Matthew 5:14-16
November 9
David A. Davis
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I would like to invite you to ponder with me this morning a phrase from the lips of Jesus. “A city on a hill”. But before reading the gospel lesson, a bit of background, an article published in the Humanities magazine in 2020 is entitled “How America Became a City on a Hill”. The author credits mid-20th-century Harvard historian Perry Miller with bringing a sermon from 1630 into focus. The sermon was delivered by layperson John Winthrop aboard the flagship Arabella sailing toward the New World. The title of the sermon was “A Model of Christian Charity.” Prior to Professor Miller’s study of the sermon’s importance to the Puritan presence in New England, apparently, the text was largely ignored. The sermon became infamous for this line: “We shall be as a city on a hill”.
I figure I am not alone in thinking Ronald Reagan was the one to initiate the political appropriation of the biblical metaphor in political rhetoric and platforms and the establishment of the vision of “American exceptionalism”. But according to the 2020 article, Reagan wasn’t the first or the last. The term was used in speeches by John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama. Winthrop’s sermon was not even mentioned in American History books until after Professor Perry’s death. In 2010, a high school history textbook was published with the title City Upon a Hill.
The author of the article, Abram van Engen, was on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis at the time, and that year he also published his book City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. Van Engen points to the irony that Miller’s take on Winthrop’s sermon could not be more in contrast to its lasting political appropriation. His interpretation “differed radically” from any thought of American Exceptionalism. Van Engen writes that Miller understood that the sermon called Puritans to “model radical communal solidarity. It had nothing to do with the American Dream, nothing to do with bettering one’s life, nothing at all to do with making money or getting ahead.”
MATTHEW 5:14-16
“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.”
Our granddaughter Maddy turned two last weekend. Maddy and Franny love to listen to music and dance. Saturday afternoon, we were having a bit of a dance fest. During a break in the recorded music, the girls burst into a song they learned and sing all the time at the Broadway Presbyterian Church in NYC. Of course, both girls have a gifted ear and sing beautifully. Maddy’s blaring all the words along with big sister Franny, but most of them are not quite understandable. What was very obvious and easy to understand were the motions that go along with the song. [candle, blow it out, under a bushel, around the world]. It occurred to me as we all joined right in that the first move of the church, letting its light shine, is the generativity of faith in every generation.
The small groups this week took a journey through some of the light in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. You don’t really need the help of a concordance or a device for it. “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations” (Is. 42). Psalm 4: “Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord.” “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in God there is no darkness at all…. If we walk in the light as God is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.” (I John) Revelation 22: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The Gospel of John. “Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” Jesus said, “I am the light of the world…and you are the light of the world.” So whose light is it, anyway? His light or your light. And, of course, the answer is “yes”.
The very light of Christ shining in the world by grace and the power of the Holy Spirit through the good works of those whom Christ has called. Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus could not be clearer. “Let your light shine before others, so they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Not just go tell it on the mountain. Not a religious fervor on the loose. Not showing a glimpse of piety. Letting your light shine is allowing Christ’s light to inspire you, lead you, and anoint you to good works. Jesus preaching and James applauding. James, who wrote “Show me your faith apart from your works and I by my works will show you my faith.” “You are the light of the world”, Jesus said. “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 his book The Continuing Conversion of the Church, long-time professor at Princeton Seminary and long-time member of the Nassau Church community, Darrel Guder, makes a compelling, even provocative argument for a congregation sending folks into the world to let their light shine. He tells the story of a woman who was a pillar of the church. As one of her pastors, he was growing frustrated that she never said “yes” to a request to serve on a committee or board of the church. Finally, he asked her about it. Her response stopped him in his tracks and influenced his academic/theological life for years to come. She told him her calling was to be a children’s librarian, and it takes a good deal of work and study for her to be good at what she does. “I want to represent Christ there, and that has to be my priority.” Professor Guder follows that example in his book by stating that if a congregation took seriously the call to empower its people to carry the mission of God out in the world, to let their light shine so to speak, the congregation should expect to see people less at activities within the building. In other words, letting your light shine not just in here, but out there!
This week, in our letter to the congregation, Elder Wendy Wakefield Davis and I invited all of you to join us in a month of expressing gratitude for one another, for our ministry together, for the abundant blessings God continues to pour out on, in, and through Nassau Church. I want to share with you that recently I have found my heart strangely warmed and my spirits strangely lifted. I say “strangely” not in homage to Charles Wesley and his account of his conversion. “Strangely,” rather, because these are not really days for warm hearts and lifted spirits, are they? But the privilege of seeing your light shine in these days is a remarkable gift to me as your pastor. I see it all the time, in more ways than I can count, in more ways than I could ever tell. I saw it a few weeks ago when I went to visit a church member struggling with health, and they told me of a visit from a deacon and their young child that very morning. I saw it when going to the 100th birthday party for a church member last summer, and seeing a church couple and their two kids at the party, and the one celebrating the birthday told me how much their visits have meant to them.
I see it in how your light, the light of Christ, shines all around your continuing efforts to support and care for our current refugee family. I think it is the 14th family to be sponsored by you in almost 60 years. I see how the light of Christ beams from the steady stream of volunteers who come in and out of ArmInArm in the lower level of this building during the week. Some are serving downstairs. Others are loading their car for food deliveries. Your light and the light of other members of the Princeton community. I see your light, the light of Christ, in the generosity that allows us in real time to cut a check to a landlord for an immigrant family about to be evicted. I see your light, the light of Christ, warming the hard work of racial reconciliation in the now years-long conversations between members of the Witherspoon Street congregation and Nassau Church in the “Bending the Moral Arc” small groups.
And this week, I have seen your light, the light of Christ, brightly shining in our congregation’s response to nationally elected officials and appointed judges intentionally letting the most vulnerable among us go hungry. This week, Len Scales received a request from the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen for a $50,000 grant for a third food truck. TASK uses traditional food trucks to serve hot meals out in the community. They often partner with ArmInArm in the city. Going out together to designated spots with ArmInArm distributing groceries and fresh vegetables from their refrigerated truck and TASK serving hot meals. TASK reported serving 600 people in one day. Thanks to your generosity and the leadership of the Mission and Outreach Committee, $50,000 went out the doors of this building by the end of the week. In addition, almost $40,000 was granted to ArmInArm for a commitment to give every client they see at one of their pantries this month an extra gift card to a grocery store for $25. An absolutely breathtaking example of your light, the light of Christ shining for all the world to see, giving glory to the God we know in and through, and serve through Jesus Christ. The One whom we serve. Jesus, who said, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.”
There is an unexpected plus with our current LinkedIn series that brings together our preaching life, adult education, and small groups. Professor Heath Carter has provided links each week to some secondary readings, videos, and blogs. Heath provides snippets of some of the most important historical materials while also pointing to unexpected examples in the media or on video. You can find these links under adult education, current series, and the week-to-week listing on our website. It is well worth the click even if you are not in a small group.
One of those clicks this week is a blog post from Rachel Held Evans. It is a brief, one-page post about what she does and does not believe evangelicalism to be. It is her response to being excoriated by far-right evangelicals for daring to identify as an evangelical and hold views that others thought to be heretical and evil. Like Rachel Held Evans, it may not surprise you that some among us here at Nassau Church have been on the receiving end of an abusive, “Christian” nastiness you would not believe. Here is how Held Evens described what “evangelical” means to her. “It means, traditionally,” she wrote, “an impassioned personal response to the gospel and a commitment to the scriptures that point to it. And so, as an evangelical, I am deeply invested in my faith, at both a personal and communal level, and I believe that all scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, challenging, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that people of faith are equipped to love God and their neighbors.” Or one might say, to allow their light to shine. Not all lights in this big old Christian tent of ours are the same. When it comes to being faithful to the gospel taught from the lips of Jesus, the loudest light, the most dominating light, the most arrogant light, may not be the light that is shining the brightest.
“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.”
A city built on a hill. You and I know Jesus was not referring to America. A city built on a hill. Jesus wasn’t referring to America. Jesus was referring to you.