Shining as One

On the Daily Office Blog, I wrote today that when Jesus says, “Let your light shine,” he isn’t saying that to you, or me, as isolated individuals.  Jesus is saying to the community of disciples; let your light shine as one.  The more of you that shine together, the brighter that light will be for all the world to see.  Perhaps we should change the words of that traditional hymn to, “This little light of ours, we’re gonna let it shine.”

The other day, I read an interesting blog post in which the author bemoaned the loss of civility, with the loss of civilization not far behind, perhaps.  The angry town halls this past August: the proliferation of “news” that is tailored to fit one’s predisposed opinions, be they conservative or liberal: all are evidence that we are losing the ability to talk to each other about disagreeable subjects in an agreeable tone.  According to “Tim,” the author of this post, the root of our uncivil culture is identity.

“I and others have staked our identity on a plethora of outward ‘forms’: Right/left, Democrat/Republican, Conservative Christian/Liberal Christian, patriot/expatriate, on and on.”  The way that I would put it is this: Seeking safety in numbers, I stake my identity on a certain “tribe.”  And having staked my sense of who I am on that tribe, any disagreement with another tribe isn’t really about the issue; it’s about me, my sense of vale and self-worth.  No wonder disagreements about “issues” really degenerate into shouting matches when our very existence is in question.

Jesus asks us to stake ourselves on Him.  Jesus asks us to recognize our poverty of spirit, or total need of God, to reveal who we really are to us.  God knows who we are far better than we know ourselves.  For us to know who we are requires the stripping away of all the false identities we have worn for so long, that we think of them as our skin.  Once stripped, then we are free to be who God wants us to be, together, so that our lights may shine as one.

Is that daunting?  Absolutely.  To be a community where our lights shine as one requires a level of mutual honesty and vulnerability that is not easy to attain.  In addition to the risk of getting hurt, there is another obstacle that is particular to churches:  the fear of conflict.  We know we’re supposed to love each other.  So when something happens that upsets us, we who call ourselves Christians are tempted to sweep our anger under the rug.

But what I have found is that when we come to each other in love, then that love tempers our expressions of conflict.  That love keeps us open to the truth that is bigger than one person’s grievance, and the other’s defensiveness.  Out of these “conflicts,” then, emerges a deepened understanding of ourselves and our brother or sister in Christ.  In this way, conflict can be made holy, the way in which Christ cements our loyalty to each other.  Risky?  Yes.  But would you rather risk being hurt, or being alone?