Title Dashes of Salt and Splashes of Light
Text: Matthew 5:13-16
Thesis: Salt and light are what we are and what we do.
Introduction
I don’t know her name, where exactly she lived, or who she was. We never spoke. We passed each other, she coming home from six 0’clock daily Mass, I going to early school to practice the piano before class began.
I saw her coming all the way from Grand, where she would pause for the traffic. She never rushed across the street… she had a peaceful gait, no rush to it. When we were finally close enough to make eye contact, she looked up, straight into my face, and smiled. It was a complete smile, so entire it startled me every time, as if I’d heard my name called out on the street of a foreign city.
The smile was a brief flood of light. She loved me, I was sure. I knew what it was about. She was praying. Her hand stuck in her cardigan pocket, held one of the beads of her rosary. She was a person who prayed alone for no reason that I understood. But there was no question that she prayed without ceasing.
Her look, it was not an invasive look, but it latched. She had me. Not an intrusive gaze, but one brimming with a secret, which, if only she had the words, it was clear she’d want to tell. (Patricia Hampl, Listening for God, Chapter 6 from Virgin Time, Augsburg Fortress)
Of all the people who lived in Patricia’s Summit Hill neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota, a place, where critics observe that Patricia Hampl could not in any significant way experience the presence of God… the one light in her life was a smiling parish woman.
That unnamed woman was a person of influence in Patricia Hampl’s life. Jesus taught that we too, are persons of influence.
1. You are a person of influence.
“You are the salt of the earth…” Matthew 5:13
“You are the light of the world…” Matthew 5:14
As a person of influence, you are a person of value.
• Valued because you are a rare commodity in this world.
Salt is a necessity of life for animal life. We will die if we do not have salt. Unfortunately, salt does not grow on trees or in our gardens. Salt is harvested from the sea, deposits left from ancient salt-water seas, and mined from rock-salt mines like the old Carey Salt Mine of Hutchinson, KS where 650 feet below the surface you will feel as though you are entombed by an enormous solid vein of rock salt.
The Underground Vault Company of Kansas web site states of salt: “Egyptian mummies were preserved with it, Roman soldiers were paid with it, battles have been fought for it, humans can’t live without it.” (http://www.undergroundvaults.com/aboutus/undergroundsaltmuseum.cfm)
In its history of salt the Wikipedia site states that during the Middle Ages, caravans of as many as forty-thousand camels traversed 400 miles of Saharan Desert bearing salt. People needed it for preserving and flavoring food. Commentators often make much of the uses of salt emphasizing that it is symbolic of purity and useful for the preservation of food against decay. But Jesus speaks of the flavor or savor or seasoning effect of salt. Christians bring good seasoning and savor to the earth.
As a person of influence, you are also necessary in this world.
• Necessity because the nature of the world
The world is a dark place. Jesus of himself said in John 3:19, “The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness.” John 3:19-20
When speaking of Christians in Ephesians Paul said, “For though your hearts were once full of darkness, how you are full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it.” Ephesians 5:8
The thinking of literary giants like Shakespeare reflects a dim view of life. After hearing that his wife had died, Macbeth took stock of his indifference to the event. Death to him seemed like the last act of a bad play… a lot of sound and fury but without meaning. To him the world was a stage upon which every person acted out his little play. He said,
“All our yesterdays have lighted fools
the way to dusty death. Out, out brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5, 19-28)
Shakespeare and others may think of our lives as ‘brief candles” or “poor actors strutting and fretting for an hour upon a stage” or “idiots full of sound and fury whose lives signify nothing.” But Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.”
Jesus said you are a person of value, whose influence is necessary and good. When we think of ourselves as insignificant actors who fret their way through their parts in a poorly scripted, acted, and insignificant play, we have grossly underestimated the way God sees us.
However, it is imperative that we understand that influence is not influence unless it is applied.
2. Your influence is more than implied, it must be applied… and properly so.
“But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor?” Matthew 5:13
“Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all.” Matthew 5:15
• Salt and light must be applied
Rebecca Pippert’s book, Out of the Saltshaker and into the World: Evangelism as a Way of Life was first published twenty-eight years ago. Her premise is that Christians, like salt, must be shook out of the shaker if they are to have any effect or influence in the world for Christ.
In his book Led by the Carpenter, the late James Kennedy wrote of a man who walked into a mom-and pop store and asked, “Do you sell salt?” Pop answered, “Do we sell salt! Just look!” And then Pop showed the customer an entire wall of shelves stocked with nothing but salt. Morton salt, iodized salt, kosher salt, sea salt, rock salt, seasoning salt, garlic salt, Epson salts…
“And if you think that is something, that’s nothing! Follow me.” In the back room, the customer saw shelves, bins, cartons, barrels, and blocks of salt. “Unbelievable!” said the customer.
Pop took him by the arm and said, “If you think that’s something, follow me to the basement.” Down the steps they went and there the customer saw nothing but salt stacked from floor to ceiling in every imaginable form… bags of salt, blocks of cattle salt, every kind of salt imaginable. “Wow!” said the customer, “You really sell salt!”
“Naw!” Pop said, “That’s just the problem! We never sell salt! But that salt-salesman – he sells salt!” (D. James Kennedy, Led by the Carpenter, Thomas Nelson, 1999, P. 46)
Salt isn’t of any use if it doesn’t move out of the basement, into the backroom, onto the shelves, out the door, into the shaker, and onto the food. It has to be applied and properly so.
• Salt and light must be applied properly
When salt is missing it is a conspicuous absence. On Thanksgiving we will all sit down for dinner. The turkey and dressing will be passed, cranberry sauce will be passed, perhaps a carrot dish or coleslaw will be passed, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes will be passed, rolls and the butter dish will be passed, and when everyone has been served the hostess will take a bite and she will say, “Oh my, the potatoes need salt!” And then the salt and pepper will be passed. When salt is applied and properly so, it is inconspicuous. But if it is missing, it is conspicuously so.
When Christians are conspicuous or too present or overbearingly present or obnoxiously present or overpoweringly present to the point that the hostess says. “Oh my, don’t eat the potatoes, they are way too salty,” that is not a good thing. And neither is it a good thing when the hostess says, “Oh may, the potatoes need salt.” It is a good thing when the potatoes are properly seasoned. A dash of salt is usually sufficient.
Light, like salt can be overpowering. Light may take the form of the garish lights of the Las Vegas strip. Light may take the form of the flashing neon sign. Light may take the form of powerful floods that illumine the sky or the intensity light that blinds the eye. But most lights are like the light in your laundry room, your reading lamp, the low beam headlights on your car, the streetlight on you block, or your porch light. Lights are intended to illumine an area. If there is not enough light in the area, it is too dark. If there is too much light in an area, it is blinding. Both darkness and brightness are conspicuous. But when properly lit it is a good thing. A splash of light is usually sufficient.
I like the word from the Apostle Peter, “If you are asked about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. But you must do this in a gentle and respectful way.” I Peter 3:15-16 Our observable witness of good deeds and our spoken witness to our faith are to be like dashes of salt and splashes of light… just right!
Sometimes we can loose sight of why we are salt and light. We can become absorbed in enjoying our own tastiness and basking in the glory of our own light. But, Jesus reminds us that we are salt and light for two reasons:
4. Your influence is good for people and gets glory for God.
“In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:16
The intent is not to bring attention to yourself:
• The first intent is to do good for others.
Mark Twain said, “Always do right; it will gratify some and astonish the rest.” (Mark Twain, Preaching Today)
John Wesley said:
Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
To all the people you can
As long as you can.
I have spoken largely of our being salt and light in our spheres of influence… but we must understand that our sphere of influence extends throughout the world.
Leonard Sweet wrote in his book Aqua Church of a childhood memory of a story he had heard. It seems a certain missionary, home on furlough, was shopping for a globe of the world to take back to his mission station. The clerk showed her a reasonably priced globe and another one with a light bulb inside. “This one is nicer,” the clerk said, pointing to the illuminated globe, “but of course, a lighted world costs more.” (Leonard Sweet, Aqua Church, Group Publishing 1999, PreachingToday.com)
There is an undeniable imperative that we be salt and light where we are and another is that we assist others in being salt and light where they are. Jesus commissioned us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit…teaching them to obey all of his commandments. (Matthew 28:19-20) Our salt and light has global influence when we pray and when we give to missions.
In addition to doing good for others, our ultimate intent is to bring glory to God.
• The second intent is to get glory for God.
Henri Nouwen described a Christmas scene of three small wood-carved figures made in India, as the most wonderful he had ever seen. The carvings were of a poor woman, a poor man, and a small child between them. It was a simple carving, nearly primitive. The figures had no eyes, no ears, and no mouths… just contours of the faces. The figures were smaller than a human hand… nearly too small to attract attention at all.
But then, a beam of light shines on the three figures and projects large shadows on the sanctuary wall. That says it all, the light thrown on the smallness of Mary, Joseph, and the Child projects them as large, hopeful shadows against the walls of our life and our world. While looking at the intimate scene we already see the first outlines of the majesty and glory they represent. Without the radiant beam of light shining in the darkness there is little to be seen. But, everything changes with the light. (Henri Nouwen, The Genessee Diary, Christianity Today, Vol. 41, No. 14)
Just as Patricia Hampl saw the presence of Christ in the smile of the woman she met on the street and just as Henri saw in the shadow of Mary, Joseph, and the Christ on the sanctuary wall the glory and majesty they represent, may others see that same reflection when they look into our eyes and see the larger shadow cast as we walk in the light.
