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SERMON FOR EPIPHANY 5
SUNDAY 5TH FEBRUARY 2016
Writing sermons or talks for that matter is sometimes like heading down a pathway knowing where
one wants to go but on the way discovering that the path has become muddy with the destination
never getting closer. However, on persevering and eventually reaching the destination, looking
back somewhat exhausted to see how the route can be mastered more successfully. Well I’ve
looked back over this sermon on several occasions and now believe that what follows will be a good
pathway for us to tread together, to an important destination from which the text for this sermon
will find fulfilment. “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and
give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5.16.
This well-known verse from Matthew’s gospel got me thinking about where the source of this light
might lie. You know; the light we are to show as per the text. Where is it to be found? Does it
already reside in every person and if so what has to happen for it to shine forth? Matthew’s verse
seems to suggest that we have to initiate or at least allow its revelation - “Let your light shine.”
It was here that I got side-tracked contemplating what sensible words I could gather together to say
something about the text. It was one of those looking back moments. So I went to my computer
and asked it to show me what the human body was made up of. Was there some explanation in
the physiology of the human body that could explain where this light would come from? Seems
childish? But think about it as I did. Were Jesus’s words about light related to something residing in
us, “Let your light shine before others”, that needed to be switched on as one does when turning
on the light at night? Or was He talking about a light - the light - he alone supplies to those who are
His disciples, like you and me?
My computer told me that my body is made up of many elements. And by their mass measured as
a percentage I discovered that oxygen is the most abundant at 65%, followed by Carbon 18.5%,
Hydrogen 9.5%, Nitrogen 3.2%, Calcium 1.5%, Phosphorus 1.0%, Sulphur 0.3%, Sodium 0.2%,
Chlorine 0.2% and Magnesium 0.1%. The remaining 0.1% is made up of things like boron,
chromium, selenium etc. So by the time I got through reading all this I was beginning to ask myself
other questions. “Is this all that makes me, me?” “Is this the source of the light Jesus is talking
about?” Well if all these things make me, what really makes me, me? Because I am more than any
of these elements aren’t I?” I think, I feel, I cry and laugh, and I calculate and make decisions some of which are good and some not so good. I also have personality! So I must be more than a
gathering together of elements, molecules, atoms, and microbes. Somehow I become me, changing
as I age but still always me. And so it is with all of us.
Somehow out of all these elements (which I’m told only vary between us due to body size) I am a
person constructed in the same way you are, with hopes and aspirations, fears and doubts, able to
give and to take, to love and to hate, to believe and disbelieve. And I can’t explain why we are still
all so very different from each other. But as an aside it may explain why things go wrong with the
body that ultimately returns to join the elements of the universe from whence it came.
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But let us return to our text and consider its place within the gospel reading set for today. As one
biblical commentator has said, “Jesus frequently uses the homely conditions of the created world to
illustrate the life of men and women under God.” Here are some examples from the New
Testament. True disciples are to be the salt of the earth…a light on a hill. The kingdom of heaven is
like the mustard seed…yeast which leavens the flour…the pearl of great value. We are to be
mindful of the moment when the fig tree brings forth leaf…the weeds amongst the wheat. Each of
these homely conditions used by Jesus illustrate nature’s place and ability to carry the significant
message of discipleship and salvation to all human beings.
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the role of and the quality required for being a disciple - viz light, and salt.
the ability of the Kingdom of Heaven to infiltrate and permeate the world of men and
women and children - viz the mustard seed and yeast.
the insidious nature of sin and the devil - viz the tares amongst the wheat.
the value of the kingdom viz the pearl of great value.
The coming eschatological moment when all will be brought to a conclusion - viz the
budding fig tree.
So it would be worthwhile for us to recognise that nature is not held aloof from proclaiming a
message of great importance for all. It is also worthwhile for us to recognise that as we too are
products of the elemental universe we too are not kept aloof from proclaiming a message of great
importance for all. So the proposition that we are to be lights to the world in every respect has
merit - “Then God said, let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness, to have dominion
over the fish in the sea, the birds of the air, the cattle, all wild animals on land, and everything that
creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1.26. Fortunately we now understand that to have dominion is to
have a caring role over creation.
As I look back on the pathway I have trodden in developing this sermon I have discovered that the
elements of creation that make up my body, fashion me to be me, a human being that has the
potential to show the glory of God in creation. But more than that, I can see that with God giving
authority and responsibility to care for His creation I am more than the fish of the sea, the birds of
the air, the cattle and all the wild animals on land. There can be no better way to care for creation
than to shine forth with the light of Jesus Christ who is God incarnate. His call to be that light fulfils
the purpose of our creation from the elements of the universe he created. “So it was, and God saw
all that he had made, and it was very good.” Genesis 1. 30b-31.
I can see and understand that as Jesus calls me to discipleship there is nothing in my nature, that
prevents me from being a light on the hill, the salt of the earth. To be conscious of the Kingdom of
Heaven and its value, the insidious presence of sin and the devil, and the eschatological event
which is yet to come in its fullness, although in Christ it is already here. The source of light that
Jesus talks about is the human life that openly demonstrates its unity of body mind and spirit with
giving God the glory. If this is true for me as I believe it is then it has to be true for you. His call to
be that light fulfils the purpose of our creation from the elements of the universe he created.
“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your
Father in heaven.” Matthew 5.16.
Fr John