Synod Schoolers wrapped up worship one of their meeting evenings by illuminating their cellphones, waving them in the air and enthusiastically singing “This Little Light of Mine.”
That song came from the evening’s Scripture, Matthew 5:14–16, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. People do not light a lamp and put it under the bushel basket; rather, they put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”
“It’s a song I have sung in church and at peace vigils so many times,” said the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, who offered a reflection during each evening worship service. “In this moment in our nation, that song and the Bible verse it comes from has taken on new meaning for me. It is connected to hope and where hope comes from.”
In arguments ranging from Manifest Destiny to Christian nationalism, the United States has been depicted as a city on a hill, a beacon of hope, Theoharis said.
“But Jesus isn’t actually talking about the United states here. Neither was he exhorting his audience about the future,” she said. Recall, she noted, that “he had just finished telling how blessed the poor in spirit and the meek are.”
She quoted a fourth-century theologian who maintained Jesus was saying in the Sermon on the Mount that “you are accountable not only for your own life, but for that of the world.”
“To me,” Theoharis said, “it’s a pretty Matthew 25 idea.”
“Nowhere does God say my abundance will trickle down from the rich to the rest,” Theoharis said, drawing cries of “preach!” and “amen!” “Jesus doesn’t tell the unhoused to get a job, nor does he attach work requirements to Medicaid.” Instead, “he traveled the countryside setting up health clinics, never charging a leper a copay.”
Matthew 5 is all about offering “encouragement to those who need encouragement.” Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied. Peacemakers are called children of God.
“Asking about how can we change things for the better, we can go back to the beatitudes,” she said. We can also “go to the abandoned, forgotten corners” of the Earth “and hear what they say to us.”
Theoharis recently paid a visit to Christ Lutheran Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The pastor there, the Rev. Michael Best, “has transformed a resplendent church into a community mission,” Theoharis said. Volunteer dentists pull out rotten teeth and perform root canals, cost-free. Fifty flags hang from the ceiling, representing the people who have found services there. “No one,” she said, “is asked for payment or documentation.”
Best preached a sermon “reminding the congregation they were not alone feeling like exiles in their own land,” she said. Best translated Jeremiah 29, the prophet’s letter to the exiles in Babylon, into what he called “Harrisonburg English,” including, “build your own homes, even one-bedroom apartments. Grow food, even if it’s a tomato plant in a pot. Don’t check out and don’t give up [on the community], for in its healing, you will find your own.”
Theoharis asked those in worship to turn to a neighbor to tell them one thing their faith community is doing that fits with Jeremiah’s letter to those in exile. “I know there are hundreds of stories right here in this congregation,” she said, and those stories got told.
Then congregants reprised “This Little Light of Mine.”
Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)
Let us join in prayer for:
Matt Hinkle, Analyst, Information Systems, The Presbyterian Foundation
Patricia Hoehn, Production Clerk, Presbyterian Distribution Center, Administrative Services Group
Let us pray:
God of mercy and love, may our people continue to grow in faith and numbers, and may your abundant provision be visible to all, to thy praise and glory. Amen.
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