Sermon: A Brighter, Zestier World

Delivered at Bethel United Methodist Church in West Greenville, South Carolina on February 9, 2014.

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.

Comments are always welcomed.

A Brighter, Zestier World

Audio Version

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 hid.  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.

Matthew 5:13-16 (NRSV)

I will live

To carry Your compassion

To love a world that's broken

To be Your hands and feet

I will give

With the life that I've been given

And go beyond religion

To see the world be changed

By the power of Your name

From "The Power of Your Name" by Lincoln Brewster

After recruiting the first Disciples, Jesus traveled throughout the region of Galilee, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God and bringing healing to the ailing and the troubled.  His reputation spread across the land, and He amassed a large following of people, both Jew and Gentile.  One day, a great crowd gathers around Jesus.  He hikes up a mountain followed by His disciples, and He begins to deliver that famous sermon we know as the Sermon on the Mount.¹

Jesus begins His sermon with some surprising announcements of blessing upon
"the poor in spirit,"
"those who mourn,"
"the meek,"
"those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,"
"the merciful,"
"the pure in heart,"
"the peacemakers,"
and "those who are persecuted."²

Conventional wisdom, then and now, teaches us that there is nothing blessed about mourning or facing persecution.  Jesus' audience lived under the occupation of the Roman Empire, and this fact alone proved that it is not "the meek" who "inherit the earth," but rather those who have power and know how to use it.  The real winners in this world are not those who work for peace, but those who utterly destroy anyone who gets in their way - not the merciful, but those who show no mercy.  Nobody gets ahead in this world by being pure in heart, but by achieving one's goals by any means necessary.  Jesus' audience had learned from the religious elite that those who are spiritually rich and full of righteousness are the ones who are truly blessed, not the spiritually poor and those whose lives are so devoid of righteousness that they actually hunger and thirst for it.

Jesus' surprising announcements of blessing, which we often call the Beatitudes, fly in the face of the conventional wisdom of this world.  According to one commentator, "First and literally the Beatitudes are Jesus' surprisingly countercultural God-bless-yous to people in god-awful situations."³  The Beatitudes are blessings upon people whom the world would not normally consider blessed.  With these announcements of blessing, Jesus begins to introduce to His followers a whole new way of living in the world, for we will see in His teachings that the Kingdom of God - the place where God reigns - is not like the kingdoms of this world.

Jesus makes two more surprising announcements to His audience.  To all of the people listening, He says, "You are the salt of the earth."  He follows up this announcement with a warning, saying, "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."

To those listening, He then announces, "You are the light of the world."  He then offers his audience an exhortation:
A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  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.

If you are familiar with the teachings of Jesus, then this instruction to let others see your good works should immediately raise a red flag for you.  Later on, in this very same sermon, Jesus will say, "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them."⁴

Regarding charitable giving, Jesus will say,
Whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others...  But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing...⁵

Regarding prayer, Jesus will say,
Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others...  But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret...⁶

Regarding fasting, Jesus will say,
And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting...  But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret...⁷

So are we called to let other people see our good works, or should our good works be a secret shared only with an "Audience of One"?

Christians like to think of the Bible as a handbook for life.  In Jesus' day, the Pharisees had identified 613 rules in the Torah alone, and they dedicated their lives to following these rules to the letter.  Like the Pharisees, we want a clear-cut list of dos and don'ts; however, it becomes difficult to use the Bible as a rulebook for life when the teachings of Jesus seem to contradict each other as in the Sermon on the Mount.  If we dig deeply into the Scriptures and if we allow the Scriptures to dig deeply into us, we will find that the Bible is not merely a handbook for living our lives, but rather a mirror exposing the very depths of our soul.  In this case, we find truth in the tension, for we must ask ourselves if there is indeed a reason we should allow others to see our good works and if there might also be a reason we should not allow others to see our good works.

Notice that when Jesus tells us to keep our charitable giving, our praying, and our fasting a secret, He tells us not to be like "the hypocrites."  The English word hypocrite originates from the Greek word hupokritēs which literally means "actor."⁸  An actor's profession is to play a part - to pretend to be a person that he or she is not.  If we watch a movie that features very skilled actors we might momentarily forget that we are watching a movie and believe that we are watching actual events unfold right before our eyes.  Normally, when we hear the word hypocrite, we imagine a person who says one thing but does another; in the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus uses the word hypocrite to describe someone who goes through the motions so that other people will believe that he or she is spiritual but whose heart is, in reality, far from God.  Later on, Jesus will compare such people to "whitewashed tombs," for they look good on the outside but are full of decay on the inside.⁹

Sadly, for many of us Christians, the Church has become a place for us to practice and develop our acting skills.  Every time we gather, we have the opportunity to put on our Sunday best, both literally and figuratively, and to try to appear as holy, pious, and charitable as possible.  Sometimes we do the things we do not out of devotion to God or out of compassion for our neighbors, but in an effort to keep up with the Joneses, spiritually speaking.  I once heard a youth pastor from the Bible Belt say that in the South, nobody wants to be "out-Jesused."¹⁰

After the memorial service for Nelson Mandela, a story broke about a sign language interpreter present at the event.  People who understand South African sign language realized that the interpreter's hand motions were not actual signs.  People questioned whether or not the man was an actual sign language interpreter and whether or not mental illness had anything to do with his behavior.  The philosopher Slavoj Žižek made the rather offensive suggestion that it really didn't matter that the "signs" were meaningless because the interpreter wasn't really there for the deaf anyway.  Žižek suggested that perhaps the interpreter wasn't actually brought in so that the hearing impaired could appreciate the speeches, but rather so that everyone else could feel good that something was being done to help deaf people.¹¹

In the same way, sometimes our works of piety and works of justice are actually mere performance art, but our performances are not necessarily meant for other people.  Sometimes we put on performances for ourselves.  For example, people might volunteer at a homeless shelter, not because they actually have any compassion for people who don't have a roof over their heads, but because they want to feel good that they are doing something to help the homeless.  Jesus calls us to a life of good works, but it is important that we carefully examine our motives.

Jesus' exhortation to "let your light shine before others" is a call to authenticity.  In the Church we call ourselves Christians because we seek to follow Jesus Christ.  I recently heard a pastor friend say, "The world needs fewer people who act like Jesus and more people who are like Jesus."  A candle has no need to prove itself: it does not need to announce to the world how much light it gives off.  A candle simply does what it was created to do and burns brightly with the light it has been given, and people can see for themselves how brightly it shines.  People have a way of knowing when someone is being authentic and when someone is being phony.

Sometimes, when people ponder what it means to be "the salt of the earth," they are quick to point out that salt is a preservative; in the Sermon on the Mount, however, Jesus says nothing about the preserving power of salt.  Instead, He speaks about its taste - its saltiness.  He even goes so far as to say that salt which does not taste salty is worthless and ought to be thrown out with the trash.  For Jesus, the significance of salt is the simple fact that it changes the taste of food.

A couple of years ago, on a day when I wasn't feeling very well, I decided that it would be best to eat something that wouldn't upset my stomach, so I went to the grocery store and bought a box of instant rice.  In the months that followed, I started preparing a plate of instant rice whenever I needed to eat in a hurry.  Though I like to think that I live a relatively simple life, I have to admit that, when it comes to food and drink, my palate is somewhat spoiled.  I found my dinners of plain rice to be bland - disgustingly bland.  Sometimes I couldn't even finish my rice without gagging.  Eventually, I discovered that if I just added some soy sauce - some saltiness - the rice was enjoyable to the last bite.

When Jesus calls us to be the "salt of the earth," He is not saying that we are called to preserve the earth as it is.  Instead, He is saying that we are called to make a positive change in the world around us, in the same way that salt makes bland food taste better.

Like salt, light also makes significant changes.  Without light, we would all be blind.  Imagine I was holding an apple in front of you.  You would only be able to see the apple because there was light in the room and because the apple was reflecting red light into your eyes.  Without light, we cannot see, because the only thing we are able to see is light.  Light transforms a world of sheer blackness into a world of vibrant, glorious color.

The great author Robert Louis Stevenson spent much of his childhood indoors because of frequent illness.  One evening, his nurse walked into his bedroom to find him staring out his window.  She warned him to get away from the window lest he catch a cold, but he continued to stare out his window, intently watching a man lighting streetlamps.  The child said to his nurse, "See; look there; there's a man poking holes in the darkness."¹²  As the "light of the world," we are called by Christ to poke holes in the darkness of this world.  When we shine brightly with the light we have been given, people who have grown accustomed to darkness can begin to see the world in a whole new way.

Before Jesus ascends into Heaven, He calls His followers to "make disciples of all nations."¹³  I would argue that making disciples is not simply an end in itself, but rather a means to an end.  We don't make disciples simply to keep our churches open or to keep a religious movement going; we make disciples for a higher purpose.  To borrow a phrase from my denomination, we are called to "make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world."¹⁴  When Christ tells us that we are the "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world," He is calling us to be agents of positive change in a world that, for many people, has become dark and bland.  As the salt and light of the earth, we are called to participate in God's redemptive work of creating a brighter, zestier world for all people.

The ancient philosopher Plato once told a story about people who are, from birth, imprisoned in a dark cave, forced to watch shadows moving across a wall.  One of the prisoners is freed from his imprisonment, and he is shown the fire and the puppets that are used to create the shadows he had been watching.  Eventually he is taken out of the cave into the light, and he is shown the creatures that were represented by the puppets and the shadows.  Finally he looks upward and sees the sun.  The man is compelled to return to the cave to tell the other prisoners about the light, color, and beauty he as seen in the outside world.  Sadly, nothing he says makes any sense to the people in the cave, for all they are able to understand is their world of shadow puppets.¹⁵

I think that sometimes, in the Church, we do a pretty good job of describing the light but not very good job of shining.  It is not enough to tell people about the light: we have to show it to them.  We can talk until we're blue in the face about the Kingdom of God, the "Good News," God's love, church doctrine, and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, but our words are really nothing but a bunch of "kooky talk" unless we demonstrate what it all means with our lives.  St. Paul poetically writes, "If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."¹⁶  It has been said, "Preach the Gospel, and, if necessary, use words."¹⁷

So if we accept Jesus' call to be the salt and light of the earth and allow our lights to shine, then how might the people who see our good works glorify God?  Jesus lived nearly two thousand years before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, so the source of light in His time was fire, be it the fire of a lamp or the fire of the sun.  Something noteworthy about fire is the fact that it spreads.  We are called to let our light shine, but it is important to remember that we are not source of that light.  Like candles, we can shine because of the flames given to us, and, if we shine brightly, others might get a little too close to us and catch fire themselves.

There are times in our lives when our lights grow dim.  At times like these, the individualistic notions of faith so prevalent in our society fail us, and we must admit that we need the faith, hope, and love of other followers of Christ.  A personal relationship with Jesus Christ is important, but we must not forget that we are all built for community.  When our lights grow dim, we need to let others shine their light into our lives; for, if we draw near to the flames of others, then maybe we will find ourselves ignited anew.

We shine because of the light we have been given, and we love because we have been loved.  This light and this love were never meant to stop with us, for we are called to let our lights shine before other people, so that they might follow our example and shine themselves.  As the salt and light of the world, we work together to poke holes in the darkness and to show the world what it means to be the Kingdom of God.

Amen.


Notes:

1. Matthew 4:23-5:2
2. Matthew 5:3-12 (NRSV)
3. Frederick Dale Bruner.  Matthew, a Commentary: The Christbook, Matthew 1-12.  2004, Eerdmans Publishing Company.  p. 165
4. Matthew 6:1-6 (NRSV)
5. Matthew 6:2-4 (NRSV)
6. Matthew 6:5-7 (NRSV)
7. Matthew 6:16-18 (NRSV)
8. Wiktionary: Hypocrite
9. Matthew 23:27-28
10. Tripp Fuller and Rob Bell.  "Rob Bell Hijacks the Podcast #zesty"  Homebrewed Christianity Podcast, 06/03/13.  (Warning: This podcast episode contains coarse language.)
11. Slavoj Žižek.  "The 'fake' Mandela memorial interpreter said it all."  The Guardian, 12/16/13.
12. http://www.preaching.com/sermons/11563683/
13. Matthew 28:19 (NRSV)
14. http://www.umc.org Emphasis added.
15. Adapted from Plato's Allegory of the Cave
16. 1 Cor 13:1 (NRSV)
17. This quote is commonly attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, though the attribution is disputed.  Emphasis added.

The photograph of the candle was taken by Jon Sullivan and is public domain.