Third before Lent

Opening Verse of Scripture Psalm 118:19

Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD 

Collect Prayer for the Day—Before we read we pray

Almighty God, who alone can bring order to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity: give your people grace so to love what you  command and to desire what you promise, that, among the many changes of this world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. CW

Eternal God, whose Son went among the crowds and brought healing with his touch: help us to show his love, in your Church as we gather  together, and by our lives as they are transformed into the image of Christ our Lord. CW

First Bible Reading  Isaiah 58:1-9 (9b-12) 

“Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways,as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’ “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarrelling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD? “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from our own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of he hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” NRSV

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16)

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. 

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him’ – 0these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual. 

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are discerned spiritually. Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ. NRSV

Gospel Reading Matthew 5:13-20

Jesus went up the mountain and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to teach them: ‘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.

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. 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.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ NRSV

Post Communion Prayer

Merciful Father, who gave Jesus Christ to be for us the bread of life, that those who come to him should never hunger: draw us to the Lord in faith and love, that we may eat and drink with him at his table in the kingdom, where he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. CW

Commentary  -

Today we hear the familiar words we know as the beatitudes - the Sermon on the Mount. To understand this teaching it is helpful to remember some of the geography around where Jesus was when he sat on that mountain.  Jesus tells his disciples that they are like three things

1. Salt   

2. Light

3. City set on a hill   

City on a hill

Jesus was on the mountain and just down the shore a bit to the south was the Roman city of Hippos (Greek) Susita (Hebrew) 350m above the sea Hippos. If you want to visit it now you would have to pass alongside minefields from the 1948 war as it leads back into the Golan Heights, it has a ridge like the back of a horse which is why it is called Hippos - (Horse). They had their own mine and they made coins with the image of a horse !

This was one the Decapolis, the ten Roman cities which had the cutting edge technology and skills and benefited from wealth and luxury. The city was destroyed in 749AD by an earthquake but at the time this was a fantastic city with roman baths, temples with colonnades and a gymnasium. Imagine this great Roman city and how it would have stood out to those folks as a symbol in their land of Roman occupation.   

As Jesus spoke he could have pointed across the lake at Hippos. This was the city set on a hill and this was it right across from where Jesus taught. At night it would have been a huge beacon to Roman power and authority. Jesus is telling his followers that they are like this, they are the visible demonstration of his presence on earth. Jesus is saying that we stand out, for good or ill, we are the visible presence which Jesus has.

Salt

I want us to think about salt for a moment because it is really difficult for us to understand what Jesus meant when he spoke of salt. Just nearby was the town of Magdala, which the historian Josephus referred to as the city of Tarichae, which in Greek means, roughly speaking, 'the place of fish salting.' Magdala was the lakeside centre for salting and preserving fish. Jesus could have literally pointed to this centre for salt as he spoke. Today we have so much free and easy access to salt that we do not consider its value. When Jesus spoke these words about salt he was speaking of an incredibly important commodity. Salt has been vital throughout history and only in recent times has it been so freely available.

• I hope you love Venice,  I was amazed to discover that the wealth of Venice was built on salt.
• In Britain, there are references to salt taxes in the Doomsday Book.
• In China at one point of time, salt taxes constituted over one-half of China's revenues and contributed to the construction of the Great Wall of China.
• The “Great Hedge of India,” the mid-18th century colonial equivalent of the Great Wall of China, stretched 3,700 km from the western border of Punjab down to the Bay of Bengal. It was manned by 12,000 men and planted by the British to minimise salt smuggling into Bengal and so enforce the collection of the Indian salt tax. As late as the 1940s the people of India under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi protested British taxes on salt supply. In 1930 Gandhi led a 200-mile march to the Arabian Ocean to symbolically collect untaxed salt for India’s poor.

We all know that salt was really important. In the centuries before refrigeration it was the preservative, if you had no salt armies could not march because it was salt which kept food preserved. The Romans salted their vegetables, as we do our modern day “salads.”  It was used for medicinal purposes, to disinfect wounds and treat skin diseases.  It was so important that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt — hence our English word, “salary.”  Salt was attributed special properties to ward off evil spirits and in the Bible religious covenants were often sealed with salt. 

There is great concern now over salt intake but over time it has been seen as essential for cooking to enhance flavour. The Iliad is perhaps the earliest work of Western literature, and it also happens to be the earliest cookbook. In Book 9, Homer describes how Achilles' friend Patroclus sprinkles salt on loins of sheep, goat, and pork before roasting them over glowing coals. Nearly 3,000 years later, it is still used as seasoning for meat and other foods. 

Jesus is saying to his disciples that they are salt and if there is no salt then the world will go rotten and it will taste bad. The salt of course has to be shaken, out, it cannot be kept in the cellar. Christians are there to make an impact in society by spreading themselves around. Not in annoying way, Jesus tells them that they will stand out and make a difference by their good deeds. It would be easier perhaps sometimes to keep our Christians faith to ourselves, but salt left inside the salt cellar does not make for tasty chips.

Before he dies someone asked the preacher and writer Eugene Peterson what he would say if he were writing what he knew would be his very last sermon. He said 

“In my last sermon, I guess I’d want to say, ‘Go home and be good to your spouse. Treat your children with respect. Do a good job at work.” 

To be salt in the world does not mean that we have to end up in the House of Lords, it is just about living well with the people we meet, listening to them and treating them as God’s children, which they are.  Think about the people who Jesus spoke to in Galilee in this famous Sermon on the Mount.  What were they like? They were the poor, the mournful, the meek, the persecuted.  The hungry, the sick, the crippled, the frightened.  The outcast, the misfit, the disreputable, the demon-possessed. “You,” he told them all. “You are the salt of the earth.”  You who are not cleaned up and shiny and well-fed and fashionable, you who’ve been rejected, wounded, unloved, and forgotten — you are essential.  You are worthwhile.  You are treasured.  And I am commissioning you. 

If you have ever wondered how you might earn God’s favour I hope that you listen afresh to these words of Jesus today in the context of what we know salt was worth at the time of Jesus. Jesus chose to say that those who followed him were like salt, which meant that they were not only useful, they were priceless, of great value. Jesus did not tell people that if they tried really hard to be nice God would love them. He said God already did. In the same way Jesus did not tell his disciples that if they worked hard they could become salt, he said that they were salt. They were already precious. Charles Royden

Meditation Cardinal John Henry Newman Radiating Christ 

Here is a beautiful prayer by Cardinal John Henry Newman. This Prayer was recited daily after Communion by Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and her Sisters of Charity. This Prayer is also known as the Fragrance Prayer. Cardinal Newman was as an Anglican priest, who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1845 at the age of 44, and was subsequently ordained a Catholic priest. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on September 19, 2010. 

Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go. Flood my soul with Your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus! Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine. It will be you, shining on others through me. Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me. Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You. Amen.

Hymns

• He who would valiant be
• Take my life and let it be
• Forth in they name O Lord I go

Prayers for Sunday and the week ahead

O God of light, your searching Spirit reveals and illumines your presence in creation. Shine your radiant holiness into our lives, that we may offer our hands and hearts to your work: to heal and shelter, to feed and clothe, to break every yoke and silence evil tongues. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ

You are the Light of the World:

Light up our lives when we are in darkness.

In the darkness of our uncertainty — 

When we don’t know what to do, when decisions are hard to take:

Lord, give us light to guide us.

In the darkness of our anxiety -

When we are worried about what the future may bring,

When we don’t know where to turn:

Lord, give us the Light of Your Peace.

In the darkness of our despair — 

When life seems empty, when we feel there is no point in going on:

Lord, give us the Light of Your Hope, In Your Name we ask it. Amen. 

Jean Good

Thank you God for those who shine like a light in our darkness those who reveal the potential in each one of us those who give us the courage and confidence to act for good. Thank you God for every glimmer of goodness, for every rumour of righteousness, for every breath of kindness, for each incandescent glow of love in our world. 0 God, grant that as we reflect on the experiences that happen to us your truth and your presence may illuminate our sorrows and our joys. Let love’s unconquerable might unite all God's people in service to the Lord of light.

God of love and justice you call your church to be a shining witness to your presence on earth. Fill our hearts with joy and gladness to live the good news which we proclaim. 

Blessed Lord, you challenge the rulers of this world to exercise justice and compassion. Raise the sights of all governments to honour the dignity of all people. Help us your people to bring work for the release of the oppressed, shelter to the homeless and food to the hungry. 

Blessed Lord you affirmed those with you on the hillside by calling them salt and light and call your people now to be stand out for your ways that we might be a part of your everlasting kingdom. Give us strength and courage to be part of your healing work. 

Lord Jesus: You call us to be Salt and Light; Salt in a world that is tilled with Your richness, yet many lead insipid lives. Light in a world that is aglow with Your brilliance, yet people walk in shadows.If we are able to be the salt of the earth, help us to add flavour to the lives of others, to sprinkle all that we do with Your love, so that others may savour Your goodness.If we are to be the Light of the World, help us to walk in the brightness of Your footsteps, to shine each day with just a little of Your radiance, so that others may feel their darkness lifted.

When we feel insipid and lacklustre, when Your call is too hard for us, enrich us again with Your sweet taste, set us on fire with Your Spirit, so that we may be once more Salt and Light. Jean Hackett

Additional Resources

Commentary

Listen to any news broadcast and you will immediately be aware that the world is an uncomfortable place at the moment, division is evident all over the world. Violence and unrest have become the norm and science and technology are being used increasingly for the wrong purposes, whether this is for creating bigger and more powerful weapons or to infect our communications with fake news and viruses. This is a really important moment when we need God’s people to be an influence in the world. Today Jesus words remind Christians that they are salt and light in our society, they are there to make a positive difference. Jesus draws three metaphors from daily life to describe the role of his disciples. salt, a lamp and a city. Like salt, the disciples are to add zest and flavour to life. Like a city, they are to be visible for others to see. Like a lamp, they are to enlighten others. 

Jesus has a remarkable ability to take ordinary things from life and use them to illustrate deep spiritual truth. The point about these images is that all three stand out and all three make a difference. Christians are people who are there to change our society not just reflect it. So can you think in what ways your faith causes positive change around you? This is not a question which should discourage us, there will probably be lots of ways, that you might not even be aware of! In the midst of busy lives, looking after work, family and other responsibilities we might feel as though we can barely hold the everyday things of our own life together. If we are all running as fast as we can just to keep up, how can we be the salt and light that the world needs? 

Be encouraged, Jesus tells his disciples that they are salt and light. They might not feel as though they are changing everything but they are all fingers that point to God. Salt is such a seemingly insignificant and tiny element but it is a good metaphor for the ordinary Christian. We may feel insignificant, but in the divine scheme of things, we have a part to play. Salt may not change or affect the whole world, but it certainly affects the smaller world with which it comes in contact. You may feel inadequate for the task, but so have all God's real leaders, from Moses to the Apostle Paul. Paul described himself to the Corinthians as "I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling...." He most likely felt like a lot of us, quite intimidated by the responsibility of being an ambassador for Christ, but he was salt because he had working in him "a demonstration of Spirit and power"—the very power of God!

We all feel daunted by the task of being salt and light, but we must not worry that we won't measure up. All we are asked to do is to walk each day with Christ for it is not ourselves that we proclaim, it is Jesus that we take to our world. Charles Royden. 

Commentary

St John Chrysostom invites us to consider what the world would be like if the entire Christian community lived in imitation of Christ. ‘Assuredly there would be no heathen, if we Christians took care to be what we ought to be; if we obeyed God’s precepts, if we bore injuries without retaliation, if when cursed we blessed, if we rendered good for evil.’ 

In effect Jesus is saying just this in the Gospel passage today. The first 12 verses of this chapter contain Jesus teaching on the beatitudes. Like a new Moses Jesus has delivered the way God’s people should behave

1. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2. ‘Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

3. ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

4. ‘Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

5. ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

6. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

7. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

8. ‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

9. ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

It is only bearing these ‘rules’ in mind that the sayings of Jesus today make sense. In the teachings of Jesus there is often a reflection on how Israel had failed to fulfil their role and now Jesus and his followers were taking over the work. In Isaiah 42 for example we read

I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 

It won’t take long for us to bring to mind the words of Jesus where he sees himself fulfilling this role. Likewise his followers must also be light in the world and bring about God’s purposes in the world, especially of course to the whole world, not just Jewish people. In our reading today Jesus tells his disciples that they must live out his teachings and in so doing they will be like three things, salt, light and a city set on a hill. 

Salt was valuable and salt is at the root of our word ‘salary’. Sal is the Latin word for Salt. It seems that Roman soldiers were given money to buy salt - their salary. Salt was essential for everyday life, without there would be trouble! There have been times throughout history when salt was traded weight for weight with gold. Before refrigeration salt was the way of keeping food preserved. Without salt armies could not go to war, explorers could not sail because provisions would go stale. Of even today without some salt we would all die, our hearts would stop beating

Jesus believed his followers were as important in the world as salt, no salt, no life. He wanted his disciples to be as like salt, to change the flavour of the world around them. Of course Jesus doesn’t say that he wants them to become salt, he says that they are ! What we say and do as Christians matters. At the time of Jesus salt was considered really important for religious purposes, salt was used in sacrifices to God and the Torah was thought of as salt for Israel. Th e Jewish teachers likened the Torah to it; for as the world could not do without salt, neither could it do without the Torah (Soferim xv. 8). So Jesus is saying that it is necessary for the disciples to be in the world making a difference, the world would be in trouble without them. 

Light Jewish tradition considered Israel and Jerusalem as well as the Law to be the light of the world. Is 42:6, 49:6 God’s presence were once thought to be found in Israel and Jerusalem (Mic 4:1-3, Is 2:2-4), Jesus is now replacing these with his followers. Just as Jesus followers are the news salt, so the light is no longer found in Israel.

The image of light is so important throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament Isaiah said that those who sat in darkness have seen a great light. That great light is Jesus and we Christians have found Jesus to be the light who guides us through the darkness along life’s way, we are called to let our light shine before others. The way in which we communicate our faith to others is not by discrediting the faith of others, or by finding clever ways to explain ours, it is allowing the light of Christ to burn brightly in our lives so that others are attracted to that light. One light is totally visible, even in the midst of complete darkness. No matter how dark things around us might be Jesus wants us to be like a torch in a dark place. Darkness cannot quench a light !

A city on a hill.  There are many people who would like to think that faith should be a personal thing, something that you keep to yourself. What Jesus is saying is that our faith isn’t just for ourselves. But Jesus won’t have that. It says that we are like a city that is set on a hill, it should be seen, it should stand out. We might want to keep our light in the shadows, not burn too brightly to get noticed, but that is not what being a Christians is all about. It might be easier to live faith in the shadows. But God desires we not be just a good person. He also wants us also to be a just person, for our light of faith to shine before others. The city set on a hill is no longer Jerusalem.

Christians should be concerned about themselves and their own lives and families. But we should also be concerned about our neighbour and we should be concerned about strangers, people who suffer on the other side of the world, not just the other side of the street. The Church also is not a secret society, it is a public proclamation 

What we do as Christians matters because we are God’s messengers and God’s activity in the world. Never feel that what you do is insignificant, it is significant and important, to you and others and to God. As Christians we are tasked by God, not to be successful but to be faithful. It is not our job to make right what is wrong in the world about us. God’s work is never ever dependent upon our skillfullness, what God calls for is our willingness. We are light, but it is God’s light not our’s ! 

I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything but I can do something 

and what I can do, I ought to do and what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do.

Commentary 

On this particular day in the church calendar, we stand at the end of one season and on the threshold of another. We’re just finishing up Epiphany, a special time when we have thought about the light of Christ shining out in the world. 

We are marching towards Lent, although this year there is a much longer march than usual! On "Ash Wednesday," we will begin a new season of Lent. Lent is a time when the word "repentance" takes centre stage, when we examine our own lives in the light of Christ, when we allow his light to shine within us. The liturgical colour will change to purple, the colour of repentance, for Lent is the time when we examine and seek to change. 

Now, there are places over which we don’t want this light to shine, places we don’t wish to have lit up so brightly. Darkness covers many sins, after all, many failings. And, maybe, we’d prefer the dark to the light - if we’re honest with ourselves. But that is what Lent and repentance is all about, recognising where we need to change. 

First we saw the light of Christ at Epiphany, now our light needs to shine within, and then we can shine outwards.

So Jesus draws these three metaphors from daily life 

1. “salt,” 

2. “a lamp” and 

3. “a city,” 

to describe the role of his disciples.

Like salt, the disciples are to add zest and flavour to life.

Like a city, they are to be visible for others to see.

Like a lamp, they are to enlighten others.

All three metaphors, provide lessons on discipleship. Jesus used ordinary images to convey extraordinary things. Of course that is the secret of a good sermon! His ability to take ordinary things from life and use them to illustrate deep spiritual truth.  The point about them is that all three stand out and all three make a difference. 

Some theologians have suggested that salt cannot lose its savor, but this is not true. Impure salt, dug from the deposits of the Dead Sea could lose its saltiness as the sodium chloride is dissolved or evaporated. Jesus is also using a play on the Aramaic words here, Tabel means salt and Tapel means foolish. The point Jesus is making is not about the chemistry of salt but rather using a play on words to show that is a disciple is not bearing witness appropriately in the world then they are worthless and might as well be thrown out in the street, where they tended to throw their rubbish before there were bin collections ! 

The purpose of being a disciple is to bear witness in word and deed, just as obviously as the reason for a lamp is to give light. The disciples are to give light to the world, the entire world. Jesus uses the word Kosmos,which shows that he sees himself as being not just for Israel but for all nations, all people.

So go on, in what ways are you different because you are a Christian? How is your life different because of your Christian faith?

Christians we know believe certain things and that is really important. However we spend so much time fussing over the details of belief, rather than questioning what difference, if any, our belief makes. That is in itself interesting because most of the time people outside the church do not really bother about what we believe, thay are more interested in how we behave. So today Jesus asks us how our belief actually makes a difference. 

As an example, what difference does it mean that to you that Jesus was resurrected from the dead? Hopefully it will bring to you hope and perhaps even confidence, that Jesus can, out of the rubble of our lives, rebuild and remake us, for there is no power greater than his. So, how does your faith challenge you and move you to a different place. Are you changing your environment or just reflecting it ?

Jesus tells us that our task is to allow others to see, in the brightness of our lives our heavenly Father at work. It is to God, and not to ourselves that our lives must point. 

So here you are you come to church with all of your worries and cares and the preacher says ‘its all down to you.’"you are the salt of the earth...light of the world." Now you are to be responsible for it all!? You are to stand out like a beacon for all to see, a shining example of model Christian behaviour. Most Christians can barely hold the everyday things in together. It would only take one thing to go awry in life and the delicate stack of cards that you balance each day comes tumbling down. We are all running as fast as we can just to keep up. 

To keep our heads above water we come to church on Sunday looking for strength, solace, guidance and some spiritual charge that will enable us to roll up our sleeves, go back out there and face the daily grind. What do we hear in this hassled state today? Jesus says ‘You are salt of the earth...light of the world." 

Sounds too big for me; more like a job for the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, another Mother Theresa or the Dali Lama -someone with clout and a big voice. Someone who speaks, or makes a visit to foreign lands and the world sits up to take notice.

But - Jesus challenges us to seriously consider our calling to the world. For better or worse, we have been chosen by God to address others with the message we have received. We may communicate the message with words, but as the ending of the passage suggests, we are also to do it by our good works. Our good deeds are to witness to what we believe. When people see them they are to be drawn to their source- our God. We disciples are, like it or not light of this world.

To put it another way, we are fingers that point to God. Our lives are to be such that when people see us they look to the direction we are pointing. 

Even though many of us have been told to "watch our salt," nevertheless, salt, in moderation, is a very good thing. It makes food tasty. What's encouraging is that salt is such a seemingly insignificant and tiny element. It's a good metaphor for the ordinary Christian. We may feel insignificant, but in the divine scheme of things, we have a part to play. Salt may not change or affect the whole world, but it certainly affects the smaller world with which it comes in contact. 

You may feel inadequate for the task, but so have all God’s real leaders, from Moses to the Apostle Paul. Paul described himself to the Corinthians as "I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling...." Is the mighty and famous Paul being disingenuous, pretending such human feelings of inadequacy to attract attention or sympathy? I think not. He most likely felt like a lot of us, quite intimidated by the responsibility of being an ambassador for Christ. He must have felt quite naive as he went to the sophisticated Corinthians with the seeming improbable gospel message of Christ's resurrection. But he was salt because he had working in him "a demonstration of Spirit and power"-the very power of God! 

With this power in him he was salt of the earth; before he became the famous Saint Paul, he was "weak and fragile." In fact, his writings reveal he continually felt that fragility, but continued, despite his limitations, to be salt- he sprinkled himself generously wherever he would find someone to listen or speak to or teach. Paul did a very basic thing: though he was fearful and trembling he simply spoke from his experience of God and trusted in the gift he had received. 

We too have to be more than just fitting in with what is around us, we are supposed to make a difference as we act and speak. We are to be salt and light too. We are called not just to reflect society but to change it. If we simply absorb the prevailing attitudes around us, then we are like thermometers. Christians should not be simply indicators of what is happening around. Instead we are called to be like thermostats, we are supposed to be able to change the temperature of society, not just measure it. 

Liberal optimism supposed that given the right conditions humankind could change itself. However, humankind is not evolving into a better species. Optimism has pervaded different generations, such as towards the end of the last century, you may know the words of Friedrich Nietzsce (1844-1900) who said 

'The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.'

The same can be said for Dawkins more recently who has embarked on an aggressive crusade to rid the world of religion which he has described as 'impoverishing and limiting, not enriching'.

Liberal optimism supposed that given the right conditions humanity could become so much better. Yet education has not brought an end to violence, instead we build better weapons and devise more skilful means to kill. Human endeavour has manufactured machines that are capable of producing amazing results, yet we use them to make people redundant, poor and without dignity and jobs. 

Jesus is clear that the world cannot simply be left to turn out right, it requires treatment. We are lights in this world in that we have the one true light. Humankind has searched for answers, which it is doomed never to find. And yet we have the one true light and it is our task to make Him known to others. There is a way to God and a very simple one. It is to know one person, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, He is the Son of God and He came from heaven to earth to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to illuminate the darkness, to expose the cause of darkness and to make a new way of living. 

If we feel daunted by the task of being salt and light. If we think that we won’t measure up, then fear not. For all we are really asked to do is to walk with Christ. It is not ourselves that we proclaim, it is Jesus that we take to our world. 

Meditation

We take salt for granted, yet miss it when it is not there. Yet too much salt can be harmful, so it must be used cautiously, it makes you stop and think how much to use, too little and it's bland, too much and its inedible!  Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

Salt is often an unnoticed part of our language, with the phrase 'worth their salt' coming from a time when soldiers were paid in salt, which was then a valuable commodity, used for preserving foodstuffs as well as seasoning them. 

Quotes on light are easy to find, here are just a few to guide your own thoughts;

Don’t curse the darkness — light a candle. Chinese proverb:

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.” Anon

“Light, even though it passes through pollution, is not polluted. St. Augustine of Hippo

“When you walk towards the light, the shadow of your burden falls behind you.” Kahlil Gibran

“There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of one small candle.” Anon