I love getting up early in the mornings, before the dawn, to sit and think and pray and read. Then, while it’s still dark, I leave to go for a swim in the sea. For the past few months it’s been so dark that I have to wear a small torch on a headband. Even though it’s only one little light, it illuminates the path in front of me and helps to prevent me stumbling over any obstacles or uneven ground.

In the reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as telling his listeners to let their lights shine. He says that just as nobody lights a lamp in a house and then covers it up, nor should they obscure the light of their understanding of who Jesus is and the truth of what he has revealed to them.

This passage comes within what is known as the Sermon on the Mount, the lengthy teaching Jesus gave to the crowds of people who had come to listen to him. In this teaching, Jesus revealed the values of the kingdom of God, which turn worldly values on their head. He tells them that they will be happy if they are poor in spirit, or humble, if they long for righteousness, if they are merciful and if they try to make peace in their lives. These values went against the norms of the day 2000 years ago, just as they do today. The dominant messages in the media tell us that happiness depends on our status, wealth, and power. Jesus brought a very different message, one that he knew only some of the people would understand or be willing to accept and he asked those people to ‘shine’ in the surrounding darkness of misunderstanding, corruption, deception and skewed values.

Jesus wasn’t only asking them to live according to the ‘light’ they had received from him, to pass on to others what he had said, but also to act upon it. In our Old Testament reading, the prophetIsaiah brings a message about inner motivation and the attitudes of the heart that are in keeping with the values that are pleasing to God. God is saying that it is of no use for people to fast in sackcloth and ashes if their hearts aren’t filled with compassion for others and a sense of what is just and merciful. True fasting is about calling out wickedness, ending oppression, providing food for those who are hungry and offering hospitality to those who have no homes.

Taken together, the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount and the prophecies of Isaiah show a combination of spiritual revelation and instruction, as well as the practical outworking of that wisdom and teaching. Right belief leads to right behavior. If we really ‘get’ it – that is, if we have the ‘light’ within us, we will not only pass on the message of God’s love and the values that matter, we will also live them out in very practical ways. And we are never to think that what we do doesn’t count: all it takes is a little light to transform the surrounding darkness so that others can see.

The Rev’d Christina Rees