Lights, Lamps, and Cups: Mark 4:21-34

Have you heard about the pink Stanley Cup?

Initially, I thought this cup had something to do with professional hockey’s greatest prize. But I was wrong.

This is a 40-ounce, double-wall, vacuum-insulated reusable beverage cup in a limited-edition “winter pink” color, manufactured by the Stanley company and marketed exclusively for Target Stores, in collaboration with Starbucks.

When the cup was released on January 3, people went absolutely nuts, camping out all night, getting into fistfights, grabbing as many of the $45 cups as they could get their hands on. And now, these cups are now selling for upwards of $300 on eBay.

Even though I’m a big coffee drinker, the whole thing strikes me as absurd. The Stanley Company has been manufacturing insulated beverage containers for 111 years. If you want one in another color, they aren’t hard to get. And the people who have them love them. One happy customer shared a video in which her Stanley Cup not only survived a car fire, the ice cubes didn’t even melt.

But the demand for these cups has little to do with how effective they are in keeping your water cold and your coffee hot. Expensive reusable beverage containers have become status symbols. People buy them to show them off.

Since most people use only one beverage container at a time, most of these pink Stanley cups will likely never be used.

Jesus makes a similar point in today’s Gospel when he asks the crowds, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket or under the bed and not on the lampstand?”

Photo by Bernard Tuck on unsplash.

Historically, household goods and clothing weren’t cheap and plentiful like they are today. Lamps like Jesus described would’ve been hand-made and expensive. The oil to light the lamp was also expensive. Therefore, only a fool would light a lamp and hide it away.

Click here to read the Scripture text

And yet, when it comes to the gifts of God and the promises of God, we do this all the time.

How easy it is to accept Jesus as Savior but not as Lord!

Jesus comes to the world, calls us to be his disciples, and gives his life for us. The Holy Spirit gives us faith so that we can pray and live in relationship with God. The Father provides all that we need to live as his children. But what do we do? Do we live for ourselves, or do we live for the God who created us?

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Several years ago, a church not too far from here closed and put their building up for sale. Several years before the closure, a family spared no expense renovating and furnishing a lounge just off the sanctuary. But when they saw children putting their feet on the leather upholstery and spilling their Cheerios on the new carpet, they were enraged. The lounge was only supposed to be used on “special occasions.” So, the church locked it up. In time, they no longer had to worry about children messing up the lounge, or adults, for that matter. In the end, the property was sold for less than what it cost to renovate and furnish that lounge.

Jesus says, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and it will be added to you. For to those who have, more will be given, and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

If your purpose in life is to obey God’s will, God will give you everything you need. Like a light on the lampstand, your purpose in life is to shine the light of Jesus’s love in everything you say and do. We are church together for the sake of the world.

God will not, however, enable you to live apart from him. God will not provide for you to build up kingdoms for yourself where Jesus and the neighbor aren’t welcome. You cannot be a Christian on your own terms.

Living by faith means surrendering your wants and desires to take hold of God’s. It’s letting God be the author of your life’s story.

That’s not to say that your life will be easy and problem-free. That’s not to say that things will always go your way.

The way of discipleship is not the path of least resistance. On the contrary, it is a life fraught with perils. In fact, the life of faith may prove to be even more perilous than life without Jesus, because you’re not living for yourself. You’re living for purposes that are contrary to the world’s purposes.

In your life of faith, you will face trials and tribulations greater than what your mind, body, and spirit can endure.

But in Christ, life’s dirt becomes the rich soil of grace, where the seeds of new life sprout and flourish. God’s grace is made perfect in weakness. God helps those who can’t help themselves. God will give you your daily bread one day at a time with hope for tomorrow.

All of this serves one purpose—so that you will shine with the love of Jesus Christ for the sake of the world; walking daily in trust in obedience; and so that you can live each day in the peace that passes understanding, even if all around and above you is in chaos.. If this is what you desire for your life and if you are willing to let go of everything else to take hold of Jesus with every fiber of your being, your cup will overflow, and your light will shine.