What Are We?

[The following is the manuscript of my sermon delivered on the 8th of August, 2014, at "the little white church" in Blowing Rock, NC during our weekend retreat at the Blowing Rock Conference Center.]

We’ve come onto this mountain this weekend as a retreat, a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of normal life for a few days and maybe get a little closer to our God.  This idea of getting closer to God by going onto a mountain top is nothing new.  Our Old Testament is filled with accounts and stories of people doing just that, and of altars and shrines and temples being built on “the high places”.  Even Jesus often went into the mountains when He wanted to spend a little personal time with His Father.  Perhaps one of His more better known sermons was delivered on a mountainside, according to the Gospel account of Matthew (although it is very similar to a sermon Luke reports that Jesus delivered on a plain).

This evening, while we are here on this mountainside, I’d like to examine part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Hear the words of our Lord Jesus that Matthew saved for us in his Gospel, chapter 5, verses 13 through 16…

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned?  It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. 

14 “You are the light of the world.  A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

-- Matthew 5:13-16 (NKJV)

Let us pray...  Father, we’ve come to this mountain to try to get a little closer to You.  We know this is not necessary, because You are already in our hearts.  But it does help us to meditate more on Your word when we escape for a time from the busyness of life.  Lord God, please open our ears to hear Your word, our hearts to receive Your message.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus we pray.  Amen.

A candidate for church membership was asked, “What part of the Bible do you like best?”  He responded, “I like the New Testament best.”  Then he was asked, “What book in the New Testament is your favorite?”  He answered, “The Book of the Parables”.  Then they asked him to relate one of the parables to the membership committee.  A bit uncertain of himself, he began…

“Once upon a time a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves; and the thorns grew up and choked the man.  And he went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave that man a thousand talents of silver, and a hundred changes of raiment.  And he got in his chariot and drove furiously, and as he was driving under a big tree, his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging there!  And he hung there many days and many nights.  The ravens brought him food to eat and water to drink.  And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife Delilah came along and cut off his hair, and he fell on stoney ground.  And it began to rain, and rained forty days and forty nights.  And he hid himself in a cave.  Later he went on and met a man who said, ‘Come in and take supper with me.’  But he said, ‘I can’t come in, for I have married a wife.’  And the man went out into the highways and hedges and compelled him to come in!  He then came to Jerusalem, and saw Queen Jezebel sitting high and lifted up in a window of the wall.  When she saw him she laughed, and he said, ‘Throw her down out of there.’, and they threw her down.  And he said, ‘Throw her down again.’, and they threw her down seventy times seven.  And the fragments which they picked up filled twelve baskets full!  NOW, whose wife will she be in the day of the Judgement?”

The membership committee agreed that this was indeed a knowledgeable candidate and approved his application.

OK, so I just had to tell that amusingly convoluted story even though it has little to do with our message tonight.  But as funny as it seems, that tale illustrates a sad and sobering truth: Americans today are effectively Biblically illiterate.  According to a Gallop poll a number of years back, only 4 in 10 Americans knew who delivered the Sermon on the Mount, which does tie in with our message.  And as our little story indicates, many Christians may not know the Bible as well as they think they do.  We won’t dwell on that sad statistic, but just in case anyone is wondering, Jesus delivered what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus says we are the salt of the earth.  Salt: I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I could get by too long without salt.  I salt everything, almost everything, usually without tasting first.  Some processed foods and most oriental food has enough salt thrown in that I don’t need to add more.  But I can’t even contemplate eating potatoes without salt (and pepper, but Jesus never compared us to pepper so we won’t talk about that).  My daughter, on the other hand, hardly salts anything.  She has this little bitty salt shaker in her kitchen, I have a couple fairly large ones and the box of salt nearby.

We might think of salt as just some inexpensive seasoning for our food, something to throw over our shoulder if we knock the shaker over.  But salt was considered very important in Bible times.  In fact, it had a place of honor in many religious observations and rituals.  For instance, in Exodus chapter 30 verses 34 and 35 we read…

34 And the Lord said to Moses: “Take sweet spices, stacte and onycha and galbanum, and pure frankincense with these sweet spices; there shall be equal amounts of each. 35 You shall make of these an incense, a compound according to the art of the perfumer, salted, pure, and holy.

-- Exodus 30:34-35  (NKJV)

And in Leviticus chapter 2 verse 13, salt is a required ingredient…

13 And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt; you shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

-- Leviticus 2:13  (NKJV)

So I think it’s pretty safe to say that salt was as important in Biblical times as it is to me today, if not more so.  So when Jesus says we are the salt of the earth, He must think us pretty important to the world.  Now we need to keep in mind that Jesus was speaking directly to his disciples in this sermon.  But aren’t we also His disciples, just removed in time a little?  A disciple, at its core, is simply a follower, one who follows to learn and to serve.  So yes, He was also talking directly to us, to you and I, when He spoke these words.

But then He immediately cautions us with a question:  What good is salt if it loses its flavor?  I know that salt can go stale enough that it no longer has that salty flavor, although that never happens around my house.  What do you do when that happens?  Can you add salt to stale salt to make it salty again?  Jesus says it’s good for nothing but to be walked on, to be used on a path perhaps.

Since He’s talking to us, comparing us to that holy and important seasoning, we need to figure out how we might become so stale that we’re no longer fit for anything but to be paving material.  Have you ever had a season in your life when your zeal for our Lord wasn’t what it used to be?  Or maybe you’ve wrestled with tithing or helping others or doing good works.  Now we know that none of those will buy us salvation - only our belief and faith in Christ can do that.  But in chapter 2 verses 14 through 17 of his book, James tells us that faith without works is dead.  So could we say that if our faith is dead, it is probably too stale to be good for anything?

I don’t think any of us here are at risk of becoming stale.  Otherwise we wouldn’t be here this evening.  But we need to make sure we keep our faith fresh and flavorful!  We can do that by spending more time with Jesus, in prayer and by reading and studying His life and His words.  We can do as much as we financially, physically, and emotionally can to help others, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the prisoners.  And if you’re wondering about that reference, go back and read Matthew 25 verses 31 through 46.

Jesus goes on to say we are the light of the world.  Now that is high praise indeed.  Do you remember one of the ways Jesus described Himself?  From the 8th chapter of the Gospel according to the Apostle John, verse 12…

12 Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

-- John 8:12  (NKJV)

Jesus is the Light of the world, yet He calls us by that same name.  We are the light now.  He has gone to be with the Father, but the light has not gone out from the world.  We are that light.  And just as a city that is set on a hillside cannot be hidden from view, the light of the entire world should certainly not be hidden.  It should not be closed off in some small container, but allowed to cast its beams throughout the area so that all can see.

A number of politicians over the years have declared America to be that city on the hill Jesus refers to.  Ronald Reagan is perhaps the most widely recognized for referring to America as a “shining city on a hill”.  The idea is that we, as a nation, offer a beacon of hope to the entire world.  Hope for a better life, hope for a better tomorrow, hope for themselves and their families.  While there is a good bit of truth to that, maybe not as much today as when Reagan was President, we all know that our only hope is in Jesus, the true Light of the world.

But in this part of His sermon, Jesus is handing this responsibility over to us, His disciples.  We are to help others find that true hope, we are to show them the beacon of Jesus.  The Apostle John may have described this role best, in the opening chapter of his Gospel, verses 6 through 9…

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

-- John 1:6-9  (NKJV)

As the light of the world, we are to bear witness to the true Light of the world, to Jesus.  Just as the moon reflects the light of the sun, we should reflect the Light of the Son.

Back to the last part of our sermon text, where does Jesus say we should shine our light?  Before men.  Where are men?  In the world.  Why should we shine our light in the world?  So that others might take notice of our good works.  Oh, OK, then Jesus wants us to shine our light so others can see all our good works and think what great folks we are, right?  Wrong!  We are to do so to glorify God.  In all we do, we must make sure all the glory goes to the Father, not to us.  By humble service, by selfless acts, by not caring about receiving any rewards or praise, we glorify God before men.  We need to shine our light for all the world to see.  Let them see the glory of God.

You are the salt of the earth.  You are the light of the world.

Be flavorful and shine on.

Amen.

Let us pray…    Dearest Lord Jesus, we know that You love us so much that You were willing to take a beating and die for us, to take all of our sins upon Yourself and carry them to the grave for us, to defeat death so that we might live forever with You.  And now, Lord, we see that You think us as important and even holy as salt, so very important in God’s great plan that You have given us the role You once held Yourself: as a light to the world.  Jesus, please help us reflect Your light into a dark world.  Help us remain flavorful and zealous in our faith.  Help us constantly and courageously stand as witnesses to You so that we might serve to glorify God our Father.  Christ Jesus, in Your beautiful name we pray.  Amen.