Lord, open our understanding by the power of the Holy Spirit that as the Word is proclaimed we may receive holy wisdom to understand the gifts you have bestowed on us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
There are plenty of stupid things I've done as a Christian. Trust me, if God rewarded us for our good behavior and punished us for the bad stuff, I would not be here with you as I am today. Basically I'd be dead. I'm a firm believer in God's grace, simply out of practical experience. Author and Pastor Steve Brown has a list of the top 10 stupid things Christians do to mess up their lives. He wrote about these ten things in a book entitled, A Scandalous Freedom. Here's the list:
1. We think of God as either a child abuser, or away on vacation, or as Santa Claus instead of looking to Jesus to find out what God is really like.
2. We are obsessed with getting better rather than with God's forgiveness.
3. We forget the gospel and sacrifice the joy that sets us free.
4. We wear masks instead of being authentic and real.
5. We put our leaders on pedestals and thereby demean ourselves.
6. We demonize our enemies instead of acknowledging their humanity.
7. We live in fear.
8. We avoid the reality of pain.
9. We define ourselves by our failures instead of God's love.
10. We surrender the freedom for which Jesus has set us free.[1]
All ten things on this list are the results of our inability and/or our unwillingness to be the person God created us to be. We forget what it truly means to follow Jesus and trust in him. In our scripture reading this morning, Jesus is calling the Israel of his day to be the Israel God wants them to be, now that Jesus is here. God had called Israel to be the salt of the earth; but Israel was behaving like everyone else, with its power politics, its factional squabbles and it militant revolutions. How could God keep the world from going bad (salt was used to preserve food in the ancient world), if Israel, his chosen salt, had lost its saltiness, that is its distinctive taste?
In the same way we are called to be New World People by becoming the salt of the earth. It’s our calling, but we often get caught up in behaving like everyone else in our culture. Jesus warns that salt can lose its ability to season and preserve. It can fail to do what it is intended to do; it can become content on doing things the way they’ve always been done; it can work to preserve itself by not giving too much of itself. Basically it can become useless; it can be cast aside, tossed in the trash. We hear in this image a warning, a warning to take seriously God’s call to mission, to the task of being the church in the world. We must not fail in this mission and we cannot fail to try. New World People are to be the salt of the earth.
In the same way, God called Israel to be the light of the world. Israel was the people God intended to shine his bright light into the world, even in its darkest corners. It was done to help people who were blundering around in the dark to find their way.
Author Robert Fulghum tells a story of one of his professors, a wise man whose name was Alexander Papaderos. When asked by a student, “Dr. Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?”, he took his wallet out of his hip pocket, fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter. And he said something like this. “When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place. “I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one. And by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine—in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find. “I kept the little mirror, and as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child’s game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of the light. But light—truth, understanding, knowledge—is there, and it will only shine in many dark places if I reflect it.
“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world—into the black places in the hearts of people—and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of life.” And then he took his small mirror and, holding it carefully, caught the bright rays of daylight streaming through the window and reflected them on the face of the student who asked the question and onto his hands folded on the desk.[2] This is what it means to be the light of the world.
But what would happen if the people who were supposed to be the light of the world became part of the darkness? Jesus presents this question as a warning as well as a challenge. We as Christ’s disciples are to live in the light of Christ. The image of light develops the church’s place in the wider world in a more positive light. The primary function of light is not to be seen, but to let things be seen as they are. Jesus says, “A city on a hill cannot be hidden.”( ) Its very nature is to be visible. Wherever New world people go, they make the light of Christ visible with their daily lives. They will shine light on otherwise dark places. Jesus emphasizes stewardship of the light by exhorting the crowds around him to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Christ’s light radiates outward in the lives of his disciples – like a pebble thrown into a pool. The ripples of the gospel light will overcome the world’s darkness.
To be the salt of the earth and the light of the world demands everything from New World people. The scripture passage asks how these demands of discipleship relate to the law of Moses. First and foremost we learn that Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. What is radically new in the presence of God’s coming rule is not an annulment or a retraction, but rather a completion of both the promises and the demands set out in the law and the prophets. Jesus is part of the ongoing story of God’s relationship with the community of believers, but as such he is the final and decisive chapter in the story. Jesus is the culmination of the story that gives meaning to all the rest of the story. For New World People, the law is not to be messed with; it must be obeyed and taught. Jesus does not deny God’s story in scripture, but confirms it. Jesus wasn’t intending to abandon the law and the prophets, but establishes them.
Israel’s whole story, commands, promises and all comes true in Jesus. But now Jesus was here and a way was opening up for Israel and all the world to make God’s covenant a reality in their own selves, changing behavior not just by teaching but by a change of heart and mind itself.[3]
Jesus brought all of this into reality in himself. Jesus was the salt of the earth. Jesus was the light of the world: set up on a hilltop, crucified for all the world to see, becoming a beacon of hope and new life for everybody, drawing people to worship God, embodying the way of self-giving love, the deepest fulfillment of the law and the prophets.
To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God's presence in the world.[4] This is our calling as Christ’s disciples, but we often get caught up in behaving like everyone else in our culture we lose our saltiness and the light bill doesn’t get paid on time. With the Kingdom of Heaven breaking into our world, equipping us to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, we come to envision a radically different world; a world marked by unheard-of reconciliation, simple truth-telling, outrageous generosity, and love of one’s enemies. It is a world we are called to exhibit, one we are called to put on display; one we are called to practice and live out as disciples of Christ each and every day. Amen.
[1] Erik Guzman, "10 stupid things Christians do to
mess up their lives, "Genuine Motivation
Website, http://genmoycm.wordpress.com. October 3, 2010. Retrieved February 6, 2014.
[2] From It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It by Robert Fulghum.
Copyright 1988, 1989 by Robert Fulghum. Adapted by permission of Villard Books,
a division of Random House, Inc.
[3] Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone, Part 1, Chapters
1-15. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004) p.41.
[4]
Henri J. M. Nouwen, Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith,
entry for June 20 (HarperCollins, 2009).
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