Salt, Light, and You

Matthew 5:13-20                                                     Rev. Todd B. Freeman

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas                              February 6, 2005

There is a famous old saying, especially popular back in my parent’s day and before, which people would use in reference to a person of good character. It was a great compliment to say about another, “that person is the salt of the earth.” That usually meant that they were made of strong moral fiber, and just plain good folk. Perhaps you know some people who fit that description.

It’s an interesting saying that can be traced back to biblical days. Jesus used it when talking about discipleship. He declared to a large following of disciples, as part of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, “You are the salt of the earth.” But what do you suppose Jesus meant when he used this metaphor?

First of all, the word “You” in “You are the salt of the earth,” is plural in the Greek, not singular. The life of discipleship is conceived as life within a community of faith, not intended to be an individualistic, isolated life or spirituality.

Occasionally I hear someone say that they can be a Christian just fine by themselves without belonging to a church or other shared faith community experience. While that person may indeed be a Christian, the fullness of the Christian life can only be experienced with others. By its very nature, Christianity is about relationships in community. The Scriptures warn constantly against the temptation of a privatized religion. But since you’re here at church this morning, I guess you don’t need to be reminded of that.

The second word in Jesus’ metaphor, “You are the salt of the earth,” is an extremely important one. Jesus doesn’t say that now as Christians, “You are to become the salt of the earth,” he emphatically declares, “You are the salt of the earth.”Jesus didn’t challenge them to try harder to be like salt, he tells his followers that they already are the salt of the earth. We, as Christians are not told to become salty, we are challenged to stay salty, that is, to be devoted Christian disciples.

The Greek ethic was to “become what you should be.” The Christian ethic replaced that with “become what you already are.” That’s an important difference in understanding our identity as children of God.

What about the meaning behind the metaphor and imagery of salt itself? Well, what is the function of salt? Even more so than today, salt had many different connotations in Matthew’s tradition and context - including sacrifice, loyalty and covenant (the Old Testament refers to eating together as “sharing salt,” and it expressed a binding relationship.)

Salt was also connected with purity, used as a preservative to keep things from going bad.

It’s most obvious quality, of course, is as a seasoning to add flavor to things. On this last point, biblical commentator William Barclay writes, “Christianity is to life what salt is to food. Christianity lends flavor to life.” He goes on to add however, “The tragedy is that so often people have connected Christianity with precisely the opposite. They have connected Christianity with that which takes flavor out of life.”  That’s the all-to-prevalent “Don’t do this... don’t do that...” form of Christianity.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers.”

Jesus went on to add, “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.” Salt serves a purpose, it has a function. When it is no longer functioning or serving that purpose, it becomes useless. What Jesus is saying about discipleship is that we, the church, are charged with a mission to the world. So he serves up a warning that if we, as disciples, deny or fail to engage in our mission, then we, too, are in a way useless.

The message to you and me as disciples is simple: stay salty! In other words, we must continue to strive, by God’s grace, to fulfill our mission as a Christian community.

You know, I am proud of this congregation. For by our witness, especially over the past few decades, we are known throughout Grace Presbytery as a “salty” church, so to speak. And that’s a good thing.

We have declared in our Mission Statement here at Bethany three things: to demonstrate Christian inclusiveness; to strive for social justice; and to proclaim God’s loving forgiveness and acceptance. When we do these things we are indeed adding flavor and spice to life. We exist in order to engage in mission. This is not to say that there isn’t an inward and internal personal dimension to discipleship, but rather a way to emphasize and highlight the importance of its outward and external dimension.

In today’s Scripture lesson Jesus continues with other metaphors, saying that we are the light of the world (a primary image used during this season of Epiphany); we are a city built on a hill that cannot be hid; and the purpose of a lamp is to provide light, not be hid under a basket.

Again, Jesus addresses the entire community. The church is not to be an introverted secret society shielding itself from the world, but is to be like a city on a hill whose authentic life cannot be concealed. Wouldn’t it be nice if this sanctuary were built upon a large hill, thus increasing our visibility! That, however, should not be necessary. For when we are fulfilling our mission in this community and beyond, there’s nothing that can hide us - not the trees on the property, not even the Dart bus stop outside our front door. We will be like a lighthouse, as we are every time we allow God’s light to shine through us and to be reflected off us.

That brings up another important point. Who is the source of that light? God! We have received that light and other blessings not merely for our own sakes, but for the sake of the world.

Authentic discipleship demands that the community of faith provide light for an often dark world. And how is that done? Jesus tells us, by our good works.

I’ll close with a wonderful summation of today’s passage from Matthew by William Barclay, written about 50 years ago.  He writes:

Christianity should not be visible only within the Church. A Christianity whose effects stop at the church door is not much use to anyone. It should be even more visible in the ordinary activities of the world.

Our Christianity should be visible in the way we treat a shop assistant across the counter, in the way we order a meal in a restaurant, in the way we treat our employees or serve our employer, in the way we play a game or drive or park a car, in the daily language we use, in the daily literature we read.

A Christian should be just as much a Christian in the factory, the workshop, the shipyard, the mine, the schoolroom, the surgery room,  [the office,] the kitchen, the golf course, the playing field as he [or she] is in church.

Jesus did not say, “You are the light of the Church;” Jesus said, “You are the light of the world,” and in a [person’s] life in the world his [or her] Christianity should be evident to all.

The martyred German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, criticizing the Church for cowering under Nazism, once wrote, “Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call.  A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.”

Therefore, may we at Bethany concentrate this year not in simply surviving, but in reasserting our presence, our very selves, into the surrounding community and world around us, both through evangelism and social action. Knowing that this link has always existed, we have combined both evangelism and social action into the work of one and the same committee this year. The moderators of this group are elders Darren LaPorte and Cindy Alfaro. Please respond when they ask for your participation this year!

And in doing so, let us be what we already are! Let us be salt which adds flavor to life. Let us be light, demonstrated in our good works to others. May our Christianity be seen, with visible consequences to all we encounter. To God be the glory.

Amen.