Hooray! I preached a sermon and folks told me I did a great job.
Hooray! I gave ten dollars to the needy family fund and the treasurer told me how generous I was.
Hooray! I took time to drive thirty miles to visit a friend in the hospital and he told me how thoughtful I was.
Oops.
Jesus said that the light we shine is so that others can give glory to God, not so they will see how wonderful we are. As one writer has said about this text: “While God’s glory may be made evident through creation, God’s lovingkindness and concern for justice is often most visible when those who profess faith in God make God’s love and justice evident.”
Has anyone ever asked you why you did some particular thing and your answer was “because of God”? I have grown in grace when I recognize that a strong sermon, a financial gift, and a helpful visit are expressions of how God lives in the world.
I’m not encouraging us to exhibit a fake humility. Such humility is a sham and such fakery does not please God. Instead, I am inviting us to consider the source of what Jesus calls “your good works.” Indeed, they are my good works! And Jesus calls on us to let those good works shine before the world. But those good works are acts of God for which we are simply instruments. We are imperfect examples of how God works: “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14).
You and I are gifted differently. Whatever your gift, it is as John Wesley wrote in his Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, “The very design of God in giving you this light was that it might shine.” In seeing such light, others may be moved to love and serve God also.
So, I ask myself: “Has God given me a light that I have kept under a basket?”
