You are the Salt and Light of the World

Sermon February 9 2014

You are the Salt and Light of the World

Isaiah 58:1-12

Worship style and practice are not what pleases or offends God, according to Isaiah. Worship style and practice are not to blame for the exilic decline of the community.  They are not the measuring sticks by which the people of God will be judged.  They will not restore or preserve a relationship with God in and of themselves.

From the beginning of time it has always been about relationship with God. He wants a relationship with us.

This is a curious thing to say to a community reconstituting itself following a return from exile.

It is a frustrating thing to say to a church trying to reinvent itself, beginning with the practice of worship.

Worship is the most important thing we do together.  It is the place that forms us into the people of God.  It is the place where we inhale God’s love and grace, so that we can be sent forth to exhale God’s love and grace in a broken world in need of redemption.

Psalm 112:1-10  UMH 833

Psalm 112 is an exhortation. It begins with the call to “Praise the Lord!” then gives the reason for doing so: those who fear the Lord are happy. The text assumes that the audience fears the Lord and keeps the commandments; therefore, they ought to praise God.

Trembling in awe of God as we do, we are always, always offered the Amazing Grace of  both the promise of God’s unconditional Love and the Humbling chance to have a purpose, to make a difference, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. 

That is the obeying-God’s –commands part of the deal.  It turns out to be better than it sounds.  Obedience, a word of our culture hates, turns out to mean having a chance to make a difference, to make the world a  better place.

I Corinthians 2:1-16

The great temptation that the church faces in Corinth is a desire for security and a reliance on their own ingenuity and knowledge.  It goes without saying that these challenges continue to plague the church in our own day.

Threatened with decline, we flock to the latest guru who can help us to ‘grow” our congregations, if  only we cultivate seven habits of highly successful congregations or follow twelve simple steps or adopt a new mission statement.

Jesus is the answer, we say, but what is the question?

May be we should say if Jesus is the answer maybe the problem is with me and my relationship with Him.

WE do good in reciting prayers, traditional rituals, and hymns. If only each of us could renew that relationship with Jesus our churches would once again come alive.

A church that is alive and vibrant has Jesus as Lord.  Not potato salad, pot luck or pot roast.

Matthew 5:13-20

Jesus uses two metaphors to describe and prescribe who his followers are and what they do for and in the world.

The first is  “ ye are the salt of the earth” suggest that Jesus gives them as his disciples a distinctive capacity to elicit goodness on the earth.  Like Salt, which is used to alter or enhance the taste of food, the disciples capacity to elicit goodness as they participate on the earth should be of profound consequence, in the ways that we find in (5:3-10

The danger for disciples is that they may lose that capacity by forgetting that they are to disorder the status quo by valuing those who are dispossessed, caring for those who suffer loss, seeking to do justice, showing mercy, having integrity, being peacemakers, and courageously standing for what they believe.

Disciples who do not engage in such practices that humanize life on earth will be like salt that has lost its taste.

The second metaphor, “ You are the light of the world,” invites us to consider the role of diciples as a gathered community (vv.14-16). Light enables us to see things and is a kind of energy that gives things color, helps vegetation to grow, provides solar power for electricity, and can be focused for specific uses such as a laser.

Like light, the disciples as a gathered community have the overarching purpose of being the mirror that refracts God’s light so that all peoples and nations can know of god’s justice and mercy.

As a gathered community the disciples are like light when they engage others in the world, enabling when they engage others in the world, enabling diversity (giving things color), nurturing a healthy ecofriendly world (Helping vegetation to grow), generating policies for ecojustice (providing solar power), and restoring or repairing whatever relationships that need such (focusing for specific purposes).  These are the good works that will glorify God.

As Jesus declairs to his newly commissioned disciples and followers that he has not come to abolish the law or the prophets, he claims his place in God’s history of the liberation of and covenant with God’s chosen people.

Jesus admonishes his followers that breaking the commandments oneself or leading others to do so is an offense against the Divine Eternal purposes.

In verse 20 Jesus enjoins his followers in these words: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees is concerned with observance of tradition, public displays of piety, and adherence to the letter of the law.

The righteousness of Jesus flows from his relationship with God and, in turn, is the ground of Jesus’ relationship with his followers.

“ Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

There is always a contrast of light and dark.

Jesus encourages his followers to bring light to a dark and broken world.  The light is the light of the gospel, and it draws all people to its warmth and radiance. This mission has been primary, from the very beginning, throughout every age. The first thing we see in Genesis on page one is

God said, Let there be Light……and the Light was.

In order for the light to be seen, we must be willing to go where the darkness exists, to engage and walk through it, so that, in time, the light can overcome it.

Finally, human righteousness is about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  As the salt of the earth, we are disciples of Jesus when we allow our characters to be formed by God’s blessings.

As the light of the world, we are followers of Jesus when we accept the covenantal blessings as a call into relationships with despised groups because of what we believe – even if it means that we may be persecuted.  Amen.