Jaclyn Schofield
September 23, 2007 – Beach Service
Psalm 4, Luke 11:33-41
"Tend Your Light"

Everybody take a moment and look across the water at the lighthouse. The Stamford Harbor Lighthouse was built on Chatham Rock in 1881. In 1953 the Coast Guard took it out of active service and it was sold into private hands in 1955. It continues to be privately owned to this day.

The life of a lighthouse keeper wasn’t easy (especially when not on the mainland). Before electricity the keeper climbed to the top of the lighthouse everyday, 365 days a year, to clean the glass, polish the lens and replenish the fuel in the lamp. They and their families lived alone – isolated. Holidays were often spent away from families. Storms could cut them off from land for days. A baby was born at the Stamford lighthouse because the mother couldn’t be brought to shore in time. And when one of the keepers was murdered, no one noticed for three days that there was no light.

A couple of months ago, I watched a documentary on PBS about lighthouses. They told a story about a lighthouse that was built about two hundred years ago off the northeastern coast. It was built to withstand anything the sea could throw at it and was manned by a keeper, his wife and daughter. Then it was hit by a Perfect Storm. The storm raged for days, battering the lighthouse day and night. Still, the keeper faithfully climbed the stairs to keep the light burning. After several days, a rogue wave as tall as the lighthouse hit it dead on. The top half of the lighthouse was sheered off. Stone and timber fell into the lower levels – on top of the keeper and his huddled family. Hours later the keeper regained consciousness to discover that his wife and child were dead. But he couldn’t take time to grieve. Darkness was falling. Finding kerosene and other materials, he fashioned torches. He carried them up to the top of the ruined tower and held the burning torches as high as he could throughout the night. He knew that the light meant life to passing ships. To the sailors on those ships the light meant safety, guidance and a beacon in the darkness.

Just as the lighthouse was a saving beacon to the sailors, so too is the light of God for us. It brings safety and comfort and burns brightly when our lives are darkest. David knew this (I mean King David – although I’m sure our David knows it too) and he spoke of the light in Psalm 4.

The fourth psalm is traditionally attributed to David, although scholars agree that the true author is unknown. It is also impossible to know exactly when or why it was written. Some scholars believe that it was derived from a sacrificial ritual connected to a temple trial. It begins with a lament – a cry for God’s help. The psalmist’s attackers have accused him with lies. But he is confident that God will answer his prayers. He urges his accusers to stop the lying and to worship properly. He describes them as desirous of God’s favor, but he believes that it is he who is in proper fellowship with the Lord. And so his heart is glad and he sleeps in peace.

Two things become clear regarding the psalmist’s relationship with God. The first is the importance that he places on Judaic law. The accusers have born false witness against him – clearly a defiance of the Law of God and therefore a sin. He admonishes them to make right sacrifices, as the law commands. He alone is in God’s favor because he is faithful. In ancient Judaic thought it was adherence to the laws that brought God’s light. Humans were justified in God’s eyes by obedience to and observation of the law.

The second aspect of the psalmist’s faith is that he seemed to believe that God was external. God’s light shone on one’s face. It brought peace to the heart, but it was not in the heart. Again, this was consistent with ancient Judaic thought that held God as distant – accessible only through the priests and sacrifice.

I’m going to turn the passage in Luke around for a minute because I again want to stress the role of Judaic law. In verses 37-41 Jesus has been invited to dine with a Pharisee. The Pharisee was surprised that Jesus did not wash before eating. But Jesus points out that the Pharisee is only washing the outside of the plate and cup. He tells him that inside he is full of greed and wickedness. He reminds him that God made the inside as well as the outside and if he gives from inside himself, God will make him clean.

This is not a lesson in dinner party etiquette.

It was a matter of law that one washed before eating. It was a ritual cleansing and every detail of how it was done was proscribed by law. Jesus was flying in the face of the law to make a point. It is not obedience to law that justifies one to the Lord. It’s what’s inside. It’s faith. Dedicate what’s inside of you to God and God’s light will shine within you.

It’s that light that Jesus speaks of in versus 33-36. He begins by telling us that if we light a lamp, we shouldn’t hide it in the cellar. He says that our eyes are the lamps of our bodies. If our eyes are healthy, our bodies are full of light. If our eyes aren’t healthy, our bodies are full of darkness. So we must be sure that our bodies are filled with light, not darkness.

I am visually impaired and when I first read this passage I said, "JESUS! No you didn’t!" My eyes are not healthy, but my body is not full of darkness. When I lost my sight, I turned inside to the light within me. It was my strength. It was my safety. It was my beacon in the darkness.

But it’s not these eyes that Jesus is talking about. He’s talking about the heart. The heart is the eye through which we see God’s light within us. And he’s telling us that we have to tend to our hearts. When we tend to our hearts, we also tend to the light. The fuel that keeps the light going is faith. But what is it that makes our "eyes" unhealthy. William Barclay tells us that there are three things that darken our hearts. The first is that they may become hard. Insensitive to doing wrong. Our hearts will give us warnings if they start to harden and we must learn to listen. Second, our hearts may become dull and used to the suffering of others. We must not allow ourselves to become complacent. The third cause of a darkened heart is rebelliousness. Knowing what is right, but deliberately doing wrong. Doing what’s right is not always the easy thing, but it keeps the heart healthy.

When I first started at seminary I met a man named Bill who was a candidate for Doctor of Ministry. As I got to know him, I learned that he had been in prison. He had a history of alcoholism and drug use. He had beaten his wife to death. When he got to prison he thought about what a mess he’d made of his life. Of the horrible things that he had done and the horrible place that he was in. He prayed for God to help him. And he began to be aware of God’s light within him. He went to talk to the prison chaplain and he prayed and read the Bible. He took courses and received his undergraduate degree and then on to complete his Masters of Divinity. When he was paroled, he continued with his schooling and started a prison ministry. This is a man who learned to tend his light. As his faith grew stronger, his heart became healthier and his light grew brighter.

Let us begin our work to tend the light within us with a prayer in Jesus' name:

We wait in the dawn until your light is within us.
Lord, let your deep joy shine out from our eyes.
Grant that your wisdom will inspire us with brightness.
Let the splendor of your glory glow out through our actions.
Come and burn within us until we radiate your light.
Capture our cold heart.
Set us ablaze with your love.
Change us and we shall be changed.
Lord, fill us with the light of life.
Amen.
     (by David Adam)

Be a lighthouse keeper. Polish the lens on the eye of your hearts. Let the inner light of God’s love be a beacon in your darkness and feed your light with faith, and with prayer.