Year A, Epiphany 5
St. John’s had their stained glass
windows restored recently. I wish I was
able to see them before so I would have a better appreciation for the change
that occurred. I bet it was amazing to
see them after they were restored. The
light must have shined so much more brightly.
One person told me that the window above the altar was referred to as
“the hidden cross” because no one could even tell it was a cross! I am so grateful for the fact that I can see
it so clearly now.
Our reading from the Gospel is part
of the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount can be found in both
the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke.
However, in Luke, it is called “The Sermon on the Plain.” That just does not have the same ring to
it. These two sermons have some
similarities, but many differences as well.
In Matthew’s Gospel (the one we heard today) the Sermon on the Mount
happens right at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. He has just chosen his disciples and started
curing the sick and proclaiming the good news.
In the previous chapter, Matthew tells us that Jesus’ fame began to
spread and that crowds began to follow him.
He was the newest thing. He was a miracle worker who preached and
shared good news. So he chose this time,
when all the crowds were following him to sit down and do some teaching. The beginning of chapter 5 says that , “
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his
disciples came to him.” A rabbi always
sat to teach, so this act of sitting was a sign to all who were around that he
was about to teach them.
He
began with the blessings: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who
mourn, for they will be comforted…” He
continued like that for several lines, providing blessing to the people in the
crowds, to the people who really needed to be blessed, needed to be loved. These were the people who thought that God
had forgotten them. He was reminding
them that they were loved by God. That was the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
Our reading from today continues with, “You are the salt of the earth;
but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?” “You are the light of the world…No one after
lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on a lampstand, and it
gives light to all in the house…” It’s
an interesting transition from the Beatitudes (the blessings). We are still on
the mount. Jesus is still teaching, but
the tone has changed somehow. It seems to me that things just got a little
more personal, at least it seems that way with the pronoun you. “You are the salt of the earth…You are the
light of the world…” It is both
intensely personal and communal at the same time.
What does it mean to be salt of the
earth? Usually when you hear that
phrase, you hear it in reference to another person: “So and so is a great
guy….salt of the earth.” Apparently that
phrase comes from this biblical passage.
However, that was not quite what Jesus was talking about. In Biblical times, salt had several important
uses.
They
did not have gas or electric ovens like we have to day. They didn’t even use wood because it was hard
to come by. The stuff that was very
abundant was camel or donkey dung. This
could be used as fuel, but only if you were able to mix salt with it. A slab of salt was placed at the base of the
oven and the lovely salted dung patty was put right on top of the slab. Salt is
essentially the catalyst that causes the dung to burn. However, eventually the
salt slab loses its catalytic ability and becomes useless. Salt is
critical in that it creates the reaction needed to have the fire, but when it
sapped and can no longer create a spark, it becomes useless.*
Another way to look at salt is less
smelly. It is what seasons our
food. It makes whatever we are eating a
little tastier. It can add zest to an
otherwise bland meal. If salt is not
your thing, think of your favorite herb or spice. For me it would be cilantro. I think that just about anything tastes
better with cilantro. What Jesus is
telling his followers, his disciples is that they are zest of the earth. They are the spark that creates the
fire. Those are some pretty important
functions. They are not just descriptions.
They are more like vocations…Christian vocations.
This
zest, this spark cannot be for us alone.
They are not even just for our family or our social circle. They are for the earth…for the world. “You are the salt of the earth…You are the
light of the world.” You see, it is both
personal and communal. Some people say
that Christians are boring. If that is
so, then that is tragic because Jesus wants us to be zest. Jesus wants us to be the spark that creates
the fire. Does that sound boring to any
of you?
When Jesus talks about light, he
says, “You are the light of the world. No one after lighting a lamp puts it
under a bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to the whole
house.” When we think of lamps, we think
of something with a cord, a light bulb and hopefully a lampshade. Why would anyone put a lamp under a basket? But in the 1st century, a lamp was
a sauceboat filled with oil, with a flame floating in it. Once you lit the flame, you really did not
want it to go out—no matches.
Consequently when people left they would remove the lamp from the stand
and put a basket over it to keep the flame from going out. The basket protected the flame.
That makes pretty good
sense. Why would Jesus tell people to
keep the flame unprotected when he knew what a pain it was to light it? Have
you ever been in place that was completely dark, no street lights, no ambient
light, you could not even see your hand it front of you? That was how it was in
the 1st century. At night,
the only light was from those candles in people’s homes. Imagine how much of a difference even one
light would make in a pitch black environment. It would make all the
difference. Jesus was not thinking about the people who might have to go to the
trouble of lighting the lamp; he was thinking of all those people wandering in
the darkness, desperate for just one point of light. We are not the light for
those other people under the bushel basket with us.
We are the light for the world, a world that is so often lost in
darkness. People need to see the light and we have take
the chance that it might get a little windy.
Sometimes, churches get pretty
comfortable staying under the bushel basket.
It’s safe there. We don’t need to
worry about the light going out and then having go through all the work of
relighting it. But the problem is….then
no one sees the light. It’s like when
the stained glass windows were all grimy.
No one even knew there was a cross there. What’s the point of having cross if you can’t
see it? What’s the point of having a
light that only some people can see?
When I was first here, I was telling
someone how I was terrified of leaving a candle lit and having the church burn
down on my watch. The person replied, “Hey, it’s happened before. We can always rebuild.” While I am still a huge proponent of fire
safety, I think that’s a great attitude.
That is an attitude that will allow us to get out from under the bushel
basket. St. John’s needs to be
seen. We need to be a witness to the
community and to the world. We need to
be zesty and sometimes risky. But guess
what, God’s not going to let us do it alone.
He will support us. We also have a phenomenal history of getting a
little beat up, but then rising from the ashes.
Let’s topple over the bushel basket.
It’s time for the light of St. John’s to shine. It’s time for each one of you to shine.
*Information from this paragraph came from: http://liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdA020914/theword_cultural.html
*Information from this paragraph came from: http://liturgy.slu.edu/5OrdA020914/theword_cultural.html
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