"Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. 

(Luke 12:35)

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy,
 From His lighthouse evermore,
 But to us He gives the keeping
 Of the lights along the shore.
 Let the lower lights be burning!
 Send a gleam across the wave!
 Some poor *struggling, fainting seaman
 You may rescue, you may save.

As you may have gathered I’m kind of interested in old hymns. That’s another one from Sacred Songs and Solos and a lot of the hymns in that book have an evangelical quality and that’s not surprising. It became popular at a time of revival in the United States and here in the UK when people like Dwight Moody were involved in mission. And since Mission is such a big part of the Church of Scotland’s plans for the next few years maybe it’s time to take a few of these out of the closet and give them a shakedown.

Or not. It’s not the second half of the nineteenth any more. It’s the first half of the twenty-first and the way we do mission now will be different from the ways we did it back then. In some ways. In one important respect though, nothing has changed. Not since then and not for two thousand years.

So let me take you back two thousand years. Let me take you back to Jesus teaching, not in the Temple and not in the synagogues, not in the halls of the wealthy or the corridors of power, but in the streets and on the hillsides, in the marketplaces and here, on the plain. Our passage this morning comes from a section of Luke’s Gospel that’s known as the Sermon On The Plain and it mirrors, in certain respects, the Sermon on the Mount that we find in Matthew.

They are different though and that’s because Jesus probably didn’t preach either of them as a single sermon. What we have in both are collections of the sayings and teachings of Jesus that have been compiled by the authors of the Gospels. After Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection people started collecting the things he’d taught and it seems that both Matthew and Luke had access to a major collection that no longer exists but which scholars call Q. This is why the two “sermons” are different - Matthew and Luke chose different sayings of Jesus from Q and put them together in different ways: they were inspired by God to present these sayings in different ways because they were talking to different people.

Luke was a Gentile and a companion of Paul. He’s involved with the whole business of taking the Gospel to this whole new audience beyond what had up to now been the people of God - the Jews. The way he puts Jesus’s teachings together reflects that. In our text Jesus says that his followers should keep their lamps lit, thinking that any moment they may be of service to their Master, to Christ. Just one chapter before this one Jesus gives us one of his most stunning and challenging teachings: “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden.”

So who is lighting the lamp? I think, in the context, it’s God. It’s God inspiring us, each and every one of us, to recognise that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth; inspiring us to be light in a world of darkness; inspiring us to be truth in a world of lies; inspiring us, above all, to be love in a world of hatred, selfishness, greed or perhaps worse, apathetic. Fatalistic. For those lost  at sea in the darkness, among the lies, buffeted by hatred God gives us the keeping of the lights along the shore. He gives us the Gospel of light, of truth, of love to be shared with those we meet.

And sure we don’t always feel too brilliant. Sure, sometimes we hide our light where no one can see it, afraid, perhaps of mockery or derision for our faith. Sure, sometimes we don’t feel too brilliant. Sometimes we wear ourselves out with worry, about the bills coming in and what will happen to the people we care about and about our churches. Sure, we don’t always feel too brilliant. Sometimes we lose faith that we make any difference at all in this world, that life is, as Shakespeare put it “but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.” Sometimes the lower lights don’t feel too much like burning.

And sometimes we forget how brightly our light really burns. The thing is, in a population of 6 million in Scotland, 70 million in the UK, 7 billion in the world right now, it’s easy to feel small and insignificant. It’s easy to think that however diligently you tend your lamp its light is lost in the vastness of humanity. It’s easy to think that no one sees you among this vast multitude of men and women all bustling about their business. It’s easy to think that the lower lights aren’t burning too bright.

Except, of course, that’s nonsense. Honestly. Take a moment. Look back on your life. Have you really been unimportant in anybody’s life? Have you really never touched anybody’s heart? Have you really never been kind to someone, generous to someone, thoughtful to someone? Have you never let someone know that they matter? And if you have how can you imagine that you don’t? Have you really never been light to the world? Have you really never allowed the love of God to flow through you into the world? Do you really think that the lower lights haven’t been burning?

But we doubt it. Of course we do. We think, “Who am I to make a difference in the world?” But who are we not? we are children of God, made in the image of God. In a world that forgets that; in a world that yields to hatred, greed, selfishness, racism, sectarianism, exploitation and corruption, we are called to be a light that shines in the darkness. A light which, however small, illuminates our little bit of that world. For we are given keeping of the lights along the shore.

Is that a burden? No! It’s a blessing. That’s why Jesus begins this passage with “Do not be afraid little flock for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” We belong to a bigger kingdom than the 6 million who live in Scotland, or the 70 million who live in the UK or the 7 billion who live on this planet. We belong to a kingdom that has borne witness to the love of God for over two thousand years. We belong among the lower lights that have shone on this Earth for two millennia.

Why should people become Christians if they don’t know anyone who talks about their faith? Why should people come to church if it’s not a place where they will find love, acceptance and forgiveness? Why should people look for God if no one tells them He’s worth the search. Why should people change their lives if they don’t see that our lives are changed?

Changed by the light that shines in us, and yes it does. Changed by the light that calls us to love one another and to forgive one another. Changed by the light that illuminates not a sect or a creed, not a race or a nation, not a class or a culture, but all humanity. Let the lower lights be burning!

Lord may we shine. May we be light to the world. May we love as we are loved by you. May we forgive as we are forgiven by you. May we be the question that calls others to find you