Light for Life’s Path
September 14, 2008
David Brubacher
Text:
Psalm 119:105-112
Matthew 5:13-16
In preparation for this sermon I pondered some of the earliest influences that shone a light of faith my life path. Of course there was my mother. She was just always there providing nurture much as I understand God even to this day. My dad was a role model for life and encouraged my developing technical skills. In his own quiet way dad sought to make the world a better place and taught me to give my best in whatever I did.
Grandparents, special aunts and uncles, and neighbours also shaped my early life experience. Until I was eight we lived in a farmhouse that included my grandparents and a single uncle. When my uncle was married we moved into a house in the village of Conestoga. As a young child I went with my grandparents to visit my great grandparents. I observed first hand multiple generations of family making decisions about life. On the farm I also saw how neighbours worked together to gather in the harvest. My grandfather and another neighbour were sought-after butchers. People liked their summer sausage recipe. In each of these examples I learned a way of being and interacting with people that formed my character.
I did not go to Sunday School until my mid teens. The old order church in which I grew up did not have Sunday School. They believed faith formation was the responsibility of the family. As I reflect, I learned a lot about my faith in observing extended family and neighbours. Of course our parents also read Bible stories to us. Each of these influences would have been reinforced in what I heard at church, even though I did not understand much of what the preachers were saying at that early age.
These are some of the earliest influences that shone a light of faith on my life’s path. Of course I have focused largely on the positive aspects. I could also have told you of the strong culture of shame that was used to bring behaviour into a desired pattern of conformity. I still hear some of those early voices. In the end I embarked on a path of faith and development which I follow to this day.
Today not many of us live in the kind of world I described. Few of us live with a third generation. The hustle and bustle of urban life moves so fast we don’t really know our neighbours, let alone work together. Parents and grandparents may live on the other side of the country so our children do not have the day-to-day experience of watching families make decisions about life.
Still, as families and as a congregation, we are highly committed to the spiritual and moral development of our children. In our worship this morning we are celebrating the investment of time, energy and material resources in Sunday School for our children. We also provide opportunities for adult Christian Education. Increasingly, as will be reflected in the dedication litany following the sermon, we do not think of children and adult Christian Education as separate initiatives but as an integrated process of life-long Christian formation.
One congregation’s website describes their Christian Formation initiatives in these terms: “Christian Formation is a dynamic, unceasing program of growth and development each of us experiences in our lives with and in the Risen Christ; Christian Formation is the continuing activity that gives shape and meaning to all activities in the Christian life; The goal of Christian Formation is for each person in a Christian community to appropriate a clear perception of his or her personal vocation as a labourer of the Lord.”
The Mennonite Church Canada website uses similar language and provides a broad range of educational and worship resources. Yes, worship is also considered to be a part of Christian Formation, as is mentoring, serving side by side at the Black Creek Pioneer Village MCC Relief sale, and discerning together to make congregational decisions. Even in our urban context these are examples of light shining on life paths, giving shape to a biblical faith rooted in Jesus.
The biblical texts read this morning further shaped my pondering. Our key verse, the familiar Psalm 119:105, states, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” I find it helpful to distinguish between lamp and light. A lamp is a material structure that may hold a light. This is a lamp (hold up an oil lamp). The lamp by itself does not give light. Only once the wick is lit does a lamp give off light.
The role models that shaped my moral and spiritual formation were a lamp. The actual light was their personal faith in God made known in Jesus. At some point in their life they said, “Yes,” to God and the wick of faith in their lamp was lit for me to see.
In Psalm 119 the psalmist reflects a life desire to make God’s law, or teaching, the governing principle for every sphere of life. The psalmist speaks of the law as a light for his path. Beyond that we might say the law was the oil in the lamp and living out of those teachings in the life of the psalmist became a light for others.
Christian Formation clearly has two parts. An educational component teaches the basic stories of the Bible and Christian faith. The stories of people responding to God’s call in their lives and God’s love made known in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, are the content that informs our faith. These stories provide further illumination when they shine in the life of individuals seeking to make these teachings real in their lives.
In our worship this morning we are celebrating both the teaching of content and the formation of spiritual and moral character. The educators among us will recognize the debate in educational philosophy regarding the place of moral development in public education. My
understanding is that in recent decades the focus has been on the technical aspects of teaching content. Christian spiritual formation seeks good teaching methodology for the content of faith together with modeling of faith for the development of spiritual and moral character.
The verses read from Psalm 119 reflect an image of passing through a world of darkness. In a world of many and conflicting paths it is difficult to find one’s way. If that was the psalmist’s sentiment, how much more is it true today? We are faced with thousands of choices each day. How will we treat those less than kind to us? Are the products we buy made by companies that respect the human rights of their workers? And the list goes on.
The psalmist gives thanks for the teaching of God’s law as guidance for life’s decisions. I imagine the lamp and light the psalmist had in mind to be something like this lamp. Lamps like these, used in the time of Jesus, were crude and porous structures that burned a low grade of olive oil. It was not a powerful light like those used in the shooting of the films celebrated at the Toronto International Film Festival. And it was easily put out.
Sometimes we say, “But my light is so small and easily put out. Why bother?” The psalmist responds with the joy found in walking the path lit by God’s teachings. Computers are not my thing. Give me a piece of wood any day. But occasionally when I am successful in following instructions and actually get the computer to do what it was designed to do I experience a sense of accomplishment and joy. When following the path God lights for us spares us from destruction, we come to know the joy of which the psalmist speaks.
It is difficult to walk that path alone with our fragile little light. But many lamps set side by side with lights shining create more intense light. Clusters of lamps also protect from winds that might extinguish the light.
Lamps clustered together is my image for the Christian Formation ministry of a local congregation. We do not learn and grow in isolation. Sunday School classes are taught by teachers who know and live in the light of God’s love and teaching. Grandparents and others pray for each child and teacher. These efforts build on and support the nurture of the home. Older classes seek to apply the story of the Bible to the realities of the world in which we live. All of what we do educationally as a congregation is affirmed in our worship. In singing, hearing scriptures read, sharing our joys and concerns, praying and hearing the sermon, we open ourselves to the light of God’s teaching for the path of life we will walk in the days to come.
Christian Formation also happens in our caring for each other and serving together. When I see adults and children working together to collect the offering, serve at a potluck, and handout bulletins and songbooks we are learning how to be people of faith together. It’s in learning and growing together as people of all ages that our faith becomes a light for others as well.
Of course that’s the point of the verses from Matthew 5 about salt and light. Salt is used as seasoning to make food taste better, to make a difference. As Christians when we live out God’s teaching we make a difference. We become light. Just as a light is not to be lit and then hid under a bowl, so we are encouraged to let our lights shine for others to see.
No matter how old we are God is forming us to be light in the world. Parents pray that someday their children will say, “Yes!” to God and walk with Jesus on a path of faith. Some people are very young when they first say, “Yes!” to God. Others say “Yes!” later in life. As we are here this morning we are at various stages in saying “Yes!” to God. No matter where we are on our journey, God loves us.
In the short time I have been here at TUMC I have been encouraged to see a passion for Christian Formation. It is one thing that came up in many different ways during our exercise of revisiting the identity and purpose of TUMC. In your packets for the September 28 congregational conversation you will see that one of the four proposed initiatives is actually about formation and transformation as it helps us find light for our paths and be light for others to see
So today, I invite you to think about two things: Who are the people or where are the places in your life by which God’s light has shone on your path? And second, who are the people, or where are the places by which you can be God’s light for someone else’s path of life? Amen.