Mapperley Monday Mail, 2nd June 2014

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Shining with God's Love in Our Community

Yesterday morning, we looked at Matthew 5:14-16.


You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.


We saw that we should shine because of who we are. A town on a hill does not get a choice about whether it is visible or not. Because it is on a hill, and because it is a town, people can see it for a great distance (even hundreds of miles away if there are no streetlights and it's a cloudy night).


We shine because God has put his Spirit in us. Jesus the light of the world lives in our hearts by his Spirit and makes us, his people, into the light of the world. We don't get a choice about it.


If we try not to shine, then we stop being lights at all. If you light a lamp, then put it under a bowl, the lamp goes out. In the same way, if we try to hide who we are as Christians, then after a while our light will go out. As Christians we are already different from the world around us; if we try to hide that difference then we will cease to be Christians.


We are different from the world, and we should celebrate that. You don't hide a lamp under a bowl; you put it on a stand. We should let our light shine so that others can see it. It's very easy for us to take Jesus' words in Matthew 6:1 about not doing good deeds for people to see them, and end up as too shy about our faith. But Matthew 5:16 and Matthew 6:1 are both part of the same sermon.


The balance comes from seeing that we should shine to the glory of God. We shouldn't be like those people who point to their own goodness (or to other's wickedness) to make themselves look good. Our aim should be for people to praise God. We aren't good people; we are people who have been rescued by a good God.


In a video on the Guardian website, Milton Jones asks this:

And apart from being involved at the beginning of science, systems of government, philosophy, art, schools, hospitals, the emancipation of women, the abolition of slavery, social welfare, helping form the basis of the moral code most people live by, and introducing popular notions of justice, mercy, decency and compassion – what has Christianity ever really done for the world?


Most people now have realised that Dawkins and co were wrong - Christianity is not a force for evil in the world. Why have they seen that? Because of millions of Christians, throughout history and across the world, shining with a little bit of God's love. Let's shine for God this week, that those around us may come to realise how amazing he is!

God bless,

John

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