It’s important in this new time and new context that we find
ourselves in, to stop and again look back to our founder and his vision for his
followers. To rediscover our call and purpose … Dietrich Bonheoffer, the German
theologian who had to work out what it
meant to follow Christ under the Nazi regime said
“The restoration of the church will surely
come from a new kind of community, which will have nothing in common
with the old but a life of uncompromising adherence to the Sermon on the Mount
in imitation of Christ. I believe the time has come to rally people together
for this.”
And Jesus had started to call disciples, ordinary people
about their everyday work to come and follow him and as an introduction to the Sermon
on the Mount it says his disciples came to him and he began to teach them. The Sermon on the Mount is like the job
description of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus… it’s discipleship 101
if you like.
Jesus starts off with the Beatitudes ( Which I preached on earlier this year in a series called The Jesus Guide to Happiness). In what Philip Yancy
calls the revolution of Grace, Jesus turns the prevailing religious view of the
day on its head. In the beatitudes we see that it is not those who are good
enough the spiritual superstars who have it all together that are blessed and
able to be part of God’s family and kingdom, but the poor in spirit, those who
mourn, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Those who are meek, the
merciful and the peacemakers, the pure of heart, those who suffer persecution
and alienation because of Jesus and his kingdom. These people are blessed
because they find their poverty, hunger, thirst and desire for peace meet and
filled in Jesus and his mercy. They, we, are the people God invites into his
Kingdom in Christ.
Then Jesus says quite a profound thing in the passage we had
read out to us this morning. He says of this ragtag group, his disciples… you
are the salt of the earth… you are the light of the world. Right from the get
go Jesus gives them and all who would follow him this identity. That who we are
is to have an impact on the world in which we live. Our relationship with Jesus
maybe personal but it is not private. Our relationship with Jesus may bring
inward transformation but it is to be outlived out there in the world in a way
that will have impact. In our Old Testament reading from Isaiah we see that
God’s plans and purposes for his people have always been missional, have always
been about living in a way that would reflect the very nature of God. That
would reflect God’s grace, God’s goodness and God’s justice to the world, that
the nations would come and know and worship God.
Jesus uses metaphors, word pictures to explain that. Salt
and Light and people down through the ages have wrestled with what those thing
mean.
Firstly, Salt. In Jesus day it was so valuable that roman
soldiers were paid in salt… its where we get the saying “he is worth his salt”.
It opens us up to look at different ways in which we can be salt. We are most
used to it as a flavouring agent. I often get (my daughter) Bethany to taste
test my cooking, and her number one suggestion is that it needs salt to bring
out the flavours already there. Just like with Salt you and I are to bring a
Jesus flavour to all we do, to bring that flavour to the world.
Up until the beginning
of the twentieth century and the invention of refrigeration salt was used to
preserve meat and food. In his re-enactment of the voyage of St Brendan in the
1970’s explorer Tim Severn set out across the Atlantic Ocean in a small bullock
hide chorale. He took modern space age freeze dried food and also some more
traditional salted meat and cheese. He said that as the salt water got into the
freeze dried stuff it went bad, but with the traditional foods it simply added
to the flavour. Another aspect of being salt then would be in a world of decay
to be a preserving agent, to stop the rot as it were and be a force for the
goodness of God.
Salt is also used in healing in purification, we often hear
about rubbing salt into a wound as a way of making something painful hurt more,
but it was a way of guarding against infection. We still use it today, saline
solution is used to clean out wounds. Again it can talk of being part of God’s healing into this world. Being where
the hurt is so that the infection of sin won’t spread.
Light… of course is a more common biblical metaphor. It
speaks of God’s truth and presence. In
houses in Jesus time there was a lamp placed on a lamps stand in the corner
which would provide illumination to the whole of a house and it gave people the
ability to look and see what was in the house. We used to live in Napier and at
least once a month I would come back from Wairoa after attending a Church
meeting there and get home about midnight.
The Wiaroa/Napier road is a long winding dangerous road with several
gorges prone to slips, but you knew you were almost home and safe when you’d
come out by the coast and there off in the distance was Napier hill with all
its lights. It pointed the way home. The way we live is to point people to the
one we have found life and light in. People, says Jesus, will see our good
works, how we live and love other people and through that they will give glory
to our Father in heaven.
Of course in John 8:16 Jesus says “I am the Light of the
World” if we follow him we will never walk in darkness but will have the light
of life in us”. We are able to be light because we have the light of Christ in
us. I guess you could say it’s kind of like the sun and the moon. The moon
provides light in the night, when we don’t get in the way, but not its own light, it is reflected light
from the sun. So it with us through our words and deeds we are to reflect the
light of Christ to the world around us.
But Salt and light also tell us how we are to have that
influence on the world. If we hide the light away says Jesus, what good is it.
We are to shine that light. Salt is used
by being spread out and applied, not simply by sitting in the salt shaker or a
sack somewhere. It adds flavour as it permeates through a soup or casserole or
baking. It needs to infuse into meat to cure it and it is poured into a wound
to clean it. You get this idea of the kingdom of heaven not being a kingdom
that will come by conquest or by power or legislation, but by people who follow
Christ and live in a Christ light manner permeating the world. Being there and
being involved…. In schools, in community, in government, in families, where you work to
bring transformation… There were times in history when the Christianity was
seen as the state religion and able to impose and legislate, but even in those
times there has always been the need for people to be salt and light of the
kingdom as well, drawing people back to Jesus vision and version of the
Kingdom. One of the greatest reformation movements was St Francis of Assisi, in
his day the church had become very much associated with the wealthy and
powerful and Francis and his monks were
able again to show a Christian faith, based on the sermon on the mount that
cared for the poor and marginalised, that didn’t seek power or maintain it by
violence.
Salt and light also give of themselves to achieve their purpose. Oil is burned and consumed to give of light and salt dissolves and infuses to bring flavour, purify and preserve. Again this reflects Jesus own ministry of giving himself for us.
There are going to be times when being Slat and Light will
draw us into conflict with the decay and darkness in the world. Martin Luther
made the comment that salt was meant to bite when it did its work of purifying.
Jesus had just finished talking about the fact that just as they had persecuted
the prophets of old so they would persecute people who held up the light of
God’s goodness. How we deal with those things also calls us to be salt and
light.
There is also a warning in Jesus two metaphors here. Jesus says
if salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It’s no good except
to be thrown on the roads and trampled underfoot. Likewise we shouldn’t hide
our light under a bushel or basket. Again we get the light metaphor but
scholars have wrestled with what it means for salt to lose its saltiness. Salt
is no good for cooking if it is contaminated by other things. People used to
collect salt that had been evaporated from the water round the dead sea, and
some of it was good salt and some of it was mixed with gypsum and other
minerals. While you could use it to preserve things at first, it wouldn’t last
that long as the salt would dissolve and eek away leaving only the gypsum which
was no use except to pave the roads. Some have suggested that Jesus was
referring to rabbinic saying of his day, which mean that salt can’t lose it
saltiness and maybe it wasn’t salt in the first place. But these two warnings point to two extremes
that the church has been prone to down through history. Firstly we lose our distinctive
and simply reflect the world and culture round us rather than Jesus. Then well
we are just another social club in a crowded social network landscape. The
other trap is that we hide off from the world and well it’s nice and light
under the bucket or bowl but it is of little value. Dietrich Bonheoffer says
“flight into the invisible is a denial of call. A community of Jesus which
seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him”.
These metaphors prepare us for what Jesus will say in his
sermon, this ragtag group bought into the kingdom of heaven by Jesus revolution
of grace are to live differently than those around them. To be a follower of
Jesus is to accept responsibility for sharing that distinction both in word and
in deed, in living a different way it’s a call to be where the decay is and to
shine in the darkness. To speak out
against injustice and unrighteousness and to share the good news we have found
in Christ. And back both those up with our actions, as John Stott says to
penetrate the world with its structures and powers and preserve and bring
flavour, Jesus flavour. Can I say we’ve often done that from a position of
power as if Jesus aid we were the gold and silver of the world rather than
humble but essential things for life light and salt.
Well how do we start… William Klein in his
book on the sermon on the mount “ Become what you are” finishes his comments on
this passage with some challenging questions… He asks ‘What injustice
flourishes in the world around You? You are the salt of the earth… What about
simply telling someone about Jesus? Can I say I’m heartened to recently hear
stories of people encouraging other to come along to church because they find
it a great place to belong… I hope it’s
because in what we do and who we are that it just bursting with that Jesus
flavour. Think of the mundane parts of your everyday life… how can they become
places to shine light? Corporately, are we known as a caring community…in our
community?
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