Not An Invitation

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III
Manassas Presbyterian Church
Manassas, Virginia
January 3, 2010

Not An Invitation
Isaiah 60:1-6

ARISE!
SHINE!
ARISE!
SHINE!

This is not an invitation.
This is a command,
an order from the Chief,
as the great preacher Peter Marshall might have put it.

An order from the Chief:
every one of us called to respond,
Arise!
Shine!
The Lord has come.
Jesus is born.
The light shines in the darkness,
radiant light, spreading over all the earth.

And we are called to respond,
to reflect the light, each of us,
each of us glowing with the light of Christ,
the one Christmas present we all have in common.

Arise!
Shine!
This is our call as we begin the New Year.

But we hesitate,
we hold back,
we say we will let our light shine,
but we don’t want to call attention to ourselves.
We say we will let our light shine,
but not right now,
maybe in a couple of weeks,
when things aren’t quite so busy,
maybe in February.

But this is not an invitation,
not something God invites us to do
whenever it is convenient.
This is an order!
A command, straight from the top.

Those of you who served in the military –
what did you do when an order came from the top?
You did it!
You didn’t wait for a more convenient time.
You did it because you knew your responsibility
was to follow orders.
Why is that we pick and choose what we’re willing to do
when God commands us?

Perhaps it is because we are reticent.
“Reticent” is a good word for us Presbyterians.
Reticent.
It means “restrained or reserved in style”.
We Presbyterians are that, aren’t we?
restrained, reserved in style.
We leave the demonstrative faith to other denominations.
We don’t want anyone to confuse us with Baptists!

But shining doesn’t have to be demonstrative,
much less theatrical.
It can be quiet, serene, tranquil.
Shining is, after all, grounded in love,
love marked by grace, acceptance,
tolerance, kindness,
love that reaches out,
love that breaks down barriers.

Shining causes us to turn outward,
to turn our focus to the needs and concerns of others.
Shining helps us to realize that
the very essence of discipleship is community:
community that goes beyond Manassas Presbyterian Church,
community here in Manassas,
in Prince William County,
in our state, in our nation,
in the world.
Community that transcends all those manmade barriers
we are so quick to build when we are not shining:
barriers of prejudice, judgment,
even political ideology: “she’s not like us”;
“he doesn’t think our way, believe what we believe.”
That’s not shining;
that’s walking in the darkness,
the thick darkness.

Letting your light shine is to live a grace-filled, grace-full life.
It is to live the new life Zacchaeus embraced
when he climbed down from his tree,
glowing with the light of Christ.
You remember the story of Zacchaeus,
(Luke 19)
the corrupt tax collector
who climbed a tree so he could get a better glimpse of Jesus
when Jesus came to his town.
Jesus called to Zacchaeus to come down from the tree.
In effect, what Jesus said to Zacchaeus was,
“Arise, let your light shine”,
for that’s just what Zacchaeus did,
turning his life from his focus on himself,
from how to line his pockets,
pile up the money,
to a new focus, an outward focus,
caring for others,
living his concern for others.
Zacchaeus learned how to shine,
reflecting the new life he received from Christ.

The Year-of-the-Bible group finished their work
by reading the last book in the New Testament,
the Revelation to John,
that apocalyptic book filled with such wild imagery.
The group learned that most of those images, metaphors and allegories
that so many have tried to decode into some vision of our future,
are images and metaphors that John simply adapted
from other books in Scripture,
from Ezekiel, Isaiah, Zechariah, and others,
that most of what we read in Revelation,
we’ve already read elsewhere in the Bible.

The group learned that John wasn’t trying to predict the future;
he was writing a book that was a call to faith,
a call to arise, to shine,
even in the face of oppression from the Roman empire,
that empire that thought that their combination of
military might and economic power
provided them with all they needed
to build the world their way.

“Arise! Shine! Live your faith,”
was John’s call.
“Let your light shine, shine to reflect Christ,
shine brilliantly, at all times, in all places.
Even in the face of oppression,
even in the face of condemnation,
even in the face of death.”

Were Jesus to stand here now
would he say to us, “Well done good and faithful servants.
Your light shines brightly."
Or would he ask us,
“How can you tolerate such profound greed
and corruption among executives from so many businesses,
even as those same executives
have put so many other people out of work?
Did I not warn you that you cannot serve both God and wealth?”

Would Jesus say to us,
“Your light reflects my love and compassion."
Or would he ask us,
“How can you accept a healthcare system
run by private corporations that allocate healthcare
based on maximizing their profits?
How can you accept a healthcare system
that relies on the term “pre-existing”
to exclude and shut out,
rather than heal and make whole?
Did I not heal every person who came to me?
Have I not charged you to do the same?”

Would Jesus say to us,
“Your light glows warmly and brightly,”
or would he ask us,
“How can you tolerate foreclosures
that lead to homelessness?
How can you stand idly by,
when there are so many empty homes in your community
that attract only vermin and vandals,
homes that could provide shelter for men,
women and children?
Did I not call you to feed the hungry,
clothe the naked,
and house the homeless?”

Would Jesus say to us,
“Truly your light is not hid under a bushel”,
or would he ask us,
“How can you continue to abuse my Father’s creation,
this world he entrusted to you,
this world my Father looks to you to care for
for the generations who will come long after you?
How can you continue to drain the world of oil,
rip coal from the ground,
and fill the sky, the rivers, and the oceans
with your poison, your sewage?
If you would be my brother or sister,
then do the will of my Father, your Father, in heaven.”

Paul reminds us that the entire creation is waiting
“with eager longing
for the revealing of the children of God.”
(Romans 8:19)
The entire creation is waiting for us to arise and shine.

Let’s take the first step,
the first step toward shining brightly
by coming to this Table,
coming to this Table in response to
the invitation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
At this Table we can find nourishment
that will renew and refresh us,
and burnish our glow
so we can “let [our] light shine before others,”
just as our Lord teaches us.
(Matthew 5:16)

So come,
come to this Table.
You are invited by our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then go from this Table
go out into the world,
filled with the grace of God,
filled with the Holy Spirit,
Go out to arise!
Go out to shine!
These are orders from the Chief.
AMEN