Shlne All Your Light

In our sermon series, Still Day One After Pentecost, I was reading the story about the man begging at the "gate called Beautiful."  The identity of the gate is a historical mystery, because the location could be several places.  I am buying that this is the Shushan Gate, the gate where the Jewish "scapegoat" was sent into the wilderness, carrying the sins of the people (an annual ritual of the Day of Atonement in Jewish practice).  What could be more beautiful than seeing your sins walk out into the wilderness to their rightful place with Azazel, the fallen angel.  Although, I can think of one thing far more beautiful ... having the Son of God cast your sins as far as the east is from the west.

This little story comes as a post-Pentecost event, and Peter and John are living out "still day one" after Pentecost.  They are filled with God's Spirit and arrive at the temple, at this gate where both gentiles and women might gather.  Worship was common at temple entrances, but on this day, about three in the afternoon, they are "fixin" to have Church!  A beggar, lame from birth, asks Peter and John for a handout.  Peter responds, "I don't have any silver or gold for you, but I'll give you what I have.  In the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, get up and walk (Acts 3:6)!"  The Scripture says, when Peter helped him up his feet and ankles were healed and strengthened, and he jumped up!  Yep, that's Church all right!  Jesus' name proclaimed, people healed, people joyful because of what God has done.

In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus calls us light that is not to be hidden ... it is to be shone before others with good deeds, and it is to glorify our father in heaven.  In day one after Pentecost, Jesus calls us to be "the light of the world."  But, in the grind of daily life, I wonder if we forget the power and light of the gospel and become content with just lighting our own way through the darkness.  And here, at least in my estimation, is where we miss the point.

1) Maybe we just want to make it through the day.  Events, weariness, kids, work, the problems of the world, remind us that the world is dark.  But Isaiah said, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light."  Do you live in the darkness, or do you live in the light?  It is a choice.

2) Maybe we have decided that the little bit of light we have is only enough to supply our needs.  But Matthew 5:14-16 reminds us that we are only given the light to "shine before others."  The light only does its job when we let it out.  That, is also a choice.

3) Maybe we think that our little light is so weak, so insufficient and so dim, it can't be of help to anyone.  And this thought caused me to remember a song. In 1999 Amt Grant wrote a lyric about this.  The tag line in the song is, shine all your light in the sun.  The song reminds us that we don't operate out of a dim little light that is only for us and is powerless in a dark world.  We are, what Paul calls (1 Thessalonians 5:5) "children of the light ... we do not belong to the darkness." 

In day one after Pentecost, we do not operate under our power, and we do not operate in a vacuum.  We do what the song says ... we shine ALL our light in the sun.  We are like Peter and John who have nothing that can do much, except through the power of Jesus the Nazarene.  We are the light of the world, but we are agents of Jesus, THE Light of the world ... the light that overcomes the darkness ... the light that heals beggars that are lame from birth.  So, as Amy Grant writes so well ... do all you can, clap with one hand, and shine all your light in the sun!  Randy