Good morning! If you have your Bibles, please turn to Matthew chapter 5. You probably were expecting me to say turn to the book of Mark, and I get that. But we are going to take a one week break from the book of Mark to talk about who we are as Christian Americans. Not American Christians, but Christian Americans. Hopefully that will make more sense in a few minutes.
You know, every year, over a million people visit the National Archives rotunda in Washington, DC, where the two foundational documents of our country are on display: The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. The entire building is basically designed to display and protect these documents. Temperature and air filtration are strictly regulated, and the building was designed to minimize the amount of sunlight allowed into the Rotunda. The documents themselves are encased in hermetically sealed, helium filled cases, covered with bulletproof glass. Each night the documents are lowered twenty feet into a steel vault.
These documents are precious to Americans, because they represent who we are as a people. Many of you could probably quote at least some of the Declaration of Independence, couldn’t you?
“We hold these truths to be ________________________, that all men are ___________________.” Good job! Now, raise your hands if you were picturing the Schuyler sisters from Hamilton singing that. Good. My tribe.
How about the Preamble to the Constitution? How many of you know the Preamble to the Constitution by heart?
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, secure domestic tranquility; provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Ok—show of hands again: How many of you know this because of Schoolhouse Rock? That’s what I figured!
We take these words to heart, and we protect the documents they are a part of, because they define what it means to be an American. Every President takes an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” As one of our church members posted on his facebook this week, he made the same promise when he was sworn in to the Army National Guard in 1981, and that oath does not have an expiration date.
But as we look st Matthew 5, the beginning of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, I want to suggest to you that these three chapters—Matthew 5-7, are as foundational to a citizen of the Kingdom of God as the Constitution is to a citizen of the United States. And if there is one section of the Bible that would be the most beneficial to memorize, this would be it. About 20 years ago, I was part of a discipleship group that memorized the sermon on the mount, and my life has never been the same.
Jesus gathered his disciples and established the governing principles that define who we are as Christians.
Think of the Beatitudes (verses 1-12) as our Preamble:
When he saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them, saying,
[transition each one]
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men persecute you, and revile you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in Heaven. For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And then we get to the verses that we are going to spend the rest of our time dealine with this morning. Stand with me and let’s look at verses 13-16:
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.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it brings light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated, and as you are seated, let’s pray.
Almighty God—As Christians we hold THESE truths to be true. We read Your Word and it is obvious to us that these are not the words of a human being. These are not the words of an earthly ruler seeking to establish an earthly kingdom.
And so we can’t say that these truths are self-evident, because honestly they don’t make sense to anyone seeking to gain power by the world’s perspective. The apostle Paul wrote that the natural man can’t understand the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness to him. The world says you don’t get power by being meek. The world says you aren’t blessed by being poor in spirit. And the world says if you are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, you must be a loser.
Remind us this morning, Lord, that we are citizens of a different kingdom, and help us make it our first priority to preserve, protect, and defend your word. And Lord Jesus, if there is someone listening this morning that can’t understand this truth, I pray that you would open their eyes, that they may see wondrous things from your law. Amen.
Jesus gave His disciples three metaphors to describe the influence they were to have on the world around them. Salt, Light, and a City on a Hill. The third one is where the title of the sermon comes from, and we’ll get to that in a little bit. But let’s talk about the first two.
First, Jesus calls us salt. Verse 13 says, “You are the salt of the earth.” Salt was used for two things in the ancient world. The first is what we still use it for: to season food.
Think about a food that you can’t imagine not sprinkling with a little salt. Maybe its popcorn. Maybe French Fries. Do you have something you put salt on and everyone else thinks you’re weird? For me its grapefruit juice. But the point is, salt makes things taste better.
And that’s how Christians are supposed to be in the world. Our presence should make things better. Our neighbors, even the ones who don’t share our faith, ought to say, you know, I can’t imagine our neighborhood without the Williams’s. Our co-workers ought to say, I am so glad she’s in our office. She is a joy to be on a project with. It makes me smile to pass by him in the hall.
But salt had another function in the ancient world, that we don’t think about so much today. But in the days before refrigerators, salt was used to preserve meat. If you wanted to keep meat from spoiling, you would salt it down. You see, salt inhibits the growth of bacteria because it draws the water out of cells. Concentrations of salt will kill most of the unwanted bacteria in food. It can also be used to clean a wound for the same reason.
And you can see the parallel. Jesus wants his followers to have a preserving influence in their culture. We can all think of things in our society that are eating away at our values, threatening families. I believe we have an obligation to preserve Christian values in our society.
One way for us to do that is at the ballot box. Don’t ever accept the idea that we are not supposed to be values voters. I honestly don’t know what other kind of voter there can be. Everyone votes with their values.
But what happens when the majority vote doesn’t go our way? Do we give up? Do we despair? Do we Tweet about it for the next four years? Do we run out the day after the election and buy a bumper sticker that says, “Wait till 2024?” No. We remember that this isn’t the only way we work to preserve Christian values in our society. It’s not even the primary way. Remember that Jesus isn’t talking to a government here. Christians, not Congress, are to be the salt of the earth. God’s people, not politicians, are to season and preserve the world we live in.
• So when the government takes prayer out of schools, then that simply means we renew our commitment to get prayer back into our living rooms.
• When the government makes abortion on demand the law of the land, we work all the harder to teach our own sons and daughters about the sanctity of human life, the importance of abstinence before marriage. We seek out ways to help women who are facing an unplanned pregnancy.
• When the government makes laws that re-define marriage, we fight to support and strengthen our own marriages, and the marriages in our church family.
This shouldn’t be hard for us. Most of us are Republicans, which means we don’t expect the government to do for us what we are supposed to be doing for ourselves. And can we not apply that to the church? Beloved, let’s not wring our hands because the government isn’t doing what Jesus called the church to do!
WE are salt, so we season and preserve (v. 13)
Number 2, Jesus calls us the light of the world. Jesus said that we are the light of the world. And just as we talked about salt having two functions—to season and preserve, Light does two things. First, it illuminates. When you are in a dark room, what is the first thing you do? That’s right. You fumble for a light switch. How many of you, even when you KNOW the power is out, still reach for the light switch? Because we know that light dispels darkness. Think about it. When there’s a light on in a dark room, you can’t add more darkness in order to overwhelm the light. But you add more light to overcome the darkness. That is what Jesus did when He came to earth. John 1:4-5 says that in Jesus “was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” So Christians, who are called by the name of Jesus, are also to be a light in dark places. We are to have hope even when everyone around us is feeling hopeless. We are to be people of peace even when there is chaos all around. Light illuminates.
Light doesn’t just illuminate, it guides.. Those of us who are believers are guided by God’s Word. Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. I love the way The Baptist Faith and Message describes the Bible:
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is… the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
So let’s connect the dots: The Psalms say that God’s Word is light. Jesus said that He is the light of the world (John 8:12). We understand that because of this last line of the Baptist Faith and Message—all Scripture is a testimony to Christ. But then in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says that we—Christians—are the light of the world. Did He mix His metaphors here? How can Jesus and His followers BOTH be the light of the world?
How many of you saw the moon last night? Wasn’t it beautiful? It was just about as bright as I have ever seen it. Mike, you’ll love this. I found out that the full moon in July is called the “Buck Moon,” because this is the time of year when a deer’s antlers are in full growth.”
Now… WHY does the moon shine so brightly? It isn’t because it has any light of its own, but because it reflects the light of the sun. And that’s how Christians are to be the light of the world. It is only by reflecting the Son—S O N—to the world.
Which leads us to Jesus’ third metaphor—Verses 14-16 say that we are to be a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. Jesus told his followers that His light should be obvious to the people around us, so that we can bring His light to “everyone in the house.” He says that our good deeds will bring glory to our Father in Heaven.
We are a City on a Hill, so we are visible and obvious (v. 14-16)
So as we wrap this up, I want us to ask ourselves two questions:
Question one: Can we apply what Jesus said to us—you and me—to U.S.—the United States?
The image of being a city on a hill has worked its way into political speeches for the last three hundred years or so. We typically associate it with Ronald Reagan, but it actually goes back wy further than Reagan.
John Winthrop was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1630, while on board the ship Arbella which was sailing from England to the New World, Winthrop encouraged his fellow pilgrims with a sermon entitled “A Model of Christian Charity.”
He based the entire sermon on Micah 6:8—"what does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.” And he ended the sermon with this warning, straight from Matthew 5:16:
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.
So can the teachings of Jesus be applied to a nation? Well, yes and no. On one hand, it is absolutely true that America was founded on Christian principles. In his farewell address In 1796 (which Alexander Hamilton wrote) George Washington said,
Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education… reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
Two years later, John Adams would tell the Massachusetts militia that,
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other
At the same time, we have to remember that the Kingdom of God is fundamentally different from any kingdom or government established by human beings, and America is no exception.
America began with a Declaration of Independence. But Christianity begins with a Declaration of Dependence, when we say Lord Jesus, I am dead in my sins and I cannot save myself.
The Constitution begins with ten amendments that we call the Bill of Rights. We have freedom of speech. Freedom of Religion. Freedom of the Press. Freedom to lawfully assemble, even in protest of our own government. The right to bear arms.
In contrast, Christianity is not based on ten rights, but on Ten Commandments, most of them telling us what we must not do, rather than what we have a right to do. Jesus began his sermon on the Mount not by telling his disciples about their freedoms, but about their responsibilities. A responsibility to be poor in spirit. A responsibility to be meek. A responsibility to be merciful. A responsibility to be peacemakers.
In Lincoln’s first inaugural address, in 1861, he didn’t appeal to our rights guaranteed in the Constitution. He appealed to the responsibilities outlined in the Beatitudes. As he spoke to a nation deeply divided, he said,
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Where did he get this? There’s nothing in the Constituion about bonds of affection. There’s nothing in the Declaration of Independence that suggests we are to be guided by the better angels of our nature.
This isn’t America talk. This is Kingdom of Heaven talk. When Lincoln sought to heal the wounds that were dividing the country, he didn’t appeal to government. He appealed to Christians.
So the conclusion is obvious: America is at her best when her people follow the example of Jesus and the teachings of Scripture. And that isn’t something that can be legislated by the government. It has to begin in the hearts of individuals.
When Ronald Reagan began his presidential campaign in 1980, he compared America to a shining city on a hill. He said,
I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that vision of a shining "city on a hill," as were those long ago settlers ... These visitors to that city … do not come as white or black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone before, proud of what for them is still… a shining city on a hill (1980)
And eight years later, in his farewell address, he asked, “So how stands the city?” He said,
I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace - a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.
That's how I saw it, and see it still. And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. (Reagan’s Farewell Address, January 12, 1989)
These are powerful, inspiring words. But let’s remember, Jesus didn’t call a country a city on a hill. He called His disciples that. So Reagan’s question is directed to you, not to the United States. Church, how stands the city? Christian, how stands your city? Are you committed to acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly in your own life? Are you as committed to your responsibilities as a citizen of the kingdom of God as you are to your rights as a citizen of the United States?
Conclusion: If we want to make America Great again, American Christians must be Good again.
