Lighthouses, especially in today’s times when they are
mostly obsolete, are still a source of much inspiration and beauty. There is so
much technology for boats to find shore and safety these days, as lighthouses
were originally meant to do, the technology even allows us to find fish, and
steer away from hazards. Yet we love lighthouses don’t we. You can find
inspirational lighthouse pictures in any store, we love to visit them. I am not
a morning person at all, but I got up very early on a dozen occasions to go to
one of my favorite lighthouses in Santa Cruz and photograph it in the sunrise.
And then I have to admit, I turned those photos into matted pictures with Bible
verses underneath. There is just something so encouraging and inspiring about
lighthouses, standing strong along the coastline, ready to help people find
port, or steer them away from danger. Their strength, their potential even if
no longer in commission stirs something in us.
Maybe it’s that need for security that we all have.
You know we started this summer talking about Moses, and in
Vacation Bible School and the Alaska mission we just returned from, we explored
the story of the Israelites. Moses was this guy that lived through these crazy
life events, because God got him through them, and then after murdering a cruel
Egyptian and running away, God called him in his loneliness in his darkness and
asked him to lead the Israelites out of Pharaoh’s enslavement. Moses felt
inadequate and under-qualified, but God called him anyway. God equipped him.
Moses may not have found much security in safety, in God’s call for him to come
home, but God helped Moses do amazing things, to show God’s own power, and love
for the Israelites. So in the Old Testament reading from today we see Moses
leading the Israelites into the wilderness.
The Lord went ahead of them. He guided
them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with
a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night. Exodus
13:21
The Israelites have just seen God do all these crazy things
to get Pharaoh to back off, plagues of all kinds, rivers turning to blood,
invasions of insect and amphibians. Perhaps the most shocking, was the killing
of the firstborn, but God spared the lives of the Israelites. God has made it
pretty plain that he is with them, he wants to free them, but as they start
walking the Israelites start freaking out, they start doubting God, and what he
wants to do with them. They can’t see God right in front of them. They start
asking to go back to slavery. So God helps them out, he gives them a cloud and
a pillar of fire to guide them. It is literally in front of them. His presence
is right there, showing them the way to go. It is scary and the journey is
hard, but there is hope, there is a huge tower of fire, guiding them through
the darkness. It’s a mobile lighthouse; it’s showing them the way to the
Promised Land.
God promised land, he didn’t promise an easy journey. He
promised freedom and provision, he didn’t promise first class accommodations.
Yet if we follow that story to its conclusion, he kept his promises and got
them there, or their children there at least, and guided them all the way. When
they lost sight of God, they got themselves into trouble; they added a lot of
years to their journey, which is why some didn’t make it. God always bailed
them out again and got them back on track, called them back to himself, back to
his safety and love.
God stepped into the dark situation of the Israelites and
brought them to freedom, and he steps into our own darkness as well. He
literally stepped into humanity in the person of Jesus. He left heaven and
dwelt among us in a fragile human form.
He did so, so that he could be a sacrifice for our sins, for our
mistakes, for the darkness that is in all of us. He walked through the darkness
of a horrible death and hell itself, but because he was God, he was able to
bring light and life, as he resurrected. He brought grace to us in his
forgiveness, love, amazing mercy.
We see the image of God as light over and over again in scripture
in Jesus and in other places, in Psalms we see him as the light going before us
to guide our steps, just like the Israelites wandering in the desert. We see
the image of him again going before and guiding us through. We are not given a
promise from God that things are going to be easy, ever. Instead we are given a
promise that we won’t be alone, that he will be with us, that he won’t ever
leave us. We are promised that all things will work together for the good of
those who love God. Like the Israelites, we will find ourselves in hard
situations, with hard things to overcome. We will have things in our life, that
seem like they will never be overcome, challenges, health problems, family
members that never change, friends that leave, relationships that crumble. Some
of those things will never get better. Some of the Israelites never made it to
the Promised Land, Moses didn’t, their kids did, but they didn’t. They didn’t
make it there, but they were free, and they were protected, they had food from
heaven. It might not have been their favorite thing, it was mana after all, it
means what is it. But it was food. Their clothes and shoes never wore out. They
wandered and they struggled but as a people they made it through. God didn’t
leave them alone, he helped them conquer enemies, and he helped them figure out
how to survive this wandering life in the wilderness. He does the same for us.
He gets us through. Some things won’t get better until we get to heaven, and
that is hard, but we aren’t left alone to deal with those things. We have hope
that there is more to life than the darkness, that Jesus’ love is there for us,
that he is caring in the midst, and that he can shine through our weakness and
the brokenness of the world.God gives us his word to help us get through, there
are sixty six books that show his love for us, and his power to work in our
lives, just as he worked through the crazy life of Moses. And while they may be old books, unlike
lighthouses, they aren’t obsolete; there is power there, for more than just an
inspirational quote.
There is a lot of darkness in our world today. Gosh, four
boys were playing on a beach in Gaza and were killed, a plane with nearly three
hundred people was shot out of the sky, and those were just two of the things
that happened this week. This week!! The world needs more light. People need to
know that God is there, that he is ready to help them, to bring them through
the worst of the worst, to show them love and forgiveness. They need to see the
love of Jesus, and guess what, God isn’t the only lighthouse. He gave us the
job to be his lighthouses in the world. He gave us the responsibility to be
light bearers. We see that in the New Testament reading today.
“You
are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No
one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on
a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In
the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone
will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:14-16
We are the light in that lighthouse that is supposed to show
the way to everyone. We are supposed to help people see through the darkness of
the world, and understand who God is and how much he loves them. We are supposed
to provide that light, that hope for each other that God showed us. We are
supposed to allow God to work through us to bring heaven to earth. It says
people will see our deeds. In the Message it says, we will show people the God
colors, and they will open up to us and then open up to God himself. When the
world thinks that God and his word are obsolete and technology is such that we
no longer need him and his word, we are supposed to inspire them with his love,
through us.
We aren’t supposed to bicker over things and get political,
stand around waving signs of condemnation, or use God’s own words against each
other. We are supposed to show people Jesus, reflect his light to the world. We
are supposed to be a source of his light. Jesus showed us how to be a light. He
spent time with people, getting to know them, showing them love, showing them a
different way to live, with love and compassion, and he told us very
specifically that the most important thing we could do was love others. We are
supposed to get out in the world and show God’s love to others.
We are great as a church at showing love to each other. I
know that, I have benefited from the amazing light filled love of the people in
this church. A few years ago we had one piece of loss and misfortune after
another. It started with the death of one of our students, which was awful, but
so many rallied around our youth group family, and you helped us get through
Vacation Bible School just a few days later. Then other things happened, my mom
got diagnosed with cancer, and Barb and Nancy helped me to get through that and
understand that as they shared their own cancer experiences. Our dog died
tragically, and other pet lovers reached out to us in the church with
compassion and love. Then our son flooded our house and Jeff helped put it
together. I got into an accident in our only car, and Courtney and Dave loaned
us one while ours was fixed. So many things happened all at once, and even
though some were minor, we could have easily been consumed by darkness, but so
many in this church showed us kindness and grace that we were surrounded by
light. God was with us working through all of you, and we were able to see him
through you in those tough days. And we continue to have challenges, things
still go wrong in our lives, my husband battles mental illness, our house
breaks without my son flooding it, we lose friends, people get ill. Things are
going to happen. Life is going to be hard. But we have hope, that things can be
good in the midst of that. We can find safety, we can make it to shore, because
God’s light is leading us through, as we see it in the people around us.
It’s our job to be lighthouses, not just to each other, but
to everyone around us. We should be a beacon of light to our neighborhood, so
that people know they can find God on our campus, they can find people that
will love them, a place where they can understand who God is, and grow in their
faith. It says that people will see God when they see us helping and being a
light.
That is our mission at the Open Door, our youth building. We
want kids to know they can find love, and explore what it means to know Jesus
and follow him. We want them to be open to him. We want them to see God through
the welcoming atmosphere there, and through us as leaders. We want to be known
as a place where it’s safe to do that and be yourself. So we let the kids be
goofy, and we encourage fun, and we try to be a light, speaking encouragement
into the dark and crazy time of adolescence. We want to be known for that. So
we let the kids post silly pictures on Instagram from youth group and share the
light of the open door with their friends. They aren’t just seeing crazy
pictures of shaving cream covered faces in a game, they are seeing God. The
groups are growing.
We want to be that light to their parents and school
communities too, so we are working on school partnerships with one of the
junior highs and with our main high school. I volunteered in the high school office for the previous school year, at the suggestion of the team of youth
leaders. We did it not to increase our numbers, but so that we could be a light, a helping hand to ease the burden of
their workload, and to be the hands and feet of Jesus there. Hopefully they saw
more than just me sitting in there each week, I hope they saw Jesus. They must have seen Jesus, they asked
us back, they want me there this school year, and I almost broke the laminator on the first day. We have more opportunity to be
a lighthouse. I hope we can get involved in projects at the middle school too,
where most of our group comes from, investing in the school
community, so the parents and teachers see us, but more importantly see Jesus
through us. We helped with a talent show there, and fed the stage crew pizza,
just a small thing, but they noticed, and they knew it was a youth leader sponsored
We just got back from Alaska. I have to be honest, knowing
it was our fifth year of working with that church in that tiny community, I
wondered if things would start to fizzle out, if we were still having an
impact. We sent another church up last year, so we could do a youth mission
here in Portland and include some of our Alaskan kids. So I was unsure, if the
town would remember us, if we had made any lasting difference. I thought we
had, I thought we had seen God at work, and they had seen him through us, but
like the Israelites, I had my doubts. God shined a light on the trip this year
through you guys once again, as you funded us through the mission auction, and
we had a team so excited to go. On August third, you will get to hear more
about the trip, from our students. But let me just tell you now. You all were a
far-reaching lighthouse, all the way from Portland to Skagway Alaska. You
shined God’s light by sending us up there. We were greeted so warmly and with
such excitement, by a church that has grown, doubled even in attendance. The
Sunday school rooms that we used to stay in with just a few children’s names
written on the attendance charts, had lots and lots of names of kids that had
come to our previous VBS programs. The youth group was overflowing with some of
our VBS kids that had aged out and into the youth group and they couldn’t wait
for the programming we came to do. The people of the town were excited to send
their kids and their grandkids to us each day, they were so glad we were back.
And the people of the church itself, would bring us dinner every night, and
thank us for giving them the motivation, the shot in the arm they needed to
reach out to their community. They would thank us for giving them the excuse to
invite people in for real times of connection. That church is open 24/7 to the
public, it isn’t ever locked, they are open to the community, but they don’t
always invite the community, and reach out to them and make connections. Over
the years though, God has used our mission teams to help them do that, to
remind them to be the lighthouse. We called people into the church, by showing
them, that a group in Portland cares about their kids and God will call them to
his shore, to his safety of love and grace. They are more open to God now, and
what he can do in their lives.
So how can we make more connections in our community? How
can we bring the light out of our building and into the homes and neighborhoods
around us? How can we be the light in the darkness, that tells a hurting world,
there is hope? We have mission trips, we support great organizations in the
metro area like Door to Grace, and Portland Rescue, we work with Slavin Court,
but what can we do with our own neighbors and friends to help them see our
church as a light?
This is a great step, being out in the park, the trees on
our church campus kind of hide us sometimes. And we will get out to the Hops
game in a few weeks, something we can invite people too, and to the Multnomah
Days parade. But maybe there are other ways too, maybe we can host Alpha in our
homes, or at a pub or pizza place. Maybe we can have more sports teams, like
our softball league we were a part of. More concerts, more fun things like lip
sync nights, more days of service in the community like faith in action. All of
those things, are ways people not only see us, but see God, see something worth
checking out, see a light in the darkness. Those deeds, as insignificant as
some of them might seem, all glorify God. As we open up the church, we help
people open up to God.
We can’t hide his light. It’s too dark out there. Southwest
Portland needs to see the love of Jesus. He is our light bringing us through
the trials of life, and we need to reflect that for others. In our homes, in
our workplaces, at school, and as a church. We need to look to him and see
where he is leading us. In a couple of weeks our pastors will be back from
sabbatical, well rested and renewed we hope. So let’s greet them with
excitement too, and be ready to follow their lead and sessions lead into the
community, to be light so that everyone can see the goodness of God through us,
so that he is known in Portland and we are known for showing his goodness.
Well said.
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