Jane Williams—Year A Epiphany 5

Anthony: Let’s transition to our next pericope of the month. It’s Matthew 5:13-20. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany on February 8. Jane, would you read it for us please?

Jane:

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. ¹⁴ You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵ People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸ For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Anthony: I’m interested in your exegesis on this statement, “you are the light of the world.” And my curiosity goes to this place: In what ways is the Church of Jesus embodying this reality? And in what ways is the light diminished under a basket?

Jane: Ooh! Such a good question. That phrase always takes me back to Isaiah, there in Isaiah 2, that glorious vision of God’s city on a hill and all the people streaming to it. And it’s one that Isaiah returns to more than once throughout the whole prophetic book, that the role of the people of God is to show, is to lift up God so that people can see God.

And I think that our primary calling as church is to remember that it’s about God. It seems such an obvious thing to say. But it needs saying over and over and over again. There is no point in the church if that point is not God.

Anthony: Preach.

Jane: So, we really pour so much of our energies into structures and programs and things to keep our own systems going. And all of that is wasted if it’s not primarily about God.

And so, I think the ways in which we embody this reality are often ways that we hardly notice. It is a miracle, isn’t it, that the people of God, the Church, continue, because left to our own devices, we mess it up so constantly.

Anthony: Amen.

Jane: And yet God continues to be faithful to us and enable us to keep coming back to God in Christ, in the power of the Spirit. Keep proclaiming the good news despite our own failures to believe it sometimes. And so, I think this passage makes me remember that our primary calling is not so that we should have a nice spirituality and a lovely prayer life, but so that we should be there as witnesses to the reality of God.

And I think we do that in some ways and in so many other ways we do diminish it. We put it under a basket. And I’m no great guru, but it seems to me one of the ways in which we hide that light under a basket is by making our faith something individual. This is about me and God.

Whereas, throughout Scripture, you can just see everything God gives, God gives to be shared. So, if we have the great privilege of coming to know God in Christ, that experience of the reality of God is always to be shared. Let’s not put it under any baskets.

Anthony: That is so good, Jane, what you just said. We, especially here in the American West, we’re hyper-individualistic in our approach to things. And I never read of a faith that is privatized. It’s personal, no doubt, but never privatized. It’s always about the community.

Jane: Yeah.

Anthony: Yeah. You mentioned about remembering and how forgetful we are sometimes to remember it’s about God.

I was just thinking this morning in reading through Exodus, just how the people of God, the chosen Israelites, just continue to forget about God’s faithfulness. Whether it was his provision of food, whether it’s provision of light at night, whatever it was, they were just soon forgetting. And it’s so easy to say, look at those guys. They just mess it up over and over again. And then it’s, oh, that’s what I do.

Jane: Yes, exactly. Exactly. It’s so much easier to see it in other people, isn’t it, than in ourselves!

Anthony: That’s right. That’s right. And so, in that way, remembering is actually a sacred and holy thing that we do. It’s a spiritual discipline because it reminds us of the hope that we have in Christ. For sure.

Jane: I quote this whenever I’m allowed to Anthony, but this is a quote from the great writer on mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, and she said, “God is the interesting thing about religion.”

Anthony: Ooh.

Jane: And we keep forgetting that. We keep thinking we are the interesting thing or the ideas that we have are the interesting thing. But actually, God is the interesting thing about religion.

Anthony: That is so good!

Jane: Isn’t it?

Anthony: I’ll put that in the show notes. Thank you. You didn’t ask for permission, but I’m sure glad you went for it. Jesus said, “Let your light shine so others may see your good works, and then give glory to the Father.” But it seems to me that we’re so often shining a spotlight in such a way that it’s giving glory to ourselves. It just seems that the spotlight isn’t a very good guiding light at all. So, how do we shine a light, Jane, in such a way to give glory to the Father?

Jane: It’s a really tricky one, isn’t it, Anthony? Because the Gospels and Christian history are full of God giving us examples. So, seemingly, God putting the spotlight on particular people so that we can see a Christian life lived in the realities of this world.

I’m doing some work on the great women mystics of the Christian past. And they are sort of heroes, that we know about them because people have needed to see the spotlight on them, to give us a sense of what we’re capable of, what with each other’s help we are able to do in our life of faith.

So, we do need some spotlights, I think. But I think what’s interesting about that process is that on the whole, those people didn’t shine the spotlight on themselves. They offered themselves and their life and their teaching and their prayers to others, and others thought, I really need more people to see this.

So, the spotlighting came from others rather than from the individuals themselves. And so, I suppose that’s what I would suggest to us — that what we are trying to do always is to look at people who help us to see more and more what a human being, living in the love of God looks like. And so, the best way we can do that is that all of us, with our spotlights, shining it on people who’ve helped us to be where we are, who helped us in our journey of faith.

And then, perhaps, trying to shine the light forward, back, whichever way you’d want to think about it, so that the people who come after us can see that light, see that there are patterns of living that are lit up with the love of God. I think, yeah, I suppose my reservation would always be somebody who spots spotlights themselves.

Anthony: Yeah. I think a proclaimer of the gospel, especially those that preach in a local church setting, you have a choice each and every time. Who’s the hero here?

Jane: Yeah.

Anthony: Who gets the attention.

Jane: Yeah.

Anthony: And I just believe if it’s done well, the congregation doesn’t leave talking about the preacher. They’re talking about God.

Jane: Yeah.

Anthony: Look what God did.

Jane: Yeah.

Anthony: And like you said, we see those patterns of Christlike living in others, and we want to spotlight them. But like you said, it comes from someone else, not themselves.

Jane: And it’s so difficult to get that balance, isn’t it?

Anthony: Yeah.

Jane: Because preachers rightly tell stories about themselves because they want people to see the lived life. But if you come out of church, as you say, and all you remember is the story about a preacher, probably that didn’t work so well.

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. This is a side conversation in some ways, but one of the mistakes I made early on in preaching ministry was if I told a story about myself, Jane — and I hate to confess this — but I was always the hero. I was always doing things well. And it took a long time to realize, who am I pointing the light to when I do that? And so, I don’t do that anymore. And we’re works in progress, are we not, Jane?

Jane: We’re all works.

Anthony: Maybe you’ve arrived, but I haven’t arrived.

Jane: I have not arrived. I always take great comfort from the fact that Augustine of Hippo got into great trouble for writing confessions, because people around him thought, that’s not what a church … that church leaders shouldn’t show themselves, warts and all. Church leaders should show heroic Christian living. But Augustine’s work has lived on, because he showed himself in pursuit of God and God in pursuit of Augustine. And that’s what we need to see.

Anthony: Yeah. That’s so good.

It reminded me of … a mentor said this to me once, and I think it’s a good way of thinking about mentorship and discipleship. People need to know far more than your ministry highlight reel. They need to know where you’ve struggled.

Jane: Yeah.

Anthony: And just be let into, to kind of pull the curtain back so they can see really, what does the life look like in faithfulness to God, as God is faithful to them.