Safety-first religion?

Jesus said, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16

The ordinary homes Jesus was familiar with would have been very basic; certainly no central heating or air conditioning, and no beautifully sealed windows to keep out the drafts. If you lit an oil-lamp and put it on a stand it might give you enough light to see by, but not much more than that. And if there were strong winds outside, there was a good chance that they would snuff the lamp out and leave you in darkness.

So what were you to do? One option would be to find a sheltered corner where the wind couldn’t reach, and tuck the lamp away there. Problem sorted. Except that, no it wasn’t: fine, you now had a lamp that was safe – but which would give only a glimmering of light, and what was the point of that? All you had done was to solve one problem by creating another.

Jesus’ parable of the lamp under the bowl is one of his best-known, perhaps because it is so easy to grasp. Its very absurdity makes us smile – of course no-one in their senses would go to the trouble of lighting a lamp and then hiding it away!

But the point he is making is that, in fact, that is exactly what many of us do. In Jesus we have received from God the very light of the world; yet we keep quiet about him rather than making sure that the light shines. We’re like those fantastically rich people who spend millions of pounds on a precious painting - and then lock it away in a secure room to make sure it doesn’t get damaged or stolen. Our Christianity is in essence a safety-first thing; we’re glad we have it, yes, but are happy to keep it to ourselves.

I imagine that this passage is preached on hundreds of times every year in various churches, with a clear and obvious application: Christian, go out and evangelise! Talk about Jesus to your family and friends, your work-mates and neighbours, your leisure companions and casual acquaintances. Do it tactfully and respectfully, of course; choose your moments with care; but… do it!

Many Bible-teachers, however, believe that Jesus wasn’t only addressing those who would come to believe in him and become known as “Christians”, but also, in the first instance, those who were part of his own people, the Jewish nation.

Jesus was, after all, “the King of the Jews” (among many other titles),  and a big part of his original ministry was to summon his fellow-Jews back to their true calling. Some of the wonderful prophetic passages in the later part of Isaiah relate to this ministry: “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and make you to be a covenant for the people and (here comes the key part) a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind…” (Isaiah 42:9).

In short… The Jewish people were favoured by God; he chose them as a select people – but not so that they could look down on the gentiles and condemn them. No! – it was to share with them the heaven-sent light they had already received by God’s grace. And this, Jesus thought, they had failed to do. Stories like the lamp under the bowl were aimed at giving them one last chance to roll their sleeves up and obey their ancestral calling by turning to him.

And we all know what happened: rejection. Jesus’ mounting distress is vividly expressed in sayings like Luke 13:34-35: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who sent you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing…”.

The disturbing thing is that we today - the church, the new Israel - can be guilty of exactly the same mistake as the original Israel: we “hide our light under a bushel”.

But why would we do this? Here are some possibilities…

We fear persecution.

Down through history God’s people have suffered persecution, even, sometimes, to the extent of death. But in our modern western world that doesn’t apply, or only in the mildest sense. Certainly, in places like North Korea, China, Mexico or Cuba it’s a very different picture; but most of us can’t really make persecution our excuse.

Our faith is half-hearted.

Many of us, perhaps, while we still “believe” in the sense of giving mental assent to our inherited Christian faith, quite possibly including church-going, don’t have the kind of faith that inspires and motivates us day by day, shaping the very structure of our lives.

I think it was the Victorian preacher Charles Spurgeon who suggested that it’s possible to have “enough Christianity to make us miserable, but not enough to give us joy”. It’s a sad way to be.

Are any of us like that? If so, we are overdue for a very honest self-examination. Otherwise, it’s not so much a matter of hiding our light under a bowl as, putting it bluntly, not really having a light to hide at all.

We still believe, but we have lost confidence.

At the beginning of his letter to the church in Rome, Paul roundly declares “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16). When he says “I am not ashamed…” I think it’s really a deliberate understatement for “I am proud…!”

In our modern western world we Christians can easily lose confidence: our churches are often struggling; numbers overall are falling; modern morality, sexual and otherwise, is brazenly unchristian; the intellectual mood often seems to have tossed Christianity onto the scrap-heap of ideas. So we are tempted to shrink a little into ourselves, still valuing Christ and his cross, yes, but unsure of what reception a clear declaration will receive.

There is only one solution to this dilemma: take out that oil-lamp, re-supply its oil, trim its wick, and let the light shine! We may be surprised - indeed thrilled - by what happens…

Lord Jesus, I want to be faithful and true to you in all circumstances, but I confess that often I am timid and unsure of myself. Please give me courage and confidence, and so help me to make an impact for you on those I meet, by both the words I speak and the life I live. Amen.