Pass the Salt and Turn on the Light!

Transcription

1 1 Pass the Salt and Turn on the Light! Matthew 5:13-16; October 15, 2017 Salt and Light Stewardship Program, Week 1 By: Rev. Susan L. Genge (in partnership with God!) Prayer: Gracious God, who seasons the world with your light and love, make us bright and flavourful witnesses for you, so that others might be blessed with the delicious taste of your goodness, and brightened with hope and new life. In Jesus name. Amen. If you re a nature lover, and enjoy seeing big animals in the wild, take a drive along highway 60 through Algonquin Park in May, and feast your eyes on the big game right beside the highway. Chances are good that you re going to see a moose or two standing in the ditch licking up the road salt left behind by the previous winter s salt trucks. So great is the moose s enjoyment of that road salt, that you can drive up close and they seldom lift a head to pay attention to you. And if you ever venture into the grasslands of many countries in sub- Saharan Africa, you might come across a local pregnant woman scraping shavings off the ten, twenty or thirty-foot high termite mounds. She s gathering the mineral deposits of salt to supplement her diet in support of her unborn child. Can you imagine living in a world without the benefit of salt? We re surrounded by salt seas on every continent, which both sustain and provide life for us. Scientists tell us that our bodies need a certain amount of salt in order to survive. We ve got to keep it in balance. Thank goodness that salt is plentiful in our world. For can you imagine enjoying a cob of fresh summer corn without some salt sprinkled on it, or a bag of popcorn with no salt in it, or a bowl of soup without salt? How bland and disappointing that would be! Or consider this scenario: you re at an expensive, high-end restaurant for a special occasion, and the chef got so distracted by something else in the kitchen that he forgot to add salt to your entrée. The meal is very attractively presented,

2 2 but after just one bite of it you re so disappointed in its lack of flavour that when the waiter comes back to ask how your meal is, you send it right back to the chef for a new entrée. And you lovers of sweets, can you imagine how cookies and tarts, loafs, pies and certain candies would taste without salt? You never have to worry about that at our church bazaar! When you buy the delicious home-made baking at our November 4 church bazaar and eat your chili in the lunch room, you know that it s going to be seasoned with just the right amount of salt. It s one of the reasons why you keep coming back to the bazaar bake table and lunch room each year. God put seasoning in the world for a good reason, to be enjoyed and shared! Similarly, God put light in the world to push back the darkness. When you enter a dark building at night, the first thing you do upon entering the room is to turn on the light, so that you can see where you are going. You don t want to trip and fall and hurt yourself. Light gives direction. Light warms, glows, uplifts, encourages and satisfies. We need light in order to learn, work, serve and play. Every living thing on earth needs light in order to survive and thrive. The seed starts out in the darkness of the earth or the womb, but as it is transformed it grows, pushes and reaches for the light. Then it shoots up and accomplishes the purpose for which it is created. Jesus uses the universal images of salt and light to describe, encourage and challenge his followers. It s part of the Sermon on the Mount that he preached one day on a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee. He paid his followers a couple of wonderful compliments when he said, You are the salt of the earth You are the light of the world. But then he added a couple of caveats, If you ve lost your saltiness, if you re bland and tasteless, what good is that in the world? And if you hide your inner light from others, God s light, how does that help God s cause?

3 3 There are times when many of us are tempted to lose our saltiness and hide our light, like when we re undergoing criticism or ridicule for practicing or expressing our faith and opinion. Has the pressure of persecution ever got to you? Perhaps there are family members, relatives, neighbors or co-workers in your life who belittle you with caustic remarks about religion, the church or God. Maybe they have said, You go to church? If that is your experience, have you felt like hiding your light under a bucket so that you won t be singled out for further ridicule? Have you gone silent rather than speaking up, for fear of words failing you or in fear of entering into conflict? Are you bothered by this thought, Maybe they ll exclude me from future gatherings if I truly speak my mind. Jesus understands the pressure of persecution. The last beatitude-blessing he bestowed upon his followers in this sermon was, God blesses you when you are mocked and persecuted and lied about because you are my followers and remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted too. Then right after that he says, But don t give in to the pressure of persecution. Don t lose your saltiness, and don t hide your light, for if you do, you re denying your role as my followers. Your purpose is to bring zest to life, to help right the wrongs, and to shine my light to dispel the world s darkness...like my friend recently did. She was in a restaurant with a group of friends, when two men came in and took seats near them. Very soon, one man began making disparaging remarks about Jews to the other man. Everyone nearby could hear his racist remarks. My salty, light-filled friend was filled with anger at the man. She got up from her seat, went over to the two men, and calmly but firmly told the man to stop making disparaging remarks about Jews. She told the men that one of her relatives was a Jew, and that he was one of the sweetest, kindest people who ever walked the face of the earth. The man was gruff and resentful and brushed her off, but he was silenced. He stopped his disparaging remarks about Jews.

4 4 That s the kind of saltiness Christ calls up in us, the kind which stands up against injustice and aims to right wrongs. Salty, light-filled Christians don t tolerate racism, religious intolerance, sexism, elitism or any other ism, because following and obeying Jesus even under hardship gives us identity and purpose. The Chinese city of Chongqing is a sight to see at night. This city of 34 million people shines, glows and is lit up more brightly than most any other city in the world. The buildings on the hills above the Yangtze River are illuminated with colourful, flashing lights which change hue before our eyes. Dinner cruise tour boats going up and down the river at Chongqing are illuminated with all kinds of colourful lights. You can hardly take your eyes off them. This whole city shouts, Look at me! Notice me! See me shine and glow! The city of Chongqing exemplifies what Jesus calls us to do. He says, A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. When you turn on a lamp, you don t hide it under a pail. You put it on the table, so that it illuminates the whole house so let your light shine before others, so that they can see your good works and glorify God. The parents and children of our church are doing a really good job of this. A few weeks ago a parent said that she and her husband give their children a weekly allowance. These are the instructions about what they are to do with that money- they may save one third of it, spend one third of it, and donate one third of it to a charitable cause. The six-year-old girl in that family gets a loonie a week. When the mother didn t have change for a toonie, she gave her daughter the toonie. The next day there was a school fundraiser: buy a jumbo freezie for a loonie, and part of your purchase goes to the school fundraiser. The six-year-old Kingsview girl had her toonie with her so that she could buy a jumbo freezie and get back a loonie. When the little girl saw that her school friend didn t have money to buy a freezie, our Kingsview girl bought her friend a freezie too.

5 5 The next morning, when she was about to leave for school, the six-year-old came downstairs with all her allowance money. When her mother asked her what she was going to do with it, she said that she was going to take it all to school to share. A six-year-old Kingsview boy did a similar thing. He d been saving his allowance for a long time and had collected twenty loonies. When he went to the store, his mother asked him what he would like to buy with his twenty dollars. He selected something for himself and then said that he wanted to buy something for his little brother too. Salty, light-filled Christians come in all ages, shapes and sizes. Their generosity to others often inspires us. They freely donate their allowance money from their sticky little hands without counting the cost, so that others can enjoy and benefit from it. For in giving to others, in sharing, they know a deep sense of joy. They delight God s heart. All of you, our church family, share in so many wonderful ways too. We give our money to the work of our church and to the Mission and Service Fund. We buy and send cards and flowers to cheer each other. We make phone calls and visits to each other in homes and hospitals, to comfort, console and encourage. We financially support our elevator restoration project. We give our time and talent in serving as group and committee and church council members, in serving as choir members, projection system volunteers, ushers and greeters, bulletin folders, and UCW and Men s Club members and Sunday School teachers. We give our time and talent in serving at the Hillsdale Sunday worship services, at St. Vincent s Kitchen, Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity. and in the latest outreach initiative, the Bridge to a New Home organization for refugee sponsorship.

6 6 In less than a year, through our donations and the donations of many others in our area, representatives from our church and the other four churches in the Bridge to a New Home organization have brought two Christian families from overseas refugee camps to Canada. The first refugee is Sut Thang, who fled from persecution in his home country of Myanmar. Some of you met him at a recent men s breakfast meeting. He is now safely settled into a shared home in North Oshawa and attends ESL classes. The second family is a single Eritrean mother and her four children, who fled persecution in Eritrea, made it to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, and arrived in Oshawa on August 10 this year. Through Bridge to a New Home, the mother Frweyni and her children Jirom (13), Frtuna (11), Tmnit (6) and Samrawit Sammy, (4) are now safely homed and schooled in South Oshawa. Their pictures are on the screens before you. So many ways to shine for Christ in the world God s light is all around us, calling us forward, warming us, illuminating us, beckoning us into God s reign. God s seasoning is deep within us, calling us to flavour the world with justice and mercy, compassion, grace and generosity. So would you please pass the salt, and turn on the light? Amen.