Salt & Light

Matthew 5:13-20

What an ordinary image Jesus gives us in this passage from Matthew! How very different to the way we describe others and hand out accolades to sportsman, movie stars, politicians and icons. they are rarely described in such ordinary, material terms.

Salt and light. Everyday stuff we take for granted. Salt is in almost everything we eat, it is in the sea, it is in our sweat, it is so passé and  everyday. Light makes it possible for us to move around without knocking into things, separates the night from the day, gives vision in the dark and is just there. We dont think about it. We don't make a big thing about it. We walk into a room and flick the switch or pull back the curtains and there it is. 

In the times we find ourselves in,  many questions are raised as to how we are to live and whether our living does make a difference. In a world of noise, bravado, bigness and exaggerated success we may find ourselves being belittled for our smallness, our littleness, our seeming powerlessness. People are playing loose with the truth, with facts and with the lives of others in order to protect their own positions or to build or bolster their own egos. People are denying their values and their cultural history for short term gains and accolades. Governments throughout the world, as well as business people of all types, are selling their soul to maintain power, markets and investors. Yes, the obvious example is the President of the United States, but ours and other governments are watching what they say and how they respond so that they too do not become the object of the bully.

Bullying takes many forms and not simply reserved for the one on one relationship. Nations bully nations, politicians bully other world leaders and the use of power in such a way not only fractures unity but demeans those who are the perpetrators of such bullying. Any acquiescence or failure to call out such acts makes us partners in the crime. It is in these moments that we are called on to be the salt and light, even at the risk of our own wellbeing and lives. The greatest evil is not that evil is done but that people stand on the sidelines watching without moving to intervene. Spectators who could change the situation by getting involved but don't. Again in the world of the smart phone where every person is a video camera operator, people make conscious decisions to video atrocities rather than stepping in to stop the injustice. A quick look at the tv news reminds us of this. A picture may speak a thousand words but an intervention saves lives.

Light and salt are ordinary images, couldn't Jesus come up with something sexier and more exciting? Why light and salt?

Because being for the mystical transcendent in this life is indeed ordinary and as essential as salt and light. We no longer need to strive to live sin free lives or to be saints of perfection and immaculate conception. We are called simply to live seamlessly in such a way no-one notices but everyone sees the way you live. Being a fully alive human being requires we inculcate the essence of Christ in our ordinary being engaged in the ordinary act of living.

This sounds simple and it is, but it is not easy. Just as we do not think about the role of salt and light , we do not think about how our living is seen, recognised and indeed, impacts the world. We take our lives for granted. We also take our understanding of ourselves and the world for granted, often not being conscious of just how our actions and words impact on others. What is normal  and acceptable for us may not be so for others and an innocent comment may in fact not be so innocent when heard through the ears of another. Our harm may be unintentional but it is, nevertheless, harm.

Living intentionally is the essence of the images of salt and light. Living each and every moment with intent and being aware of our intent is vital.  It is why many wise people suggest we speak less, listen more; that we use less words and more thought. It is the letting go of the need to be visible and heard above the noise of all the others who have the same need. It is the capacity to fade into the background but remain authentic and real in a world that has ceased to be such. There comes a time in our lives when we begin to understand that all we built is built on sand and all  that it is is a monument to being noticed by people who have already forgotten. We are left with a few grains of salt and shafts of light and recognise that this is all that matters.

This is exciting because it allows us to celebrate our incarnation for what it is, our reflection in the transcendence of being. It values our every action and places it within the evolution to wholeness God our creator has set in motion. We do not have to wait to do a big thing, to make a difference or to be recognised. We do make a difference and we are recognised for our enlivened selves. 

As I would say to our students, you have everything within in you that you need for your life to make a difference. Just be who God has created you to be, reach within and unlock the transcendent and live your ordinary life to its full with full and focused intention. Minimise your life to maximise your impact, diminish your visibility to increase your presence, become one with all in order to be yourself.

In other words, let your light shine, be the salt that brings to life the wonder of life and the light shining into the darkness all around. There is no magic to this. Just intentionally allow the transcendent empower your being, and as ordinary as you may seem to be, you will add to the extraordinary beauty in the world. 

After the Body Was Gone!

^{Mathew 28: 8}So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.

The noise of Friday was over. The bodies taken down. Only a few close family members and others stayed. They watched as the bodies were taken. Jesus to the borrowed tomb, the others to what ever space was available. 

The majority of the disciples had long since scurried back to a safe place, no doubt lost and bewildered by what had happened in one short, or was it, long day?

After the body was gone, the women and the one remaining disciple trudged off into the night, weary with sorrow and sadness. Grief is an extremely tiring experience, especially grief received under tragic circumstances. They walked home in the dark.

And how dark it was. Not just physically but spiritually and emotionally. You see they did not know about Sunday yet. Unlike us who leave the Good Friday service, they didn’t know Sunday was coming. They were to spend Saturday, and possibly forever, in the dark place of grief and loss of hope and a future.

Saturday would have been a long day. The day after a funeral when all have gone away and you are left on your own is a long, long day. There is no distraction, no action to keep you occupied. You sit and think about what was and what could have been. "If" only becomes something of a mantra. It is a day of no thing doing. The world has stopped and you can’t get off.

Saturday is the space in between the past and the future and as they had no idea what the future would look like, the space became more of an abyss than a short interruption.

It was something they shared with Jesus without knowing it. Jesus, too, was in the space-in-between. In the tomb he was alone, descending into the abyss that is death, without support, wisdom, love, without God, his Father. He was facing the loss of a life he had embraced willingly for a death he faced obediently. Now, what was the future to look like for him? Did he know or was this a journey into a new way of being for him? 

We can’t answer those questions. Nor should we try.

Yet the questions are answered, and as John Purdy suggests, amateurs not theologians, the religious elite or academics, found the answers. Amateurs. Amateurs are those who undertake something out of love for the task at hand. They are not professionals. Amateurs unravel the answer to the riddle of Saturday.

Purdy continues: “Surely the Marys' went to the tomb out of love...if we know anything of human nature, we know that love was the primary force that drove them there. Love is a more reliable alarm clock than Faith or Hope - more likely to get you out of bed and get you going early in the morning."

Just as love had led them to the cross, love brought them to the tomb. They could stay in the darkness no longer. They had to go and see where he lay and to hold a vigil if they could do nothing else. Their steps to the tomb would have been as heavy as those that lead them away from the cross. Their heart was no lighter, their tears no less urgent. Yet go they did.

Standing outside the tomb they experience the revelation of the empty tomb. Matthew tells the story with all the bells and whistles with the intention to get the reader to understand what a world changing experience it was. It was scary and exciting. Most scary things are exciting. One can hardly begin to understand the emotions they experienced. To say it blew their mind would be an understatement. Earthquakes, a moving boulder, an emptying and an angel!

How long they stood there we do not know but we do know, according to Matthew what they did next. ^“So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.” What a mix of emotions – fear and great joy. One could say it scared the hell out of them! Their fear was one of not understanding what had happened, what would happen, what it meant. Their great joy was because the one they loved was back with them, although I would have probably thrown something at him if he, after he had been crucified and buried, met me with “Greetings”! Was that all he could say? Didn’t he know how they felt?

In the midst of our darkness between Friday and Sunday we now get a glimpse of the light re-entering the world. Our darkness at the loss of Jesus is to be illuminated by his presence.

We know this as a personal truth. We know this as a church to be the truth. We are to celebrate this incredible moment with fear and great joy, because once you have encountered the resurrected Jesus everything, and every shade of things is possible. It is something to fear abut it is something to rejoice in.

Melinda Quivik suggests “The sermon on this day should propel the assembly to leave worship with both awe and celebratory power, eager to see where and how the risen one will meet them in their neighbours and friends, their prayer, their advocacy for what is good and just, and in their own gratitude for life and resurrection."

This moment changed our world. If it has changed your world what are you doing to be the change Christ brings into the world and your relationships? How does this event illuminate your darkness and empower you to go and do as Jesus requests, as the Marys do, despite a sense of fear but with great joy?

This evening we move from the space-in-between towards the coming light. Tomorrow we meet Jesus for ourselves, what is that going to be like for us? Amen