Matthew 5: 13-16 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 hidden. 15 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. 16 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.
If you have a headache, you can take a pain medication to relieve it. Whether you prefer Acetaminophen or Ibuprofen, you ingest the pills, and the medicine works to relieve the symptoms you suffer from. Does it make any sense to leave the medication in the cabinet when you need them? The point of the medication is to be taken when you need them, you would not purchase them and then ignore them, keeping them in the linen closet. When you need them, you take them, so that they may do what they were created to do. The pills were created to relieve symptoms of the human body. They have a connection and purpose to affect the human body.
Perhaps then we can understand when Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. Salt is used to affect things, whether to season or to preserve or to heal. Salt on a shelf is useless, salt must be salted on things. Light is used to affect things, specifically to banish darkness. A light under a bed fails to shine into the living room. The church is connected to the earth and to the world. Tylenol is useless unless a body ingests it. The Church is useless without the earth and the world.
But the daily struggle among people in a community of faith is that connection with others. We could have many reasons why we withdraw from others. Perhaps we are afraid of being injured or abused in the many ways one could be traumatized and so we withdraw from others. Perhaps we have different goals and agendas for our limited resources, which include time, and to connect with others would mean interference or interruption of those goals and agendas. Perhaps we are just lazy and idle and to build relationships with other people requires too much from us. Perhaps people have the worst personalities and grate on our last nerve. Whatever the reason, when it comes to salt the earth or to shine in the world, we escape, we withdraw, we perform our best turtle impersonation and pull our heads inside our shells. When it comes time to fulfill our callings and purposes, we don’t. The salt loses its saltiness, and the light is thrown under the bed.
Let your light shine before others, Jesus commands in his Sermon on the Mount. The before others seems to be the more demanding piece of this Word. We have no problem shining our lights in the safety of our sanctuaries, surrounded by the security of likeminded brothers and sisters, or the protection of our private spaces. Whether reading our bibles or saying our prayers or giving praise, or serving our neighbors, we shine our light all too well. But we could stand to shine a little bit better-before others. Who needs to be salted or to be enlightened in our communities? Will you ever do so from your sanctuaries, from your flower beds or from your easy chairs? Tylenol is useless on the kitchen window sill, salt is useless in the pantry, and light is useless under a blanket. Let you light shine, but let it shine before others.
Whether we can admit it or not, the community of faith live in glass houses. The whole purpose of the church is to be those who live together before others. When we choose to be a community that escapes, withdraws, and/or retreats from our sacred calling, people will see us one way or the other, and what will they see; a community that loves God and neighbors, or a community that isolates from and abandons the community. The Church lives in glass houses, the community around will always be watching. They will see our self-giving love to that community, or they will see us flee and hide from that community. They will see one or the other: selfish-ness or selfless-ness.
Friends, we might not be able to choose whether other people see or not, but we can choose what people see from us. But what we must never do, is avoid our calling to be responsible with what people see at all. People will always see the glass house and even if we put up curtains, they will still see that we don’t want them to see anything. We are the salt of the earth and we are the light of the world. This day and every time, choose to be salt and light. Not salt in the pantry, nor light under the bed, but salt in the earth and light in the world. Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. Amen.
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