Seasoned and Shining

 

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February 9, 2014

Matthew 5:13-20

¹³“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.

¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. ¹⁵No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. ¹⁶In 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.

¹⁷“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. ¹⁸For 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. ¹⁹Therefore, 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. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Sermon:  “Seasoned and Shining”

What does it mean to be God’s people if we suffer?

What is the relationship between the church and the State?

How are we to respond to violence and oppression?

How are we to be “in the world, but not of it?” in the face of an ever-changing society?

How can we find unity when we have different political beliefs and interpretations of scripture?

These might be the most profound questions facing the church today.  But we are not the first to ask them. 

These were the very questions being asked by the people of Israel at the time that Jesus preached this sermon from Matthew.  Jesus was not simply waxing poetic like a sea salt loving foodie or flashlight salesman.  These words were a direct response to the controversies and challenges facing the people of Israel in his time.  So, in order to hear them at a deeper level, we must explore the world into which they were spoken.

The people of Israel, Jesus’ own people, were deeply divided.  Their land was occupied by the Roman Empire and there was fierce debate over how to respond to that reality.  What did it mean to be God’s covenant people if they were politically and culturally oppressed?  Was God still faithful?  Did the covenant still hold?  And what should we do about this occupation?

The Zealots decided might could only be fought with might, and so a violent overthrow was the only way to go.  The Sadducees were more tempered and strategic, in their approach: they thought the solution was to become very cozy with the enemy, so that at least they would be protected.  The Pharisees were divided in their approach.  Some thought that the Zealots were right and wanted to raise up arms.  The others decided that occupation was inevitable, and so their focus should not be fighting it, but rather preserving the purity of their culture and religion.  They withdrew to the ghetto and kept separate from society.  Others among them studied the Torah even deeper, looking for both an escape from their reality and the promise of restoration there.

Now, many preachers would perhaps decide which approach seemed most faithful and raise it up above the others as the way God wanted them to live.  And even more preachers would point out the merit in all approaches, making everyone feel warm and fuzzy when they left to go beat the Baptists to lunch.

But not Jesus.  Jesus called them all out, showed the hollowness of all of their approaches.  In short, he made everyone mad.  To the Zealots he said pray for your enemies and turn the other cheek.  To the Sadducees he said you cannot serve God and wealth.  To the Pharisees he said that unless a person was more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees, they would never enter the kingdom of heaven.  You can already hear the Presbytery being called in because of a furious congregation…

He also spoke of the law, making it clear that he was not abolishing the law, but fulfilling it – taking those covenant demands of God and putting flesh on them, so that people could no longer twist them to endorse the hatred of others or ignore them entirely as antiquated and empty words.

He challenged them all to see that their understanding of God’s law was incomplete.  It never meant rising up with violence against their enemies.  It never meant withdrawing from the world to preserve some self-righteous understanding of purity and holiness.  It never meant finding a hidden meaning in scripture so that you could lord it over others.  It never meant using your faith as a political pawn to get more power.  It never meant being divided from your brothers and sisters.

The law was always meant to be a guide for being salt and light in the world.

Returning to those difficult questions…

What does it mean to be God’s people if we suffer?

It means that we trust that light is best seen in darkness, and so we do not run away from darkness in our lives and in the world.  Instead, we enter into places of suffering, not as martyrs, but as light-bringers, trusting that God’s light is already shining there, if only we will look through the darkness and see it.

What is the relationship between the church and the State?

Hmm, a tough one, this.  It means that our faith cannot ever be divorced from politics.  But, rather than allowing politics of us-and-them, of right-wing and left-wing agendas to co-opt our faith, we instead let our faith transform the divisive political climate we find ourselves in.  We do not need the State to validate our faith for it to be real.  I’ll say that again, we do not need the state to validate our faith for it to be real.  If we only spend our energy as Christians trying to get the State to approve and support our faith, we wind up being like the Sadducees trying to understand faith only through the State.  Instead, we are called to be salt that seasons every area of society and the world with love and justice.  And we are called to stand where Jesus stood, until the compassion and unity of the church rubs off onto the State.  When the church just looks like the State, with the same political divisiveness and maneuvering, we can be sure we have lost our saltiness.

How are we to respond to violence and oppression?

Here we are guided back to the law of God fulfilled through Christ.  Do not kill, it is painfully plain.  Now, I know that there are times in society when violent action is deemed necessary.  This is a reality of our world.  But the church should never be the voice calling for such action.  To be that would be to be like the Zealots of Jesus’ day.  Instead, we call for liberation through loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute.  We choose to love, even when that seems like an impossible choice.  And this, of course, includes loving those who choose a different path.

How are we to be “in the world, but not of it?” in the face of an ever-changing society?

Jesus came that the law of God might be made flesh-and-blood, not destroyed, but fulfilled in the commandments to love God and neighbor.  We are not called to withdraw like some Pharisees into isolated communities of self-righteousness.  We are not to use purity as an excuse to separate ourselves from those who make us uncomfortable.  Jesus says we are the light of the world.  We are to shine with the radiance of Christ, until the darkness of isolation and individualism flees before the light of a relevant and compassionate community of believers.

How can we find unity when we have different political beliefs and interpretations of scripture?

This was perhaps the most important question for the people of Israel in Jesus’ time and it might just be the most important question for the church in our day.  Some say that unity is impossible, and we should splinter and fracture, because what divides us is greater than what unites us. 

Others say that unity can only come when we agree with each other and arrive at a place of homogeneity politically and theologically, which of course isn’t unity but uniformity.  Jesus said differently.  When he said, “YOU are the salt of the earth, YOU are the light of the world”, Jesus was speakin’ Southern, y’all!  He wasn’t saying you, as in just you Sadducees or you Zealots or you Pharisees.  What was he saying?

Y’all.  Y’all are the light of the world.  All y’all are the salt of the earth.  Together.  Though you have very different understandings of what the law of God means and how you should be in relationship with society, it really comes down to this: be salt. Season every single word and action with the love of Christ.  Use every opportunity to bring light to those in the darkness of loneliness, illness or injustice.  And guess what?  You don’t have to adopt a statement on your position on hot button issues of the day to do that.  You don’t have to hate those who think or vote differently than you to do that. 

When we let the division of the State to permeate the Church and immobilize us from being salt and light, we are not just losing our relevance in the world.  We are going against the law of God to love God and neighbor.  We are breaking God’s covenant with us.

So, all of Jesus’ salt and light talk isn’t just Metaphor Day in his Sermon Series.  It is our highest calling as his followers, the proof for whether our faith is simply a political tool or empty words, or something that moves us to courageous action. 

We are only the salt of the earth together.  We are only the light of the world together.  The earth is only seasoned with the love of Christ when we stand with each other and stand up for those who are least in the kingdoms of this world, and greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  The world is only lit with the love of Christ when we do not keep that light to ourselves, but instead let it transform the darkness of division and hatred. 

Seasoned and shining, this world stops looking like the kingdoms of us-and-them, of the powerful and powerless, and instead starts looking more and more like the kingdom Jesus announced, a kingdom of unity and peace, that relentlessly comes, even now.  Amen.