You are the Light

• Village Fair and 5K on August 16th
• INC Picnic on July 27th at 1pm
• Neighbors Hot Dog and S’mores Roast on July 20th 11-2.
• August 17th, we will be joining INC at SAUMC for a Tropical Worship with a Steel Drum Band (there will be no services at CCNOT)

Watch the recording HERE. Recording posts after services are complete each Sunday (usually by noon).

Listen.  You are the light of the world.  Do you hear the call?   Do you answer the call?  Darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable, and lightness has a call that’s hard to hear (Indigo Girls).  Are you listening?  Are you answering?

Summer is a reminder for us to catch the rays of illumination and be bright with and for one another.  

This brightness is vibrant, full of light, full of energy, full of love, commitment, and faithfulness.  It can fill us with heart filled strength and courage and nudge us to be the light in this world.  It can shine a light on the bright and the good.  It can encourage us to be faithful to the light, to open our hearts to BE the peace.  

It can shine around a center of peacefulness in all parts of our lives, starting with our hearts.  The focus on and toward peace…outward from each of us. 

The light times can remind us to be havens of light in this world.  To be lanterns of warmth and hope and faithfulness.  It reminds us that we can be for others what is most needed…a place of companionship and gentleness.  

Perhaps this is what Jesus means, and asks of us, when he says: YOU are the light of the world.  We are the light of the world.  Are we listening?

It is a truth that with the one side, there always comes the other side.  When we highlight light, we remember the dark. When we highlight peace, we remember the discord.  When we highlight vibrancy, we remember the dullness.  Commitment, quitting.  Faithfulness, unfaithfulness.  Love, hate.  Energy, exhaustion.  

Life tends to work in pairs. It functions in the tension between pairs.  And sometimes, as the light rises and there are less shadows to be seen, we get stuck in the shadows. Instead of the light leading us toward hope and faithfulness and peace…toward vibrancy and energy, we are dull and exhausted.  Instead of being enCOURAGEd to commit and recommit and recommit to what matters most, we find ourselves in a time of giving up.  We hide in the shadows.  

To pretend there is only light in light, or only darkness all around us, is to misunderstand the opposites at work in this world.  When we deeply pay attention, we see more than what is on the surface of things.  

In the Hours of the Day, noontime is the time of brightness and joy and faithfulness, but what sometimes comes is what is called the noontime devil.  Instead of being uplifted and pulled toward the light, there is a noontime mood where there is a pull, not upwards, but downward.  There is an exhaustion that brings about spiritual sluggishness, instead of vibrancy and energy.  The great shining is dulled, shadowed, and blocked out.  It is eclipsed by the opposite.  

When we cannot see the great shining, we choose disconnect.  We disconnect ourselves from the real and the vibrancy of life.  We begin to see not the collective good, but the individual not-so-good behaviors as if they are the whole. We begin to behave as if our actions don’t matter.  We send something other than peacefulness outward from ourselves.  We create discord when we do not allow for the fullness of life.  We judge, but don’t help.  We assume the worst, but ignore the best.  We feed the separation over the harmony.  We hurt, instead of heal.  Instead of love, we hate.   

This discord is all around us.  We’ve all taken up arms against one another. Seeking to convince people that we are right and they are wrong.  Instead of understanding one another, we try to control one another.  We come from a place of me first, without fully (or at all) considering the other person(s).  We build walls instead of bridges.  

We push people away and make them into “others” not a part of our group.  In an already isolated world, we create more separation and isolation.  Yes, there are times for boundaries.  Boundaries are vital to protect ourselves and to keep us safe.  A wise person said: boundaries are there to keep us safe…they are not there to avoid what’s uncomfortable and annoying.  When we use our boundaries to avoid discomfort, we are building walls instead of bridges. It is only through discomfort and the “annoying” that we will ever come together with all our myriad differences and learn to walk and work together.  

Our call to the light is to look at ourselves and to see where we, while striving for the light, become a part of the darkness.  Where we become un-peaceful.  Where we build walls.  Where we treat one another with meanness.  

You are the light of the world. This is a call to action in our own lives. This is for you.  Each and every “you” of the world.  It is our call to be the light in this world…in each and every ordinary moment.  This is a call to look at the way we are present in our world.  

Maybe the light keepers are the helpers. Maybe the greatest thing we can ask of ourselves as things get messy and chaotic, is not what do I have to say about this, but…how can I help?  Too often, even if we are right in our words, pointing that out isn’t always helpful.  Just because it’s true, doesn’t mean we should say it.  Just because it’s true, doesn’t mean it will be heard.  Lightness has a call that’s hard to hear.

How can I help?  Even if the answer is uncomfortable, awkward, and a little scary.  Maybe that’s how we know we’re in the middle of help-land…we’ve made ourselves a little open and vulnerable.  Maybe it’s in the opening that the light gets out.  

This brightness season is a reminder to be bright for one another.  Each, unique one another.  Not just the special people in our lives…the people we like, but our neighbors and…yes, even our enemies.  Asking us to love our enemies is the big, screaming passage that says: we have a faith founded on love, and that great Love has the power to heal the world, but it is not easy.  Maybe that’s why we are still, slowly, slowly, slowly healing the world one action of light at a time.  

Let’s catch the rays of illumination and build up our courage for this world.  

Courage is light.  

Courage resides in the heart.  

To be the light is to keep the embers of the heart glowing with warmth.  

Warmth is cozy.  Warmth is love.  The light of warmth leads us toward connections, even when it’s uncomfortable and awkward.  It is light that beacons and beckons.  It is a light that kindles the lights in one another.  

You are the light of the world.  

Let’s be that light, each and every one of us.  And let’s bring that light together in hope and peace.  Because it is only with light and warmth that growth is possible.  That the “greening” (Hildegard of Bingen) of this world is possible.  The healing of this world begins with light and warmth with and for one another and the whole of creation.  

You are the light of the world.  

Be the light of the world.  

Shh, listen, you are the light of the world.  Each time you hear the call of the light, the light becomes easier and easier to hear.  Each time you act on the call of the light, it becomes easier and easier to carry the light into your part of the world.  

Holy One, in this world where darkness is easy to follow, may your whisper of light pierce our ears.  May the call of the light become clearer and brighter, warming our heart and fueling our Courage.  You call us as the light of the world.  Help us to hear and answer the call of light in the darkness.  Help us to choose to BE the light of the world.  Always and especially in the times when it is most hard.  Amen