WHat a Man Can Releive
4. We Are Salt and Light to the World matthew 5:13-16 :
September 11, 1966 ~ Dyer
; 1F — Bebawn

js le + lone sr i

Mte—one—evening ee eek C ris 1 when

of+—peotle exeer ; tocs\ eee Y : ast ing..for

some late News aie nstead hagp 4pon a discussion prog sponsored
/ abserbed
by the Church Fedération of Chi od \atter I recovered f Sheek

Sehweppe

in bed, was briefly captivated by the nature of whAt was being said.) rr,
a rep. et the Ch. /Fed. \ /
semroppe was interview, a ministdr, The Rev. Ben ichardson, who I

leamned=had—quify
Institutional church .\ He was not a bitter man, just forthright and absolut®

candid, and he was saying some very provocative and sometimes embarrasing

things. \ He had quit the institutional church because, as he saw it,

neither the church nor the vast majority of individual church members were

the slightest bit

interested in taking the New Testament seriously |\ He felt
and I don't think we can argue with him, that the New Testament is very

clear in defining the wle of the church in the world.\ He felt, and again

he read correctly, that the New Testament clearly defines the ethical

—__—_..

of Nazareth loved men, all men - enought to lay down his life for them.

He noted that the themes of love, service and sacrifice completely

.

dominate the New Testament : \that time after time, in parable after parable,
in the letters of Paul and Pastoral Epistles, The New Testament is pro-

claiming that Christian men are called to be loving, serving and sacrificig

men,\ Mr, Richardson simply could not see this happening within the church

o@ in the lives of individual Christians because of their church memebrship

To be sure, he saw it happening :\ne saw men loving and serving and

sacrificing and some even dying on behalf of other men: but these people

were affiliated with the Department of Public Welfare, or hospital employes

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or Peage Corps volumteers, poverty workers, members of the NAACP: |not
particularly Christians: not in any way related to the ongoing program

of any church. \ie noted that the church hasxand iy been and is involved

in some of things, at least in name, \put he struck home by ada@kag pointing

out the great gap between what a denomination does with its mission money

and how the people in the pew feel about it.\ He illustrated his argument
by noting the recent dismissal of a prominent clergyman who had merely
suggested in a serman that open naw ts suburbia is a vital Christian
concern, and that the Christmas fashion show - to which the women of his
congregation were giving their xaimayx minds, bodies, time and money was not.

Enough for Mr, Richardson.) He quit and I disagree with him for that

because I happen to beleive the church of Jesus Christ, regardless of how

petty and shallow it becomes, is still the vehicle through which God acts

and speaks in the world, | I wish he had not quit because the church needs

him and his thinicing.| The church needs the witness of men like him: men

who are willing to be publically honest about the church and the NEW Test.

Of @mrse, in saying this I am lining up behind Mr, Richardson, saying

to do the things the New Testament so obviously would have it do.\I am

saying that SHim Christians by the millions are simply unwilling to be

the kind of men and women Jesus Chtist has so obviously called them to be.

The particular proble
12 volves

inveiving much

I am addressing is
a

the reluctance of tm® conXemporary churchmen to

——

startign point in/Gal§iea, and an arrival ata

Jesus Crist called men to be a certain kind of men:| if you will he

called them into a new community, a relationship with him and each other

that would in fact make them new al oe called them to trust him and

w heels

page 3.

thei go out into the world and be loving, serving and sacrificing men.|Thig

—.

he told them was the very nature of the Kingdom of God. \Becauseot what

they would be, the Kingdom would be present whereever they went doing

these things.) Through them the world would know that something new was
eppenings |sisie lives would herald the Good News that in Jesus Christ

the Kingdom of God had been established on earth, |That is the starting
point, and now the shift.

The Cfurch today calls men to it, not to be or do any thing. \ It calis

be G@ comin Ye oven
men rather, to join: to fill a pew, to give money, to participate in y
ay Ctclesgial ice ( siae oo —————
@ program} but notto be anything in particular. | It asks them to join on

the basis of intellectual assent :| tt says we believet this and this and

this. [ts you agree with this andthis andthis you are qualified to be a
member - so jump on board.

In the beginning men beleived in Jesus Christ by being a certain
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kind of men. | Today, men can beleive in Jesus Christ by giving casual

assent to a list of theological assertions and being absolutley nothing.

Of course, this new Cnristianity is more confortable :\ to be 2 part of the

church today doesn't have to make any difference in the waya man thinks

and lkves.|It certainly doesn't usually prompt him to any great acts of

—

sacrificial tove. \In fact, we make it as easy as poseible.\There ls a

Sinful note of pride running through the church establishment in America

that says in effect: ("We ‘re not different: you don't have to be a thing

to be a part of us ‘ AP a7 TL € nrepenAich

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It is /uifortunazye that this\is necessary, fer it se ms to me that our
attention/is callga to the problem\by the New Testament i pale [inten

again to verses 13-16 of the fifth chapter of Maathew:

page 4.

"You are the salt of the earth: but if salt has lost its taste, how shall
its saltness berestored? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown
out and trodden under foot by men. Yoiu are the light of the world. A

city set oin a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and pe ae
under a bushel, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house, Let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give

glory to your father who is in heaven."

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ehis—panticuler—passage ts _aprt—ofthe—sermen_on_the mount, Ft-was

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spoken by our Lord quite early in his ministry - that—ie—importast.
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These—words werespokento—the—diseiptes long before the crucifixion and
disc: p\&*

the resurrection - long before they had any opportunity to formulate a

working Christian theology | Notice also, that these words, part of the Serm

on the Mount were addressed directly to the disciples. | Not to the great

crowd that had followed Jesus up the hill, but to the specifiw twelve men

men he had called to diseipleship,| Finally, notiwve that the form of this

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passage is declarative and exhortative.

He did not say: \'Gentlemen, I

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genuinely wish you would become the salt of the earth and the light of the'

world. I beg you to do this for mex."/Rather he declared, in a kingly

manner: ("You ARE the salt of the eart and the light of the world.")

——=

He had taken the initiative in the first place by calling them | They

— ‘

had not volunteered for discipleship, - he called them tomtee | Ana now he

was "“ordaining"them, if you ni11: | bestwoing on them the office of being

salt and Lignt/\ They had little to say about it. \The only option open to
them was to be good of bad salt, bright or hidden light.

I have the feeling they knew immediatley the kind of life he was

calling them to! Few element s were more important to them andtheir-eeounty
men than salt. \'Salt was valuable enought to be taxed by Rone ,pndacuick
1 at—any Biblical Dietionary will _shew+hat—its uses—were—many—and

Gumeed.\It was the only effective preservative:~thismade it absolutley

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essential to the common welfare \ tt was used as an additive to food - but

only by the very wealthy.

The tenple priests used a saline solution to cleanse new-born infants and
sacied

at other points in the ritual of-¢me—tempte.\When it losts its savorm salt

was, in fact, used in road building to provide a hard and porous surface.

The importance of light need not even be explained except to say that

to indicate thw Divine coming into the darkness of human history.

——$_____

Salt and light have many things in common :\ bo th are essential to life:

both werecxtremely important in the first century.\ Both salt and light are

active energies that are good only when they are applied.\Salt is of

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little value by itseif .\rt becoes truly salt when it is applied _to food

or to a woufjd or whatever.\Light, by itself, is nothing but the absence

of darkness. \It becomes something useful only when it is illuminating

an object: casing changes in the environment—to—meke—yicual peresmton

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passibierormere—piessing—\ Both salt and light cause changes whereever

they are brought into play :\ they are active ehergies that change whatever

they touch,| Simply _- salt and light are worthless unless they are. acting
like salt and light.

One final observation, and this may be the frost important of all

for us.| The disciples were callled salt and light apart fomm anything they

had done and before they beleived in Jesus Christ in any intellectual

sense .\This was before Peter had proclaimed, ina moment of revelation :

("You are the Christm the Son of the Living Goa.") 4s I mentioned earlier

—___— - _

this occurred long before the crucicifion and resurerection. \It is fair to

say that the disciples couldn't possibly have articulated 4 sound Christolg

at this point becavse they didn't know who he was .\ They found themselves

being used ~- in a stance of radical discipleship without much more that

a conviction that he was right and good: a deep loyalty to himas a person.

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Now,—what does this say tothe-church_of Jesus—Christ—in—1966,—and
te—you-smictne xstnetvitust-chetetianss\ says first that the total

reasonfof being of the church is not to sell a particular set of ideas

about God: \it is not to go out and comvince people to join an_institution:

it is simply to be the sneer te be the kind of radical community that

acts in and on its environment like salt and Light. |This is the crisis they

for the church today has eloquently proven its unwillingness to be this kid

of community \ rt doesn't want to be the promoter of change in any shape

=

or form\ rt doesn't want to get its hands dirty in the stuff of life.
It sees no relationship between itself and the way people order themselves

politically. \[t absolutley refuses tt feel personally and pwefoindly

responsible for the slum - the victim of prejudice - even the lonely and
depressed among its own number .\ Tt is an instiution that has found the

formula to success xaxba in staying as far away as possible from the

social and personal ethis of the New Testament, \an instituiton that

therefore spend far too much of its time and energy and money adorning

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itself and far to little doing the work essential to its being the church.
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Simultaeneously it finds itself in a world that refuses to take it very

seriously :\a world that is weary of piuos talk and demands pious lives,

Increasingly it is like salt that has lost its savor:\ Like a beautiful

bright light hid under a2 bushel.

————

Clearly the necd_ is great for much rethinking and retooling in the
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church, and a good starting point is bo ask: \in what way are we acting

like the salt of the earth and the light of the worla?"\T0 ask that

question in integrity is to acknowledge that the church is only the church

when . loving, serving, sacrificing and dying if need be on behalf
of men. — . -_

To merely ask the question is to acknowledge that the word "mission" is

not that benevolent work to which we give whatever money is left over

after we've paid all the bills, but instead the very reason there is a

church and we are part of it.

—_ —-

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To ask that question is to acknowledge that the corporate attention of the

church must always and forever be directed outward to those who need to

be loved and served and sacrificed for..

The title of this sermon is itself a declarafiion: We axe emer Balt

——— —_—_—

and light to the world. "\ This I beleive .\¥ou and I are the salt of the

earth and the light of the i are here:\we are part of the church

. Freheo
of Jesus Christ - for reasons as vary ing and unsound as were Peter's

and John's and Andrew's at that point.\ More than likely we wwre raised

—

in the churte; [perhaps we like the people or enjoy the sermons :\ maybe it's

just a habit with us.| Nevertheless we are here and the declaration of

—

Christ applies directly _to us -\xe makes us salt and light to the world,

We are not called to be theologians: | don't think it matters , in any

ultimate sense, whether or not we can articulate our personal beleifs

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regarding providence. \In fact, if We are honest, everyone of us will admit

to doubt: to points of theological disagreement or non comprehension!

riot te r id ————T

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But we are here and the call of Jesus Christ is toa total | ‘life of sae”

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being levine, serving sacrificing disciples.

Like the disciples I beleive you and I have had nothing to say about

our being salt and Light: | the only deciding left for us is what kind of

salt and light will we be .\ The burden of decision is here left on_every

person who finds himself in the church of Jesus Christ,| 1 have one life

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to live: what ss of life will it be. |Jesus CHrist has placed a claim on

me: + \he has fola’ “tT [ am the salt of the earth and the light of the world: :\put

will I be like active effective seit} |wina I be like that bright light

on a stand illuminating all in the house? \rt is no easy decision: the life

of commitment is no easy lite ;\ to be like active salt and bright light is

to be willing to do difficult things: to make great sacrifices: to give

of oneself ang eS \to live a life through which the redeeming love

of God is at wove in the world.