SCRIPTURE READING | Luke 8:16-18 (NIV)
16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”
TO BOLDLY GO – COURAGE TO TRY | Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
We are on our fifth Sunday of our current sermon series titled, To Boldly Go! where we’re looking at six parables which teach us how to be bold with our faith! In the first week, we talked about what we’ve built our lives on. When we have strong foundations – when our life is built upon Christ – we can be BOLD with our actions because we know that we have the support we need, even when times get rough. In the second week, we talked about listening. So often, we are trying to live our lives like we’re tuning into seven different radio stations at once. If we want to follow Christ, we have to intentionally listen and practice doing this. In the third week, we talked about being “world smart” or shrewd. Jesus calls us to conserve our resources – to not be spend thrifts – so that our resources can, instead, go towards building the kingdom of God.
Last week, we talked about having the courage to try. One of the things we do as humans is hold on to our past and fear for our future. When we grip so tightly onto what we have, we lose it. But when we are willing to take on the risk of trusting God with our resources and with our lives, we are allowing God to grow us and grow what we have for His kingdom.
Today we look at an incredibly short parable about letting your light shine. But first, let’s work on our memory verse.
For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
Have you ever been driving after a long day? You go to the store before it closes to grab those few things quickly. As you drive home, you admire the sunset. The city starts to go dark, the streetlights slowly come to life. Suddenly, you’re being flashed by a bunch of other drivers! Has that ever happened to you?
Now a days, this happens a lot less because of a miracle invention called automatic headlights. But for a long time, it was completely normal to see a person driving down the road in the middle of the night with no lights on at all. Interestingly, this scenario is very much like the scenario Jesus gives us in the parable today. He tells us that no one lights a lamp and then puts it under a bed, but they put it on a stand so that it lights up the entire room.
I actually have here an oil lamp which was made in Israel and is a replica of the kind that was used during the life of Jesus. It’s called a Herodian oil lamp. This little thing would be in charge of lighting the entire home for many common people living during Jesus’ time. After filling the middle with olive oil, you would put a wick down this spout here.
Living in the city, I think we can forget what real darkness is. But in Jesus’ day, there were no street lights. There were no cars driving by to light the windows. The only thing which lit the room was the moon and this little oil lamp. So, it makes it all the more ridiculous that someone would be sitting in the dark, lighting their lamp, and then hiding it under their bed and going back to sit in the dark. It’s like going out to the country, where there are no street lights – or any lights whatsoever – and deciding to drive without your headlights. Unless you’re on a very straight road, if you travel at about 50 miles an hour, you’ll be in a ditch in about a minute.
In the same way, Jesus is showing us how ridiculous it is to try and conceal our faiths from other people. In those days, it was not always a safe thing to follow Jesus. We see many stories of Jesus being almost stoned to death while in the towns He visited and His followers often dealt with the same things. And it got so much worse after Jesus died. It makes sense that people would be hesitate to share their faith.
In our world today, we have a similar problem. Many people keep their faith to themselves because of what our culture makes us believe about faith. Have you ever heard the phrase, “Live and let live?” How about, “To each their own?” Enshrined in these phrases is the basic philosophy of our world, that everyone should be free to live as they want to – so long as they don’t infringe on anyone else.
Herein lies our problem. Living loudly as Christians feels like infringing on other people’s lives. Most people don’t like talking about religion and a lot of people who are dedicated Christians are quickly labeled as “Jesus Freaks” or “Cultish.” But the reality of living as a Christian is that it is fundamentally loud. Just like a lamp cannot help but shine and fill a room with light, a Christian cannot help but fill the world with love, happiness, joy, and hope. It is in our nature to share the goodness which has filled our lives and this aspect brings us to the next part of the parable.
Jesus says, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” On one side, this shows that if we are Christians, we cannot hide our faith. Our faith should be something which is actively a part of our lives, something which is helping us make decisions and guiding our actions. We cannot hide something like that. But the other side of the coin is also true. If we force our light under the bed, living in darkness can take its toll. Eventually, we claim the name Christian without realizing that our lamp rain out of oil long ago.
Then, Jesus speaks to us personally today in 2020. He says, “Therefore consider carefully how you listen.” When we talked about listening, we talked about focusing in on one station and truly taking in what is being said. But what we didn’t talk about is choosing what we listen to. Does anyone remember the children’s song, “Oh be careful little Eyes what you see?” The song has another verse which says, “Oh be careful little ears what you hear, for the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little ears what you hear.”
The song is a sermon in and of itself. What this song is saying, and what Jesus is warning us, is that we need to monitor what we are taking in and what we allowing to shape our thoughts. There are some really raunchy TV shows out there right now. But what’s worse is that there are children’s shows which are teaching our children values that we didn’t give them. The majority of TV shows have subliminal messages which affect our thinking. And that’s just TV!
Now I don’t want to come off as paranoid, or a conspiracy theorist. What I’m saying is the people who make these shows aren’t always bad people, rather they are taking a role which is not theirs to take. They are taking Jesus’ place in our lives as being the voice we listen to when we make moral and ethical decisions.
When we listen to what the world says is a good way of living life or allow for producers in Hollywood to make ethical decisions for us, we are allowing them to take oil from our lamps. When we listen to Jesus and His word, when we choose to live our faith loudly, we allow for Jesus to keep filling our lamp so we might shine brighter and brighter.
Finally, we come to the end of the parable where Jesus says, “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.” When we live in a way that allows for Jesus to keep filling our lamps, we are signing up for an eternity of this. Jesus’ promise to us is that if we choose to fill our lamps now, He will forever fill our lamps.
What’s even more amazing about this all is the effect our lamps can have on others. When I said that in Jesus’ time, the only thing which could fill a dark house with light was the moon and your little oil lamp, I missed the light of other’s lamps. As the city’s people would light their lamps, the light would spill out of the windows of the house and fill the streets with light. As we allow for Jesus to fill our lamps and the Holy Spirit to light them, we start to fill our community with light and as more and more Christians light their lamps, their light grows brighter and chases more and more darkness away.
When we live with our lamps proudly burning, we live in a way that lets others see, sometimes for the first time, and pick up their lamps as well. That’s our challenge for this week, to live with our lamps proudly lit. This doesn’t just mean talking about your faith with others, it means living into your faith no matter where you are. Praying before meals in restaurants. Being proud to talk about what you’re doing at church. Simply living as a Christian should is letting your life burn bright for Christ.