Liberation Lectionary - Epiphany Season 2022

You are the Light of the World

Daily Scripture Readings:  Matthew 5

Sunday: Matthew 5: 1-4 When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Monday: Matthew 5: 5-6 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Monday: Matthew 5:7-8 “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Monday: Matthew 5:9-10 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Monday: Matthew 5:11-12 “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Monday: Matthew 5:13-14 “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. 
Monday: Matthew 5:15-16 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.

Song: The Light, by Common

Reflection: You are the Light of the World

In Genesis, God said “Let there be light”. The beloved disciple John wrote “The Word was the light of life”. In his famous sermon, Jesus of Nazareth taught “You are the light of the world”. And at this point I’m seeing the poetic beauty of this progression… but I wanna say “too far….too far.” That’s quite a jump, Jesus. I want to ask the Lord, “wait, are you sure?” because every group of this diverse species call human seems to be living in a lot more languishing than light. 

We are the lonely of the world, the chaotic of the world. We are the unwell of the world… we need the light.

And you came all the way over here to tell us that we are the light? We need a new New Testament! Then we look again, we read again. From the beginning, God has been making space for co-creators of light. Jesus did not come to shame or despise the weary world, Jesus came to shine the light of life, so that we can shine in the same way. The Light of the World is being revealed in order to renew the light that God made in the beginning. For the future of creation is the command of God - eternal life. 

This is the ultimate biography of humanity. Our story is as long and unending as our purpose. We seem to be slowing to the rate of the threats we live under, but our light is increasing at the rate of eternity. Once it shines, the light cannot go out. The truth never dims, Ida taught us that. People never lose power once its found together, Ella taught us that. Decay will not win the day, because renewal - which paces itself to build power - is well on the way. We are and are  becoming a new creation. This black and bright, eternal energy takes time to come into its fullness, because it is being built to outlast all dreariness, present and past.

Maybe this is why life feels so long, why global, settler-colonial history’s repetitive blows to our freedom feel unending. Humanity’s lengthy birth story is both gruesome and glorious, but oppression expires, wars cease, carceral capitalism corrupts itself to oblivion. The light of the world is who we are, because The Light of the World is whose we are, and we live by only one command - eternal life.

That’s why the ancestors remain with us in every possible way. They know a thing or two about struggle, hindrance, slow burns and long battles and faroff successes. They know about the progress and change that happens as light burns more brightly and broadly, shared from one candle to the next. Bayard’s light and Pauli’s light were too bring to bear in their time, but we now shine in the radiance of the queer beloved and gender expansive. Their light is no less eternal. Angela Davis is still rejected by Christians because of her communist viewpoint. Our confusion and dismissive arrogance has no power to diminish the truth. Her words are no less impactful or everlasting. None of us can force agreement, we can’t fake freedom. We have to transform with and because of necessary change. This is how we shine our light - we fight for the “now and not yet”  freedom of our people and everyone. And we are learning to work while we wait. 

We are not moving at the speed of our sadness, we are growing at godspeed. No matter how “stony the road we trod”, our future is the everlasting radiance of God.

“But we are — as individuals, as a species, as a society — unfinished and incomplete, our story unwritten….while there is disorientation in accepting ourselves as increments in advancement the arc of which far exceeds our lifetimes, there is also transcendence, for a story yet unfinished is a story with myriad possible endings — a story that forestalls despair by the sheer force of possibility; a story in which our individual lives matter not less but more, for they are the pixels shaping the panorama of endless change.” - Maria Popova, on James Baldwin’s essay, “Nothing Personal”

Source: Popova article

Poem / Meditation: Song of the Son, by Jean Toomer

Pour O pour that parting soul in song, O pour it in the sawdust glow of night, Into the velvet pine-smoke air to-night, And let the valley carry it along. And let the valley carry it along.

O land and soil, red soil and sweet-gum tree, So scant of grass, so profligate of pines, Now just before an epoch's sun declines, Thy son, in time, I have returned to thee, Thy son, I have in time returned to thee.

In time, for though the sun is setting on, A song-lit race of slaves, it has not set; Though late, O soil, it is not too late yet, To catch thy plaintive soul, leaving, soon gone, Leaving, to catch thy plaintive soul soon gone.

O dark purple ripened plums, Squeezed, and bursting in the pine-wood air, Passing before they stripped the old tree bare. One plum was saved for me, one seed becomes

An everlasting song, a singing tree, Caroling softly souls of slavery, What they were, and what they are to me, Caroling softly souls of slavery.

About this poem: The poet Jean Toomer lived from 1894 to 1967. He watched the suffering, struggle, and power of Black people throughout that time. How does determination shine through this song? How does the poet grapple with the fact that Black people are being robbed of life’s light, and show that it is “not too late” for the light that shines from our Blackness?