Walking in the Light

Missionary Sunday May 29, 2011
St. Andrew AME Church
Isaiah 2:1-5

Good morning! Isn't it wonderful to be able to wake up to such a beautiful morning and gather together to honor and glorify our Lord? What a blessing!

I want to thank Sister Emogene James for the very kind introduction. When she called to let me know that she'd be introducing she said that while she's known me all my life, she didn't really know the details. Well, I told her the details which she shared, but I'm here to say she already knew the important things - like faith and family, and that's what's so nice about being back home - folks already know the important things, what really matters about you.

I was truly honored that Sister Margaret Jones asked me to speak on this Missionary Sunday. She first talked to me about it several months ago and I am grateful for the faith she had in me for this wonderful occasion. Thank you, Sister Jones.

And thanks to Pastor Newsome, this wonderful choir, the musicians, the ushers, and all of you here this morning. Will you all join me in prayer? . . .

You all have heard the topic for the morning - Walking in the Light - and you've heard the scripture. But I'd like to read the scripture for you again, this time from The Message. Turn with me, if you would, to Isaiah, second chapter, first through the fifth verses.

At the time of this story, the people of Judah and Jerusalem, are facing a threat from a neighboring country - Assyria. they are rightfully concerned. The Assyrians had already conquered and all but destroyed Judah's northern neighbor, Israel, so one can understand why the people of Judah were worried.

But God had called Isaiah to let the people of Judah know that the real problem wasn't Assyria but was their own disobedience and lack of trust in God. And so Isaiah wrote this "message regarding Judah and Jerusalem:

There's a day coming when the mountain of God's House will be The Mountain: Solid, towering over all mountains. All nations will river toward it, people from all over set out for it.

They'll say, "Come, Let's climb God's Mountain, go to the House of the God of Jacob. He'll show us the way he works so we can live the way we're made. Zion's the source of the revelation. God's Message comes from Jerusalem.

He'll settle things fairly between nations. He'll make things right between many peoples. They'll turn their swords into shovels. Their spears into hoes. No more will nation fight nation; they won't play war anymore.

Come, family of Joseph, let's live in the light of God."

Let's live in the Light. Walk in the light. Beautiful light.

That must have resonated with the people of Judah since they and their neighbors were at war. And in our time of revolutions in Africa and the Middle East, economic turmoil in the global north, tornadic destruction in the South and Midwest, and general discontent and uncertainty about our shared future, the vision Isaiah shared of eternal peace, justice, and prosperity sounds truly wonderful.

God indeed has a great plan for His people.

Since this is Missionary Sunday, let me read briefly from the Constitution of the Women's Missionary Society of the AME Church. This is from the is the first section of Article II - Purpose:

"The purpose of this organization shall be to help people to grow in the knowledge and experience of God through His Son, Jesus Christ, through continual Christian training, as well as individual and collective mission work, thus challenging them to respond to God's redemptive plan in the world."

How do we respond to God's redemptive plan for everlasting peace? Perhaps we can do that by listening to Isaiah - let us walk in the light. But how does one walk in the light? I'd like to suggest three steps this morning: Serve. Share. And shine.

Let's start with service. Matthew 5:16 tells us to "let your light shine before me that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." While this is one of my favorite verses, until now I only focused on the "let your light shine" part. I never really put it together that doing good works, being of service to God's children was part of how to let your light shine, part of encouraging others to glorify our God.

But since service is so important, we should probably think more about good works.

There are some folks, thankfully few, who go out of their way not to be of service. We probably all know of at least one. Such people would rather hurt themselves than help somebody else.

I'm reminded of a story I heard recently about an elderly woman in Helena. She owned several houses - some of which she rented out and one of which she sold to the person who told me this story. As she was getting up in age, she began to make plans for how to dispose of her property after her death. She thought about giving it to a family member, but her relatives already had homes or didn't want to move to Helena. They could have rented it out, but who knows who they'd let live there.

She thought about selling it, but realized a black family might buy it. And she could not risk that. So rather than provide property for her family to rent out or sell her nice home to whoever expressed interest, she paid several thousand dollars to have it torn down. No chance any black folks will live there now, or anyone else, for that matter.

It's easy to see what's wrong with this kind of behavior - it's selfish almost to the extreme and it is clearly not an example of good works. I like to think most of us, especially those of us who are trying to do right, trying to walk in the light, would not do anything so mean.

Some of us don't mind being helpful to others, as long as we can help ourselves at the same time. Consider the person that makes a donation to to build a classroom building at a college on the condition that their name is plastered on the building.

Or the person who volunteers at a homeless shelter or joins a civic organization just so they can put it on their resume. You can tell their heart's not in it because they quit showing up just as soon as they get in school or get the job they want. That's not real service; that's self-service and it's all about personal gain not helping others, On the plus side, at least something good results, but I don't expect God is satisfied with that.

Now here's where I am, and I expect where most of us are. We understand the importance of good works. We enjoy being of service. But, to be honest, we generally want to do it when it's convenient for us.

Now I was raised by people who understood that no one make it in this world alone. They made sure I understood that we've all gotten help along the way and we should all do as Oprah says, and "pay it forward."

So once I finished grad school and had a little free time, I wanted to find a way to be of service. But I clearly remember telling my friends, that I wanted to do something light. I didn't want to tutor students or mentor young people or do anything that would make someone dependent on me. I didn't want anyone to need me when it was inconvenient for me to be needed.

So I searched around and found an organization called MedShare International that collected unused medical supplies and shipped them to hospitals and clinics around the world that could use them. I started spending some of my Saturday mornings there and even recruited a few of my friends to join me. It was good work - helping folks around the world get the medical care they need, reducing waste here at home. There's no telling how many people are alive or are healthier because of MedShare's work.

But I recognized that God wanted more from me, as he does from all of us. So while I continued to volunteer regularly at MedShare, I also started tutoring kids in an afterschool program call Aid to Children of Imprisoned Mothers. I helped them with their homework. We went camping. And we made the long trip to the prison so the children could visit their mothers.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not putting down one form of service over another. There is a appropriate time and place for everything. But when God says that time is up, we have to be willing to move on. Go will make sure we're ready for what he has next since we are perfectly prepared and equipped to do His good work.

Consider Ester:

Imagine her situation. She was Queen Ester, married to King Xerxes who ruled 127 provinces stretching from India to modern day Ethiopia. Before she even met King Xerxes she had to go through a solid year of beauty preparations while in competition with dozens of other women for the King's hand in marriage. Frankly, it sounds to me like a nightmare cross between Ms. America and the Bachelor. Regardless of how Ester felt about marrying Xerxes, it had to be a lot of pressure.

On top of that, the who reason there was a competition at all was because Xerxes deposed Queen Vashti for having enough modesty and self-respect not to parade herself around so Xerxes and his drunk friends could leer at her. This must have made Ester and the other women wonder if the same thing could happen to them if they asserted themselves more than Xerxes liked.

After the competition is finally over, and Xerxes chooses Ester, they learn that someone was planning to assassinate Xerxes. Queen Ester had to be stressed.

All of that would have been enough to make anyone nervous, but Queen Ester has one more thing on her plate: she was also passing. She had not told anyone in the King's court, not even the King, that she was Jewish. You have to remember that this is all happening in Persia where Jews were in the minority, so, like some folks today, perhaps Ester and her uncle Mordecai thought it best that she just try to blend in.

So when Haman, a government official, got King Xerxes to issue a decree ordering the destruction of the Jews, Mordecai must have been terrified, for himself, his community, and his adopted daughter Queen Ester. So he passed word to Ester about the situation and asked her to talk to King Xerxes to see if she could convince him to rescind the order.

But she balked, reminding her Uncle Mordecai that the King kills people who try to talk to him without being asked.

But Uncle Mordecai wasn't hearing it. He said, "Don't you think that just because you're the Queen you alone of all the Jews will escape this decree." In other words, "You ain't special." Uncle Mordecai may have told her to pass, but he made sure she remembered who she was and who her people were.

But here's the best part: Because Uncle Mordecai knew God prepares and equips us for the work he want s us to do, next he said, "Who knows, maybe you were made Queen for just this occasion."

God truly will put everything in place for you to successfully do the work he made you to do. Uncle Mordecai's words reminded her of that and so she made up her mind to be of service to her people and to her God, even if it meant giving her life.

The Jews of Persia gathered together to fast and pray for her success. Despite all the risks, she put on her royal robes, walked in the King's court with her head held high, and orchestrated the end of the the decree and the end of Haman.

Despite great personal risk, Queen Ester was willing to be of service to her people. And I expect that the reason she was able to hear Uncle Mordecai's request and willing to fulfill it, was because she knew God had her back. God will make a way when there is no way. Ester knew that and so was able to act when God said act.

That's exactly what God want from each of us. So let us think of Ester as we take our first steps to serve. Our service results in good works which, when combined with faith, help us to walk in the light.

For that reason, it is no surprise that the Women's Missionary Society constitution clearly reflects a commitment to service. It also reflects a commitment to sharing God's message. Let me read the mission statement for you:

"We, the Women's Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, do endeavor to make possible opportunities and resources to meet the changing needs and concerns of people throughout the world, do ordain this Society and offer a fellowship so strong, a message so convincing and so enthusiastically contagious, that the gospel through us will be at work in the world."

The word mission speaks to the second step I proposed earlier - share. "Mission" comes from a Latin word meaning "to send" and was first used by Jesuits, a Catholic order, when they sent their members to various countries to share the God's redemptive plan.

We, too, have an obligation and, I expect, a strong desire to share God's Good News. But how should we do that? It's an important question because history is full of examples of people and organizations who; in their aggressive, misguided, and often offensive efforts to share God's love; ended up turning off (or killing off) more people than they turned on.

How can we avoid such pitfalls? As I thought about this, I thought about the early Christian church and the Acts of those first Apostles. Having known Jesus personally, witnessed His miracles, felt His universal and undying love, experienced a personal transformation; having gone through all that and more those first apostles must have felt positively compelled, completely driven to share God's message of salvation. In fact, John and Peter said, "We cannot help speaking about the things we have seen and heard."

Peter, Phillip, John and the others must a felt a huge responsibility to share God's Good News with as many people as possible. How did they do it?

I turned to the Book of Acts for direction. In the first chapter, the eighth verse Jesus tells the Disciples (and us) that the power we have to share God's word comes from Holy Spirit. He said,

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Since these were Jesus' last words to them before he was taken up in to Heaven, we should examine them more closely.

We are only able to share God's true message because the Holy Spirit enables us, not because there are more Christians here than people of other faiths. We can't share God's story just because we have political power or some self-defined title of authority. Having more soldiers or weapons doesn't give us the power to spread the Word. And the power certainly does not come because we have a large radio audience or congregation.

We can only share God's Good News because the Holy Spirit empowers us to do so. The Holy Spirit may use the pulpit or the radio as a tool, but God is the true giver of the power. We should remember that as we share God's Word. It will keep us humble and help us keep the focus on God not ourselves.

Also in Acts 1:8, Jesus also tells us to "be witnesses." Not just "to witness." Sharing God's Message is a 24/7 commitment. It's what we think, do, and say every minute of every day. It's how we live. It's who we are. It's who we "be". Not just what we do on special trips or special occasions.

In Act 6:4, as the number of Christian converts was growing, the latter day disciples committed themselves to "prayer and the ministry of the word." It is no accident that prayer is listed first because it it through a close relationship with God that we learn how to minister, how the teach, how to speak, how to tailor the message for the audience to help them hear, understand, and believe in God's goodness.

In the eighth chapter of Acts, we learn about an Ethiopian man who had gone to Jerusalem to worship but was struggling to understand the Book of Isaiah. How many of us have also struggled to truly understand and apply the words of the Bible?

So the Lord sent Phillip to help the traveller study and help him grow as a Christian. He was baptized soon after. This chapter reminds us of the need to study God's word diligently, so we truly understand what we're reading and can effectively and correctly share God's message. As always, prayer is critical here too, to help us commit to study and apply what we learn.

Remember the source of the power, live as witnesses, pray, teach, and study hard - these are just a few of the lessons of ministry and mission we can glean from the Acts of the Apostles. These are lessons that help us walk in the light.

So we've discussed the first step of our walk - Serve.
And we've studied the second step - Share.
Now let's spend some time on the third step of our walk in the light - Shine.

There was a full moon a few nights ago. The sky was clear and the night was beautiful. Especially in the early evening when the big, full moon hung low and large in the sky. On nights like that, especially when you're away from the city lights, the moon can seem so bright that you'd swear you could see your shadow. On those moonlit nights, it's hard to remember that the moon doesn't make it's own light. It's just reflecting the light from the sun.

That's how we are, or at least how we should be, in our relationship with God. Isaiah 60:1 tells us
"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you."

Isn't is wonderful how God brings the light to us? We just have to be ready to shine. Jesus is indeed the light of the world. And since we're made in his image, we can reflect God's light and brighten the path for ourselves and for others.

There is perhaps no better example of this than Paul.

Here's a man who actively crusaded against Christians. He had them sent to prison. He supported the killing of the disciple Stephen. His sole purpose seemed to be to get rid of the new faith - Christianity. And then God shone His light upon him, blinding him for three days, and getting him ready for the wonderful and sometimes difficult work ahead - work he would do for Christ and for Christians everywhere. It just shows you how God can use anybody.

We may not literally shine like the Bible says Paul did, but we should use the same drive and tenacity to do God's will and God's work.

Like Paul, we must strive to consciously and continually reflect God's full greatness and goodness every minute of every day.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I often fail at that goal. There are times when I feel disappointed, hopeless, nervous, overwhelmed, angry, or just extremely annoyed at someone's behavior, perhaps my own. It's easy to get mired in negativity when faced with those feelings, but I have found a solid way of snapping out of it. I simply remind myself that I am made in God's image, and here's the kicker, so is the person I am dealing with.

We are all made in God's image. It's the great equalizing factor for people and God reminds us of it at the very beginning, in Genesis:

"So God created man in his own image. In the image of God He created him; male and female created he created them."

And in Chapter 9

"For in the image of God has God made man."

Even though there are times we don't act like we're made in God's image, God never forgets that we are. That's true for you, it true for me, and it true for every person who ever made us sad or mad, disappointed or annoyed; nervous or hopeless.

God is working with me, just like he's working you, just like he's working with every other person who lives.

We are great because God is great. When we truly know that we are made with the characteristics of God and we recognize that all our brothers and sisters on the planet are made in the image of the one true God, then we know we have to ask more than just "What would Jesus do?"

We have to ask, How would Jesus live in my shoes, in this circumstance? For what purposes has God specially designed me? How can I let the Holy Spirit move and work within me? How can I acknowledge God's love and greatness in the people I see or hear about everyday?

When we ask and answer these questions every day in every situation, we shine. We reflect God's light and love making it easier for ourselves and others to walk without stumbling, to live without falling.

When we serve God's children while recognizing they are made in God's image, we shine.

When we share God's message while knowing the God loves all his children, we shine.

When we yearn for a closer walk with God, we shine.

And when we shine, we walk in the light toward God's redemptive plan for everlasting peace.

Serve, Share, and Shine. Come, let us walk in the light.



Walk In The Light
by G. Elderkin
(based on John 8:12, 2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Chorus:
Walk in the light, beautiful light,
come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright.
Oh shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus is, Jesus is the light of the world;

Oh we shall walk in the light, beautiful light,
come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright.
Oh shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus is , Jesus is the light of the world;

Verse 1:
No need to worry, no need to fret,
all of my needs, the man named Jesus has met.
His love protects me from hurt and from harm,
Jesus is, Jesus is the light of the world.

Verse 2:
If the gospel be hid, it's hid from the lost,
my Jesus is waiting to look past your faults.
Arise and shine, your light has come,
Jesus is, I know that He is the only light of this world.