We are Given as Light to the World

By Diane Harpster, Administrative Assistant to the Bishop

My baptism took place in the little church in the country a few miles from my family’s home.  I was just a few weeks old so I have no memories of the day. I have a small photo that I am told was taken at the lunch later that day.  In that photo taken in front of the piano in my grandparents’ parlor, I am held and surrounded by my parents, my parents’ parents, and four great-grandparents.  Another set of great-grandparents were living in Germany and though I never got to meet them, I have a letter written by Great-grandpa August, sharing their joy In the news of the birth of a first great-grandchild born in America.  I was celebrated and held by people of faith across several continents.

I grew up loved and supported by this family of birth, most living within miles of my home, and that same rural church community.  These were the people who showed me what it meant to live among God’s faithful people, hear the word of God and share in the Lord’s supper, and to proclaim the Good News of Christ in word and deed.  As part of that worshiping community, I had a front-row seat to observe the many ways people were living out their faith in service to and love for their neighbors.  As I grew, I was encouraged to use the gifts that others saw in me to find my place in the life of that community and beyond. 

At a baptism service in my congregation today, this verse is read as the baptismal candle is lit and given to the sponsors: “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”  In many instances, the one being baptized is a child too young to be able to understand what is being said.  At this point in that little one’s life, it is those in the community surrounding them being reminded of this charge.  They are the lights for this little one, signs of Christ’s love and presence in the ways they live, serve, strive for justice and peace, showing up and using the gifts they have been given for the good of others.   That’s a pretty big deal and not something to be taken lightly.  “Let your light shine……..”

This past Sunday, the reading from Isaiah 49 caught my attention.  The servant laments, feeling that their work has been in vain and for nothing.  Sometimes it feels like that, quite honestly, doesn’t.  Living out our baptismal promises, being light in a dark world, isn’t easy.  Does it matter?  Does it make a difference?  But God says, “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth”.  Baptismal promises can be lived out because the promise comes first from God!  “I have chosen you.”  Yes, it’s about you, but it isn’t really about you.  It’s about God and God’s bigger picture of Love for the whole world.  And God gives us a part in it.

Those saints who surrounded me were not perfect people.  They probably weren’t even thinking much about how they were being seen by the little ones around them like me.   Maybe they questioned sometimes if it mattered how they lived their faith.  It mattered.  It matters today how you and I live out our baptismal promises.   We are given as light to the world.

And that’s why it’s so important to begin with finding ways to be still and listen for God’s still, small voice that calls us beloved; to create time and space each and every day to listen for how God is calling us to use our unique gifts as light in the world.  It all begins with God’s promise to us.  Letting our light shine might be as simple as discerning the next right thing that God will reveal to us when we slow down, get to a quiet place, and be silent.  In doing so, we will be led to know our place and our call.  And we will be light for one another.