TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREETS
Matthew 5:13-16
One of the funniest movies of all times for me is the movie “Sister Act.” Besides making me laugh, it paints a fascinating tell-tale picture of a church that was inclined to close itself in and isolate itself against the world being challenged to take their faith to the streets as Jesus would do. Let’s listen to a brief scene from the movie—
[View scene from “Sister Act”]
In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus followed the Beatitudes with two symbols of what the disciples were to be: salt and light. Both carry more meaning than we can possibly unpack here this morning, both designate service beyond self, and both are important in human experience—in other words, they’re important in real life. All in all, the symbols of salt and light present the challenge to the church—including our church in Meridian today—to examine our faith and to seek ways in which we can live out our faith in the world, “takin’ it to the streets.” Look with me at Matthew 5, beginning at verse 13—
[Read Matthew 5:13-16, TNIV]
Before we go any further, let’s talk about these symbols. We’ll start with salt. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth.” Of course, the first thing most of us think about relating to salt is that it adds flavor. Most cooks are going to use salt to bring out the flavor of the food they’re cooking. Some of you will add even more salt at the table! It’s a common item in our kitchens and dining rooms. My wife doesn’t have many vices when it comes to food, but give her a bowl of popcorn or a portion of French fries, and she’ll nearly drown them in salt!
Salt is used to purify. I’m wondering if that’s why we put salt pellets in water softeners. When I’ve had sore throats, more than one doctor has recommended a treatment that predates all the expensive medications that we might look to today—they’ve told me to gargle with hot salt water! (I’ll spare you all the demonstration this morning!) And my understanding would be that salt somehow possesses a disinfecting power, cleansing away bacteria that would keep my throat sore and infected.
And while we don’t use it as much now in this way, salt was also used heavily as a preservative for food in a day without refrigeration. One current usage you might grasp relates to the process of curing hams today. There is a fair amount of salt used in the process—ham is thus very high in salt content. Those of you who are told to stay away from salt because of health concerns are discouraged from eating much ham for that very reason.
And taking all of these uses of salt into mind, Jesus is saying that Christians are to bring real life to living—adding flavor to the world. We are to bring purity to the world, and we’re to preserve that which is right and true and good.
Then Jesus used the symbol of light—“You are the light of the world.” Light is a symbol of radiance, of openness, and even of joy. There is nothing secretive when the light gets turned on. Light is a universal religious symbol. In the Old Testament as in the New Testament, it most frequently symbolizes purity as opposed to filth, truth as opposed to error or ignorance, and divine revelation and the presence of God as opposed to the presence of evil or abandonment by God. We might better understand what light symbolizes by thinking of what the opposite of light represents—for darkness presents the presence of evil, with that which is sinister lurking in every dark corner. But light is everything darkness isn’t!
In describing the follower of Jesus as “the light of the world,” Jesus is saying that we are to be an influence for openness and honesty and righteousness in the world. We are to reflect the light of Christ—allowing His light to shine upon the lives of others in our world today, and letting the Lord use our very lives in the process.
While a light is to be seen, light is basically to be of service. We turn on a light so that we can see our way through the darkness. Followers of Jesus are lights in the world, not calling attention to themselves, but pointing the way of God. We obtain our light from the One who is the Light of the world. This visibility and service is expressed by Jesus in two ways—the city on the hill and the candle placed on the lamp-stand. The light dispels darkness simply by being present. And the motive is to illuminate the way of God for others—that by seeing our good works they may turn their attention to the Source of all goodness and thus glorify God.
But for this light to be seen, we must live openly in the midst of the world as disciples of Christ. There is nothing secretive about the Christian commitment or the Christian way of life. This is certainly not a call to monasticism or any modern form of what the monastics were trying to accomplish in isolating themselves away from the world. Instead, Jesus calls us to let our light shine in the darkness—and not to hide that light in any way.
And apparently, by what Jesus said, the way in which followers of Jesus let this light shine is by our “good works”—which seems to me to include everything we are and everything we do that reflects the mind and the will and the goodness of God. It’s seen in how we treat people, the attitudes of our hearts which get reflected in the words that come out of our mouths, how we respond to the needs of others—including whether or not we’re willing to go out of our way to help them, getting our hands dirty in the process! And in this way, we need to be the light of the world—reflecting the light of Christ and “takin’ it to the streets” as we let that light shine in and through our lives! Our light needs to shine where there’s darkness—and I don’t need to tell you that there’s a lot of spiritual darkness out there!
The words of Jesus found in these few verses today define our purpose. Here’s our purpose! And it’s presented well to us by the paraphrase of Scripture called The Message begins these verses—
Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning…You’re here to be light…(Matthew 5:13-14, The Message)
But within this brief passage, a few questions seem to get raised that I want us to address. First, Jesus warned us against losing our saltiness.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. (Matthew 5:13, TNIV)
So, I got to thinking…how can we lose our saltiness?
We can lose our saltiness by losing sight of our purpose. In other words, we can lose the saltiness of our lives by getting side-tracked—and forgetting why the Lord has us where He does! We can get side-tracked by a lot of things—even seemingly good things—but anything that takes our focus off of our original purpose ends up becoming a distraction.
We can lose our saltiness by disobedience to the Lord. It generally starts with disobedience to the Lord in little things, but once the enemy of our souls gets his foot in the door of our lives, one thing always seems to lead to another. My heart has been aching this week over a dear friend of mine from years past who I suppose embodies what Jesus is saying here—a follower of Christ who lost his saltiness by disobedience to the Lord. One thing led to another, and there doesn’t appear to be much salt in this man’s life now—and it’s so sad to me and to the many others who know him and love him.
You see, if Jesus’ disciples are to act as a preservative in the world by conforming to Christ’s Kingdom norms, if they are “called to be a moral disinfectant in a world where moral standards are low, constantly changing, or non-existent…they can discharge this function only if they themselves retain their virtue” (R.V.G. Tasker). Here in the words of Jesus to us today is a strong warning against the danger of compromise and conformity to the world.
I think we can lose our saltiness simply by losing heart and getting discouraged. Scripture seems to back up this concern with the many statements made to individuals to “Take heart! Have courage! Don’t be afraid!” I think it’s terribly human of us to be so susceptible to discouragement—and we all probably face it more than we’d like to acknowledge. But if we give in to discouragement, we are allowing the Enemy of our souls to knock the wind out of our sails as we drift away from a sure confidence and trust in the Lord and in what He is able to do in us and through us—even in spite of ourselves!
Some of you are facing discouragement because the reality of the circumstances of your life is not good! I know that more and more of you are facing in your own homes some serious and unsettling ramifications of our economic crisis. It seems like we’re hearing more of it every day! I know that your concerns are real! And yet, on the authority of God’s Word, I challenge you not to give in to your discouragements, your worries or your fears. God has not forgotten you! He has not forgotten your family! He is still faithful God—regardless of what happens on the job market and regardless of what may become of some of the material things that seem important to you. He has promised never to leave us nor forsake us—and we’re to depend upon Him rather than on our circumstances!
And I certainly believe we can lose our saltiness by becoming self-centered or self-absorbed. Whenever we’re “full of ourselves,” there’s not much “saltiness” in our spiritual lives! When our lives so center around ourselves and our needs and our wants, we lose sight of our purpose of being salt in the world.
And so, however we might lose our saltiness, Jesus is giving us warning here not to cave in to any of these distractions. We’re to keep our saltiness alive and fresh in the world in which we live—so that there is power and influence in our lives and so that our lives make a difference in our world.
And when Jesus said that we “are the light of the world,” He added strong warning for us not to hide our light. For those of us who have been in the church for many years, this verse may take us to a song we learned as children—
Hide it under a bushel? No!
I’m going to let it shine…
And I got to thinking, “How can we hide our light?”
I think we hide our light when we try to privatize our faith, for the work of God in our lives and in our world is not a secret to be kept. We live in a culture in America today that presses us to keep our faith to ourselves—while Jesus has called us to be light-bearers. We dare not deny His call upon our lives and be squeezed into silence—thus hiding our light under a bucket!
Our family has a young friend who is serving today as a volunteer missionary in China. He’s been there a few years now, and is busy trying to learn the language. The Lord has given him a tremendous passion to see the Chinese people come to know Christ in a real and personal way—and I’d encourage you to pray for David as the Lord brings him to your attention. He’s letting his light shine in a very dark corner of the world, where people are put into prison for inviting others to know Jesus as they do. David has to be incredible careful and wise. Even our email communication with him has to be encrypted—not referring directly to Jesus Christ or speaking of the work of the church there. It would put at risk what he and others are trying to accomplish and what is indeed happening in the lives of many Chinese who are finding Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. But make no mistake about it, David’s letting his light shine! He’s put his life at risk for the cause of Christ—and others are being drawn to the Savior whom he serves.
As Christians, we can’t be so withdrawn from our world that others don’t see the light of Christ in our lives! That will not glorify God! And there are those today within the church who would have us all withdraw from the world and so isolate and shelter our families from contact with the world that we lose our voice in it. Jesus is telling us to let our lights shine! And we must! Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a tremendous man of God who lost his life to the Nazis because he refused to hide his light under a bushel, said—
“Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
You see, one of the ways in which we can hide our light is if we cower out of fear. Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood the cost of letting our light shine. Others must see this light—regardless of the price we pay for doing so.
We often think that letting others see our good works is just a matter of demonstrating personal pride in our good works—something which Christ clearly spoke against. But in this passage Jesus seems to be telling us to let others see our good works, for it is through these that His light shine through our lives! But when we dig a bit deeper into the New Testament world, we have to realize that the “good works” done by the followers of Jesus was exactly what led to their persecution. Jesus said, “Do good works anyway!”
Many of you would be familiar with the words of Acts 1:8—where Jesus promised the Holy Spirit to His followers and said that with the power of Holy Spirit working in our lives we would be His “witnesses” in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. In my devotions the other morning I was intrigued to read that the word “witness” actually means “martyr.” The Lord is not using the word “witness” about someone who gets up and gives a testimony. He is saying that a person filled with the Holy Spirit’s power is willing to let his life be slain in order that the life of Christ may be lived through him. He becomes a witness, a testimony of the power of God. The word “witness” means “martyr”—one who is willing to let his very life go for the sake of the Gospel.
Jesus early on had made it clear to His disciples—we aren’t to hide our light under a bushel. We’re to let it shine!
I also think we might hide our light by a personal “brown out.” Do you know what a “brown out” is? It’s when there’s not enough electricity moving through the line to adequately give power to all who want it. Instead of a blackout—where the lights go out altogether—a brownout happens when the lights just go dim. And we can experience a brownout in our Christian lives when we lose contact with the Source of our power—when we drift away from God, when we drift away from His Church, when we drift away from other believers, when we drift away from our daily walk with Him. We can’t have power if we’re not connected to the Source, friends!
And apparently, we can hide our lights by failing to live out His love in our world—by failing to do the “good deeds” which are a chief way by which the world is going to see the Light of Christ through us. And the fear is that others will never see the Light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we as His followers aren’t making enough difference in our corner of the world!
Now clearly, the goal is to bring honor and glory to our Heavenly Father—not to ourselves. We are to bring the Light of Jesus Christ to our world. Anything that we do to bring glory to ourselves is missing the point. And, granted, we’ve got to be constantly asking the question deep within our souls, “Why am I doing this? Am I doing this to bring honor to God or am I doing this to bring glory to myself and make myself look good in the eyes of others?”
I pastored the Bedford, Ohio Church for nearly 11 years. We had some wonderful years there, and the church is alive and well today—it’s actually the church where our daughter Kara and her husband Josh attend and serve. But when I had only been there a year or two, I remember coming to the board with a heartfelt concern. I had sensed it about the Bedford Church when I was pastoring another church on the same district, and, though I had tried to excuse it away, I came to believe that there was a matter of pride that the church as a whole needed to deal with. I felt that the Lord had given me a plan to address that, and what I urged the church to do was to adopt a struggling inner-city ministry in Cleveland which was not far from where we were.
Cleveland Victory Church was both a church and a city mission of sorts. They were located in a rough part of the city, and were involved in feeding the poor and providing a lot of practical helps to people of their community who were in need. In “adopting” Cleveland Victory Church, I urged the Bedford Church to come alongside that church and their pastor to assist in every way we could, but without ever drawing attention to what we were doing. I wanted us to serve, but I wanted us to do it humbly and for the right reasons—so that we were reflecting the light of Christ rather than trying to put a spotlight on ourselves as a church and all the wonderful things we were doing for others.
What was suggested as a one-year commitment to Cleveland Victory Church is still going today—more than 15 years later. It’s been a marvelous partnership! We got involved in helping with their Thursday meal for their community. Our teens went and sorted clothes once a month for their clothing ministry. We remodeled their building and their parsonage. Their pastor and another key family who was committed to their ministry found a refueling fellowship at our church on Wednesday evenings, with opportunities for their kids to be involved in children and teen programming that Cleveland Victory couldn’t offer.
When I left Bedford, their pastor—who had become my dear friend—told me that he probably wouldn’t still be there as pastor if we hadn’t come alongside them and the church as we did. But I also knew that the Bedford Church has been so tremendously blessed as they had together served in such a manner in which they allowed God to be glorified rather than it being an exercise in patting themselves on the back for what they were doing for this little church in the city.
As a church, we believe that God has called us to—
PASSION FOR GOD
COMPASSION FOR PEOPLE
It’s how we’ve defined our mission. And, as we’ve been talking about in recent weeks, that mission gets carried out in WORSHIP, DISCIPLING, EVANGELIZING, AND CARING. Today we’ve endeavored to explore how we carry out our Compassion for Christ in the world—and we do it by SERVING.
Considering the example of Christ, we will, as salt and light, be an influence in our community, serving the needs of people locally and globally.
It’s why we exist, church!
And it’s why we did what we did last evening with Project KIDS…It’s why our church has such a vital role in Meridian Foodbank. It’s why our teens initiated our Backpack Food Ministry to help feed kids on weekends who are sustained throughout the week by school lunches. It’s why our church had a garden for the Food Bank this summer. We’re SERVING.
It’s also why we encourage our people to participate in Work and Witness projects—near and far. It’s why I want to encourage you to participate in our project at Castle Hills Church of the Nazarene on the east side of Boise on October 24th. And it’s why I’m hoping we’ll have a good group of people going to the Tucson, Arizona, near the Mexican Border, to help a congregation that’s trying to minister to people in that context. And it’s why we’re sending a group to Germany next summer to help a church that’s trying to take Christ to the people of their community. By these means we’re SERVING in the name of Christ—and so letting our lights shine.
The possibilities are endless—and go well beyond what we as a church might try to program and organize. And I want to challenge you to let the Lord stretch your heart and mind to seek ways to serve others, and thus let your light shine before them. I got to thinking about those for whose salvation we are praying, and wondering how the Lord might prompt you to serve them, to simply address needs in their life, and, by so doing, shine the light of Jesus in their corner of the world.
Would you do that? Will you commit to being a “servant” of Jesus—who as salt and light is an influence in our community? Will you determine not to lose your saltiness and not to hide your light? Oh, friends, may the love of Jesus shine through our lives as we as individuals and as we as a church give ourselves in service to others!
