Candle Light

Have you had the experience when you go to light a new candle, that there’s wax on the wick? And you have to hold the flame to the wick until the wax melts away and the wick can catch fire. I think we are like that. If God’s work in this world is the flame, we are wicks covered in wax. And as we move through Advent and light today the candles of hope and peace, we have to be willing to stand close to the flame of God’s work in the world if we are going to bear the light.

Our Scripture this morning was a retelling of our story. In the South, when we are asked “Who are your people?” As believers enfolded into the family of God, this should be our answer. In the beginning…generations passed….living as slaves….wandered in the wilderness…again exiled…in the fullness of time….with you always…to the end of the age. We are living in that time between “I will be with you always, and the end of the age.

So, what is this time about? How will the story of God’s people in this time be told? What is ours to do? The passage we read from Isaiah this morning is Israel’s response after they have returned from exile, during the period of fasting. They are doing all the religious things they are supposed to do according to the rules, and yet, Bo Lim, an Old Testament Professor writes, they complain “that God has deprived them of justice. God responds by demanding Israel to stop depriving those around them of justice and righteousness! Even though Israel has been attentive to the ritual ordinances of the Law, they have completely neglected the ethical demands of it. The people believe they are the victims, when in fact they are the victimizers.”

The situation really hadn’t changed much when John the Baptist started preaching in the wilderness, so he quoted Isaiah and went on, “You bunch of venomous snakes! Who told you that you could escape God’s coming wrath? Don’t just talk of turning to God; you’d better bear the authentic fruit of a changed life. Don’t take pride in your religious heritage, saying, “We have Abraham for our father!” Listen—God could turn these rocks into children of Abraham!
9 God wants you to bear fruit! If you don’t produce good fruit, then you’ll be chopped down like a fruitless tree and made into firewood. God’s ax is taking aim and ready to swing!”

And the people asked, What shall we do to perform works from changed lives?

Again, John answered from the Prophet Isaiah, “The person who has two shirts must share with the person who has none. And the person with food must share with the one in need.

And some tax collectors in the crowd asked, “Teacher, what kind of fruit is God looking for from us?”

And John answered, “Stop overcharging people. Only collect what you must turn over to the Romans.”

And some Roman soldiers in the crowd asked, “What about us? What should we do to show true change?”

And John answered, “Don’t extort money from people by throwing around your power or making false accusations, and be content with your pay.”

Many in the crowd began wondering if John might himself be the Anointed One promised by God.

And John answered, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming—One far more powerful than I, One whose sandals I am not worthy to untie—who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”

John did the good that was his to do. He didn’t stay silent. He didn’t offer soothing words to the people who wanted to be “good with God” but maintain economic injustice…he didn’t say “I’m sure it will be ok…after all, you have to feed your family.” He didn’t offer exceptions for people who said, “I only have two shirts.” He provided them with a path to redemption. He didn’t say they had to solve all the world’s problems or the systemic inequalities. He said they had to share what they had and not participate in the systems in order to prepare for the coming of Jesus.

Rabbi Tarfon, who lived in the period of the Gospel writers, around 70 to 135, wrote a commentary on the Prophet Micah, and in it he said of the good that God requires of us, “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

In his book, “You Are Changing the World: Whether You Like It Or Not,” David LaMotte offers two questions to guide us in determining what is ours to do – what is the fire that God is trying to light in you – the first is “What’s bugging you?” What tugs at you, gets you fired up, over and over again? The second is “What inspires you? What do you see happening in the world that makes you sit up a bit straighter and feel a little more hopeful about the human race?” When you’ve answered those two questions, “What’s bugging you?” and “What’s inspiring you?” then you are ready to ask the question that melts the wax that is keeping your candle from being lit, “What small thing can I do about it?” That is what is yours to do.

*Who here knows who Rosa Parks is? An African American woman who boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, and sat down. She then refused to move to the back of the bus when a white man boarded. She was arrested. It was not a spur-of-the-moment decision. It was a warm glow that emanated from a candle she had been allowing God to light in her. At 42 years old, Rosa Parks had already been a civil rights activist for over 20 years. She had already served as secretary for the local chapter of the NAACP for 12 years. She was already connected with 200 African American women in Montgomery who had formed a Women’s Political Council, with 3 chapters. And when she was arrested, the phones started ringing, because when you gather the flames of lit candles, you get quite a fire. When Jo Ann Robinson picked up, she made a few more calls, and then she made a flier. Jo Ann Robinson was a professor at Alabama State, so she called the person with the key to the copy room and two students she trusted from her Friday morning class. She met them at midnight, and she and the two students cranked the mimeograph machine, making copies for 4 hours, 17,500 times. They cut them apart and bundled them, then from 4-7am they dropped them off at the 200 houses of the Women’s Political Council, who distributed them in their neighborhoods. The one-day bus strike turned into a year-long strike, until December 20, 1956, when the US Supreme Court declared segregated seating on buses unconstitutional. During that time, the Women’s Political Council set up a central dispatch and bought 6 station wagons, they coordinated volunteers to drive people to doctor’s appointments and wherever else they would have depended on the bus to go otherwise. During that time, do you know what Rosa Parks was doing? Her candle continued to burn. She was one of the dispatchers, doing the good that was hers to do.

I see the same thing happening with Room in the Inn and ministries for unhoused individuals in Memphis. This week, we received a request from First Presbyterian Soup Kitchen for underwear for men and women, belts, and pants and shoes for men. Jinney and I met and discussed that we have some funds left in the budget from your pledges that we can use to purchase some. I was at Costco, and they had a sale on men’s underwear. They had said they needed large sizes, so I began loading up my cart: 5 boxes of Large, 5 boxes of Extra Large. 50 pairs of underwear. Was that enough? I ordered 30 belts on sale from Amazon. Was it enough? They didn’t say how many they needed. I didn’t know how many other churches would contribute. It was enough to make me want to not do anything. Surely these would just be a drop in the bucket.

Then I read an Advent devotional from Presbyterian Outlook about our natural desire for a linear journey. We want to know where we are going, the proper path, if there are alternate ways, the best place to begin…and the devotion reminded that “The life of faith is not clear cut. God’s love is expansive and available – unbound by our human need for structure and certainty.” And then it offered, “Why not begin where you already are.” “Couldn’t we meander for a while? Spiral off in a new direction?”

And I was reminded of the beauty that is coming from recent meandering in the work to bring healing for the unhoused. I see the way that COVID brought together the Alliance for Homelessness and the work that the Hospitality HUB and Room in the Inn in partnership with MIFA, providing not just shelter for a night but rehabilitation to regain health, job training, social work, navigation through the webs of injustice, disparity, and abuse that threaten to entangle. And I have hope that we are bringing our candle light together to create a fire of hope and justice, and without justice there can be no peace.

Devotional author Kayla Craig writes, “Advent reminds us that Christ came into a world fraught with the very same issues of injustice and inequality that we face, and he did not turn away. Instead, he showed us a way forward: engaged action rooted in compassion.”

You are one person. You cannot do it all. What’s bugging you? What inspires you? That is the fire that God offers near the wick of your life. Will you let the wax melt and your candle light? Will you do the good that is yours to do?

And perhaps, you might decide to gather with others holding the same candle and allow God’s fire to burn.

*Information on Rosa Parks adapted from a TedxTalk by David LaMotte, “Why Heroes Don’t Change the World,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDHrgQ5NmI4