Salt And Light
Preaching
Preaching the Parables
Series IV, Cycle A
Sometimes I think preachers would do best by getting out of Jesus' way. Sometimes, though, getting out of the way isn't easy. Preachers and listeners alike have preconceived notions, personal agendas, and sometimes circumstances beyond control.
I had one of those recently. A circumstance beyond my control. I was sculling. That's an elegant word for rowing on the Potomac in a skinny boat. I'm taking lessons, and I learned that getting out of the way is one of the things I need to learn. I was nervously rowing just the other side of the Key Bridge when a group of college rowers going a lot faster than me began to approach. I wasn't sure what to do as they came directly toward me, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I stopped, feathered my oars, which is a fancy way of saying I held them straight and flat so I wouldn't tip over and fall in. I stopped and I waited.
Fortunately, they saw what was happening. As they passed just feet from the ends of my oars one of the women rowers called out, "If you can't do anything else, just yell, and let us know you're there."
I'm going to work on learning to get out of the way so I won't have to yell. Sometimes we need to work on getting out of Jesus' way. Before I take the risk of getting in his way, I want you to listen to Jesus again. And as I was trying to do with those other boats, see where he's coming from and figure out what it is you need to learn and do.
Jesus said:
You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
-- Matthew 5:13
Jesus said:
You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
-- Matthew 5:14-16
Jesus said:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
-- Matthew 5:17-20
Sometimes Jesus taught sitting in a boat, his listeners sitting on the dock or on the shore. In Luke's gospel it says that one time,
[Jesus] got into [a boat], the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
-- Luke 5:3 (NIV)
In my case, that would make for much shorter sermons. But in this case, the lesson from Matthew, Jesus was on dry land. What I read is a part of what is sometimes called "The Sermon on the Mount" because Matthew says Jesus was sitting on a hillside.
Sitting there on solid ground he looked around at some folks who were often "at sea" when it came to the living of their lives. I looked up "at sea" for you. It means:
at sea -- adj. 1: perplexed by many conflicting situations or statements; [syn: baffled, befuddled, bemused, bewildered, confounded, confused, lost, mixed-up]1
Jesus said to those on the hillside, whose lives were like that: "You are the salt of the earth," but if you aren't salty, what good are you?
"You are the light of the world," but if your words and deeds don't enlighten anyone as to the truth about life, well that kind of "light" is spelled "l-i-t-e" (as in Bud). The lumens are low. It leaves the truth hidden and the one in need of truth in the dark. What good is that?
The dictionary defines "salt of the earth," to mean: "An individual or group considered as representative of the best or noblest elements of society."2 Certainly salt was seen as an important element in Matthew's day and time. Salt has various meanings throughout the scriptures, "Including sacrifice, loyalty and covenant fidelity, purification, seasoning, (and) preservative."3
If Jesus is saying you are those who put others ahead of self, loyal people who stick to your commitments, people without mixed motives, the spice of life, people who hold onto what is good and true, that's quite a compliment. But Jesus' words, "You are the salt of the earth," aren't so much a compliment as a job description. We're supposed to be those kinds of people, and if we aren't, who will be?
One of the commentaries I consulted had a footnote I found helpful in understanding what it means to be "the salt of the earth." It refers to the early Christian writer, Ignatius, and says that, "There may be (here in Jesus' saying) a specific reference to salt's being used as a catalyst for fueling earthen ovens. When such salt lost its catalyzing potency, it was thrown out."4
High school chemistry was a long time ago, but I remember that a catalyst is something that makes something happen. Whatever was happening in those first-century earthen ovens, what Jesus was talking about was what happens in life -- and about whether you and I are helping make it happen. It's about whether or not we're "catalysts" for the kingdom of heaven.
The dictionary defines a "catalyst" in the human sense as, "A person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic."5
That's the kind of person you and I are called to be -- that's why Jesus called his followers "the salt of the earth."
John Newbern said, "People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."6
"You are the salt of the earth," said Jesus. Make things happen for the kingdom of heaven! Be like Bernard Shaw who wrote,
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I do not believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, make them.7
"You are the salt of the earth," said Jesus. You are the catalyst for the kingdom of heaven. So be salty!
"You are [also] the light of the world," said Jesus. That's a rather startling notion, given that in John's gospel, Jesus is the "light of the world." John says of Jesus, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:9). You're not Jesus, but you're like Jesus. Jesus said so, right there on the side of that mountain.
C. S. Lewis and Luther agreed that the whole purpose of being a Christian is to become a little Christ. Become one who in word and deed embodies the presence of God in this world and enlightens this world with his truth.
When I was a child in Sunday school, we used to sing a song that began, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine! Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine!"
That's not just a child's song. It's an African-American spiritual. It is in hymnbooks for grownups to sing, too. Stanza 4 always intrigued me: "Shine all over Chi - ca - go, Yes! I'm gonna let it shine." I wasn't sure why Chicago? The other day I looked it up. I have one of those old hymnbooks. The asterisk by Chicago says "Substitute local name." You might say, "Shine where you are" or "Shine all over Wash - ing - ton?" Too hokey?
Okay, Jesus said it best anyway: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16), and not just for your good works, but through their own. Again, we're called to be a catalyst, not to do everything ourselves, but to see what we do multiplied through the doing of others, who in the light can also see what needs doing.
Sometimes I think we task-oriented types known as Presbyterians, who get things done by doing them, are hesitant to "toot our own horn," or better, "shine our own light" in such a way that we get others to join us. We're not to shine our light on ourselves so folks will applaud us, but rather, shine our light on our works so that others will will see ways in which they, too, can serve.
We've been having trouble at home with my wife's inkjet printer. After a lot of frustration I read the instructions. We had just installed a new ink cartridge and the printer wanted to "align the print head" so the print would be clear. The alignment process is automatic when it works. It wasn't working. The instructions said to start the process and then look inside the printer where the paper comes out while its printing the alignment page. I got down on my hands and knees, pushed the button and waited. The instructions said to look for a blue light shining on the page as it was printing. And then said, "If this light is not present, the unit will not be able to align the cartridges."
The paper started printing. But no blue light was shining. So the work that needed doing couldn't be done.
Jesus suggested, in terms his hearers could understand, pretty much the same thing. The work of the kingdom somehow requires that you and I "shine." That's what Jesus meant by "let your light shine." Shine light on opportunities to serve, on the work that needs to be done, and in doing so give glory to God.
In a sense, this is about as close as Jesus comes to the dictum of the writer of the book of James, that "faith without works is ... dead" (James 2:26). Faith that does not work itself out in life is deadly. If nothing else, it's deadly dull. Faith that turns in on itself is self-serving. There's a lot of that around these days. Faith that does not serve Christ, one might argue, is not faith, or at the least, when that happens, we are not faithful.
Right after Jesus' comments about salt and light, Matthew puts Jesus' words about God's law. There were those in the Jewish community who thought that Jesus' way of doing things was opposed to God's way of doing things. They said he broke God's law. Jesus said he fulfilled God's law. Jesus' focus was not on the "letter" of the law, but on the "spirit" of the law. God's intentions, over against human interpretations. The letter of the law would never change, said Jesus, not "one jot or one tittle" (Matthew 5:18 KJV) -- but neither, said Jesus, would God's love.
Legalism and love have a hard time coexisting. A lot of Christian history unfortunately proves that. The Pharisees of Jesus' day had trouble with that; with the tension between law and love. The Pharisees, with whom Jesus was so often at odds on this subject, were really Jews with whom Jesus had much in common. The Pharisees were the Jewish party or "denomination" that believed in the resurrection of the dead. Their central belief would become the central truth of Christianity. They were precisely the kind of people the dictionary calls "the salt of the earth." They represented the best and the noblest elements of their society. We should be so good -- you and I.
But good wasn't "good enough" and still isn't. Whatever our part might be in building the kingdom of heaven, it takes more than just being good. It takes being salt. It takes being light. It takes being like Jesus Christ.
But that said, ponder this: Jesus didn't say, "You need to be salt. You ought to be light. You have to be both." He said, "You are!"
It dawned on me this week, in the middle of the Potomac. I keep thinking, "I want to be a rower, like those college kids passing me by." Sitting there in the boat, with oars in my hands, left hand over right, oars feathered to keep from flipping the boat -- it occurred to me -- you are.
So reach, and row! Jesus said, "You are salt. You are light." Be salty and shine! It will give glory to your Father in heaven.
____________
1. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=at%20sea.
2. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Random House, 1966).
3. The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 8 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p. 181.
4. Ibid.
5. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Random House, 1966).
6. Source unknown.
7. Source unknown.
I had one of those recently. A circumstance beyond my control. I was sculling. That's an elegant word for rowing on the Potomac in a skinny boat. I'm taking lessons, and I learned that getting out of the way is one of the things I need to learn. I was nervously rowing just the other side of the Key Bridge when a group of college rowers going a lot faster than me began to approach. I wasn't sure what to do as they came directly toward me, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I stopped, feathered my oars, which is a fancy way of saying I held them straight and flat so I wouldn't tip over and fall in. I stopped and I waited.
Fortunately, they saw what was happening. As they passed just feet from the ends of my oars one of the women rowers called out, "If you can't do anything else, just yell, and let us know you're there."
I'm going to work on learning to get out of the way so I won't have to yell. Sometimes we need to work on getting out of Jesus' way. Before I take the risk of getting in his way, I want you to listen to Jesus again. And as I was trying to do with those other boats, see where he's coming from and figure out what it is you need to learn and do.
Jesus said:
You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
-- Matthew 5:13
Jesus said:
You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
-- Matthew 5:14-16
Jesus said:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
-- Matthew 5:17-20
Sometimes Jesus taught sitting in a boat, his listeners sitting on the dock or on the shore. In Luke's gospel it says that one time,
[Jesus] got into [a boat], the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
-- Luke 5:3 (NIV)
In my case, that would make for much shorter sermons. But in this case, the lesson from Matthew, Jesus was on dry land. What I read is a part of what is sometimes called "The Sermon on the Mount" because Matthew says Jesus was sitting on a hillside.
Sitting there on solid ground he looked around at some folks who were often "at sea" when it came to the living of their lives. I looked up "at sea" for you. It means:
at sea -- adj. 1: perplexed by many conflicting situations or statements; [syn: baffled, befuddled, bemused, bewildered, confounded, confused, lost, mixed-up]1
Jesus said to those on the hillside, whose lives were like that: "You are the salt of the earth," but if you aren't salty, what good are you?
"You are the light of the world," but if your words and deeds don't enlighten anyone as to the truth about life, well that kind of "light" is spelled "l-i-t-e" (as in Bud). The lumens are low. It leaves the truth hidden and the one in need of truth in the dark. What good is that?
The dictionary defines "salt of the earth," to mean: "An individual or group considered as representative of the best or noblest elements of society."2 Certainly salt was seen as an important element in Matthew's day and time. Salt has various meanings throughout the scriptures, "Including sacrifice, loyalty and covenant fidelity, purification, seasoning, (and) preservative."3
If Jesus is saying you are those who put others ahead of self, loyal people who stick to your commitments, people without mixed motives, the spice of life, people who hold onto what is good and true, that's quite a compliment. But Jesus' words, "You are the salt of the earth," aren't so much a compliment as a job description. We're supposed to be those kinds of people, and if we aren't, who will be?
One of the commentaries I consulted had a footnote I found helpful in understanding what it means to be "the salt of the earth." It refers to the early Christian writer, Ignatius, and says that, "There may be (here in Jesus' saying) a specific reference to salt's being used as a catalyst for fueling earthen ovens. When such salt lost its catalyzing potency, it was thrown out."4
High school chemistry was a long time ago, but I remember that a catalyst is something that makes something happen. Whatever was happening in those first-century earthen ovens, what Jesus was talking about was what happens in life -- and about whether you and I are helping make it happen. It's about whether or not we're "catalysts" for the kingdom of heaven.
The dictionary defines a "catalyst" in the human sense as, "A person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly, enthusiastic, or energetic."5
That's the kind of person you and I are called to be -- that's why Jesus called his followers "the salt of the earth."
John Newbern said, "People can be divided into three groups: those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."6
"You are the salt of the earth," said Jesus. Make things happen for the kingdom of heaven! Be like Bernard Shaw who wrote,
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I do not believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, make them.7
"You are the salt of the earth," said Jesus. You are the catalyst for the kingdom of heaven. So be salty!
"You are [also] the light of the world," said Jesus. That's a rather startling notion, given that in John's gospel, Jesus is the "light of the world." John says of Jesus, "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:9). You're not Jesus, but you're like Jesus. Jesus said so, right there on the side of that mountain.
C. S. Lewis and Luther agreed that the whole purpose of being a Christian is to become a little Christ. Become one who in word and deed embodies the presence of God in this world and enlightens this world with his truth.
When I was a child in Sunday school, we used to sing a song that began, "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine! Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine!"
That's not just a child's song. It's an African-American spiritual. It is in hymnbooks for grownups to sing, too. Stanza 4 always intrigued me: "Shine all over Chi - ca - go, Yes! I'm gonna let it shine." I wasn't sure why Chicago? The other day I looked it up. I have one of those old hymnbooks. The asterisk by Chicago says "Substitute local name." You might say, "Shine where you are" or "Shine all over Wash - ing - ton?" Too hokey?
Okay, Jesus said it best anyway: "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16), and not just for your good works, but through their own. Again, we're called to be a catalyst, not to do everything ourselves, but to see what we do multiplied through the doing of others, who in the light can also see what needs doing.
Sometimes I think we task-oriented types known as Presbyterians, who get things done by doing them, are hesitant to "toot our own horn," or better, "shine our own light" in such a way that we get others to join us. We're not to shine our light on ourselves so folks will applaud us, but rather, shine our light on our works so that others will will see ways in which they, too, can serve.
We've been having trouble at home with my wife's inkjet printer. After a lot of frustration I read the instructions. We had just installed a new ink cartridge and the printer wanted to "align the print head" so the print would be clear. The alignment process is automatic when it works. It wasn't working. The instructions said to start the process and then look inside the printer where the paper comes out while its printing the alignment page. I got down on my hands and knees, pushed the button and waited. The instructions said to look for a blue light shining on the page as it was printing. And then said, "If this light is not present, the unit will not be able to align the cartridges."
The paper started printing. But no blue light was shining. So the work that needed doing couldn't be done.
Jesus suggested, in terms his hearers could understand, pretty much the same thing. The work of the kingdom somehow requires that you and I "shine." That's what Jesus meant by "let your light shine." Shine light on opportunities to serve, on the work that needs to be done, and in doing so give glory to God.
In a sense, this is about as close as Jesus comes to the dictum of the writer of the book of James, that "faith without works is ... dead" (James 2:26). Faith that does not work itself out in life is deadly. If nothing else, it's deadly dull. Faith that turns in on itself is self-serving. There's a lot of that around these days. Faith that does not serve Christ, one might argue, is not faith, or at the least, when that happens, we are not faithful.
Right after Jesus' comments about salt and light, Matthew puts Jesus' words about God's law. There were those in the Jewish community who thought that Jesus' way of doing things was opposed to God's way of doing things. They said he broke God's law. Jesus said he fulfilled God's law. Jesus' focus was not on the "letter" of the law, but on the "spirit" of the law. God's intentions, over against human interpretations. The letter of the law would never change, said Jesus, not "one jot or one tittle" (Matthew 5:18 KJV) -- but neither, said Jesus, would God's love.
Legalism and love have a hard time coexisting. A lot of Christian history unfortunately proves that. The Pharisees of Jesus' day had trouble with that; with the tension between law and love. The Pharisees, with whom Jesus was so often at odds on this subject, were really Jews with whom Jesus had much in common. The Pharisees were the Jewish party or "denomination" that believed in the resurrection of the dead. Their central belief would become the central truth of Christianity. They were precisely the kind of people the dictionary calls "the salt of the earth." They represented the best and the noblest elements of their society. We should be so good -- you and I.
But good wasn't "good enough" and still isn't. Whatever our part might be in building the kingdom of heaven, it takes more than just being good. It takes being salt. It takes being light. It takes being like Jesus Christ.
But that said, ponder this: Jesus didn't say, "You need to be salt. You ought to be light. You have to be both." He said, "You are!"
It dawned on me this week, in the middle of the Potomac. I keep thinking, "I want to be a rower, like those college kids passing me by." Sitting there in the boat, with oars in my hands, left hand over right, oars feathered to keep from flipping the boat -- it occurred to me -- you are.
So reach, and row! Jesus said, "You are salt. You are light." Be salty and shine! It will give glory to your Father in heaven.
____________
1. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=at%20sea.
2. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Random House, 1966).
3. The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 8 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995), p. 181.
4. Ibid.
5. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (New York: Random House, 1966).
6. Source unknown.
7. Source unknown.
