Shining Lights

What can we tell you about Sydney? For one thing, don't try to catch a ferry on Australia Day - they have an annual ferry race and you have to wait a long time for a regular service. On the positive side, Port Jackson has a number of inlets and therefore many little safe sandy beaches - we visited two of them.

But when we visited Darling Harbour, we found we weren't too far removed from the Burdekin at all. There, at the National Maritime Museum, stands… the Cape Bowling Green lighthouse! The Burdekin locals were rather upset that our lighthouse was spirited away - stolen from us? - without announcement, without any sort of by-your-leave. Technically, it wasn't ours really, and they could do what they liked with it. At least it has some history - faithfully on view for the public to read - and the un-lighthouse-like structure that has replaced it on Cape Bowling Green wouldn't suit Darling Harbour. But they could at least have told us what was going on!

So what's a lighthouse for? At Cape Bowling Green it guided ships safely past the sandy end of Cape Bowling Green. But it did more than that. Every lighthouse gives its own distinctive series of flashes. These are all listed on the ships' charts. So the lighthouse helps the ship's crew to know exactly where they are.

In Darling Harbour, the lighthouse can do none of that. It's no use for navigation or to warn of danger. It can only help tell the story of a lighthouse and the loneliness of the lighthouse keeper - before they made it automatic - to people who live in crowded city suburbs and for whom ocean navigation is an idle curiosity, not a desperate and serious challenge.

Our Bible reading tells us of Jesus' sorrow over Jerusalem. Make no mistake about it - Jerusalem was a magnificent city, dominated by the temple whose façade glistened with gold. Every Jewish pilgrim must have gasped in wonder at the sight of the Holy City. When I visited Israel three years ago, our Jewish guide had us all close our eyes as the bus climbed Mount Scopus, then told us to open them again as the old city came into view. It had been destroyed and rebuilt since Jesus' time, so it wasn't the same really. Yet what a breath-taking sight!

Jesus was very sad - the temple and city weren't there as a tourist attraction. They were there for the worship of God, as a place where people would live by the Word of God and in the confident hope that, at the right time, the Lord would send his promised Messiah. What a welcome the Messiah would receive - the fulfilment of their history and all their hopes!

Jesus was very sad - it wasn't going to happen that way at all. The leaders had already rejected him and were beginning to plot his death.

Many centuries before, the Lord had promised Abraham, "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen. 12.2-3). They were blessed to be a blessing. Had they forgotten that? Their faith was in danger of becoming a museum piece, not a light to guide the people of all nations away from danger and into the paths of righteousness and truth.

You've guessed it! I'm thinking about the lighthouse again. And I'm remembering how Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (Jn 8.12). He also said, "You are the light of the world… let your light shine before other people, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven" (Mt. 5.14,16).

Jesus is the Light of the world. It is safe to follow him. He will guide us safely through life. We don't have to walk in darkness - uncertain about right and wrong, unable to come back on track when we have gone the wrong way. Following Jesus, we will have "the light of life".

Jesus calls us to be "the light of the world" and to let our light "shine before other people". That's the light of Jesus shining through us into the lives of other people - confused, uncertain, ashamed, broken…

Jesus doesn't mean us to be a kind of museum piece - an exhibit of what a light looks like - but to shine his light into every dark corner of this world.

This morning we are welcoming a baby girl into our fellowship. She doesn't know it yet, but Jesus came for her. Will she see the light of Christ through our lives, teaching and example? Will her light shine for the Lord throughout her life? As parents, family and congregation, God is calling us to an awesome responsibility. Don't be a museum piece! Let your light shine!

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