Salt and Light

Well happy Wednesday everyone. As I was out on my morning 20 mile bike ride this morning. (And for those of you who think I am lying about the 20 miles you can join me any day at my house at 7am for what I call the ride to glory) However, now that I am off of that hobby horse I was listening to a fellow pastor speak a sermon on the passage in Matthew 5 about salt and light and all I can say is that it rocked my world. Here are some thoughts that I had during my ride with God this morning.

• the people that Jesus was addressing were living in the middle of financial, political, and religious unrest.

• they were desiring something different and were hoping Jesus was going to provide it. I mean if he was the Messiah wasn't that kind of in his job description. You know come to earth, save the world, rescue the down cast, heal the sick, fix all of our problems.

• They were shocked at his answers.
  

All of this unrest, and all of this oppression, and all of these problems, the people needed something different. Quite frankly our country has been in this state for years now. We have a financial system that has been based on fabrication, a political system that is limping along and quite frankly the worst thing of all is a religious system that is completely anemic. The third system is the one that I want to talk about because I think it is the one that Jesus addresses in him communication to the people in the book of Matthew. Here is his declaration.

• You are the salt of the earth.

Notice that the very first word out of his mouth is not I am the salt of the earth but He put the ownership on them. He said "You are the salt". I think that this is interesting because salt back in those days was not used just to make things taste better. Salt in those days was made to keep things from rotting. It was a preservative. I think what we have done in our culture today is we have made the story of Jesus something that if people would just add a little dash of it their lives would be better. When the major problem is that our world is rotting away around us and people's lives are rotting away around them and they do not need a little dash of salt to make things taste better they need some radical, preservative, transformation that can only come from the salt of the earth and Jesus said you (the ones who call yourselves Followers of Jesus) are the preservative agents you and I are the ones who can offer that preservative that comes from Jesus and many of us simply satisfied with just giving out a dash.

Jesus goes on to say that when we loss our effectiveness in being the preservative agents in our culture then we are good for nothing and should be thrown out. The reason that the church has been so ineffective in the past decade or so is because it has lost its saltiness. And I believe that there is a new generation of leaders in our churches today that are saying "by what ever means necessary I am going to stand up and proclaim the name of Jesus, I am going to be a preservative no matter the cost" I am so glad I a part of this revolution.

• "you are the light of the world"

The second point Jesus makes is that "you are the light of the world". I think that this is interesting because in our culture light is taken for granted so many times but in the culture that Jesus was talking to they understood the importance of light. Light was used to give direction on a journey. (God used this in the old testament with the children of Israel. Exodus 13) Light was used for protection. I don't know if the power has ever gone out in your neighborhood and there are no street light and no other house lights on for as far as you can see but in those time you feel the most vulnerable to invasion. Light was used to protect. Light was also used to provide. It provided heat for cold nights, provided fire for cooking meals. So here is what Jesus is saying here. He says you are complaining about what is going on around you, however, you have light that someone else needs and you are keeping it to yourself. You have something that can provide for someone else and yet you are hiding it or better yet hording it. He tells them that this is not way to live as a Follower of Him.

I am more excited than ever before about the opportunities that we have to share Jesus with people and be the true preservative agents and light for our culture. I believe that change is coming to our culture and I believe that it is going to start with the change that God wants to begin in us. Let's go change the world for Jesus sake.