Lamp

Lamp

 

Psalm 119:105-112

Your word is a lamp to my feet 

 

119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

 

119:106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to observe your righteous ordinances.

 

119:107 I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word.

 

119:108 Accept my offerings of praise, O LORD, and teach me your ordinances.

 

119:109 I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.

 

119:110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.

 

119:111 Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.

 

119:112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.

 

It’s now hard to read this snippet of Psalm 119 without hearing Amy Grant’s “Thy Word” running through your head. I say “snippet” because Psalm 119 is an epic psalm, set up as an acrostic, in Hebrew, with each stanza beginning with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are rare (none other?) biblical texts that have three-digit verse numberings in their citations! Amy Grant hijacked Psalm 119:105 to stick in our heads. 

 

Light is not really an issue in our day. Everything lights up or glows. The days of Abraham Lincoln studying law by the flickering flame of a single candlestick are long gone, aren’t they? Now, phones give us a handy “torch.” LED light fixtures and bulbs are EVERYWHERE. Our cars glow on the inside and out, our homes are ablaze with light. Modern kitchen and bathroom designs turn both into veritable “stadiums” of light. Both of my cars—a 2017 MINI Cooper convertible and a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV—have variable “mood lighting” that can be set to indicate a number of functions and situations, just to entertain or “soothe” those inside the car. There was a time when the absence of light proved to be a restriction on more than law lessons. Surgeries were delayed until daylight, travel likewise, and crime loved the darkness. Streetlights tamed the night, and those “warm” sodium vapor ones were said by psychologists to “soothe” the savage breast, compared with the “cold” light of the mercury ones. (Isn’t it interesting how we ascribe emotions to the quality of light?) Why, when we travel, I pack a tiny LED flashlight, to guide me to the bathroom in the middle of the night, so I don’t wake up Dara. When I forget to pack it, I find the furniture with my little toe. There is screaming involved, as there was back in the day before artificial lighting. It has been said that Thomas Edison did as much to change the entire nature of society with his electric light as anyone else in all of history. Even sports have been revolutionized by artificial lighting. I personally attended the first night game in the history of the World Series in the Fall of 1971, when the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Baltimore Orioles at Three Rivers Stadium. Even Wrigley Field, baseball’s historic park in Chicago—where it was said that artificially lighting would never happen—has seen baseball played under the lights.

 

The “magic” of artificial lighting wasn’t a “thing” in Jesus’ day. Is it any wonder that he talked much of the “light of the world”? Light drives out darkness, and as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, it is the only thing that can overcome hate, when it is in the form of Divine love. While Jesus spoke of “light” metaphorically, he did understand that one must either “make hay” while the actual sun shined, or keep your lamps trimmed to see and work by night. Interestingly, in our day, in a time when all kinds of “darkness” threaten to tear our human communities apart at the seams, we have an abundance of light—even a surplus of light. Here are a few interesting facts about the “light of the world” in our time:

 

·      Cheap LED lighting is also much cheaper in terms of its lower cost to operate. LED lights of all shapes, sizes, and colors are everywhere. Even in most developing nations, cheap LED lighting has proliferated. A battery-operated LED light can last for months, and the “bulbs” themselves last for many years. This has opened up the night for all kinds of activity, and has made formerly dark places safer.

 

·      The “explosion” of artificial light may be behind the earlier onset of puberty among the human species. Some studies have suggested that the near constant light we now live in stimulates the pineal gland in the brain via the optic nerve, hastening puberty.

 

·      Not all of this prolific, artificial light is beneficial. There is much science warning us that all of those little “power lights” on our devices around the room in which we sleep may be robbing us of quality rest. Everything glows, and we have become rather oblivious to it, but our bodies and their circadian cycles are not.

 

·      The night sky is SO polluted with streetlights, LED signs, and shopping center and stadium lighting, that we can hardly see the stars, anymore. Those of us who are amateur astronomers hate this. It’s called “light pollution,” and there is even a tool called the “Bortle Scale” to measure it. Cranberry Township is rated as a Bortle 7, meaning we have a very bright suburban/city sky. (By comparison, a rural area quite away from the city or suburbia may come in at a Bortle 2 or 3.)

 

I share all of this information about “light” because of the Bible’s emphasis on it as being something “good,” and for the most part, it is. Where humanity be without our natural sources of light, and where would contemporary culture, business, and general human activity be without artificial lighting? However, the Bible—and Jesus, during his preaching/teaching ministry—often talked about “light” or the “lamp” as not just illumination, but divine guidance. God doesn’t just “light our paths” to keep us from stumbling, but to lead us in a better direction that we may choose ourselves. God’s “word” as a lamp makes a lot of sense when we read that Jesus announces himself as the “light of the world,” and then later tells us that believers/disciples are the “light of the world.” In both cases, Jesus makes it clear that the world needs a different kind of light—a light that leads AND illuminates. God’s commands, likewise, are meant to “light our paths” in life, keeping our behavior focused on being more Christlike, or as I mentioned last week, “going on to perfection,” in the words of Mr. Wesley. God’s word, God’s law, God’s love, and God’s grace are all powerful sources of “illumination,” not just for the soul, but for every moment of life here on planet earth. 

 

None of us can say that we have lived “exclusively” in the beam of God’s light, but as diligent and committed Christian believers, we have certainly tried. In my ministry, I did all I could to call upon God, listen for the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and look to my Christian siblings to not “miss” the light God was shining in my direction. Overall, I am thankful that few of the paths my life and ministry took over those years were in the wrong direction, or sent me down any “dark alleys.” Not that I didn’t “hear” God’s “still, small voice,” from time to time, or didn’t discern the leading of the Spirit of God, for I have a few good testimonies of when I did, but I can say that much if not most of God’s direction and “light” came through all of the people nearest and dearest to me: my incredible partner, Dara; my “wise before their time” children; a few good and trusted friends; and so often the discerning and dedicated laity and church leaders I was privileged to serve in all six of my churches. (Please note that I’m not discounting the essential “light” God sent me through the wonderful District Superintendents who supervised my ministry, and the Bishops who discerned my gifts and appointed me places to best use them, but they are expected to be such vessels of guidance, and they did so, admirably.)

 

Now, in retirement, a new path has been discerned, and Dara and I are embarking on it next week. We are becoming residents of Thoburn Village, the independent living “neighborhood” of the Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community in Meadville, PA. With our adult children not living near us (currently in Alaska and Hawaii!), and busy with their own lives, we put ourselves on the waiting list for a Villa at Wesbury over three years ago, and “the call” came just a few weeks ago that shined God’s latest light on our journey. Dara likes to joke that, for over 36 years, we “waited for a call” to come from the Cabinet to let us know that we would be moving, and here we are, at ages 71 and 75, getting a call to tell us it’s time to move again!) So, next week it is off to “Villa Sterling”!) Just as each new, illuminated pathway has been a blessing beyond measure—even when they were also challenging—so we expect this new chapter will be one, as well. We look forward to meeting new friends, finding new places to serve, grow, contribute, and enjoy life’s abundance, all courtesy of the One who has “kept the light on” for us (with apologies to Motel 6 and Tom Bodett). 

 

Friends, I can’t emphasize enough how important this principle of seeking and following God’s “light” is in choosing your paths and traveling your personal journey. If you were taught that “rugged individualism” of the American culture, and that YOU had to be the one to make those important decisions, may you find a “better way.” While it is our constitutional right as American citizens to make our own choices, for those of us who want to be sincere Christ-followers, we are called to yield this right, at least in part, to our “Higher Power,” or in this case, “Better Lamp,” and not just to keep ourselves from stumbling in the dark. God’s direction for our lives necessarily interfaces with other believers, and a wider faith community, both to fulfil the ministry that God is building, AND to activate and use the spiritual gifts of all of God’s people to assure that “none should perish” but find the life that truly IS life. And that life is one with Jesus Christ, the Light of the World. May OUR lives reflect this loving, forgiving, saving, and inclusive beam that chases out the darkness and “cleanses us from all unrighteousness,” to the glory of God. Keep your lamps trimmed, Dear Ones! Amen.