Lamps Lit

Luke 12:32-35 and an excerpt from Good Light by Andrea Gibson

August 10, 2025

By Nicole M. Lamarche

Hello Community, I am so glad to be back among you! I invite you to take

some deeper breaths with me. Thank you for showing up today. For

yourself, for one another, for our Greater Love, for the world we want. It’s

so good to gather in a group of people who share a commitment to love

and justice. We all need that so much. So as you are moved join me in a

spirit of prayer. God, what a gift that we have the idea of the church, thank

you. Thank you for this chance to be inspired together. Let us all be open to

whatever we need to hear. May the words of my mouth and the meditations

of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, our rock and our redeemer.

Amen.

Of all the phrases I would be uttering the most frequently at this point my

life, I did not imagine it would be some combination of this: Can you please

clean your room? What do you think about tidying up a bit? But not long

ago, without any prompting suddenly emerging from the teen cave were

boxes of things to give away, bags of trash, piles of clothes for the laundry

bin. And for me too, before I could understand what was happening, I had

sorted through every single book in my home office, looking at very

surface, every, pile, every drawer, every stack. And I noticed some of the

people on my street were doing this too. Has anyone else been in some

decluttering right now? When I stepped back to ponder, in a spiritual sense

this is all understandable, because spiritual speaking, fear is about control.

That’s what Father Richard Rohr says, that our fear comes from our human

need to control. At least some parts of our lives. And there is so much out

of our control right now that some of us even at a subconscious level are

going about ordering the parts of our lives that we can control. If you notice

people over managing things right now, I wonder if that is part of what it is

about.

Do not be afraid. That’s how today’s teaching from Jesus begins. Do not be

afraid. We hear some combination of this again and again and again,

hundreds of times. It’s probably one we hear the most. Do not be afraid. Do

not worry. Do not fear. Do not lose heart.

And yet, while I know this is foundational to our faith, while I understand

this intellectually, is anyone else having a hard time with the fear thing right

now? I mean, for real. How is it possible to not be afraid right now? When

our government has destabilized an entire world order, upended our

economic system, when elected officials are assassinated and we just

move on, when social infrastructure is shredded, when Latinos are targeted

and terrorized, when the largest taxes ever with these tariffs are imposed

on us, when the truth is on the run, being pushed out with the firing of

independence in every corner, shaming journalists, rigging the Census and

trying to rig the next election, targeting whistleblowers, revising the

Smithsonian exhibits, threatening truth tellers, deleting parts of the

Constitution from official government websites and removing healthcare,

gutting funding for unsafe carbon emissions and cutting cancer research,

while celebrating that Coca-Cola is changing their formula, this will us

making us healthier.

Into all of this, we hear the message: Do not be afraid.

The Greek word used here in this passage in the Gospel of Luke is,

phobos: which is of course where we get that word phobia. It means to flee

or withdraw. That’s just something we humans do. We tend to pull back, we

turn in or we turn away when we are afraid. One of the ways this is

happening is with money. Investors pause, unsettled by the uncertainty,

concerned about how standard financial return modeling tools simply do

not account for our current moment we are in. Are domestic bonds safe

anymore? The housing market is paralyzed. Hiring is on pause in many

industries. It’s one version of a withdrawal.

Right after we returned from our road trip, I was visiting with our neighbor,

trying to make small talk about the summer. They are extremely well off,

with a second home in the mountains, regular international travel, a Rivian

in the driveway and more, she said, “With all that is going on, I am just

putting my head in the sand.” I didn’t say anything. But it was telling. She

thinks it won’t come for her.

I wonder if part of why Jesus warns about fear is that our first inclination,

our default? What if the Bible mentions this so much and what if Jesus

used this phrase a lot because while it might be our default position as

humans to retreat when we are in fear, while it might temporarily ease the

discomfort of all the chaos and uncertainty, ultimately it won’t offer what we

need? Not only is it unfaithful, ultimately it won’t save us and it doesn’t

serve us.

I am not talking about taking time to rest or turning inward for a time to

renew, I am talking about putting our head in the sand and entirely

withdrawing. Because you think your privilege will shield you from the

storm.

Here’s what will save us.

I found the work of Nobel prize winning chemist, Ilya Prigogine coined an

“island of coherence in a sea of chaos.” Have you come across this

concept? He studied the scientific principles of uncertainty in complex

systems and came up with this term to explain how things can function well

even when surrounded by chaos. This means that surprisingly, even small,

seemingly insignificant areas of coherence, defined as places and groups

where things are relatively consistent, have the potential and the possibility

to shift an entire system toward something different. As Lynne Twist writes,

“even in turbulent environments, small groups or initiatives focused on

positive change can inspire a wider transformation.” 1

So what if part of how we live fully in the face of fear right now is by rooting

ourselves in all of the islands of coherence in our lives? CUCC is one of

them. And there are probably lots of places in our lives like this. Nature.

Recovery circles.

Because on this island of coherence that is CUCC, we are given the

strength to live out what we believe in all circumstances. We are reinforced

so to speak. Our faith gives us conviction about what is right and we re-

member that together weekly. These teachings are given to us in part to

overcome the evils of Empire! That is part of why we have these teachings.

We are equipped for just a moment as this. In her book Traveling Mercies:

Some Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott says that courage is fear that

has said it’s prayers. But I think that turning our fear into courage

takes a group. Do you notice that Jesus is giving this teaching to

the flock? He isn’t giving it to an individual. An island of coherence

cannot exist with just one, it takes the group.

At the end of the piece we heard from Luke, Jesus says, be dressed for

action and have your lamps lit. Keep them burning. In part so others can

see there is a light still on. I am sure we will take turns being the struggling

souls, that’s what Clarissa Pinkola Estés says that “Struggling souls catch

light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.”

I know we will take turns being flickering wicks, which means we are we are

partly responsible for lighting the way for others when it’s our turn. What a

gift that we have this place to show up and, in the poem, we heard from

Andrea, “I know how much the pain of this world weighs but I can still tip

the scales in light’s direction…” That’s the invitation for us today. Fear is a

mirror showing us our need to control and the places where we are called

to let go. After our time of communal reflection, we will end with the serenity

prayer and during this time of sharing, come forward as you are moved.

What is ours to hold and what is ours to let go? Here in our island of

coherence, where we can shift an entire system…

Communal Reflection

What are things we can do regularly to keep our individual lamps lit, to light

the way for ourselves and others? What does fear transformed into

courage look like in your life? What are the islands of coherence that can

support you right now?

God grant us the serenity to accept the things we

cannot change; Courage to change the things we can; And wisdom to know

the difference. Beloved of God, keep your lamps lit. May it be so. Amen.

1 https://soulofmoney.org/wednesday-wisdom-islands/