"You Are The Salt of the Earth"

Preached at the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd, Forestdale, MA 

9^th February 2014; Epiphany V

Matthew 5:13-22

I. “You are the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World”

Thirty some years ago, when Mary and I lived in Virginia, we bought a Smithfield Ham.  If you have ever tasted one, you know that they are delicious.  Smithfield hams are not like most of the hams you buy at the grocery store, which are chemically cured and need to be refrigerated to stay fresh.  A Smithfield ham is cured the old-fashioned way.  It is rubbed thoroughly with a mixture of salt and spices, and slowly cured by hanging and smoking for six months.  It will keep indefinitely in a cool, dry place – and it is incredibly delicious!

In Matt 5:13, Jesus tells his hearers, “You are the salt of the earth.”  In verse 14, he adds, “You are the light of the world.”  In using these two comparisons, Jesus is telling us what results he expects from those who follow him.  Just as salt preserves perishable food from decay, so we are to act against the corrosive effects of an ungodly culture.  Just as light expels darkness and reveals things as they are, Christians bring the truth about sin and about salvation to a world that is sin-sick and filled with sorrow.

I want to look at two things this morning.  The first is what Christians can do, according to Jesus, to act as salt and light to a decaying and dark world.  The second thing is to look at how we are enabled to act as salt and light.  When you consider that we are not dealing with simply the few people right around us, being salt to the earth and the light of the world means we have a large and formidable task given to us.  We need more than human methodology to do that.

II. How Our “Salt” and “Light” Can Bring Change

American culture has changed a great deal in the last 50 years or so.  Mary and I watch a number of old comedy shows with Netflix – things like The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy, Leave It to Beaver, and The Dick Van Dyke Show.  They are creative, hilarious shows.  We really enjoy them.  We do not watch currently produced comedies, and haven’t for quite a few years.  The level of sarcasm, denigration, and explicit sexuality is horrendous.  They may be somewhat funny, but if so, it is in a sick way.  The comedies that are broadcast now would never even been considered for production in 1965.  Many of the other shows on TV, such as crime shows, specialize in the bizarre and outlandish.

Of course, the corruption of our culture is not limited to TV shows.  It shows up all over the place – the rise in single-motherhood, the idea that marriage is the invention of the state and can be defined and re-defined at will, the rise in drug use, the legal acceptance of abortion, the idea that religious liberty is restricted only to how we worship and not to how we live, and many other changes show the decline of our culture.

In many ways, this decline should not be a surprise to us.  Human beings are inherently sinful and have been since the rebellion of Adam and Eve.  We cannot expect those who are in rebellion against God to welcome and obey his way of doing things.  We who have been redeemed, forgiven, and restored to a positive relationship to God with the aim of living in obedience to him should indeed stand out in the world and be an influence for good, helping to preserve from corruption and showing the light of God’s love.

How do we do that, however?  I know that one way that has been popular is to be politically active, seeking to have Christian candidates for office, forming lobbying groups, groups to educate the public, and so on.  I get mail from half a dozen such groups on a regular basis.  This method has had some effect; we have seen progress in the area of making abortion less popular and less accessible.

In the early 1800’s in England there was a group of people who became known as the Clapham Sect.  They were people from the nobility and upper classes who had become Christians through the Evangelical Revival that had begun under John Wesley and which had continued for some time afterwards.  William Wilberforce was a member of the group, and he led a movement that first stopped slave trading in Great Britain and throughout the British Empire in 1808 – and by 1835, ended slavery completely.  The group also worked to revise labor laws, provide a variety of educational opportunities, and provide for the poor.  They prayed hard and long, and worked well within the political system of the time.  They did an amazing amount of good out of their Christian concern for their nation.  Political action is one way to be salt and light.  But it is not the only way, and may not be the best way.

When one considers the situation at the time of Jesus, it is clear that political activism was not the means which Jesus had in mind as the primary way his followers were to be salt and light.  Political activism was not an option for the early Church.  They lived in a dictatorship, not a democracy, so they had no voice in governing.  We in America do live in a democracy, so we have political involvement as an option – we can use it but we must keep other means in mind and use them as well.  The political process can tempt us into pride, stubbornness, and the lure of power for its own sake.  Politics subjects us to pressure to find money, and tempts us to raise it by devious means.  We can become angry, mean, and deceptive as we engage in political action.  To try to influence the culture by political means is a tool that we can use, but it does have dangers.

Jesus had something else in mind than the political process when he spoke of Christians being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  The Beatitudes come just before the passage we read today, and I believe that the Beatitudes tell us how to be light to a dark world and salt to a decaying one.  The concluding verses of the Beatitudes tell us that we shall encounter opposition in our seeking to live in a way that honors Jesus.  Indeed, we shall be persecuted if we determine to be loyal to Jesus in a culture that seeks to ignore him or honor him as simply one good man among many others.

In the first nine verses of Matthew 5, Jesus tells us the qualities of character that are blessed by God.  The one who belongs to God will exhibit these qualities: 1) a poverty of spirit, knowing that one is unable to please God and has failed him often; 2) a mourning for one’s own sins; 3) a humble spirit; 4) a deep desire to have righteousness in one’s heart, thought, and action; 5) a forgiving and merciful attitude towards those who hurt one; 6) a heart that is totally fixed on God and his glory; 7) one who works for peace between others and between themselves and others when they have relational problems of their own; and 8) a heart that will prefer suffering for God to disloyalty to God.

Let me read those qualities again: (repeat).

The main reason that the Clapham Sect was able to be effective in their political efforts within England was not only that they were politically astute, but because they were men and women of prayer who cultivated the attitudes of the Beatitudes within their own hearts.  They were good at politics – but a large part of their political success was not because they were devious, underhanded masters of the political move, but because they were people of unimpeachable character, great humility, and a love for God that let people know they sought only to honor the Lord.

As we seek to let our lights shine, not for our honor but for God’s glory, with humility and patience, our character will do more to change lives and hearts than any political action we might undertake in our own merely human wisdom and strength.  Those who are poor in spirit and who long for righteousness for the honor of God make an impact upon those around them.  Sometimes it is an impact that brings persecution, but often it is an impact that brings positive change, at least in individual lives, and quite possibly on a wider scale. 

III. Tempting to Blend In

In speaking of our role in the unbelieving world as salt and light, Jesus lets us know that we need to actively engage the world.  We must be humble, but we also must be intentional.  In the latter half of verse 13, he says, “If salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.”  Then in verse 15, he says, “Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand.”

In Jesus’ day, the salt people used came from the Dead Sea, and that salt was not only sodium chloride, but also other chemical compounds.  Sodium chloride, the salt we use and our bodies need, is very soluble, so if a batch of that “salt” got wet, it could lose the table salt part but still look as it did before – and be utterly useless to preserve food or even flavor it.  If a Christian fears persecution or even simply does not want to be regarded as a “religious nut,” it can be tempting to hide his light in order to blend in with whatever the larger society is doing, whether that is pleasing to God or not.  And in today’s culture – it won’t be.  A century ago, our culture was based on a Christian worldview.  Today, it is not – and often intentionally not.

Jesus warned us that we would be tempted simply to blend in and adopt the views and values of the unbelieving world around us.  And he told us that we must not succumb to that temptation, or we would be worthless to the Kingdom.

IV. Being Enabled By God as Salt and Light

In verses 13-16, Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world – and that we must remain salty salt and a light that is in the open.  We can’t blend in or hide.  We know from the verses which precede our reading today that the way we are salt and light is to have what is described in the Beatitudes becoming more and more true of our character and lives.

Our reading continues in verses 17-20.  In these verses, Jesus tells us that the Law will continue to apply, for all time.  He has not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.  Until the world ends, the Law will stand.  We must teach the Law to one another, because it has come from God and he has not set it aside.

That is a tall order – and to underline how greatly he means it, in verse 20 Jesus says, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Since the scribes and Pharisees were regarded as the holiest and best of people in all Jewish society, the people who heard this must have felt their hearts sink.  To use a sports metaphor, it would be like being told, “All you have to do to win a gold medal in figure skating is to score a perfect 10.”  Even the most-practiced skater would feel how high a standard that was.

While we haven’t read the rest of chapter 5 or chapter 6 this morning, Jesus goes on to explain what the requirements of the Law really are – one is guilty of murder not only by committing the actual physical act of killing someone on purpose, but simply by nurturing hatred in one’s heart.  One is guilty of sexual immorality not only by engaging in sexual relations outside marriage, but by day-dreaming of doing so.  Jesus goes on for most of the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, telling how high the standards God has, and how deeply we must observe them – not only in action, but in thought and desire.  The Pharisees were outwardly obedient to the Law, but what Jesus says reveals that no one, not even the Pharisees, are perfectly pure and holy from the depths of their hearts on out.

The Sermon on the Mount is a beautiful description of Christian values.  It tells us what God expects of us.  The trouble is, mere information is not really a help.  I’ve heard some people say, “In my life, I seek to follow the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount.”  They speak as though they were basically successful in this attempt.  I know that such people may talk about the Sermon on the Mount, but they only know the name, not the actual teachings.  They could not speak so glibly about following the Sermon on the Mount if they really understood it.

Jesus tells us the absolute purity required to please God for a very simple reason: the very first Beatitude is “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  If pondering the requirements of the Sermon on the Mount does not make you recognize your own poverty of soul, your own incapacity to do what God requires, then you simply do not know the Sermon and your own heart.  C. S. Lewis has said, “No man knows how bad he is until he tries really hard to be good.”

The Sermon on the Mount brings us face to face with the reality that we have nothing in ourselves to commend ourselves to God.  We are so far from righteousness that we are hopeless.  We could not get close to even the outward holiness of the Pharisees, let alone the inner purity that God requires.  When we know God’s requirements and our own hearts, it drives us to our knees.  If we must be that pure, what hope do we have?

In knowing our spiritual poverty, we can begin to be blessed by the riches of God’s grace.  We mourn our sins, our defiance of the God who created us and who loves us.  We become meek and humble, for we know we have no standing before God in ourselves.  We long for righteousness as a thirsty man seeks water, a starving woman looks for food.  We recognize that we have nothing to call ourselves better than others, and so stand ready to give mercy to our fellow sinners.  We long for our hearts to be made pure and holy.  In all this, we are opened to the blessings of God’s grace and mercy.

Earlier, we read from 1 Cor. 2, in which Paul said of his time in Corinth, “I was determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified.”  Later on, in 2 Cor 5:20-21, the Apostle Paul speaks of that crucifixion and tells us, “Be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  Jesus Christ, God incarnate, lived the perfect life that God demands of us.  He was utterly obedient to God’s will from the depths of his heart.  But our sin was laid on him, and he became regarded as a sinner when on the cross.  When Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” on the cross, he was bearing the due results of sin, being banished from God’s presence – not for his own sins, but for ours.  When Jesus rose from the grave, his perfect life and perfect sacrifice were vindicated as acceptable to the Father.

God the Father counted our sinfulness to Jesus on the cross – and as we rely not on our own righteousness but on Jesus in his death and resurrection, his righteousness is counted to us.  We have, by God’s mercy and grace, not the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, but the very righteousness of Christ himself, which far exceeds any human accomplishment.  Therefore, we may enter the kingdom of heaven with confidence and joy.  As Jesus says in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.  He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life.”

The Sermon on the Mount is a good guide for life – but the more fully we understand it, the more we recognize that we have no hope whatever in ourselves to live out its requirements.  That leads us to recognize our spiritual poverty, and from that recognition the blessings of the Beatitudes can begin to flow.  It is only when we know our own helplessness that we find the help we need – and we find it in abundance.

It is when we know the reality and the depth of God’s mercy to us that we become the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  Our very lives and how God is changing them to be more like Jesus enables us to have a quality that preserves against the corruption of society and an inner light that glows with the loves and glory of the Lord Jesus.  We may get politically involved to try to stem the tide of a further falling away from good order and decency, but simply being more and more like Jesus in his humble, prayerful strength will have a powerful effect.  It changes how we interact with others, how we view them, how we care about and care for them.  No one of us can change the entire culture – but each one of us, through prayer and mercy, can be the Lord’s agent of change in the life of another person.

Mary and I thoroughly enjoyed that old-fashioned Smithfield Ham we bought long ago.  It was over six months old, yet the salt had preserved it from decay.  And it was delicious!  As we discover our need for God’s mercy and grace, we find that he is fully faithful in extending that grace and mercy to us – and as he does, he “salts” us with the Holy Spirit so that we become salt and light to the world, transformed from being selfish to being men and women who are more and more like Jesus, and who touch the lives of others with the love and truth that Jesus extended to all.  We light the world with the love of Christ in us.

To the Lord who preserves us and keeps us whole and safe for his kingdom be glory now and evermore.  Amen.