Matthew 5:13-16
Can you imagine walking into a darkened room, turning on the light and then turning around and walking out of the room? We turn on lights when we enter a room to have illumination, so we can see, walk, read, progress. In a simile to this passage, we wouldn't open up a closet, turn on the light in the closet and then shut the door with the light on inside and us outside. Light is a metaphor and our lives lay in the balance.
Let me use another one. When you are looking for something you have misplaced, you don't continue looking for it once you found it do you? That would be absurd. You find whatever it is and move forward.
When we are speaking of faith or personal insights (which relates to our faith), we move forward. We are called to wholeness (nothing new from me there). It would seem silly to learn something about yourself and then discard it. A case in point for myself is being gay. Once I put all the pieces of the puzzle together, what do you do? Some would have me put that light under a bushel basket. However, when God has created you as something rather unique and special, and we all are in one way or another, you don't dismiss it. You revel in it, you explore it, you rejoice in it. Being gay is not a license to be immoral but it is also not a calling to be asexual. One of the fundamental messages of Genesis is that we are called into community, that it is not good for man to be alone. We search for the one who completes us. This is wholly good whether you are gay or straight.
I used being gay as being but a single example. What else can we think of in the realm of self discovery or knowledge where it can be looked as a light or knowledge. We do not move backward. We may not run forward willy nilly but we move forward in faith and knowledge. We do hide under bushel baskets. To do so is a sin against God who created us in light and love.
Let me use another one. When you are looking for something you have misplaced, you don't continue looking for it once you found it do you? That would be absurd. You find whatever it is and move forward.
When we are speaking of faith or personal insights (which relates to our faith), we move forward. We are called to wholeness (nothing new from me there). It would seem silly to learn something about yourself and then discard it. A case in point for myself is being gay. Once I put all the pieces of the puzzle together, what do you do? Some would have me put that light under a bushel basket. However, when God has created you as something rather unique and special, and we all are in one way or another, you don't dismiss it. You revel in it, you explore it, you rejoice in it. Being gay is not a license to be immoral but it is also not a calling to be asexual. One of the fundamental messages of Genesis is that we are called into community, that it is not good for man to be alone. We search for the one who completes us. This is wholly good whether you are gay or straight.
I used being gay as being but a single example. What else can we think of in the realm of self discovery or knowledge where it can be looked as a light or knowledge. We do not move backward. We may not run forward willy nilly but we move forward in faith and knowledge. We do hide under bushel baskets. To do so is a sin against God who created us in light and love.
‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
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