A Lighted Lamp

Isaiah 58:3-9a, 1 Corinthians 2:1-11, Matthew 5:13-16

When I was a seventh grader my parents wanted me to take trumpet lessons. Now, you'll have to understand that I had never met a trumpet teacher before. I had taken piano lessons from a woman for a year or so. But, in my mind's eye, I kind of pictured a trumpet teacher as being some 30-ish guy who taught music in the public schools and gave lessons on the side. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would get the kind of trumpet teacher that I got.

My parents wanted the best trumpet teacher they could find for me. And it so happened that my father tuned the teacher's piano. So, he knew who the best trumpet teacher in Flint was, at that time. Her name, that's right, her name was Clara Leighton. Now, you see, at the age of 12 I couldn't fathom how a woman could possibly be a trumpet teacher. Indeed, up till that time I had never even seen a woman play a trumpet. But my dad told me not to worry about it; that this woman trumpet teacher could blow the socks off of any other trumpet player in town.

I remember going to her house. It was up Detroit Street, just off Page, in a big green house. I had to take the bus to get there. But, for the first lesson my Mom took me and went in to meet her. When I first met her I could hardly believe it. Not only was she a woman but she was old enough to be a member of A.A.R.P.! She was old enough to get Meals on Wheels! She was old enough to get Social Security! She was old enough to be my grandmother! And the first thought that hit me was, "How could this grandmother teach trumpet to anyone? And, I began to worry about whether her Polygrip would hold when she played.

But in that first lesson I learned a lot more than simply how to play my trumpet. Rather, I learned that a woman in her upper 60's could play the trumpet far better than I had ever heard the trumpet played before. Many of my stereotypes went out the window. And I began to realize that perhaps this somewhat elegant lady might be able to teach me more than I had thought.

Over the six year period that I took trumpet lessons from Clara Leighton perhaps one of the most important lessons that I learned had little to do with how to play the trumpet. Rather, it was a lesson that had a lot more to do with how to live. I can almost remember her very words: "Paul," she would say, "you can do with your trumpet something that very few other people can do; and that makes you special. And if anyone ever asks you if you can play the trumpet, you must put your humility aside and tell it like it is. For if God has given you a gift, you must use it and never put it away."

And, you know, over the years I have taken Miss Leighton's advice seriously. I never put my trumpet away, but I use it, as you well know.

My, but doesn't this little story fit our scripture lesson for today! "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl."

People, if there's one thing that troubles the church today it is people who have been given gifts with which to serve God who, rather than use those gifts, take them off somewhere and hide them. Very often they are given those gifts as youth. But then something happens, I don't know what. Suddenly they take that light and put it under a bowl as though they are afraid or ashamed or timid or embarrassed because of the attention their gift may bring them.

How many aspiring teachers, or writers, or poets, or speakers, or leaders, have been given recognition by their peers, only to slide away into oblivion upon leaving school, getting married and having a family? I would venture to guess that there are potentially far greater people sitting here in this sanctuary this morning than even they have dared realize. For, indeed, God has given each one of us gifts. Individually, each and every one of you are special. For there are talents which you have, realized or not, revealed or hidden, that make you unique to the kingdom of God. And Matthew 5:16 urges us to use those talents that we have as a means of serving God. We are told: "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Some of you may have read the poem by Samuel Foss, "The House by the Side of the Road." Well, there's a story behind the writing of that poem.

You see, Sam Foss was an enthusiastic traveler as well as a writer, and on one of his trips through rustic England, weary and thirsty, he came to a small unpainted house that stood atop a fairly steep hill. Near one side of the road was a crude signpost finger ( ) pointing to a well-worn path, and a sign that read, "Come in and have a cool drink." Following the path a short distance he found a spring of ice-cold water, above which hung an old-fashioned gourd dipper. On a bench nearby was a basket of summer apples with another sign, "Help Yourself."

His curiosity aroused, Foss sought out the old couple who lived in the little house and questioned them about the signs and the fruit. He learned that they were childless, and that their poor farm yielded them a scant living. But because they had such an abundance of cold spring water and fruit they felt rich and wanted to share it with any one who might pass that way. "We're too poor to give money to charity," the old gentleman said, "but we thought maybe in this way we could add our mite and do something for folks who pass our way."

Our gospel lesson for today asks us what it is that we may have to give in the name of Jesus to folks who pass our way. Amen.