Year A

Matthew 5:13-20

The Rev. Denise Vaughn

Let Us Live As Salt and Light

When my daughter was a young girl we were both very involved in the youth group activities at church. Every so often our youth group would combine with other Episcopal Church youth groups in the area for A Praise and Worship Service. By far their favorite song and maybe you are familiar with this song also was: This little light of mine, I’m going to make it shine….this little light of mine I’m going to make it shine…make it shine make it shine, make it shine. Most of the young people would march around the sanctuary, demonstrating their lights shinning and singing at the top of their voices. Jesus talks about this light we are to shine today in our lesson from Matthew and he also talks about being the salt of the earth. After presenting the eight Beatitudes, Jesus begins his sermon by making the analogy that his followers are to be salt and light. He uses two interesting metaphors to describe who his followers are and what they are to do in the world.

Jesus often used common images or symbols that say one thing and mean another to help us understand the deeper truths. Although he doesn’t say exactly what he means, only that we are to be salt and light, we can begin to understand their deeper meaning when we look at what we already know about salt and light. There is an old Jewish saying from the Talmud that goes, “The world can exist without pepper, but not without salt.”  Salt is essential to life. As we all are aware, salt gives food taste and preserves it from spoiling. In the past, salt was traded by caravans just as people traded gems or gold. The Roman Empire used it as currency to pay their soldiers and today, among its various uses, we also use it to keep roads passable in the winter. Nothing can take the place of salt; if it has lost its saltiness, it is worthless.

We also know something about light: a dark room can be changed by lighting one candle. We know what Jesus meant when he said that no one lights a lamp, then puts it under a bushel basket. For we don’t light a lamp to cover it up, we light a lamp to see around the room. The light Jesus is talking about is a light to help us see something beyond the light; a kind of energy that helps things to grow and thrive. Salt is something essential for life and light is something which points beyond itself. For Jesus, salt and light had a particular meaning and it came out of a long tradition of biblical teaching. Salt and light were images for the law of God. The law of God, which we read about in the scriptures, and of which Jesus presented in the eight Beatitudes, helps us to be in tune with God and to know what God expects from us his children.

We are to be merciful, meek, humble, poor in spirit and pure in heart, we are to be peacemakers, we are to hunger and thirst for being right with God. Jesus meant that as disciples we are to give the world flavor, bring out the best “taste” of those around us and let our light shine by bringing others to the faith. We are to point and shine from the fullness of God’s law. Just like the prophets did, when they pleaded for fullness of life, when they pleaded for freedom from oppression, bread for the hungry, homes for those who had none, and clothing for the naked. If we lose this vision that the prophets give us, if we forget God’s longing for justice, our salt has lost its taste and is worthless, and our light does not point toward the truth.

During the prophet Isaiah’s time, the temple in Jerusalem was standing room only. No one missed a service. They sang psalms, they said prayers and gave offerings. Yet, what they did not do was let the worship change their lives. They did not make connections between their worship and their neighbors. They ignored the poor and everyone else they wanted to ignore. God told Isaiah, “Go tell them what’s what. Blow the trumpet. Shout it loud. Tell them what hypocrites they are.” So, Isaiah points out to them that God requires both worship and showing mercy to their neighbor. While the people believed fasting made them look good, Isaiah tells them that God wants worshipers to fast as a means of sharing with others and he points out that God will respond when insincere worship is replaced with kindness. When God’s people share their food with the poor, they come to understand that not only do the hungry need our food, but also God’s people need the hungry. It is in giving that we become salt and light to the world.

This passage today from Matthew is a kind of gateway to all that will follow, and its theme is clear. Jesus is calling the Israel of his day to BE Israel indeed and what he says can be applied to all Christians today. We are to BE the Christians that God calls us to be. Most of us know all about the Christian faith and that it should change us. Our lives should show the results of our worship in the quality of our lives Monday through Saturday. Jesus words to us today are to challenge us to be the people of God in our day.

Fred Craddock, a modern day theologian and writer, tells the story about the day a woman named Barbara Jenkins walked into the room. He was attending a reception of some sort.  People were standing around talking about weather, the game that played last night. And then Barbara Jenkins walked into the room. There was something about the room that changed when she came in. Barbara was well known in town and some loved her and others did not because she spent all her time writing letters, making calls, going to meetings all to make a difference in the way the law treated juvenile offenders. Craddock went over to her and asked, “Do you enjoy doing what you do.” She said, “well not really”.  He asked “do you get paid or are you on a salary?” “No. Do you have children in trouble with the law? No, she said.” Then why, bother? I have to she said. I have to try to bring the light of Christ into their lives.

People like Barbara Jenkins are salt and light. They live faithfully as a sign of God’s presence in this world-doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with their God. That’s all Jesus was really saying. When we are salt and light for others we fulfill the law…to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and soul; and our neighbor as ourselves. This is what we are called to do. Our worship and our love of God will show in our lives and we will share with the poor, listen to the lonely and help those in need. We will come to worship to give ourselves to God and God’s work in the world. Because how we move and dwell with others makes all the difference in the world as we follow in the footsteps of our crucified and risen Lord.

I guess the question for us today is where is salt and light needed right now and how can we, through following Jesus, provide it? If we think Jesus’ call is impossible, remember, what Paul says to us today, that we have received the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit that is within us, empowers us to be salt and light in this world. Jesus wants us to be the kind of community that the world hungers for; a community where God’s love and life light the way. Let us live as salt. Let us live as light.  Let us be the changed Christians that sing dancing around the room…this little light of mine I’m going to make it shine, make it shine, make it shine.