5th Sunday after Epiphany, Year A

We have a wonderful combination of scriptures from Isaiah in the Old Testament and Matthew in the New Testament, especially for the day that we are celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Saturday Soul Suppers. The theme of light shining is a prominent theme in the season after Epiphany, and we find it both in Isaiah and in Matthew. Isaiah says “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness.” Jesus says in Matthew, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”

They are also passages that lead us into the season of Lent which begins a week and a half from now. In fact, today’s passage from Isaiah is one of two options for the Old Testament passage to be read on Ash Wednesday as we begin our Lenten fast. The people that the prophet Isaiah is talking to think they are doing all the righteous, religious things. But Isaiah turns upside down the idea of what sin is and what righteousness is. Or we might say he turns their understanding of sin and righteousness right side up. He says, “Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practised righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. ‘Why do we fast but you do not see? Why humble ourselves but you do not notice?’” And then Isaiah tells us what the problem is: “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.” They think they’re righteous in all their fasting, but Isaiah tells them they’re not paying attention to their real sins: how they treat their workers, how they treat the people they quarrel with. It’s easy to slip into being critical of the people Isaiah is talking to and stop there. If we do that, though, we risk doing the same thing they are, which is being blind to our sins. Today’s passage challenges us to look more closely at the ways we treat all the various people in our lives who do work for us in different ways. Do we have room for improvement in treating them more lovingly and more justly? And it challenges us to reflect on the people we quarrel with. Do we have room for improvement in treating the people we quarrel with more lovingly and more justly?

Isaiah sees the people humbling themselves in sackcloth and ashes and says they’ve got it all backward. He says, “Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house?” What God is most interested in, in their generation and in ours, is not the rituals. What God is most interested in is how we are loosening the bonds of those who suffer most from injustice, the ones with the least power in our society, the ones most likely to be scapegoated. Undoing injustice is something for us to work on both at a societal level and also at a personal level, getting right down to the nitty-gritty of sharing your bread with the hungry and bringing the homeless poor into your house. It is one of the reasons I am so grateful for the Saturday Soul Supper ministry, because it is a way of doing both of those things. Sharing your bread and bringing people into your house involves giving your money and it involves giving your time and effort. I am not going to pass up the opportunity to remind you that giving more of your money, or more of your time and effort, to the outreach ministries of our congregation is an immediate and effective way to put your faith into action to help your neighbours. This is true for the Saturday Soup Suppers, for the Christmas Hampers, for the Migrant Worker Ministry, for The Gathering Place dinners, and for gifts to our operating budget that make all of them possible. As those who are most involved can tell you, these ministries not only change the lives of our guests for the better, they also change us for the better, as we find our love for our neighbours growing.

Isaiah describes beautifully the results of working for justice, generosity, and compassion: “Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. There’s a saying that’s not in the Bible that says, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” What the prophet Isaiah says here is different: “The Lord helps those who help others, specifically the oppressed and the poor.” And that in our help for others, God’s light shines forth in us, our light shall break forth like the dawn.

Jesus tells us something very similar in today’s gospel passage. He says, “You are the light of the world…No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” It is the good works that we do that make those around us give glory to God. It is showing our care for those who suffer from oppression and poverty. The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees includes following all the laws and commandments; a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees is the righteousness that acts from love, that works for justice for the oppressed, that notices the neglected, that gives to the hungry, that welcomes the poor. That is the way to enter the kingdom of heaven, and to start right here in earthly life.

Both Isaiah and Jesus express their exasperation with those who show off how religious or righteous they are to get more attention for themselves, and to look superior to others. Isaiah and Jesus call us to do the opposite: instead of drawing attention to ourselves, to pay attention to the needs of others, especially the poor and the oppressed, and to act in response to those needs. The way we care for our neighbors, especially the poor and the oppressed, is what makes others give glory to God. When we see the suffering of others, we no longer want to look superior, we discover a genuine humility.

If we say we love God but we don’t care about the poverty or injustice that harm our neighbours, our love of God is hollow. 1st John 4 puts it very simply: The commandment we have from God is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

There are a variety of ways to do this work of loving our neighbours who need us, and different people will carry out these ministries in different ways depending on their particular gifts, strengths, resources, and personalities. There may be some trial and error in finding the forms of ministry that are a good fit for you. And often it means venturing outside our comfort zone. Still, the desire to help, to serve, to give, is a form of light, which shines more brightly the more the light is nurtured.

The darkness of injustice, oppression, and evil can feel overwhelming sometimes. Still, the old saying remains true that it’s better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. Even if we feel we only have a little light, we can remember the song based on this verse, and sing “this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.” It is a little light of mine, and a little light of yours. And in ultimately, the light we have is the light of God.