We hardly think about it, but for us light is pretty
cheap and readily available. We walk into a room and flip a switch. You don’t
even have to do that much in many modern cars because when it gets dark enough,
the lights just turn themselves on! But once upon a time, in fact for most of
human history, lighting your way at night was pretty basic: a flaming torch, a
campfire, a candle, or maybe a kerosene lantern. Moonlight was great when it
was the right phase of the moon and if the weather was clear enough to allow
farmers to get an extra few hours of planting or harvesting done.
The need for some kind of artificial light meant
harnessing fire. This meant that from Biblical times right up through the
advent of electricity, a basic skill that most women and girls learned, in
addition to cooking, raising the children, sewing, milking the cows and all the
rest, was how to dip a string (that they probably wove themselves) into a vat
of hot wax that they made on stove, over and over again to make candles, as
well as how to build and manage fire for cooking and heating water for washing.
Over time there were refinements: things like glass
lenses, hurricane lamps, the kerosene lanterns, and so on, but in Jesus’ day
the clay lantern that looked like a tea kettle with a wick stuck through the
spout into a kind of paraffin was as fancy as you got. And if you didn’t make
your own fuel from butchering animals for meat or maybe distilling some grain,
you had to buy it. It wasn’t that long ago that ships sailed around the world
hunting whales and harvesting the blubber all so that we could light our homes
at night.
Getting light at night was a lot of work, which is why
the invention of the light bulb and finding a way to reliably deliver
electricity was such a big deal.
And then there was darkness. We mostly think of darkness as an
inconvenience at worst, but great for setting the mood for romantic dinners, or
for watching movies. Mostly, though, darkness is something we sleep through.
But there was a time that darkness was well… dark!
How dark was it? It was so dark that a little
light could go a long way! Even a candle in a window could be seen for miles.
Early lighthouses were nothing more than bonfires built on hills or towers.
Towns had nothing but candles in windows and fires in fireplaces, but taken
together, they could be seen from miles away because they stood out in cover of
night.
So when Jesus said to his followers that “you are the
light of the world,” people knew what he was talking about. He told them to
“let their light so shine before others, so that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your Father in heaven.” A little light pierces the darkness even over
a great distance. Well, how exactly do we do that? I’m not talking about
flashlights or candles… but in how we live every day, can we create light and
where shall we shine? How will we focus our light?
The way we think about light makes a difference as to
how we think about learning and doing the work of Jesus today. And when Jesus
said that we are light, he didn’t mean that we could just flip on and off the
discipleship light switch. He meant that we are the lamp… and even with all the
work it takes to shine, our task is to bring light to dark places.
Jesus told his friends and apprentices, “You are the
light of the world” he does not describe a light in isolation, but rather a
light that exists for and within the world. He says, “Let your light
shine before others,” not so that they may admire you, but “so
that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” The
light that comes from Jesus’s love is not meant to be hidden or hoarded. Light
directs. Light reveals. Light shines so that others can see.
As baptized people you are a disciple, a friend and
apprentice of Jesus Christ, and Jesus reminds us that we do this in community,
not alone. Being a follower of Jesus connects us to God, creation, and each
other. The early church theologian Tertullian said “that one Christian is no
Christian.”
Which is a very good thing, because learning and doing
the work of Jesus can sometimes feel heavy. It is impossible to do alone. Sure,
we can turn the Word of Life into a shopping list, a mere spiritual to-do list.
We may feel the weight of responsibility and effort pressing down on us. Actually,
that’s pretty normal. We humans have a deeply ingrained impulse toward shame
and secrecy that can make Christian living feel like we’re constantly failing a
test, as if we are unworthy of grace and love because we haven’t done enough,
or done well enough. And that feels tiring, lonely, and isolating.
But our Collect today gives a hopeful antidote: “Set
us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that
abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus
Christ….” Our prayer today speaks not of burden, but of freedom, liberty
and abundance.
Even within that tightrope walk of relationship and
responsibility, there is freedom. The prophet Isaiah lays right into it. He
calls out religious leaders who have leaned too far into obligation and legalism
but forgotten the abundant spaciousness that comes from God. He calls out the
timidity and caution of his peers who go along to get along with the oppression
of his day. He names the fasting, self-inflicted oppression, and penitence that
serve only one’s own self and reputation. He shows us that the spiritual
disciplines of fasting, penitence, and daily prayer and reading scripture are
the most healthy, meaningful, and life-giving onlywhen they point us to God,
and the welfare of God’s people and creation.
The prophet Isaiah and Jesus both remind us not to perform
righteousness for show. Don’t worry if people can see your good works, but pray
that they see the good that happens, they give glory to God. Let your actions
loosen the bonds of injustice. Let them feed the hungry, shelter the oppressed,
clothe the naked, care for the sick, and companion the lonely, shut-in, or
jailed.
The freedom we seek as Christians, as followers of
Christ, is bigger than ourselves, and our own self-righteousness. The goal of
our life isn’t to be free in the sense of being able to do whatever we want,
without consequence. The freedom we seek—through our spiritual practices and
prayers and worship and teaching and learning—is freedom from oppression
for all.
What good is fasting if we ignore the hungry? What
good is penitence if we ignore those who are tortured? What good is religious
devotion if we turn away from the poor, the lonely, the sick, the forgotten?
The freedom we desire is that all people may
know they are loved, safe, protected, and nourished—spiritually, yes, but also
physically, emotionally, and mentally. Instead of living as a collection of
loners all seeking to be king of the hill, we in fact live in a spiritual
ecosystem even in—especially in! —this broken and hurting world, so one person
oppressed affects each and every one of us.
Jesus gives us the image of a city on a hill whose
light guides us home and whose walls offer sanctuary. But just because we are
salt and light, does not mean that God’s freedom is a free-for-all. Jesus reframes
the Law and the Prophets of the Hebrew scriptures to remind us that our
freedom, as well as our adherence to the traditions must always point to God,
which is why Jesus says, “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”
When times are filled with darkness and things feel very
challenging, I am reminded of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s
observation “that darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
So we follow the commandments and we live the
sacramental life. We say our prayers and read our devotionals not to make us
look good but because they matter.
The funny thing is that when we do this stuff, people will
notice but not in the way we think. What people will see is peacefulness,
gentleness of heart, acceptance of people’s variety, our appreciation for the
earth and all God’s creation. What they will see is genuine leadership that
seeks the well-being of the people being served rather than being handed a
gold-plated plaque. As we live the life of Christ, what folks will see emanates
naturally as we grow in Christ and abide in Christ’s love and do Christ’s work
serving Christ’s people with justice, peaceably and generously.
We live in a world where darkness happens. Sometimes it just happens. Sometime we bring it on ourselves.
As Christ’s followers, we are people of light. Our task is to bring Christ’s light to even the darkest places even in the darkest of times. In all we do, the way of Jesus invites us to see the face of Jesus in everyone we meet, and we are invited to illumine the way of Jesus to the people God gives us, lighting the way to a life of grace and peace, and so that in all things, glory is given to God our creator, sustainer, and redeemer.
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Scripture for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, February 8, 2026
Here is the bulletin for St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater, Florida for February 8, 2026
Here is the website for St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater, Florida
Learn more about the Diocese of Southwest Florida here
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