Lectionary Readings: Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
In 1962, Herb and Dorothy Vogel were married in New York. They were both aspiring artists, and after they got married, Herb enrolled as a student of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. They had a studio in Union Square, but very quickly realized that instead of making their own art, they really enjoyed looking at other people’s art, so they got rid of the studio, and switched to collecting art instead.
Neither of them had a lot of money. She worked as a reference librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library, and he worked as a Postal Service clerk. They lived in a 450 square foot apartment in Manhattan. In the 1970s, when pop art and abstract expressionism started to become popular, they began buying works of art from artists who were not yet making waves in the art community. All they knew was that this was something new, something avant-garde, and that it was something important. And most of all, it spoke to them of something bigger than just themselves.
Over the years, they collected thousands of works of art, and displayed them in their small 450 square foot home. At the high point of their collection, they had over 4000 works of art crammed into this tiny little apartment. In 1992, the National Gallery of Art brought five moving trucks and took about 1100 pieces of art to display at the gallery. In 2008, they donated 2500 pieces of art to 50 museums across all 50 states. During this time of collecting, some of the lesser known artists that Dorothy described as “lighting the way” for all of us, became famous, and this collection of theirs was worth millions.
The Vogels, however, had committed to never selling any piece of art, because, as they said, “How do you put a price on something, or someone, that is close to you?” The art was an abstract of both the artist and the artwork, and so it became more than a possession, and the art was like a relationship, filled with meaning. They began to donate these works to various museums because for them, it was not about stockpiling things for themselves, but about finding new and revolutionary things that they could share with the whole world.1
New. And revolutionary. In today’s Gospel, Jesus comes along and says, “I’m not here being avant-garde. I don’t have anything new to give you. Instead, I’m here to fulfill the law and the prophets, not get rid of them.”
And yet, somehow, that still was revolutionary. Revolutionary because in a real sense, Jesus came along and called on the Israelites to be the Israel that the prophets had been urging them to be. You see, Israel had been told to be a light to all the nations of the world, to be a blessing to those nations, based on the blessings they received as the chosen people of God. It wasn’t about stockpiling their blessings, but about finding new and revolutionary ways that they could share this blessing with the whole world.
Jesus said that “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”2 He was the fulfillment of all that God had prepared, and so he was the fulfillment of all the reasons for why God had provided the law and sent the prophets to his chosen people. And so, in this passage, when he says, “You are the light of the world,” he is telling them, “You are to find new ways of sharing this blessing from God with the whole world. You are to be what you were always meant to be.”
And somehow, this was still revolutionary.
In small houses, back in those days, they might have one window. And so a lamp was very important. When you left the house, rather than extinguishing the lamp, you put it under an earthenware basket, so that it could burn without starting a fire. But when you were in the house, you would remove the basket and put the lamp on a lampstand so that it could give light to everyone in the house. It was clear and common imagery in order to make a point about light and about lamps. An image probably more clear to us would be: “You don’t put an electric lamp on the floor, in the corner, behind a couch in a room that doesn’t have windows. No, you hang it from the ceiling, so that the whole room is lit up.”
This phrase, “You are the light of the world,” was a common phrase in Jesus’ time. Everyone he was talking to would have known what he meant: that Israel was to be the light to the nations. In fact, well known rabbis were often called, “a lamp of Israel,” because of their ability to teach the people about the law and the prophets. And so, this statement by Jesus is basically handing them the reins, handing over the baton, handing the task of being a light to the common people. It was not about the scribes, the Pharisees, the teachers of the law who would provide the light for Israel, but everyone. Everyone would become a light. Everyone would be a “lamp of Israel.”
While these comments by Jesus here in this gospel apply to the people of Israel, they also apply to those of us who believe and follow Christ. Jesus said that while he is in the world, he is the light of the world. And he was saying that he had come to be the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. That he, Jesus, was what all these things had been pointing toward since the beginning of time. And, he is saying that it is in him that we find a way to reflect that light to the rest of the world. Just like a lamp in a house, which was meant to be seen, and not put under a basket, Jesus is urging all the people to live in such a way that their light can be seen, can be felt with the warmth it provides, and can be experienced by those who have lived in darkness their whole lives.
In one sense, this idea wasn’t just revolutionary for the people that Jesus was talking to back then, but it is also revolutionary to those in our own time. The idea that everyone becomes a lamp that spreads the light of Christ is, to some people, frightening. To others it is mind-boggling. Because, they think, that’s what those evangelists are for. That’s what the teachers and preachers are for. That’s what the bishops and deacons are for. It’s all for those people to do. The ones that have been trained. The ones that know stuff.
But Christ has passed the baton. And everyone is a lamp. Everyone is a light. Everyone who is a disciple, who follows Jesus, can offer light for all to see. Especially for those who have lived with pain, with suffering, with shame and guilt. For those who have stared into the darkness of the abyss for far too long and are living without hope.
The reason this was frightening to some of the people that Jesus was speaking to, is because for many, they couldn’t see how they could possibly attain the level of education, the level of righteousness, or the status needed to be as good as the scribes, Pharisees, or teachers of the law.
And, at first, it seems like Jesus is stepping right in and acknowledging their fears and confusion by telling them that “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” It seems like he’s telling them, “You’ve got absolutely nothing on these guys. So, yeah, you’ll never measure up.” And in one sense, that’s true. The people Jesus was talking to had nothing on the scribes, the Pharisees, or teachers of the law – when it came to education or social standing, or how people defined righteousness. And at that time, righteousness was defined by how well you could keep all the rules. But what they did have was a relationship with the Light of the World. A relationship that allowed them to reflect that light to all people with whom they came in contact, because they had come to know and be known by Christ. And that relationship was priceless. That relationship provided blessing beyond measure that they could freely share.
In other words, by Jesus telling them they are the light of the world, and by telling them that he is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets, he is telling them that it is their faith that has already allowed their own righteousness to exceed that of the scribes and the prophets. It is through their faith in him as the Light of the World, that they have already been made righteous, and that they can stand before the throne of God. It’s not something intended to frighten them. It is intended to show them that by knowing him, they have not just the mandate, but also the ability to be the light of the world. It is through him that their righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and of the Pharisees, and so they are the light of the world.
Revolutionary. But nothing new. It was just what the prophets had always been urging people to do. They simply hadn’t been following through.
Good news then, and good news now, right?
St. Augustine said, “Love God and do what you like.” And some people have taken these words to mean that they are free to live their lives in any way they please, once they have decided to believe in Jesus. This problem has been going on for centuries, even millennia. That people who claim to be followers of Christ, people who claim to be a light for the world, don’t reflect the love that Christ has given them. At best, some of them put a lamp under a bushel – or behind a couch in a corner – and at worst, some of them will look you right in the eye, and tell you that the unlit lamp they are holding is not only on, but that this darkness is the light of Christ. And they do this so that they can continue to do their evil in the darkness, while telling you that what they are doing is right. But we know that everything that is done in darkness will come to light. So pay attention to how you listen.3
“Love God and do what you like” is not license to behave as though we’ve never seen the Light of the World. Augusine was trying to make the point that when we love God, then all the things that we used to want to do for our own glory, for our own passions, or for our own desires, begin to fade away, and what happens is that we begin to desire what God wants, and to do the will of God. We find that what we want is what God wants. It is in the act of loving God that we begin to care less and less about what we want, and more and more about what God wants.
With all that is going on in the world today, with all the darkness and the spreading of hatred and evil, this world needs a lot of light. It doesn’t just need a single lamp. It needs an entire football field full of lamps. And so the question for us, more now than ever before, is: “Are we reflecting the light of Christ?”
Jesus said, “I’m not here being avant-garde. I don’t have anything new to give you. Instead, I’m just reminding you. Be the light of the world. It’s not about you. It’s not about power. It’s not about stockpiling blessings for yourself. All of this is about being brightness in the darkness for the rest of the world, so that people see the reflection of God in who you are and what you do – and glorify God.”
[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on February 8, 2026.]
- https://www.nga.gov/stories/articles/remembering-vogels-modern-art-collectors ↩︎
- John 9:5 ↩︎
- Luke 8:17-18 ↩︎