Today we begin a series of a sermons following Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the mount. What we’ll discover as we go through is a series of radical interpretations of God’s law, designed to teach his followers how to live lives that are shaped by God’s agenda for the world and for his people, rather than the world’s agenda.
But before he begins this series of exhortations to upright living Jesus first reminds the disciples of who and what they are. You may remember that in the giving of the 10 commandments God does the same thing. He first reminds the people "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;" and then proceeds to outline how they’re to live in response to his mercy and goodness. So too, here, Jesus first reminds them of what God has done for them already. First he begins with the beatitudes: the list of blessings that God has promised to his followers, then he adds these two "you are" statements. These two groups of sayings, the beatitudes and the "You ares", are foundational. They’re to become formative elements of the Christian life. Without them the rest becomes simply a list of do’s and don’ts. The foundation of the Christian life and witness is the grace of God, the blessings that God pours out on his people.
Salt
So he begins with the first affirmation: "You are the salt of the earth." What does salt do? It preserves. It purifies. It brings out the true flavour of food. It destroys the things that cause food to rot. But there’s more to this picture than just that. The other thing about salt is that it doesn’t exist for itself. If you eat a spoonful of salt you’re likely to make yourself sick. No, salt’s main purpose is the penetration of food. In a sense, salt needs to die before it becomes useful.
So can you see what Jesus is saying to his disciples? He’s saying you’re made to get involved in the world, to penetrate society. What for? To bring cleansing, to overcome the evils of society, to be an agent for good. Last week I commented on the fact that so many of the things we love about Australia come out of our Christian heritage. We enjoy freedom and equality, mateship, a fair go, a just legal system because Christians in the past got involved in politics and community leadership so that Christian standards would be applied to our common life as Australians. Well, sadly, that era is largely gone. Today we live in a much more secular society, but there are still politicians and other public figures who speak out for Christian values in government and law making and we should be encouraging and supporting them when they do that.
But the same goes for us in our more mundane suburban existence. We’re made to be salt in our local community.
By the way, did you notice that Jesus doesn’t say you should be salt, or become like salt. Rather, he says you are salt. This is your current nature. That’s what you’re like if you’re born again, remade in God’s image. But of course there is a problem with that isn’t there? We don’t always act like it’s true do we? In fact knowing that we’re salt leaves us with 2 choices.
2 Choices
The first choice is to do what we were designed for, to get into the food. That is, we can get involved in our world. We can get on the school committee or the local neighbourhood watch committee; we can spend time with other men or other women; we can use the opportunities we have to talk to people about our faith, to season our words with the salt of the gospel; we can inject alternate views into the conversation, views that reflect the values of the kingdom of heaven.
The other choice we could make is to avoid contact with food altogether. i.e. to withhold the seasoning of the gospel from our everyday conversations, from our committee deliberations, from our business decision making etc. That’s the response I fear lots of Christians make. We’re so afraid of being looked down on because we hold such divergent views, divergent form the majority that is, that we hold our tongue, rather than speaking out.
Jesus knows that this is a danger. So he issues a challenge.
A Challenge.
He says you’ve got to remain salty. As I said we don’t have to become salty. That’s how we’ve been made. But we do need to maintain our saltiness. We need to make sure we don’t become stale. I’m not sure salt can go stale, but Christians certainly can. To change the metaphor, we need to maintain our edge if we’re to penetrate the hearts and minds of non-Christians.
How do we lose our saltiness? Well, my guess is that the most effective way is through disuse. That is, if we never practice being salt in the world, then in the end we’ll have lost our tang.
You know how it works. Something comes up in conversation; some issue where Christians might have a different viewpoint to others; and you think to yourself, "Should I say something about this or will I just keep quiet and let the conversation go on?" And the way you answer that question probably determines the way you’ll answer it next time. If you decide to speak up, then the next time it’s a bit easier. If you decide to be silent, the next time it’ll take you even less time to decide to be quiet.
And what’s the result of that sort of behaviour?
Jesus says: "Salt that’s lost its tang is useless and will be thrown out." It may have been the salt of the earth, but now it’s become salt on the earth, only good for treading on. And how do we see that being worked out in our modern context? Well you’d have to say that Christians as a whole have lost their impact. As a result we’re ignored, with a few notable exceptions of course. But Christians as a whole have stopped being salt in our world and as a result we’re treated with contempt or simply disinterest.
In Revelation 3 God sends a message to the 7 churches of Asia and there’s quite a chilling passage in one of those letters, the letter to Laodicea, in chapter 3. The church there has become self satisfied. They’re doing OK, they’re prosperous, but it seems that they’re no longer being salt in the world. And this is what God says to them: (Rev 3:15-16 NRSV) "I know your works; you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spit you out of my mouth." So this isn’t just a warning that the world will trample us under foot. There’s also the danger that God will be disgusted with us. So let’s make sure that we live and act as salt. That we bring a purifying and cleansing element to our interactions with others.
Light
Secondly, Jesus says :You are the light of the world. Literally the light of the cosmos. Now two weeks ago we saw how Jesus was the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy of one who would come as a light to the nations. But now the Light of the world passes the baton on to his disciples. We’re commissioned to be the light in his place. It’s as though when we look to him his light reflects off us and into the world. And he gives us a promise and a warning.
A Promise
First, he says "A city built on a hill can’t be missed."
Of course that illustration is even more apt today. A modern city can be seen at night from miles away. If you’ve ever approached a big city from the country at night you may have noticed how you can see the glow of the city from miles away.
So Jesus is saying that the Christian is built to stand out, to be noticed. Even if we say nothing out of the ordinary, people will notice how we live and act and speak. But then again there’s a warning.
A warning
Lamps are meant to be out in the open. It’s no good lighting a lamp and putting it in a cupboard. Just as our saltiness can be locked away from the place it’s meant to be used, so we can hide our light from the eyes of the world. Just as we can choose not to speak out in our conversations with people, so we can choose to withdraw our good works from people. We can hide away in our church ghettos and only let our Christian brothers and sisters see them. Or, we can let people see the kind of good works that go with the kingdom of God by getting involved with others out there in the world. And as a result they’ll give God the glory.
One of the changes I’ve made this year is that I’ve asked the people leading the prayers to start working through our Parish directory, praying for each person in their ministry in the world. Instead of just praying for me and Michael and Roy and Camille, we’re going to pray for everyone who’s in ministry in this congregation: that is, everyone. So that people might see our good works and give glory to our father in heaven.
Finally, notice that he says "so people might see your good works." The your is emphasised in the original. In other words, let people see what Christian good works are like. Now that begs the question: "Is there a difference between a Christian’s good works and those of others?" Well let me suggest that there may be and that if there is it’s probably related to the list of characteristics we see in the beatitudes: meekness, humility, modesty and mercy, purity, a desire for righteousness and peace. Christian good works are motivated by those sorts of virtues: meekness and modesty, mercy and righteousness. There should never be a sense of self interest in the things we do. Nor should there be any sense of our pride being boosted by it. Rather it should come out of a deep compassion and love for others. And the result will be that people are attracted to the God who brings out this sort of behaviour in us.
Let me tell you a story I heard the other day. It’s a story about a couple with a new born baby. They weren’t Christians at this stage. They were living in a block of flats with their young child and one night he started screaming with wind. There was nothing they could do to calm him down or to keep him quiet. You may relate to this story. After a while they said they could hear windows slamming all around the neighbourhood. They were sure that the next morning they’d be getting rude remarks from all the neighbors. Well the next morning the mother was coming out of her front door and encountered the next door neighbour. An older woman whom she’d spoken to on occasion, but never really got to know. She braced herself for the cutting remark that she was sure was coming, but no; instead this woman said, "you must be exhausted after that sleepless night. Would you like to come in next door for a cup of tea?" And she did. And so began a long friendship with this woman, who it turned out, was a Christian. And not only that but she became a major influence in this couple committing their lives to Christ. It was just a word of kindness, just an act of love to offer simple hospitality to someone who needed a comforting smile and a listening ear. But it brought light to an otherwise darkened life and continues to bring life through that couples’ lives to this day.
The interesting thing about that term good works, by the way, is that the adjective that’s used is normally used to describe the attractive form or appearance of something. So it’s not just the moral worthiness of the deed but the way the deed is carried out that matters.
You see, our good works are meant to be transparent. i.e. as people see us doing them they’ll see through the agent to the source. Here should be a major difference between Christians and others. When we do good works it’s not so we can be praised but so that God will be praised. In fact if you jump forward to 6:1 you’ll see that good works must never be done in order to earn praise. Rather they’re done that God might receive the glory.
There’s also a challenge here for us to make sure our everyday lives express kingdom values, so that when people look at the way we live they can see we’re different for some reason. John Chrysostom wrote: "When our non-Christian neighbours see us building ourselves fine houses, and laying out gardens and baths, and buying fields, they are not willing to believe that we are preparing for another residence away from our city ... Hearest thou not Christ say that He left us to be for salt and lights in the world, in order that we may both brace up those that are melting in luxury and enlighten them that are darkened by the care of wealth?" Well, let’s make sure that every aspect of our lives reflects the light of Christ.
Well I want to finish by talking about the way we witness to the world about the light of Christ. Let me ask you, how many of you have witnessed to someone this week about what it means to be a Christian? Put up your hands.
Well, now I want you to put up your hands if you’ve been to work this week, or if you’ve been talking to someone at your children’s school or play group, or at the supermarket or the gym; put your hand up if you’ve sat in a waiting room somewhere or been on a tram or a train. Now everyone with their hand up has been witnessing this week. The witness may or may not have been a good one but wherever you’ve been people have been watching the way you behave. And of course if they already know you’re a Christian then they’ve probably been comparing your behaviour to others they know who are not Christians. Perhaps not in a calculating sort of way but at least subconsciously. So the question is, has the light of Christ been visible in your life? Or has it been hidden under a basket? Have your words been like salt, seasoning life for those you’ve come into contact with or have they been lifeless, useful only for spreading on the path?
This is the challenge for us from this passage. Jesus has commissioned us. We’re each ordained Christian workers. We are the world’s light. We are salt for the earth. Shine as a light before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
For more sermons from this source go to http://home.vicnet.net.au/~sttheos/
