lakewooducc

Sermon: Shine the Light

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST
2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712
On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga
727-867-7961
lakewooducc.org
lakewooducc@gmail.com

Date: January 25, 2026
Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 49:1-7 and John 1:1-5, 9, 14, 16-18
Sermon: Shine the Light
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

Well, if you are from Florida then you are very familiar with power failures. The electricity goes out. Stops working. It could be wind or storm related. Or it could simply be Duke Energy related. But we know what it is like to have the power go out not just for hours but for days. We know what it is like to loose the food in the refrigerator when it has been off for days. We know what it is like to swelter with no air conditioning for days. The last time our power was out, the authorities kept telling us to boil our water to make sure it was safe. And just how are you supposed to do that with no electricity?

Then there is trying to move around in the dark. Make sure you don’t trip on something. Walk into something and injure yourself. Step on the dog, sit on the cat that you cannot see in the pitch dark.

It is not easy to function without light. This is true literally and as the Bible tells us, metaphorically. This is why we are told of God sending a light. That will show the way. That will prevent us from stumbling in the darkness of our limited vision. We are told of God sending a light. A faithful community to illumine for the world the way of justice and righteousness. A light to illumine our understanding and help us to see how we can create a world where justice and compassion and generosity flourish.

The people who first heard Isaiah would have known of God’s efforts in the past to redeem the people of God so that they could be a light to all nations.

Today we heard about the light of God shining through the darkness, shining through a people, shining through a person whom God would send to lead the people into the light of beloved community and justice so that they would be a light not only for one another but so that this community would be a light to the nations. But here the light shows us something new.

This vision of the coming of this light, this person, this Messiah, is offered to the people during a time of exile and dislocation. Their country, their land has been taken over and they are defeated. And the prophets offer words of hope.

Isaiah, especially, reminds the people how they got to where they are, and their role in that, but more importantly reminds them that God is not finished yet. That there will be a light.

In the years before, there are stories of God providing leadership for the Hebrew people, for Israel, out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, through the wilderness for 40 years, into the promised land. And there are stories of the military conquest of that land. Stories about how this chosen community came to inhabit this promised land through military conquest of the neighbors and enemies who might prevent their becoming a light to the nations.

There are Biblical scholars and archaeologists who tell us that there is no evidence of these military conquests. The idea is that these stories were told to give the people of Israel hope that as they look back to this past in which they were strong and mighty, in a military way, and could defeat their enemies and their armies. The idea is that these stories of conquest would help to give them hope for their future. Yes, now they were in a defeated state, but a day would come when they would be militarily triumphant again. And would make their way back to their country to become a community of light for the world.

This morning we heard about how the light will come. But this light is shed by a suffering servant not by a militaristic ruler like King David. This light is going to come in complete peace.

And as Christians we look back and see this light in Jesus. The suffering servant. The light was present with God since creation. And the light came to the world in human form. Through Jesus the Messiah. And we know Jesus to be a man of peace. There are no stories about Jesus engaging in violence. In fact, he is so committed to non violence that he will not even defend himself. Through the centuries, God tried to use violence to save the people. To redeem the people. But always things fell back into violence and they were overtaken again. A perpetual cycle. They become a great people. There is a military altercation and now they are in exile, and it repeats and repeats.

We are told that God is going to do something new. In the stories of Jesus, we see this new thing. This shining of the light that does not involve warfare, conflict, violence or the taking of life. Jesus doesn’t raise an army. There were bands of people in his day who wanted to evict the Roman military through violence. But Jesus was God’s witness to doing a new thing. A nonviolent thing. It’s as if God looked back and saw this violence thing isn’t working, this military conquest scenario is not working. Every time we turn around there is another war and another fight. Time to try something new. We are going to have a purveyor of the light that is completely peace-FULL. Then we are going to see what happens with that. Because the other way is not working.

And so we have the witness of Jesus, the suffering servant. Love your neighbor. Love God. Love yourself. And, yes, Love your enemy. Do good to those who hate you. Let’s see how this works. Let’s see if the light of God, the light of truth, the light of justice will be seen in this way. No violence. No military. No taking of life. No threats with weapons. No crumbling walls except the walls of bigotry, racism, hatred, prejudice, injustice, and addiction to violence. Take those walls down. Through a love so radical that it’s power lights up not only the reality of one group of people, but creates a light that will be seen throughout history and throughout the world. Let’s see about that light. As President Lincoln put it, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

And so, we have the ministry, the witness, the light of Jesus. Whose light shines even through the darkness. Even in the face of death. Whose light shines and overcomes the power of death. Whose light has not been put out.
This is the way of God, this is the way of Jesus, and this is the way of the church, the body of Christ. The way of non violence. This is the foundation that Dr. King followed during the Civil Rights movement. King was a brilliant purveyor of the light of God.

Yes, he was a clergyperson, but more than that, he offered himself to God as a servant of the light of God, Jesus, the light of the world. And that light was bright in King. Yes, there are those who tried to put the light out. And eventually he was assassinated, but his light is still shining today.

Now King was highly educated. He studied and read, got multiply degrees, and through all of this he comes to see the power of non violence and he chooses to be a light. He chooses to be a beacon. Of love so strong it cannot embrace in any way the harming of others. It cannot embrace any kind of violence as a tool of social change. And so the Civil Rights Movement is this magnificent witness to the power of non violence. To people who put their lives on the line, and many of them were killed, because they knew that you can’t get a society of justice and peace by killing people. You can’t get a world community of cooperation through military conflict. That you can only achieve or create a community of peace, a country of peace, a family of nations that is peaceful, through peaceful means. Through anti violence. Through means that do not involve attacking and killing anyone.

And so, we have the witness of Dr. King who shines the light of God in the world for all to see in modern times.

This week, I was sent an instagram post of King reading his speech as he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize and I encourage you to watch a video of that speech. This morning I was tempted to make copies of the written speech and to hand them out to you and have you read that speech in lieu of a sermon. That statement is such an elegant statement of hope for the power of creative nonviolence in achieving social change for many people who are being deprived of their human rights and the ability to live a life of abundance and joy. King is a shining light. He is a light to our nation and to all nations.

And as we look around our country and our world today, what is violence achieving? Is it giving us a peaceful country or a peaceful world? No. Violence begets violence. And what we have are thousands upon thousands of people making a peaceful witness to their discontent with the purveyance of violence in our country.

This week we saw people demonstrating in Minneapolis against the violence being used by our government against its own peaceful citizens and against other people in our midst many of whom are here legally and lawfully. But violence will not solve our problems. It will only create new ones. This is the message of God through the prophet, this is the message of Jesus. This is the truth that Dr. King lived and died. And as heirs of the ministry of Christ Jesus, the Messiah, the suffering servant, the light of the world, we must engage anew in promoting the power of nonviolence to create the social conditions that make it possible for America to fulfill its commitment to its own Constitution, and to its historical sense of calling to be a light to the world.

The US Department of Homeland Security has produced an extensive recruitment campaign for ICE agents. This campaign involves not only huge monetary bonuses, absolving of student loans and other enticements. It also includes video ads that feature scripture. What happened to the state not endorsing any one religion but protecting freedom of religion, which also means freedom from religion? Another tenet of the Constitution ignored and sidelined.

In an article in The Atlantic, these recruitment videos are described: “One video quotes from Isaiah 6:8 (“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send and who will go for us?’ I said, ‘Here I am. Send me.’”); another quotes from Proverbs 28:1 (“The wicked flee when no man pursueth; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”). The most recent DHS video quotes from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” [“Maga Jesus Is Not the Real Jesus” by Peter Wehner, Jan. 21, 2026, The Atlantic.]

These scripture quotations are being used to recruit people to work for ICE. To be trained to kill not to save life. To attack. To humiliate. To vilify. To degrade. That is not the light of God.

This is an abuse of power and certainly an abuse of Holy Scripture and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the purveyance of darkness not light.

The journalist who wrote the article about ICE recruitment, Peter Wehner, ends his article this way:

“My hope, as a Christian, is that those of us who claim to be followers of Jesus will soon discover what Augustine discovered later than he had wished. That we will fall more in love with Beauty so ancient, Beauty so new. That in doing so in a broken world, we will stand out as expressing our faith through love. That we will be repairers of the breach, true peacemakers. And that we will ‘shine as stars in the world.’ The world would be better for it, and so would we.” To that I add: Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Weekly Update 1.22.2026

Sermon: Calling All Disciples

LAKEWOOD UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

2601 54th Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33712

On land originally inhabited by the Tocabaga

727-867-7961

lakewooducc.org

lakewooducc@gmail.com

Date: January 18, 2026 Martin Luther King Sunday

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon: Calling All Disciples

Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

In the early 1960’s, SNCC, the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee, was formed to further the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Bernard Lewis was a staff person for SNCC and in his book, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement, he tells us about the early days of SNCC. Notice his book is not a biography of his life, but of the Civil Rights Movement that he gave his life to. Lewis tells us: “Faith, hope and courage – these were all essential ingredients of the work SNCC was doing in the Deep South in those early years. . . .

“We found that most of the people — the people, not the leaders — were hungry for what we had to offer. They felt things were moving too slowly, just as we did. We were telling them, ‘You don’t have to wait until Roy Wilkins comes to Jackson. You don’t have to wait until Martin Luther King comes to McComb. You can do it yourself. There is no more powerful force than you. There is no leader as powerful as you, if you pull together.

“This is a very noble concept, the idea of a leaderless movement, of a truly indigenous, nonviolent revolution. This is what we set out to create in the early years in Nashville, it is what we believed in at the dawn of SNCC, and it is what I still believe in today; that the leaders should follow the people, and the people can and should lead themselves.” [p.188]

Yes, we are about to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, and King was a significant leader, but the Civil Rights Movement involved many, many people, giving themselves for the greater good, often out of a sense of discipleship.

This morning we heard Matthew’s version of the call of the disciples. We are told: Jesus was born. Spared death as an infant. Once grown, he was baptized, claimed by God. He went into the wilderness to confirm his commitment. And then he is back to society to begin his ministry.

Just an aside, as we mentioned several weeks ago that Matthew likes to pattern Jesus as a greater Moses. Moses led the people through the Red Sea into the wilderness. Jesus goes from baptism in the Jordan River into the wilderness, an echo of Moses. And the point of Moses’ journey was to form a new people, a new community, that would serve as a light to the nations. It was not about a great leader, but about a faithful community. Jesus, too, is to form a new community that will be a light to the nations. Again, it is not about a great leader but about a faithful community.

So one of the first things Jesus does when he begins his ministry is to call the disciples. He invites others to be part of creating this new community. From the beginning he signals that this is a joint venture. That this is a movement. That many people will be needed. That he is not a loner. The first disciples follow, having seen no miracles and having heard no teachings. They are not giving theological assent. They are not accepting a set of principles. As the New Interpreter’s Bible describes it, “In this text Jesus appears disruptively in our midst and calls us not to admire him or accept his principles, not even to accept him as our personal Savior, but to follow him.” So these fishers and friends agree to follow Jesus. They are not looking for a new life. They are already people of faith. They are involved in doing something that is useful and important. And yet they are compelled to follow Jesus. They know not where. They have no idea what they will be doing. They have no idea what this will entail. The disruptions and dangers involved. But they say yes. This is the true nature of discipleship. Being willing to follow Jesus. Period.

And this calling of disciples continues throughout Jesus’ ministry. In story after story, people that Jesus interacts with, people who sometimes annoy the disciples, are compelled to follow Jesus. To live his love, in their own setting, with their families, neighbors and friends.

And Jesus calls a wide variety of people. There is not one set job description that he is following. He is not filling in a certain skill set that is needed. Or a certain ability. From what we see in the gospels, Jesus recruits disciples who are:

poor, lame, insane,

loyal, ostracized, vilified,

devout, hard working, greed shirking,

Jewish, Gentile, servile, exiled,

prestigious, effective, reflective,

all of the above,

by God beloved.

This is a movement inviting disciples to create Beloved Community. They commit not to Jesus, but to the well-being of humanity and Creation. It is a cosmic calling. All of the above. And below.

This is very different from religions and organizations that are formed around a supreme leader of some kind. They evolve as a personality cult centered on a person. We have seen this cult of personality in the past. One example is Adolf Hitler. My spouse and I started reading his book, Mein Kampf [My Struggle], recently and after several days, I told Jeff I can’t listen to this right now. It bears too many similarities to what we are seeing going on around us today. So, Mein Kampf is back on the shelf for now.

We know the model of leadership where commitment is to the leader, the person, more than to a set of ideals or a set of principles, to certain values or a vision. The commitment is to an individual. The leader is surrounded not with disciples empowered to serve the greater good but with sycophants.

Let’s pause here to consider that word. Sycophants. Yes, it seems like a lofty word, a high falutin’ word. But it captures something very important. Sycophants are servile and self seeking. They are insincere flatterers seeking gain of some kind. They curry favor. They are parasites seeking their own good.

This model of leadership, the cult of personality surrounded by sycophants, bears absolutely no resemblance to the ministry of Jesus and the call to discipleship. Discipleship asks you to enter the unknown for the greater good. It offers power and commitment to the good of others and the world. We see this kind of discipleship in those who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Many of those who protested, marched, and sat were arrested, attacked, jailed, and even killed. They were involved in the movement because of their commitment to Christian discipleship. There were people from other religions and no religion that were also involved, but many, many of those who dedicated themselves to the Civil Rights Movement were followers of Jesus Christ and that is why they were out there making a difference. They knew, as Civil Rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer said, “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”

Yes, King was a significant leader of the Movement, but more importantly he was a follower, a follower of Jesus. And, like Jesus, he included all kinds of people in the effort to create a better life for everyone.

How do we know King was a follower, a disciple? Well, he was interested not just in the situation of Blacks in the South, but in justice and equality the world over. He was not a single issue leader. He was a follower of the one who was concerned about the whole Creation and every person in it. So, he could observe about America in April of 1967 in his famous speech in Riverside Church in New York City, that America is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And King saw that everyone could be a disciple, could make a contribution, to the betterment of the world as we know it.

Civil Rights leader Dorothy Height describes the diversity of the movement: “We had people of all backgrounds coming together – all races, all creeds, all colors, all status in life. And coming together there was a kind of quiet dignity and a kind of sense of caring and a feeling of joint responsibility.” Beloved Community. A place for everyone. A sense of belonging for everyone. This was the commitment of the Movement and the commitment of Jesus’ disciple, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the book, An Easy Burden: The Civil Rights Movement and the Transformation of America, Civil Rights leader and United Church of Christ pastor, Andrew Young, tells this story about King when they were in Cleveland working on the campaign of Carl Stokes who was running to become the first Black mayor of Cleveland. He won the election, by the way. So, Young tells us:

“Once, we were driving to a meeting in Cleveland during the mayoral campaign when we stopped for a red light in the heart of the rundown black ghetto. Several prostitutes were working in the area, and one lady approached our car while we were stopped. She peeked inside, recognized Martin the front seat , beckoned to a friend, and yelled, ‘There’s that Uncle Tom, Martin Luther King. What’s he doing here?’ After we had gone about a block Martin said, ‘Bernard [Lewis], turn this car around. I want to talk with that woman.’ Bernard moaned, ‘Oh Doc, don’t pay any attention to those women. They’re just ignorant.’ He just kept driving straight ahead. “TURN THE CAR AROUND, BERNARD!” Martin shouted. He hardly ever raised his voice like that.

“Bernard turned the car around and we returned to that very corner. Martin got out, found the woman who had made the remark, and told her, ‘If you’ll allow me the opportunity, I’ll tell you why I’m here. I’m on my way to a meeting now, but we’re staying at the Sheraton Cleveland Hotel, and if you and your friends meet us there this afternoon at three o’clock we’d like to have a chance to talk to you. Bring as many friends as you want.’ When we returned to the hotel there was a delegation of ladies waiting in the lobby! They had told the desk clerk they were waiting to meet with Martin Luther King! We arranged for a meeting room and ordered coffee, and Martin began a discussion on the necessity for them to register and vote if they ever hoped to get off the street. ‘We can get rid of this ghetto if we go to work politically,’ he said. Maybe he only convinced a few of them, but I’ll always remember how he insisted on going back and confronting them, not willing to give up on anyone whose mind he might change.” [p. 436-437]

Jesus, too, spoke with prostitutes and sinners of all sorts because true love is undeniably universal. Divine Love includes everyone. And you never know whose heart can be changed. Yes, King, was great leader because he was a great follower – of Jesus. He was a disciple. And so are each and every one of us. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Author: lakewooducc

Weekly Update 1.28.2026

Sermon: Shine the Light

Weekly Update 1.22.2026

Sermon: Calling All Disciples

We’re Invited! Join Pass-a-Grille Beach Community Church for a Book Launch and Author Event!