is fractured and divided. Suspicion and mistrust of individuals and institutions is driving a deeper and deeper wedge between people and calling into question the very foundation of our democratic government. In my conversations with people in recent days the response I hear most often is anger. We are angry at the state of things. This isn’t how things are meant to be - we can do better, we must do better.
As people of faith, the state of our nation and the world, while it should deeply grieve us, it should not surprise or shock us. If we look to our scriptures we see a record of how for centuries human beings have fought and quarreled, sibling against sibling, Cain against Able. How rulers like Solomon were rare, rulers whose greatest desire was to act with wisdom and justice. More common throughout human history are the Nebuchanedzers and Herods who were motivated by ego and fear. Even King David, who loved God, used his political power for personal gain (Bathsheba) and arranged for the death of an innocent man, Uriah (her husband).
For the record, we are not the only ones who look at the state of things and feel angry. Looking again to our scriptures, in particular, the scripture we heard today from Isaiah, we see God’s own response to how we are managing our affairs.
God commands the prophet Isaiah to lift up his voice and SHOUT to the people. Not talk, not speak, not prophesy but shout. You go to church on Sunday then on Monday you fight and quarrel and strike each other with a wicked fist. In the morning you sit and pray, then you head off to work where all you care about are your own interests at the expense of the rest of the workers. What do you care if the single parent working 40 hours a week can’t make enough to live on, as long as your investments are growing. Day after day you seek me and delight to know my ways as if you were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the commandments of God.
It is a strong reproof, I would even say an angry reproof. God was greatly displeased with how the people of Israel were treating each other and running their affairs. Fast forward to 2021 and I think it is fair to assume that God is none to pleased with the job we are doing either. Thankfully the words of the prophet do not end there. The good news is that this passage offers a way forward, a way to not only live in God’s light but to shine God’s light.
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
True worship of God is manifest in how we treat one another, how we fashion a world that takes care of the neediest among us and roots out injustice. Following in the tradition of the prophets, Jesus came preaching liberation for the captives and compassion for the outcast. In his words and deeds he showed us the way, he is our light. But while he was still with us, he commanded his followers to imitate him, to live as salt and light in the world.
‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. . . . let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
Both of these passages are a call to action. I want to take the rest of the sermon to dig deeper and examine what kind of action God is calling us to.
It is clear from God’s words through Isaiah that we can’t pray our way out of the messes we have made. God has no use for our worship, prayers, repentance and fasting if we aren’t actively engaged in the work of God.
So what precisely is the work God is calling us to do?
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The work begins with the way to talk to one another and perhaps more importantly how we talk about one another. How do we talk about one another in conversation? How do we talk about one another on social media? (Remove from among you the pointing of the finger and the speaking of evil) We know that out of the heart the mouth speaks. So we must do the hard work of transforming our hearts. Of putting away bitterness and malice and regarding each person as a child of God we must speak the truth in love.
The work may begin within each of us, but it will require a coming together, a working side by side to answer God’s call to dismantle systems of oppression and address the needs of the hungry, the homeless, the afflicted. It takes people with a vision of how to make things better joining together as churches, schools, businesses, non-profits, governments, nations to bring about real change. People willing to reach across denominations, religions, political affiliations, class, race, nations to work for the common good.
The work may seem daunting even impossible at times and we may be inclined to give up before we even begin. But let us not forget about all of those who have come before us, who have toiled and struggled and fought to bring about change. They are our beacon of hope.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, whose life we celebrate tomorrow, reminds us through his powerful words and his even more powerful actions that change is possible if we hold fast to the light.
When his monument was dedicated on the national mall Edward Rothstein wrote this about it.
"It is a momentous occasion. Into an honored array of presidents and soldiers — the founders and protectors of the nation — has come a minister, a man without epaulets or civilian authority, who was not a creator of laws, but someone who, for a time, was a deliberate violator of them; not a wager of war but someone who, throughout his short life, was pretty much a pacifist; not an associate of the nation’s ruling elite but someone who, in many cases, would have been prevented from joining it."
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr is precisely the kind of prophet God taps to rise up and speak out. The ordinary, the disregarded, the overlooked. Over and over again in the scriptures we see God using what the world views as weak to shame the strong. As we know, Dr. King was not a movement unto himself, countless more ordinary and brave people joined in the struggle and together they inspired a nation. And this should give us hope, that we too, as ordinary children of God, can rise to acts of great service and sacrifice.
What does it mean to let our light shine, to be a city on a hill?
Growing up I heard this phrase “city on a hill” often used to describe America as a shining light or beacon of democracy and moral leadership. So in preparation for my sermon I did a little research into the use of this saying of Jesus in political and national discourse. And what I discovered was fascinating.
The use of the phrase “city on a hill” to describe America was first used in a sermon by John Winthrop entitled “A Model for Christian Charity”. Winthrop was Puritan leader who sailed to the new world with fellow Puritans to help establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He wrote this sermon on the voyage over but no record of when or where or even if he delivered the sermon from a pulpit. The written copy was published but basically forgotten until the 1950’s when politicians picked it up and began to quote Winthrop’s “city on a hill” to inspire and advance their own ideals of America. John F. Kennedy used it in a speech just before stepping into the role of President. Ronald Reagan used it throughout his presidency in speeches including his final speech before leaving office.
I was surprised to read the original sermon and discover that Winthrop used the image of the
“city on a hill” not as a banner of pride but rather as a warning and admonition.
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.
It seems to me that this use of the phrase - as a call to accountability before God - is more faithful to the intent of the words of Jesus. So let us no longer use this phrase as a point of pride, a claim of special election but rather, let us hear it for what it is, a call to sober self-examination.
Let us not forget that during his time on earth Jesus spent his days not in the halls of power but in the countryside among the common people, healing, preaching forgiveness, mercy and peace. Much of his time was with the outcast and sinners. He broke down barriers between male and female, Jew and Gentile, servant and free. Those in authority, both religious and political felt threatened. The truth of Jesus’ words and witness shone a light on their own arrogance, greed and selfishness and they hated him for it.
So much so, that they made a plot to arrest him and they put him to death, hoping to put an end to Jesus and his followers and their movement for love, justice, freedom and mercy. To extinguish his light once and for all. But the light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.
Light still shines.
Those working to feed the hungry
Those helping to care for the homeless
Those working to dismantle systems of injustice and oppression
Those providing for the needs of the afflicted (all who suffer from poverty, sickness, abuse, addiction, mental illness, those rejected and ridiculed by society)
How will we take part in this work of God? What actions can we take as individuals, as a church, as a community to shine God’s light?
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that, hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Amen.