“DOING MINISTRY FROM WHERE WE ARE”
EPHESIANS 5:8-14
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For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light--
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for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
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Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
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Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
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For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly;
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but everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
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for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will
shine on you."
When you were growing
up, were you ever afraid of the monsters under the bed? Surely once the lights went out and the door was closed the monsters
were going to jump out from underneath the bed or from behind the closet door and attack you.
After hearing a story about snakes as a child, I was always afraid that snakes would slither up the bedposts and bite
me during the night. It didn’t help when a friend of mine actually found
a snake in her bedroom. As we grow older, some of those monsters may leave their
shelter of the dirty clothes and discarded papers under the bed and make their way into the news we watch and the situations
we experience. Darkness is not limited to the monsters in our imagination. Sometimes this darkness can make its way into our lives and spirits and these monsters,
once fended off by night lights can seem very real.
Just think about the news that we hear on a daily basis. There are
things that make us realize that the darkness is very present around us. We may
have fights with friends. We watch the injustices in the world with great disgust. We may find our jobs difficult because of a relationship with someone with whom we
work. There are bombs in Iraq. There is ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. Everyone from Martha Stewart to people whom we entrust with our pensions may be responsible
for financial fraud. We hear about military domination. We hear about the situation in the Sudan. We worry about the
aftereffects of the tsunami in Southeast Asia. There is enough out there to give
nightmares to even the strong self-assured adults we have grown into.
In Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians, he talks a lot about darkness. Spiritual darkness. He talks about things like greed and envy and immorality that make the world a pretty
dark place to live. But Paul also talks about light in that letter. He talks about facing down the darkness with the light that God has given to each and every one of us. The first verse of the reading states, “For once you were darkness, but now
in the Lord you are light. Live as children of the light.”
When
I first moved to the Boston area, I worked at the front desk at a hotel. There were days when I really did not want to be
behind the desk. There is a saying that it is hard to soar like an eagle when
you are working with turkeys. There were moments this certainly seemed true when
I was dealing with certain guests. Business people can be demanding. Even clients such as Miss Manners, who I met on one occasion, could be a little nasty. It was early on
that I figured out that the best offense was to be nice. People may comment that
it might seem fake at some point, but it really wasn’t. Just coming out
of football season, we are familiar with the adage that the best defense is a great offense.
We can’t fight darkness with more darkness. We can’t eliminate
pain, whining, complaining and injustice with more doses of the same. Fighting
back in the same manner is not the best way to go about doing things. On the contrary, we never make a mistake by doing kindness.
That can go a long way
towards getting rid of darkness, but sometimes even that isn’t enough. Paul
says that sometimes you have to go all the way to the sacrificial love we see in Jesus.
What sacrifices do we make that make it possible for our light to shine in our day to day lives? How does the love and light of Christ show through us in the midst of days of darkness and bad news? It is beyond being optimistic, it is beyond smiling to someone on the street, it is
beyond having a cheerful outlook. For example, instead of encouraging someone
who’s being treated unfairly to hang in there, you speak up and name the injustice, even if it gets you into a little
trouble too. Or, instead of sending a check to help the hungry in your area,
that you volunteer at the local soup kitchen.
One of the things that
we talk about in the United Church of Christ is the idea of the priesthood of all believers.
We can all do it, whether we are policemen, carpenters, nurses, environmentalists, bell ringers, accountants, teachers
- you name it. We all have the opportunity and the call to spread the light of
Christ beyond the walls of this very church. We are all empowered to let our light shine in ways that may surprise us.
It really isn’t hard
to figure out how to let your light shine to those outside the church. There
is no greater example than the story of a policeman comforting a young woman whose car broke down on a busy highway during
rush hour. It was a rainy, dreary night on a highway outside of Boston. It was cold and she was alone. She easily could have been hit by a passing car. There are times like these that even mom who is far away can’t help. Thankfully, it didn’t take very long after her car stalled for a policeman to arrive. Once he called the tow truck, the policeman cleared off his front seat, welcomed her into the cruiser to
get warm and simply listened to her story. Blue lights in a rear view mirror
will worry even the most careful drivers among us. In one way he was just a civil
servant doing his job. He was doing much more than that, though. He was letting his light shine and chasing away the darkness that had suddenly invaded my daily routine.
During a Teaching Parish
Committee meeting a few months ago, Pam Foy mentioned one of Adam’s e-mails. Evidently
every time his unit left their base and passed through the village there would be a crowd of children waiting. On a regular basis they gave away the extra supplies and gifts that they had received from the States. Every time they passed there was a girl in a red dress among the crowd, full of happy
greetings. This girl brought Adam and I am sure others joy every time they passed. That, too, is what it means to let your light shine.
For more than a
month now you have included my cousin Dan in your prayers. Dan is currently serving in Iraq and made a prayer request for
both he and his troops. Last Sunday, after the service someone handed me a gift
to send to Dan. As you might remember, I left right after church on Sunday to
go to Maine for a friend’s ordination. Because of the events of the day,
I didn’t get a chance to look at the gift until Monday morning. Inside
the bag was a camouflage handkerchief imprinted with Psalm 91 - the Soldier’s psalm. The psalm is too long to read this
morning, but here are two things that caught my eye that I would like to share with you.
First, from the middle . . . “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will
not come near you.” Also, from the beginning, “He will cover
you with his pinions and under his wings you will find refuge.” I had tears
in my eyes as I unfolded it. By the time I finished reading it I was weeping. I wept because I was worried about my cousin and I wept because of the light
in that special gift. I
wept because this small scarf is going to bring light into a part of the world that really can use every extra bit we can
send it.
Do we find darkness in the world? Certainly. Do we get scared? No question. What we need to remember is that if we let the
love of God shine through us that it breaks up the darkness. The scarf that is
on its way to my cousin is hopefully going to do just that. Well, we are familiar with Psalm 91 because the song "On Eagle's
Wings" comes from it. The psalmist gives us words of encouragement, words of
strength, hope and endurance. I would hope that men and women do find that strength
of faith and light of Christ from wherever they come.
Marraine Kettell, Student Minister
March 6, 2005
