Isaiah 58:1-9a
Matthew 5:13-17
A flashlight when the power has gone out is a life saver indeed...unless said flashlight is being covered by a heavy blanket. What's the point of a flashlight, if you're just going to cover it up? That's Jesus' point in the above passage from Matthew. As followers of Christ, we have been given a message of life, light and hope! We have been tasked with the privilege of sharing that message, that good news with the rest of the world. The key is not simply sharing that message, but doing so in a way that others will understand and receive that life, light and hope in their lives.
When reading the above texts, especially the passage from Isaiah criticizing the people for only going through the motions of fasting (without the essential heart change that is to accompany it), I can't help but think about the church. Not necessarily your church or my church, but rather the whole church universal. Of course my thoughts do move to the more specific reality of individual congregations and faith communities that do make up this Body of Christ. I find myself specifically wondering, why do we have church buildings? What's your answer? Is it so we can have Sunday services? So we can have Tuesday and Friday Bible Studies? Is it for suppers once a month? Why does nearly every Christian community have it's own building? Is this the way it was in the Bible (the answer is no, not really)?
The point of these questions (I think) is that God has blessed us with Grace, and Spiritual Gifts, and the Holy Spirit for a purpose. Yet for some reason many of us have built buildings, and become stuck within them. We do a great job of sharing that message of life, light and hope within our buildings, but very rarely outside of them. We have gotten stuck in a mindset of bringing people in to our buildings, when maybe we should be striving to get the people who are already in, out! Get those people out into the world so that the lights we have been given aren't hidden behind closed doors, walls, and yes even stained glass windows.
How will you live out that call that you've been given? How will you let your light shine? Will your building be a part of the solution, or simply an obstacle and barrier to your light being seen?
Excellent points! It reminds me of the modern parable of the man who actually caught a fish and then spent the rest of his life talking about the experience to groups. This led to books, DVDs, the establishment of more BassPro stores. Any yet, no one was actually out there catching fish.
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