You Are the Light of the World
I preached on Sunday at Resurrection on Matthew 5:13-20 and Jesus’ call to his followers to be the light of the world. You can listen to it or download it here.
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As I was preparing, I wrote this sort of spoken word poem on light. I ended up only using a small portion of it in the sermon, so I thought I’d post the rest of it here. It’s meant to be spoken aloud. Peace—Trevor
You Are the Light of the World
But then in the void: a voice,
“Let there be
Light.”
Epiphany.
Sight.
And there was.
Discovering, uncovering the sea, the dust, the dirt,
The earth gives birth to a shoot of green.
A leaf, aloof in the midst of this,
Then photosynthesis,
And light brings forth life.
Let there be light.
But even with life and light written in the sky
We loved the night, and darkened we die.
Our nobility hidden,
Our laughter clouded,
Our vision blinded,
The light of day we left behind, and our hearts live in shadows.
For people living in darkness: light.
For people living in the shadow of death: dawn.
A light has shined and the darkness cannot overcome it.
Cannot fight it. Cannot drown it out. Cannot take its place.
Because the light is a face.
The glory of Christ
Shining like the sun.
Like seven suns at noon
On that day when the Lord will heal our wounds.
The shadow of death meets the righteous sun.
And death is undone.
This present darkness past
in a blast of resurrection light,
Scattering the darkness from our path,
Taking us to that city on a hill
Where there will be no more night, nor lamp, nor sun
For Christ is our bright and morning star
Behold church: torch-bearers, fire-makers, city-kindlers,
Let your hearts burn—
Burn for those born in darkness
Who have not yet seen;
Who may yet become children of light.
Hear the call,
Here and now. In this night, we are the light,
We are the light.
We are the light of the world, so let your light so shine
that all may see reflected in our faces the traces of the glory of the light of Christ.