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OUR LIGHT AND OUR SALVATION

“The Lord is my light and my salvation” Ps. 27:1

In one of the previous churches I served, at stewardship time, we decided to do an old fashioned every member canvas. We greatly expanded the Stewardship Committee, and had a couple of hundred canvas people calling on a couple of thousand members. The idea was that we were not just asking for money, but wanted to touch base with and hear the concerns of each and every member. Of course a pledge card was part of the package each team brought with them. One of the canvas people came into my office and reported on his visit, without naming the callee. He said, I went to this home, at a pre-arranged time, no not home, mansion, with a jaguar and BMW in the driveway, made my little presentation, asked about their concerns regarding the church, dropped off the pledge card, and the father of the family said, “You know, I usually give $4,000 to the church every year, but this year I’m not giving that much, because I don’t think I’ve received $4,000 worth of services from the church.” The canvas person was almost shaking when he reported that comment.

Ever since that incident, I’ve often wondered, if a poll were taken, asking people what do they want to get out of their religious or church experience, I would think that most people would answer, “I would like to be informed, and I would like to know that I might have life beyond this life.” “The Lord is my light, and my salvation.”

To say that Christianity is a religion of light and salvation is to say that Christianity is both instructive and redemptive. That statement is more significant than I have the skill to adequately expound. There are many so-called religious systems in the world that are merely instructive. Their specialty is illumination. They attempt to throw light on the self, on the world, on God. Their basic presumption is that human kind is in error and needs only to be enlightened. Their fundamental assumption is that once we know the truth we will rise up to obey it.

We can be thankful for ethical light and moral guidance from whatever quarter. But is this enough? Indeed, has it ever been enough?

Some years ago a charity baseball game was played in Hollywood in which a team of actors played a team of comedians. Groucho Marx managed the collection of comics. At one point he turned to Jack Benny and ordered him to hit a home run. But Benny struck out instead. With that, Groucho slammed his cigar to the ground and said, “I quit. How can I manage if they won’t follow my instructions?” It is naïve to believe that all we need are answers and advice and instructions and analysis.

By the same token there are forms of religion in the world that are merely redemptive. They are heavy with ritual and mystical cleansings. More priestly than prophetic. They have a truer feel for the tragic dimension of life. Human kind is not only ignorant but broken.

One thinks back to that place in Dickens “A Christmas Carol,” where Scrooge is thoroughly impressed by the three visitors from the spirit world and cries out in desperation, “I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writings on this stone.”

Redemptive religions specialize in washing sin away and absolving guilt. Alas, in all too many cases they do not provide much ethical instruction or moral guidance. In this connection one thinks of the town drunk who gets “saved” every spring but never seems to rise above his weakness. Biblical religion, when rightly understood, is instructive and redemptive. “The Lord is my light, and my salvation.”

Christ is our light. He is our light because He opens our eyes to what life was meant to be. He is our light because He embodied the truths He taught and gave our years a bold new possibility. This is what John meant when he wrote, “His life is the light of all people.”

Dominus illumanatio mea: This is the motto of Oxford University. Blessed is the person who can say of himself or herself, “The Lord is my light.”

And Christ is our salvation. He empowers us to become what we are not. Did Jesus only illumine we would be of all people most miserable?

Ever since seminary I have wondered about this word, “redeemed.” There is a mystery here and ambiguity. One day I was walking past a pawn shop, and something hit me. A pawned article, or as we say colloquially, an article in hock, is an article that is out of circulation. I walked into that pawn shop, looked around, and bought a watch. I remember the guilt I felt every time I looked at that watch, and how I wondered about its history. Who was it that was so impoverished as to have to take it to a pawn shop and sell it? And so, a pawned article, or an article in hock, is one that is out of circulation. It is on the shelf. Of practical use to no one. It is dysfunctional. And it stays that way until someone buys it back or “redeems” it. What I hear is that, in God’s sight, we were in the pawn shop, on the shelf, of practical use to no one, especially to God. But Jesus came and bought us back, both in his death and in his life. This, in a broken, hinting sort of way, is what we mean when we say that Jesus, is our salvation.

Christ is our light and our salvation. Because he is our light we see despite the dark. Because He is our salvation we have hope for ourselves beyond ourselves.

Question! Have you made Him your light and your salvation? As we move into the Lenten season, I relish for you the certainty of Psalmist when he said, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid.”