2017 02.05 Matthew 5:13-20 13 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. 14 You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 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. 16 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. 17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 1
Gospel Flavor, Gospel Light On the first Monday of the New Year, which was January 2, after the dawn prayer service, which all the pastors had to attend (including me), one of the elders took us out to breakfast. Of course, breakfast here in Korea is not like breakfast in America. There s no toast, eggs, or cereal. Breakfast in Korea is indistinguishable from lunch and dinner. And so breakfast that morning was komtang (beef soup) [SLIDE]. My regular breakfast is just a cup of coffee and yogurt and maybe a slice of bread, so a big bowl of komtang was more substantial than what I m used to. Komtang is a simple dish, isn t it? Just boiled beef and scallions, served with rice and kkakdugi (radish kimchi). I don t mind komtang. It s alright. But it doesn t have much taste. It s kind of bland. Of course, that s why the final ingredient of komtang is one that you add yourself salt. Every table at a komtang restaurant features a small container of salt with a little spoon. You don t need much. Salt is powerful; one spoonful is enough to transform the komtang from dull to delicious. I don t think that Jesus had komtang in mind when he called the disciples the salt of the earth, but salt was just as much an essential ingredient in the cuisine of first century Galilee as it is to Korean cuisine today, including komtang. Salt was not only essential to cooking. In an era long before refrigeration, salt was also a preservative. Salt preserves food [SLIDE]. (It s part of the reason why McDonald s French fries can last for years.) Salting food allowed you to keep extra food around so that it could be eaten later. Having access to food was a constant concern of most people in the ancient world. There were no convenience stores. No GS-25s. No 7-11s. If you could make what food you did have last longer, then that was a great advantage. Beyond flavoring and preserving food, salt was even used in religious rituals. Temple offerings had to be seasoned with salt [SLIDE]: 2
You shall not omit from your grain offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt (Lev. 2:13). For its use as a flavor enhancer and food preserver and for its use in religious ritual, salt was absolutely essential to life in the ancient world. So when Jesus tells the disciples that they are the salt of the earth, he s saying that they are essential. But essential to what? Let s remember where we are in Matthew s Gospel [SLIDE]. Two weeks ago, in chapter four, we heard Jesus begin his ministry by proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven had come near. Then he gathered his disciples. Last week, in chapter five, we heard Jesus begin to preach his inaugural sermon. That sermon began with eight blessings blessings for those who suffer with the world as it is, and blessings for disciples of Jesus Christ who are tasked with upending the world and relieving suffering by showing mercy, by being pure of heart, and by working for peace, even to the point of being ready to suffer for the sake of God s righteousness. All of these actions showing mercy, acting with purity, working for peace are signs of the nearness of the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom has drawn near in the ministry of Jesus, and it is into that ministry that the disciples are commissioned. The disciples are the ones who will carry out the proclamation of the kingdom. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven is not only a prayer but a call to action, a commissioning. The end of Matthew s Gospel contains the Great Commission. There in chapter twenty-eight, the final chapter, the resurrected Jesus commissions the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. But here in chapter five we hear a prelude to the Great Commission. We hear Jesus tell the disciples who they are the salt of the earth. And who they are is shown in what they do. 3
We ve already talked about what salt does [SLIDE]. Salt adds flavor, and so the disciples are to flavor the world with the good news of the approach of God s kingdom. Salt preserves, and so the disciples are to preserve life, especially the lives of those who are most vulnerable in our society the poor, the sick, the outcast, the refugee. This is what Jesus commissions the disciples to do. This is who they are. They are the salt of the earth. But Jesus doesn t leave it there. He wants the disciples to fully understand who they are and what they are to do. So, to reinforce the nature of their identity as his disciples, Jesus then uses another metaphor [SLIDE]. You are the light of the world, he tells them. That phrase might sound familiar. In the Gospel of John, Jesus says this of himself: I am the light of the world (Jn. 8:12). It s one of several I am sayings in John s Gospel. But here in Matthew Jesus tells the disciples that they are the light of the world. What a bold statement that is! What confidence Jesus has in his disciples! It s not only the metaphor of light that shows Jesus confidence in them. His confidence is further shown in his use of the present tense. You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. He doesn t say to them, You will be the light of the world once you ve mastered everything I have to teach you, once you ve matured in faith, once you ve proven yourself worthy of being my disciples. No, You are the light of the world, he tells them. Isn t Jesus making a mistake? Isn t his confidence in his disciples misplaced? Doesn t he know how they will fail him? Later in the Gospel, within the span of a few seconds, Peter will fail him, not once, not twice, but three times, all by himself! The other disciples won t fare any better. They will argue among themselves about who is the greatest. They won t be able to keep their eyes open when Jesus urges them to pray with him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Once he is arrested they will all desert him. How are these foolish, weak, sinful men in any sense the light of the world? 4
Here s how. The light they shine into the world is not their own. The source of their light is not their own moral perfection because they will prove themselves to be far from perfect. The light they shine is the light of Jesus Christ. It is the light of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus began with his ministry and then commissioned the disciples to continue and proclaim. The light they shine is the light of those who show mercy to the poor and forgotten, who are pure of heart in the way they relate to everyone, who work for peace and justice in the face of violence and injustice, and who do all for the sake of God s righteousness, even if it means that they may suffer for it. As it was for the twelve disciples, so it is for us, who are also Christ s disciples. The light we ve been given is meant to shine. It s not meant to be put under a basket, to be covered by our fears and insecurities. We worry so much about not being perfect, about not making a difference because we re just one person, about our past sins that we think disqualify us from serving God and receiving God s love. By worrying about such things we miss out on the good news. The good news is that in Jesus Christ, God has made us residents of the kingdom of heaven, the most precious, the most valuable real estate there is. Even now we dwell in God s eternal city. And as Jesus tells the disciples, a city built on a hill cannot be hid (Mt. 5:14). The idea of the city built on a hill is part of American mythology. One of America s first English settlers (not English setters those are dogs) was a man named Jonathan Winthrop [SLIDE]. He was part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the second major English settlement in the New World. He was a lawyer by training, but while sailing from England to America with his fellow settlers he delivered a sermon that went on to become famous. The reason for the sermon s fame is that Winthrop referred to his fellow settlers and the colony they were to establish as a city upon a hill. The idea was that they were to be a model for all other settlements. The sermon was even titled A Model of Christian Charity. 5
The city on a hill is a light, a beacon to other nations. That is, until very recently, how most Americans understood themselves and their place in the world. It was part of our national mythology. Every nation has its own mythology. Our national myths tell us something about where we came from, who we are, and what our purpose is. Korea has Dangun, America has the city on a hill, although these days it s becoming more like Fortress America. Winthrop adapted Jesus words to his own context, but in the context of Matthew s Gospel, it is the Christian community that is set apart as a city on a hill. That is true of the Christian community today as well. We are called to stand out, to be set apart from the world even as we are set in the world, because it is our mission to witness to the world of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. The city on a hill should not, and cannot be hid. Its light is too precious! In its radiance we see ourselves as God intended. We no longer stumble in the dark looking for ways to define ourselves and to give our lives meaning. In the darkness we grope for meaning, hoping to find it in our jobs, in our good grades, in our possessions, and in our relationships. The light of the kingdom of heaven casts out the darkness. The light brings clarity. In the light of God s grace we see that we are sinners, but sinners who have been forgiven and who have been set free to participate in the kingdom of heaven here on earth! In the light of the kingdom we see that we have been given a mission. That mission is to reflect the light of the kingdom of heaven into the darkness. That means that the church must venture into the darkness. We must go to the places where the glow of God s light needs to be seen and where its warmth needs to be felt. Of course, I mean physical places places where the gospel is absent or under attack but I also mean the metaphorical darkness that we don t have to travel far to encounter. It surrounds us every day. The darkness of loneliness in our neighbor. It is a sad irony of modern life that we can t lift our faces from our phones, 6
which connect us with the entire world, and yet we are ever more disconnected from the human face of our neighbor whom we pass by every day. The darkness in our society of how we fail to take care of our seniors, too many of whom live in poverty. The poverty rate among Korea s elderly is the highest in the developed world [SLIDE]. These figures are from 2011. They show the poverty rate of Koreans by age group. You can see that the rate holds steady between seven to ten percent for every age group under fifty. It then increases to seventeen percent for those 51 to 65 years of age. But the dramatic increase is seen with the oldest group, those 66 to 75 years old, reaching forty-five percent. It may be even higher for those older than 75. Even as an outsider I know that Korean society has changed in recent years. Elderly parents can t rely on their adult children to care for them in their old age. Between these adult children who can t or won t care for them and a government that doesn t sufficiently provide for their welfare, too many of our seniors fall between the cracks and live in poverty. It is into such darkness and many others that the church is called, bearing with it the light of the kingdom of heaven. If we don t venture beyond the walls of the church building, that s like putting the light of the kingdom of heaven under a bushel basket. The light with which we ve been entrusted is meant to shine like a beacon, so that others may see our good works and give glory to God. We forget how precious light is. In our modern world, light is never further away than the flick of a switch. But for most of human history that was not the case. Electric light allows us to spend half our waking hours after sundown. But that s only been the case for a little more than one hundred years. Before that we lived our days according to the rise and fall of the sun. 7
Five years ago there was a major snowstorm in the New York area. I don t know about here, but in America major storms are given a human name. This storm happened to be named Sandy [SLIDE]. It was an unusually destructive storm. At our house we were without electricity for an entire week. This was late October. Not only was it cold, but the sun set by 5:30. We lived in darkness. No TV screen. No computer screen. No light. That experience taught me how precious light is. And that s only electric light. The light of the kingdom of heaven is even more precious. It s a light that overwhelms any and every darkness. As John s Gospel reminds us, The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it (Jn. 1:5). I can t end this sermon without acknowledging verses 17-20. They seem to come out of nowhere. At first glance, they seem in no way connected to what has come before. Why does Jesus move from speaking about the salt of the earth and the light of the world to suddenly talking about the law, and with a final dig at the scribes and Pharisees? The answer, I think, lies in identity. The scribes and Pharisees saw themselves as the keepers of the law, tasked with preserving what God had already done. They couldn t imagine God doing something new, like showing up in the flesh to usher in his kingdom. They turned inward and became fixated on maintaining their own righteousness. Too often the church has fallen into the same temptation. We confine our worship within these walls. We focus on serving ourselves. We lose sight of our mission, which is not inward but directed out toward the world. So, church, listen to the words of Jesus and remember who Jesus has said that you are [SLIDE]. You are the salt of the earth. So flavor the earth with God s goodness and love. You are the light of the world. So into the world s darkness shine the light of the kingdom of heaven. 8