Influencing Communities
Matthew 5:13-15
Robert Lewis writes, “In 1851, many of the most accomplished engineers in the country thought James Roebling was out of his mind. That year, he began to work on the unthinkable: building a bridge over the Niagara River Gorge. Disaster was nearly universally predicted. There was the sheer mathematics of the thing: 825 feet across and more terrifyingly 200 feet straight down. But the distance across the river paled in comparison to the sheer power and rage of the waters below. Niagara River Gorge was just upriver from Niagara Falls, where up to 37.4 million gallons of water per minute fell into the Gorge. From there the waters had cut a deep abyss with the series of ravage rapids before ending in a terrifying whirlpool. Across such a chasm, Roebling believed a train could cross. History was not his ally. Although greater spans had already been bridged, including Roebling’s own bridge across the Ohio River, the Niagara was far more difficult. No girders or bridge supports would ever survive the raging currents. The only possible solution was a suspension bridge. And that’s what had people worried. At the time suspension bridges were not highly regarded. They were considered disasters in the making. They shook in the wind and after a few years twisted and crumbled into the waters they were designed to span. In England and France suspension bridges had collapsed under the mere weight of crossing humans, killing hundreds. In America, a number of small suspension bridges had collapsed, mostly from moving livestock. So when Roebling proposed the suspension bridge, it came as no surprise that most people were putting their money on the gorge, not the bridge. As Roebling’s bridge was less than a year from completion, a smaller suspension bridge collapsed a few miles away just five years after it was opened. Yet construction continued and Roebling’s bridge opened in 1855. The bottom level was for carriage and pedestrian traffic and the top was reserved for the Great Western Canada Railroad. On Friday March 16, the first train rolled over twice the weight of regular trains to test the bridge. Just a few days later, a passenger train packed to capacity made the journey from Canada to the United States. Because of his efforts, two countries which had been separated from each other were now connected.
And then Robert Lewis writes, “Jesus Christ was a daring bridge builder of another kind. Against his own overwhelming odds, he imagined a bridge of unprecedented spiritual influence- one that could span a chasm roaring with skepticism, indifference, and hostility, even persecution. He imagined a bridge able to connect his people- “my church,” he called them- to a disbelieving, disinterested world. That’s why Jesus loved to talk about his church, especially the power it could unleash and exercise in the world…..By exhibiting through everyday humanity, his life and love to the world, Jesus expected the church to supernaturally attract all (people) to God.” The church, you and I, must rediscover our essential role and craft as bridge builder, for the world’s sake, for the church’s sake and for God’s sake. We can no longer afford to stand on the sidelines. We can’t just be good citizens and bystanders of this world and our city, we must connect and we must influence, otherwise the life, love, death and resurrection is all for naught. Jesus died for our sins to change us that we might then be able to change the world with his love and grace.
Our text this morning calls us to do just that. These 4 verses are near the beginning of Jesus’ most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. In this message, Jesus called his followers to the highest standards of conduct, challenging us to turn the other cheek, to love our enemy, to forgive people who do us wrong, and to act with the purest motives. And here in these verses he calls those who follow Him to choose to be a godly influence on the society in which we live. Now I have to tell you, some of Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount are quite a challenge to me. When Jesus says "Don’t worry about anything" and "Invest in the treasure of heaven instead of storing up stuff on earth" I have to admit it. I sometimes struggle with those things. When he said it is better to poke your eye out than look at a woman lustfully, I might be blinded on some days! But today’s Scripture might be the most difficult of all. Jesus calls us to change the world around us with our lives. He doesn’t just expect us to live in the world. He expects the world to be transformed by our presence. Now that’s a tough calling!
First, Jesus says we are like is salt. "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Now at first look this is a little difficult to understand. There’s no such thing as "unsalty salt, is there?" If you pour the granules out of your saltshaker and it’s not salty, somebody played a trick on you because salt doesn’t go bad. But salt in Jesus’ day didn’t come from a salt deposit but rather evaporated seawater, and it was never completely pure. Occasionally that salt was so impure that it wasn’t very salty at all. When that happened, they would throw it out the door to harden the pathway that led to their house or threw it on the marble courtyards of the temple to make them less slippery. In an allusion to this practice, Jesus said that salt, having lost its savor, was good for nothing, but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. What Jesus says in these verses is that if His followers are going to change the world we live in, we have to be the real thing. Our lives can’t be a mixture of all kinds of impurity. We have to be uncompromised, pure, authentic. That’s the word I want you to remember because Jesus is calling us to be authentic.
We have to admit that one thing that has limited the influence Christians have on the world is many who claim to follow Christ aren’t authentic: hypocrites. They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. There are alot of people who come to church on Sunday, but you’d never know it by the way they live throughout the week. If they have any influence on the world, it isn’t one that draws others to Christ. If anything, an inconsistent lifestyle repels people from the church. The world hates hypocrites. They’re looking for something authentic. So Jesus calls us to live out a pure, uncompromised, authentic faith. If we do that, the world will be changed by it.
The key here is being real, not trying to appear perfect. Nobody likes a phony, and if you think you are fooling everybody, the only person you’re fooling is yourself. The world can smell that stuff a mile away. Jesus says in Mt. 23:25-28: “Woe to…you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” Jesus calls us to influence the world toward godliness but to do so in an authentic way. Anything less is useless to Him.
The second image Jesus uses to speak of our influence in the world, is no less challenging. Jesus compares us to light. (Read vv. 14-16) Consistently throughout the Bible, the thought is that where God is, there is light. Where God is not, there is darkness. Jesus expands that image to those who follow God. As believers in Christ we become the light of the world. It is not that we have any ability on our own to bring light to the darkness. He simply means that by being followers of Christ, we gain the ability to reflect His light. That’s why the result isn’t that we get glory, but that God gets the glory for the good deeds that we do. However, the big point of what Jesus is saying comes in verses 14 and 15. Light exists for a purpose, to illuminate darkness. You can’t hide light and it be any good. You have to show it.
Second, Jesus is saying that as light, we need to be available. Being available is just as important as being authentic if we are going to influence our world for Christ. Jesus is challenging us to make a concerted effort to live in contact with people who need to know Him. We need to be involved with non-Christian people. In our context, it means we need to make the effort to cross paths and to build bridges with people who don’t know Jesus’ love and the hope He offers. When you are blessed enough to live in the light, make sure you don’t hide it. Be available enough to reflect it to others who are still living in the darkness to influence them for Christ. That’s the only way you will ever influence them.
Jesus wants you to be light and salt in every aspect of your lives: in your workplace, in the neighborhood, among your friends and even in your home. Now how can we be salt and light in the world? By being intentional about living your faith and taking intentional action. That might be through volunteering at the Library or a school. Get involved in coaching a kid’s athletic league or finding an organization that serves community needs like the Rotary club or the Scouts or United Way.
It could also mean that you live out your faith when you cross paths with others. Leave a decent tip at restaurants. Smile and be pleasant to the person who checks you out at the store. Help somebody who needs some assistance. Chances are better that you will be able to influence people for Christ if they can see that Christ has made a difference in your life. Steven Chapman tells the story of a business owner who became interested in Christianity, but he maintained a distance and just observed for a while. He employed many Christians in his company and watched them like a hawk. He said, "You know, I was naturally drawn to God by observing Christian workers who were conscientious and kind and thorough and aggressive on the job. But I’ll tell you what really impressed me. One day a guy who I knew to be a fresh convert asked if he could see me after work. I agreed to meet with him, but later in the day I started to worry that this young religious zealot might be coming to try to convert me. I was surprised when he came in my office with his head hanging low and said to me, ’Sir, I’ll only take a few minutes, but I’m here to ask your forgiveness. Over the years I’ve worked for you I’ve done what a lot of other employees do, like borrowing a few company products here and there. And I’ve taken some extra supplies; I’ve abused telephone privileges; and I’ve cheated the time clock now and then. But I became a Christian a few months ago and it’s real-not the smoke and mirror stuff. In gratitude for what Christ has done for me and in obedience to Him, I want to make amends to you and the company for the wrongs I’ve done. So could we figure out a way to do that? If you have to fire me for what I’ve done, I’ll understand. I deserve it. Or, if you want to dock my pay, dock it whatever figure you think is appropriate. If you want to give me some extra work to do on my own time, that will be okay too. I just want to make things right with God and between us.’" In the end they worked it out. That business owner said that one conversation made a deeper spiritual impact on him than anything else ever had. Jesus calls us to be salt and light.
Here are some people who have chosen to be salt and light in our city. Brad Pitt and his “Make it Right” Foundation building green homes in the 9th Ward. Wynton Marsalis raising $2.8 million in grants at the Higher Ground Hurricane Relief Benefit concert at Lincoln Center in New a benefit concert at Lincoln Center in New York City to help New Orleans musicians rebuild. Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis conceiving Musicians’ Village consisting of 80+ single-family, Habitat-constructed homes s. But you don’t have to be famous or influential to be salt and light.
Denise Thornton and her efforts to help others rebuild through her Beacon of Hope Resource Center in Algiers and now Lakeview. Or Annie Milling, founder of The Women of the Storm, who went to Washington, and lobbied for more money to rebuild our city and wetlands. Or Dale Kimball and Joe Burke who left his construction job to run UMCOR’s Disaster Recovery Center here in New Orleans. Or Pastor Callie Winn at Rayne Memorial UMC who seeing the great need for medical care in the city started Luke’s House, a clinic where doctors donate their services for free to the poor. Or Charles Jenkins, the Episcopal bishop of New Orleans, who launched a program to build houses for low-income residents, and helped stop the city council from passing ordinances against the homeless, who had no other options but to live on the street. Or Contractor Francisco Solórzano who took his profits in his construction business and bought flood-wrecked homes and is rebuilding them to seel them at an affordable price. Or Baty Landis cofounder Silence Is Violence which seeks to reduce crime and help at-risk youths refocus their lives. She led a march of 5,000 people on city hall, the largest demonstration since the 1960s, to agitate for reform by chanting, "Music in the schools!" demanding school band programs to counter gang culture.
Religious denominations are focusing on their traditional specialties in disaster relief. They include Southern Baptists (chain sawing for debris removal and feeding for the Red Cross), United Methodists (tracking the needs of families and helping with long-term rebuilding efforts through volunteers), Seventh Day Adventists (warehousing supplies) and Church of the Brethren (emergency child care), and the Mennonites who share their building trades to help rebuild homes.
And we, Gretna United Methodist Church, are called to be salt and light. We need to continue the feeding ministry but also realize that is only a bandaid on the open wound of poverty. We need to study poverty and seek longterm solutions to help people get out of the cycle of poverty. We need to re-start the SAIL Ministry which weeks to share acts of servant evangelism, kind acts of love as a tangible way of expressing God’s love for them. We need to reach out to the Hispanics who have moved onto the WestBank and begin to minister to them. We need to reach out the poor which live just around the corner from us and seek to meet their needs in the name of Christ. We need to adopt a school and volunteer there mentoring and helping the students in life skills and their studies. The opportunities are all around us, we just have to decide that we are going to take some of the time and effort we spend here at church and go out into the community to be salt and light.
Robert Lewis tells the story of two of his church members, Larry and Sonja Mendelsohn. They were partners in everything and when they desired to be involved in a ministry in response to a challenge at their church, they wanted to serve together. They felt a call to be in ministry in the inner city of Little Rock far removed from their comfortable suburban neighborhood. Larry met with Robert for lunch and expressed his desire to help in the inner city. Robert said, You might want to narrow that down a little bit. Try a tighter focus. Concentrate on doing one thing. Then he added, Why don’t you try to come alongside someone who is already working there. They did just that and found a struggling inner city social service ministry and asked, What can we do? They got some other friends involved and started holding events for inner city kids like retreats and parties. Then came the idea to send the kids to a summer camp to help them experience something other than the harsh realities of inner city life. They held car washes and were able to send 20 kids that year, saving many from gangs and changing their lives. They then started a 5K race with only 6 weeks of planning. People from all over the city got involved. A local radio personality donated his time, corporations donated money and a black choir sang by the river. That year they sent 40 kids to camp and had enough money to start a college scholarship fund. And the race has only grown larger each year enabling them to send more kids to camp and others to college.
Jesus calls you and me and Gretna UMC to be salt and light. Discover your passion. Find a need in the community. Gather others to start a ministry effort with you or come alongside someone who is already working there. Ask, what can we do? Begin serving and being salt and light by influencing our communities for Christ to transform the world. Amen and Amen.
