Let the Light Rise Up from Your Hearts
Isaiah 58: 9-12 & PSALM 112 (PSALTER)
MATTHEW 5: 13-20
FEBRUARY 8, 2026
“YOU …” the faithful, the followers of Jesus Christ … “YOU,” Jesus said, “YOU are THE LIGHT of the WORLD” because it is through the actions and words of believers that others can discover God’s love; God’s truths; God’s directives to love God, love all of our neighbors, and to rush across the road to lift up the broken and battered.
YOU are the ones whom the prophet was referencing when Isaiah shared what the faithful will do …they will “remove the yoke from among you … remove the finger pointing … remove the wicked speech … open your hearts to the hungry … and provide abundantly for those who are afflicted.” The prophet’s message is the same as Jesus’s message it is then that YOUR LIGHT … the LIGHT of the FAITHFUL … YOUR LIGHT … that has the potential to shine in the darkness where the Lord God will guide you continually. He will RESCUE your bones. YOU, the faithful, will be called RESTORER of LIVABLE STREETS.”
So, on this cold cold Sunday morning is your life focused on taking up the Jesus’ challenge or are you afraid of something? Are you shining the light of Christ or covering that loving light of God up as Jesus would say “under a bushel basket?’ What in the world are you doing about ensuring that in the year 2026 the message you send through your life is that of God … that of Christ rather than of the world’s dark messengers? Are you joining the faithful in keeping the essential commands of the Lord God and of Jesus Christ through your light teaching others to likewise follow our God and our Savior?
I started to think more about this question over the last few days especially after I turned back to recent history to watch and carefully listen to President Barack Obama’s address at the 2016 National Prayer Breakfast. He preached to the world that day … he shared his personal faith, and he told the world how he frequently turns to Second Timothy for assurance especially during times in which he is fearful of both personal realities and the daily fears from the responsibilities of his job. He joked about his fear that his daughters would grow up too quickly but then he got really serious. The President that day preached to the nation not reciting his accomplishments nor bragging about himself but … instead he shared how God helps him in life. He talked about God’s love and how Jesus Christ rescued him. When he began his remarks he quoted from Paul’s letter to Timothy, ““For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord but by God’s power accept your share of suffering for the gospel.” DO NOT BE ASHAMED of the TESTIMONY about OUR LORD!
In 2015, we had heard him suddenly sing ‘Amazing Grace’ while delivering the eulogy for Pastor Clementa Pinckney who was shot to death by a racist gunman within the confines of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in a vile hate crime that killed nine beautiful humans while they were studying God’s Word in church. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me … I once was lost but now am found … was blind but now I see.”
Church, what is the vision that you have for living your daily lives … do you remember the moment when you found God and Jesus Christ. Really discovered that you had a faith that can overcome mountains … had a deep real connection to God that literally obliterated any allegiances you might have had with the world because before that moment you had been blind to God before that moment … DO YOU REMEMBER when your heart felt that warming John Wesley spoke about … when God came in … once you were lost but now God found you … God was there to direct you … so that you could shine God’s light into the world a light that saved … rescued even a wretch like me … like you. Would you … do you … have the courage and the wherewithal to out of nowhere sing AMAZING GRACE like he did on that day when faithful folks were remembered in worship … good people gunned down because of the color of their skin. We are in Black History Month, and we cannot forget the history of sad days like that night in June 2015 just 11 years ago. Or days when our neighbors were denied even a water fountain because of the color of their skin. We need to be always condemning the hate that encouraged and inspired that gunman who shot those good people down …
At the 2014 National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama taught us another lesson of faith … this time a lesson from Romans that perhaps is also fitting for this morning. He said, “We need to set aside the rush of our daily lives to pause with humility before an Almighty God; to seek His grace and to be mindful of our imperfections. We need to remember the admonition from the Book of Romans, “Do not claim to be wiser than you are.” We are all children of a loving God brothers and sisters called to make His work our own. Our concern should not be whether God is on our side but whether we are on God’s side. I am grateful for the church that led me to embrace Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. And, the longer I serve … especially in moments of trial and doubt … the more thankful I am of God’s guiding hand. Our faith teaches us that in the face of suffering, we can’t stand idly by and that we must be THAT GOOD SAMARITAN. In Isaiah we’re told to do right, seek justice and defend the oppressed.
So, this morning I want you to consider whether you have any interest in accepting God’s Spirit… that guiding hand President Obama referenced. When you go to bed in the evening and then wake up with a new day … do you review your life’s words, actions and allegiances to determine if you are ON GOD’s SIDE and reflecting Christ’s light?
I want you to honestly think to yourself how willing you are to accept God’s spirit of love allowing God’s Spirt to have the potentiality of providing you with self control. We all know that when we allow our inner selves to work overtime we all too frequently act or speak out or even think in ways that counter the teachings of Jesus Christ. Perhaps we do so because we fear stepping out into the Light of Christ because lifelong friends and colleagues we care about are clearly focused on actions and words that contradict the very basics of the Gospel truths. What’s frightening to me is that some of my friends and my colleagues whose words and actions are truly disturbing are merely dismissing Jesus as a Christmas ornament that they only bring out as a convenience either for Sunday mornings or perhaps holidays on the Christian calendar. A faked faith … a cosmetic one.
Have you been putting the bushel basket over whatever light you have for Christ in your heart? It’s frankly a very serious question because how you answer it … whatever the truth is in relationship to whether you embrace Jesus’ teaching and share it in your life … whether you embrace Jesus’ teaching in your mind but then hide it as Jesus suggested in today’s lesson, or whether you go to church but then abjectly and regularly choose to deny and reject Jesus does determine what team you are on … your life’s work and your actions and where your heart truly resides does determine your eternal destination.
“But if salt loses its saltiness … how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled upon.” Jesus speaking … clearly referencing folks who choose to not live as the faithful. James offers clarification in his letter, he writes “even the demons believe in God but faith without works is dead. The wisdom from above is first pure, peaceable, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy, impartial and not hypocritical. The fruit that consists of righteousness is planted in peace among those who make peace.”
God’s light has the capacity to shine from any human’s heart; God never stops trying to share God’s love with every person … there is no one who can’t be rescued but it requires change. You have to grab hold of God’s love through Jesus Christ to change and with your personal change the Holy Spirit is there to give you some energy … some OOMph … and yes, some courage through the Spirit’s power. Our faith connection runs a similar pattern to jazz … jazz is hard to define but when you hear it you know it. It’s all about spontaneity and vitality allowing for the improvisation that comes from the heart of each individual musician. Duke Ellington was quoted as saying, “it’s all music!”
But if jazz isn’t played out loud … if the horns aren’t blown and the drums remain silent and if the keys remain untouched there is no music. There is no message. There is no joy. I have often shared the story of Chuck Mangione’s visit to my high school along with jazz singer extraordinaire Esther Satterfield. In that moment, which might be the moment I discovered a life long love of jazz … at that assembly I discovered something special as Esther sang ‘Look to the Children’ that day. A song whose lyrics reflect Jesus’ teaching … we all remember when Jesus said, “What I am telling you is true. You need to change and become like little children. If you don’t … you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” YOU MUST CHANGE …
The words of that special song that I continue to treasure go like this: “Look, please look to the children. The children they know. In their eyes are the answers we seek and their hearts feel the way to go. Look, please look to the children. They know more than we. How it feels in this world to be free. Free to love and be loved by all. You (me) let’s be like the children. Together let’s play. Sharing all that this world has to give. Life’s a groove we all once loved. Love, give, live like the children.”
George it is so good having you here today … as this day got closer memories of jazz music flooded my brain. As a college student I would go to sessions at Buffalo’s Colored Musicians Club where the great jazz musicians came to play throughout the last century. A club that was established because in the year 1917 black jazz musicians were not allowed to belong to the white American Federation of Musicians Local because they were black. Those black jazz musicians formed their own Local and then they just hung out playing music … eventually the barrier of color came down and everyone would play music together creating community.
Friends, when we focus on the joy God gives us … when we open up the Gospels … when we “set aside the rush of our daily lives to pause with humility before an Almighty God; to seek His grace and to be mindful of our imperfections.” When we call on the Holy Spirit … remembering always that our faith teaches us that we cannot stand idly by and that we must be THAT GOOD SAMARITAN doing right in God’s eyes, seeking justice and defending the oppressed. Those are God’s directives … that’s how we turn on the light switch that our acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior gives us.
Joy … in worship … a willingness to let ourselves go for God’s sake. Last night I watched the movie Becoming and was thrilled to hear Kirk Franklin’s faith-focused Gospel music showcasing a connection of faith through music. The words from his song, ‘A God Like You’ streaming across my Netflix: Some may worship things But what joy do they bring
They try and hide the stains But can they set us free See where would we be Without Calvary A king upon a tree So the whole world can see. SHINE YOUR LIGHT CHURCH … SHINE YOUR FAITH LIGHT so your part of the whole world can see Christ! AMEN