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There is a phrase in the
Gospel for this Sunday (Matthew 5.13-20) that I have been thinking about. “You
are salt for the earth.” It could be translated another way... “give up the
morons.” That means, we need to let go of the things in our lives and in our faith
that make us ineffective or worse causes our walk to be diluted or defective.
Salt is always by its very nature,
salt. It never stops being salt. Moreover, salt is meant to do and to be a
number of things. It is meant to prevent decay as a preservative. It is mean to
protect the purity of what is inhabited. It is there to add flavour to whatever
is there so that it is tasty. But here
is the thing: we are talking about faith and the Church; all those who call and
claim to be Christians. Jesus is calling each and all of us to live out the
life of the kingdom in this present age. That is why we are “blessed”. We are
to sign the life that is to come in the time of the kingdom of heaven. We are
in other words, enabled through God’s blessing and grace, to show what life
with God is like and will be like in the kingdom and do so in the here and now.
We are called to live a life that is totally transforming by first living it
and then over time sharing it.
But in all this, salt and the
Church can become diluted and insipid. It can become less than it is. It does
not cease to be what it is but it can become less. Diluted and insipid faith in
the Church is not the way – there is no light or half version. Jesus calls us
to live in the grace and the power that is afforded to us as children of God.
We are called to let go of those things that weaken and inhibit our and live
with everything that God gives you.
And we are in this moment also
light. Light is always light. Lights shine out in the darkness. So who lights a
candle and then puts it under a basket. Who lights a lamp and then promptly
hides it away? No one I know. Certainly no one who was without power during and
after a storm – so why are Christians running and hidding the light within them
in our society? There are too many within the Church who seem to have come to
believe that being a Christian is a bad thing and that the faith is all that is
wrong with the world. That makes us sound like the late Christopher Hitchens,
an atheist.
We have come to think in this “enlightened”
age that we are the light or at least because we can flip a switch, push a
button or turn a dial that we can control light. All we need do is open the
fridge door and the darkness retreats from the light. Problem is, the light
within a Christian is not his or her own. It is Christ who lives within and it
is God’s glory that shines out. Where will you take it, what will you bring to
light, both about God and about the people around you?
We need to learn to live a
better Christian life than worry about living by the rules and being obedient
to what’s been taught. We are called love – as Christ has loved us- those we
find around us. We need to live in such a way that we fulfill the law and learn
to accept the grace and forgiveness when we fall short. Then we show the full
extent of who God in Christ is for the world. Then the good news of God in Christ
is made manifest for people to reach out for and to hold on to.
We are tasty and we are lit
up. So remember the last beatitudes, “Blessed are those who have not seen and
yet still believe.” Come live the life and do so in Jesus name!
Jason+
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