As President Trump approaches the milestone of his first 100 days in office, we spoke to Rev. Samuel Rodriguez about his reading at the presidential inauguration and what he describes as the clarion call for individual believers and the church to rise up and confront darkness in every realm of our lives — the message of his national best-selling book, Be Light.
When he was invited to be the first Hispanic evangelical pastor to take part in a Presidential Inauguration, Rodriguez chose to read from the Sermon on the Mount and concluded with Christ’s command to His followers to be the light of the world.
When you have just a few minutes to speak at the inauguration, what went into your decision to read from the fifth chapter of Matthew?
In a very real way, I saw this opportunity, this honor, to be invited to be a part of the quintessential political platform on the planet as a distinct moment in history when the word of God could cut through the noise and confusion to call each of us afresh to be light — in our families, neighborhoods, nation and the world.
I believe that our nation is at the precipice of another Great Awakening. While we need to be engaged politically, we should do so as an act of prophetic witness. Holistic Christianity doesn’t sacrifice truth at the altar of political expediency. God impressed upon me to remind all present at the Inauguration and watching across the country and throughout the world of what He truly considers to be the way to share our light and be a blessing to so many under the canopy of disillusionment hovering upon our current day and age.
Our ailing nation faces so many issues and threats that paint a dark picture. How can we Be Light in these times and what compelled you to write Be Light?
We cannot deny we live in dark times. Some argue that we live in the blackest hour.
As believers, it is too easy to lose sight of the truth that the battle in America is not between Republicans and Democrats or liberals and conservatives. Despite the temptation to engage in these skirmishes, we know that the real battle is between heaven and hell, darkness and light.
Some time ago, I was preaching about, writing articles about, and having conversations about the ever-encroaching canopy of darkness that threatened our society and our culture.
Like so many of us, I saw attacks on a growing number of fronts.
There was a moment in my living room when God shifted my energy and focus from critiquing the darkness and even cursing the darkness to quite simply turning on the light. That shift was the genesis of the journey that lead to my writing Be Light.
We know the call of Christ is to “be light,” but what is involved in being light?
Be light is such a deceptively simple phrase but there is an incredible depth and richness to be explored in God’s command. When you start to unpack these two powerful declarations, the first we see in Genesis 1:3 when God says, “Let there be light” and then this section in John 15 where God says to us, “Be light” you recognize that this is not a casual analogy that God is drawing between us and light.
How we define ourselves as believers has so much to do with how completely or accurately we reflect Jesus, the light of the world. In a society that wants to insist on telling us who we are — whether it’s as just another religious institution or an antiquated belief system no longer applicable to a world of social media, we must have the clarity, conviction and courage to stand and declare we are the light of the world. We are that city on a hill.
When we explore concepts like refraction, diffraction, interference and dispersion, we are closer to understanding our identity as people of light. God always begins by turning the lights on.
In Be Light, you provide a 30 day journey for readers. Frame that journey for us.
In the book, I invite you to take 30 days, to dig deeply into what it means that we are called to reflect God’s light. It’s a chance to discover and then to commit to the practical, spiritual, emotional and relational steps necessary for us to respond to God’s call.
Most of us are familiar with the what, be light. I wanted to lay out the how, those principles that guide us to be light. Every time that light stands next to darkness, light always wins.
We emit what we absorb. Life requires light. Our faith requires light. Our faith is transparent, transcendent, and transformational. The number one problem in America today is an apathetic Church. God wants to turn on the light in our life. His Light goes beyond revealing our failures; it also brings healing to our hurting lives. I believe we are at the precipice of another Great Awakening.
Tell us about what you call the rubric to Be Light.
These are the truths that ignite me every day. These are five truths followed by key questions that propel me.
First, Today’s complacency is tomorrow’s captivity. What are those things that I am currently accommodating in my life, which I should be repudiating?
Second, You are what you tolerate. When I recognize that I am tolerating a habit, an attitude, a construct, an inclination; I must leverage the power to say no.
Third, There is no such thing as “comfortable Christianity”. I must ascribe to a convicted Christianity rather than a comfortable Christianity. I must be transformed by the vicarious atoning work of Christ.
Fourth, We must never sacrifice truth on the altar of political expediency. No matter the nature of the temptation, truth must triumph.
And fifth, we need to align our eschatology with our missiology. While the Church is waiting for Jesus to come down, Christ is waiting for the Church to stand up.
If we undergo a daily audit to determine the darkness that we have been accommodating, what and who we are allowing to define us and to recognize that the adversity that we have faced could well become the anointing God uses —the light we emit will be magnified exponentially.
We may live in the darkest hour but it is also the greatest hour to be light if we are willing to function with the mantle of glory and light to which God has called each of us.
It’s time the body of Christ turn on our light.
Dr. Samuel Rodriguez serves a President/CEO of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.
Joel Ceballo is a writer and Christian publishing consultant. He is a board member of the NHCLC.
