Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In Matthew’s gospel, we find what is arguably Jesus’ most well known teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. In this broad sermon, Jesus equips his followers with a picture of how to live life abundant. He speaks the familiar words: Blessed are those who… assuring that in God’s redemptive story, those who hunger for righteousness, are pure in heart, and seek peace, will know blessing. Here Jesus offers a message that gives authority to God’s people, to be ones who embody and seek the gifts of transformation for all. It is when we allow ourselves to be drawn near to God, and when we live in ways that embody God’s love and grace for the world, that we and the communities we participate in experience God’s kin-dom come, on earth as it is in heaven.

You may have heard the call of Christians, to “be the light of the world,” or that Christ is the light of the world, and we are called to reflect that light. In this sermon, Jesus talks about light, suggesting that those who follow Christ should not hide the light which they reflect, but instead their good work should be recognizable in the world, pointing to the love of God.

Picture sitting outside on a clear morning, maybe on your front porch or someplace beautiful, while the moon is still aglow and the sunlight hasn’t yet begun to creep into the open spaces around you. What you might see are the outlines of what is near. Shadows and dark shapes. Less definition at even a short distance away. In darkness, it is hard to see ahead, or to know what is just beside us.

And now picture the sun coming up. Slowly, what surrounds is illuminated and dark shapes become clearer. As the light reaches the trees or the grass or the buildings, what we see turns from shadow to color. More light offers more vivid and varied images. Then in the height of the day, we can see the fullness of God’s creation around us. The sky is its bluest; the grass its greenest. We can see variation in the color on the coat of a tiny squirrel or the feathers of the speckled bird that flies by; the fullness of a flower blooming, and even in the distance there is definition and depth.

In this exercise we see light not for what the actual beam of light looks like as it shines from a flashlight in a particular direction. Instead, we might consider what the light does. What impact does the light have on our perception of the world around us? How does the presence of light change what we see? We notice less the actual light, and more what it illuminates.

We are both empowered to be the light of the world, and also called to remember that the source of that light is God. Our call is to reflect it in every way and in every place we can. Our call is to allow it to shine brightly and broadly for all to see. To offer hope in places that feel hopeless. To reveal the places in which injustices occur. To be a light in all places, insisting that God’s love and restoration belongs in all places, is at work in all places, and is for all people. Our call is not to withhold or hide the light; not to determine in which places it might shine; not to direct it so that shadows remain; but to boldly, wholly, and humbly trust that where the light shines, God’s love is present. Christians are a people sent to share God’s light to all the world.

Over all things, God breathes redemptive, restorative, loving, blessing. God’s light can be known wherever we carry it, and in all the places beyond us. God’s light is blessing.

I wonder what things you carry with you today that you wish for God’s blessing to enfold. For what brokenness in the world, do you hope to know God’s assurance of love surrounding? What are the places that you know for certain are in need of God’s restoration and blessing, where you pray that God’s light will soak everything in love like the sun coming up on a clear blue sky day? Where are we called to seek peace, and what does that look like?

Now, imagine for a minute what it would mean for God’s blessings to be for our neighbors in the world we know are in such great need of God’s blessing right now. Imagine those who are hurting, soaked in the warmth of God’s light. Imagine the blessing in participating in sharing that warmth.

And now hear Jesus say the same words:
Blessed are you who… fill in the blank.
Blessed are you who face divisive family dynamics.
Blessed are you who find yourselves alone.
Blessed are you who work hard to put food on the table.
Blessed are you who are thirsty.
Blessed are those who strive to find justice for all people.
Blessed are those who suffer oppression because God’s justice is not yet made real and known among our broken world.
Blessed are those whose school lunches may be taken away.
Blessed are those who are newly unemployed.
Blessed are the forgotten, ignored, exploited, and undermined.
Blessed are those who fear speaking up.
Blessed are those who do it anyway.
Blessed are those who weep with God.
Blessed are those who know God weeps too.

Jesus calls those who seek peace, blessed. Jesus calls his followers to be sharers of light. May this be a time when light shines brightly enough among us that those who hurt, who grieve, and who hunger, will indeed know blessing. The world is a more beautiful place when the light reaches everyone.

Cassidy Salter is the pastor of Ware’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Washington.