Thursday 23 January 2014

Light of the World: Apostolic Witness

Matthew 5: 14-16
14"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither 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. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

In the last two blogs I have looked at how the nature of the church, at its most simple, is to love. Firstly it responds in love to God, becoming a holy, worshipping church relating intimately to God as the Bride of Christ. Secondly the Church, as the group of people who love God, love one another. This relationship is equally intimate, as one body made up of members bringing different gifts and taking on different roles. And so the church is one, a unity of people whose shared commitment is to love God and to love one another.

Now we consider the nature of the church in relationship with the whole of God’s world. God made all things and loves all that he has made. When Jesus summarised the commandments he asked us to love God, to love ourselves (and as an instruction to a community that includes the love of the Body of Christ) and to love our neighbour. This love for neighbour must be as strong as the love for self. Thus we are commanded to look to the people who share our world and to love them as actively and caringly as we love each other within the church.

Jesus became human to show us how to love in the fullest possible way. His love was not reserved for the Jews, though his own people were his first priority. Rather, he demonstrated love for all people, and then he sent out his disciples to share the message of love too. When he prayed for his followers on the night before he died, Jesus said: As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.’ John 17:18.
We are a people who are not only called to God, but sent by him. In sending us, God does not send us away from his presence, for he promises to be with us always. In Psalm 72 the psalmist writes:
23 Yet I am always with you;
       you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
       and afterward you will take me into glory.

As disciples of Christ we share an imperative to tell the whole world about God’s love, loving the world ourselves as best we can according to the example Christ set for us. He sends us into the world as his agents of love. In this we become witnesses to all that Christ is. In other words we are apostles, and we express the apostolic nature of the church. An apostle, quite simply, is a witness – one who sees Christ and tells others about him. Sometimes the definition of apostle is limited by certain theologians to those who witness the risen Christ, which allows them to name St. Mary Magdalene as the first apostle. Others prefer to include all who witnessed Christ throughout his incarnate life – which would make the shepherds the first apostles. Wherever you see the starting point of this apostolic calling, there is no doubt that the calling remains. Jesus sends us as witnesses of his love and the Father’s love for all of the world.

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28: 16-20

Some churches use the name ‘Mass’ for the Eucharistic celebration. This name comes from the last act of the service, the dismissal. Both words come form the Latin missa which means sending. By giving the service a name which prioritises our sending we are given an important priority. In attending Sunday worship we engage in an activity which strengthens and resources our relationship with God and with the wider church. But this is not a completion of the task. We can’t draw a sigh of relief at the end of the service and think that our Christian duty is done for the week. Rather, in going to church we equip ourselves for the main thing, which is the sending out. The task begins when we leave the church, not when we arrive.

Small groups – transforming communities – within the church are very important in resourcing us for this sending. Ideally it is the small group which is the sending heart of the church rather than the Sunday community. In a small group each member can share stories, experiences, concerns about the people they are sent to and the things they are trying to achieve. The group members can support each other in the task and share the burden. Ideally, the group works together, sharing in apostolic activity together. Jesus always sent his apostles out in pairs, and he encouraged them to be together as a larger group to support each other and to pray for each other. In the security of the small group, members can enable and resource each other in a way that cannot be done in Sunday worship.

The image used in this session is ‘Light’. Usually we think of the image of light as being connected to Christ, the Light of the World. Simeon proclaimed Jesus as a light long before Jesus was able to speak for himself:

"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
      you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
      and for glory to your people Israel." Luke 2: 29-32

In the book of Revelation Jesus is also referred to as the light of the world, an image that many churchgoers find difficult to separate from the painting by William Holman Hunt. As the nature of the church is to be like Christ, imitating his love and living out his commands, so we find that we must also take up the lamp and become lights for the world. This is what it means to be an apostolic church. In the first of the scripture passages used on our course evenings, Jesus tells us that we (the Body of Christ) are the light of the world. So now the task is not only Christ’s, it is ours. We are the light of the world. We should be as visible to the world as a city built on a hill, Jesus tells us. We take up this challenge in baptism: the candle given to a newly baptised person at the end of the service is the sign that they are sent out to ‘Shine as a light in the world to the glory of God the Father’. It isn’t only a sign of Christ in them, but a sign of them accepting the call to shine Christ’s light out to others, to join the apostolic witness of all the baptised. And now the challenge sets in. This sending to shine as lights in the world asks us to make ourselves very visible – and thus also very vulnerable.

It is tempting as Christians to live out our faith in such a way that we reserve our talk of Christ and our living according to his commands for those who share our point of view. We can live full lives as holy people, very much part of the unity of the church, and looking for the Catholic, universal future of a people who are to come into Christ’s presence at the end of days. But if we do not also live out the calling to be apostolic – to shine out the news of Christ’s love to the world, then we are missing a vital aspect of the life and nature of the church. The fourfold nature of the church is like a four legged table. Lose any one of them and the table is no longer stable. Give undue emphasis to one aspect of the church over another and the table becomes wobbly.

So often when churches neglect one part of the nature of the church, it is this apostolic calling. We hope that the Bishops or other clergy will do it for us. We feel shy or embarrassed. We don’t want to risk losing friends or becoming unpopular within the community in which we live by saying things which makes others feel uncomfortable. And so we keep quiet about our faith. We reason that this is just for us, it’s about what we do on a Sunday, and we have no reason to impose it on anyone else. And so we hide the light. Jesus pointed out that no-one who is trying to light up a room would put a light under a bowl. Of course they wouldn’t. That would not only mean a dark room, but it would put the light out. A light placed under a bowl will be starved of oxygen and will quickly fade. But we do this all the time. We are the light of the world, people who because of Christ’s love for us are filled with his light – we are called to shine this light out so that others will come to the light. But we allow our embarrassment or our introversion or sometimes our laziness to become an excuse for not shining that light out to others. And we risk putting our own lights out.

We live in a liberal and tolerant society, in which multi-culturalism is celebrated and we are encouraged to allow that all people have the right to their own beliefs. What is not tolerated, indeed, is imposing our beliefs on other people. You’re ok, I’m ok, we say; and you don’t have to be ok my way – don’t expect me to be ok your way. Faith is private and sharing it is almost taboo. We see regular items in the news about employees in major companies who lose their jobs because they wear a cross or have offered to pray for people. The temptation – which the attitude of parts of the media, and of legal processes biased to a secular idea of equality, risks making an obligation – is to avoid ever showing faith in any way.  And so we place the light firmly under the bowl and add some extra weight on top to ensure we don’t risk the light dazzling anyone or getting in their eyes.

We need to decide that the call to be sent, to be apostolic lights in the world, is something that is so essential that we will find the courage to shine despite the prevailing culture in which we live. We should want, with all of our hearts, to shine out the love of Christ, however hard it may seem. The room is dark and we want to light it up – that is why we do not hide the light or allow it to go out. As a church, we need to cultivate our desire to shine, to make it the deepest desire of our hearts – that as we respond in love to God we share his love not only with fellow lovers of God but also with those who God would have love him – that is, everyone else!

As we consider this challenge, Steven Croft reminds us that there is more than one aspect to our calling to share God’s love in the world. [1] Croft calls this ‘The Two Ways’:
firstly, we are called to love by looking for social justice and peace for all of the world, a calling which would include care for the environment within stewardship for the whole of creation (the first task given to humankind). This task, which might seem overwhelming when expressed in this way, works out in small groups and local churches both through the hands on work we can do ourselves in the community – collecting for a Food Bank, perhaps, or running a toddler group or a soup kitchen, or establishing a community shop. Our concern for the wider world is important too, and is usually worked out as we find ways to support agencies which are able to work on our behalf, perhaps by fundraising, publicising campaigns or even encouraging individual church members to consider vocations to working for social justice or even in politics.

Secondly, we are called to proclaim the word of God. It is our task to name the God who motivates our lives and shows us how to love. If we are active in the first area, this will go a long way towards helping us in our proclamation. The principal attributed to St. Francis of Assisi applies: "Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words."
Sometimes we do need to use words though.  This is perhaps the hardest part of the calling for some Christians. We are not all called to be evangelists, and we are not all articulate. Within the body of Christ we are therefore called to help each other shine – the light is a shared light, not one that individuals are expected to keep kindled by themselves. So faced with difficult questions, one church member might refer to another for help. Knowing each other within a small group helps in knowing which of your friends in the church community you can call on to help in this way.

In shying away from this part of the calling, some Christians are confusing the apostolic calling, which is an essential aspect of the nature of the church and therefore something to which we are all called, together and individually, with the evangelical gift. We must support and call evangelists within the membership. Every church needs evangelists – people equipped to proclaim the gospel. But they are not to be left to do the whole of the apostolic witnessing of the church by themselves. We all shine, and because we all shine together the light is so much brighter. Each of us is sent by Christ to witness to him, to shine in the world, using the gifts which he has given us. For example, if our witness is a witness of love through an ability to bake delicious cakes and supply one every week to a homeless shelter, then that is wonderful. One day, the good baker might be asked what motivates him/her to make those cakes. And the baker may well call in the preacher to help with the long answer, but it is important that every one of us is equipped to give an immediate answer. It is not a difficult answer, but it is one which needs courage to speak out because our culture does not approve of religious talk in public. But the simple answer is this – I love you, and God loves you. And I want to show you God’s love in the best way I can – in this case, by making cakes.

The Two Ways are also expressed through the Five Marks of Mission set out by the 1988 Lambeth Conference as a resource to help churches consider how they understand their call to apostolic witness. Churches should be seeking to have all five marks of mission clearly seen within the life and work of the church community.

The Five Marks of Mission
§  to proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
§  the teach, baptise and nurture new believers.
§  to respond to human need by loving service.
§  to seek to transform unjust structures of society.
  • to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the earth.


Can our churches and small groups support each other and learn together in such a way that every church member has the four table legs equally balanced – including the apostolic leg? Of course, we can. Archbishop Rowan’s words[2] are encouraging:

And it is as we perform this apostolic task that of course we are drawn back again and again and again to where we started. The one Christ, the one source of divine life and power. Because you see the apostles in the New Testament are not heroes; they are saints and martyrs but they are not heroes. They struggle, they fail, they repent, they return. Peter himself betrays his lord and is called afresh. Paul speaks of how he's not even worthy to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church of God. And Paul in 2 Corinthians with great irony spells out just what it is to be an apostle; a series of stressful heart-breaking, body-breaking experiences and humiliation, failure and struggle, yet sustained always by the one Lord.




[1] Croft, Steven, Transforming communities: Re-imagining the Church for the 21st Century. London: DLT, 2002, p 138.

[2] Williams, Rowan, Friday 28 October 2005 Archbishop's Address to the 3rd Global South to South Encounter Ain al Sukhna, Egypt to be found at http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1464 (retrieved by the author 21st December 2009)

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