Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

Preached by Winton Boyd on Sunday, January 6th, 2008

Text: Isaiah 60:1-6

Our text today comes from ancient Israel, from that time when the community of returned exiles struggled to believe that God was still working in their midst. Earlier promises, spoken while in exile, pointed to a great future for God’s people. They had, in fact, regained possession of the land as promised. But they were barely existing. They felt in no condition to be a light to the nations (42:5-7).

Into this state of discouragement and concern, the prophet writes, “arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

In Hebrew, shine and light are two forms of the same word. Therefore, we could translate this phrase “give light - for your light has come.”

Furthermore, the phrase “your light has come” anticipates God’s “coming.” Even though he is speaking about the future, the form of the verb is in the past tense – signifying an action that has already been completed (has come).

Give light, for the light of God shining through you has come, and is promised to come into the future.

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We repeat this promise year in and year out because it is a reminder of the promise of God to us, that we too will be light for the world. The challenge for us is to see how we “shine” or “give light” when it is so easy to feel discouraged, disheartened, distracted or tired. The challenge is to connect this promise to our spiritual lives in concrete, tangible ways.

I would like to suggest a visual aid for this challenge – that of the Mobius Strip

• Giant Möbius Strips have been used as conveyor belts (to make them last longer, since “each side” gets the same amount of wear); or as continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing time).

I would invite us to think about our spiritual lives as “life on a mobius strip.” Imagine one side represent our outer or “on stage” life; let the other side represent our inner or “backstage” life.

Parker Palmer says there are typically four stages of spiritual growth

1. We are born with no distinctions, no separation. What you see is what you get.

2. Stage two – (hold it out straight/horizontally) – this symbolizes the wall of separation we start building in young adulthood and adolescence. We protect our inner life and hide it from our on stage life.
3. Stage 3 – (complete the circle) – we claim our inner truth and try to order our outer life around it. We seek to have our outer actions consistent with our inner values – even if they are separated. We seek to be “centered.” While a good thing and an important step – there is a down side, shown by the strip – it is easy to circle the wagons to keep out strange and alien things that don’t make sense to our inner life. Frankly a lot of spiritually ends at this stage – centered but with clear boundaries and walls between what is inside the realm of faith and what is outside the realm of faith.

4. Stage 4 – create the mobius strip – There is no inner and outer. What begins, or seems like outer, is in fact inner and vis versa. As Palmer says, “What is inside us continually flows out to help form, or deform, the outer world. What is outside us continually flows in to help form, or deform, our inner lives.

During the course of the last 6 months, a taskforce in this church, Next Generation Initiative, set out to help us think more clearly about our programming and building and staffing needs – all the while keeping in mind our guiding vision – that we are a congregation that is “spiritually alive, joyfully inclusive, committed to justice.”

What became obvious very quickly is that programming addressing all three phrases in our vision statement has both inner and outer dimensions. There is no inward spirituality without outward justice work. Joyful inclusivity has deep resonances personally and socially. How we treat ourselves impacts how we interact with the outside world….The list could go on. For us as a congregation then, thinking about “letting our light shine” into the next generation – using a mobius style image is useful and valuable.

If we, as individuals, are to truly be “light for the world” – we have to be our most authentic and honest selves. For us to be authentic – we must face the important and pressing questions of our lives.

While the prophet said, “arise, let your light shine” – we may take a few minutes to consider the guiding questions of our lives that shape and form the way we are light.

Questions such as:

 What is your growing edge? In your job, with your family or partner, with your parents?

  Where do you face risk and fear in your life?

  Where are you being challenged to grow? to change?

  Is there a pressing career, personal, school, or relational question in your life at this time?

  How are your strengths and weaknesses being challenged to lead you in new ways?

Can this simple mobius strip image help you deepen your understanding of how you must face and live into those questions and let them shape and guide your witness of God’s love in the world?

Can this mobius strip symbolize how facing these questions, and thus awaking to the light of God within us (today) is both an inward and outward spiritual discipline? A journey alone and with others, in public and in private, in words and ideas and in mysteries that defy words.

For example – this month I begin my tenth year as your pastor. One of my vocational questions is “how do I stay both vital and open to this congregation, my gifts, and my hopes in order to remain an effective and faithful leader?” When I started here in January of 1999 – I wanted to be here a long time, without knowing or having experienced what that means. So now I face questions, issues, challenges and opportunities with you that are quite different than they were 5 or 7 years ago.

If I write this question on the mobius strip – what I see is that the journey with that question has both outer and inner dimensions to it –
hard soul work and gracious outer dialogue with others,
mining my own experience and knowledge and learning from others,
being a leader and being a follower,
looking to other church leaders as well as leaders outside the church for ideas,
delving into our history and anticipating the unknown future.

The mobius strip reminds me it is not just the life question that is important, but the way in which my inner and outer life support and nurture each other as I live into the question.

When I look at the communion table, it seems that living in this stage four kind of life is exactly the last supper and communion are all about. What begins in quiet in the relative intimacy of a group of friends becomes global. What is global challenges and strengthens us as individuals.  What begins in darkness moves into light.  What begins with death reveals life.  As we “remember” Jesus, we celebrate that he understood these cycles, these interweaving relationships of our lives.  For this we are both grateful and humble.  Amen.

Text for this sermon

Isaiah 60: 1-6
1 Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
2 For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.
3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
4 Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the LORD.