From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts…
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything
but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.”
Sunday’s Gospel, Matthew 5:13-16
Jesus did not begin the Sermon on the Mount by saying, “May I have your attention, please.” Instead, he caused jaws to drop with last week’s Gospel, the Beatitudes, challenging the crowd to decide to be animated by nothing less than the very desires of God’s heart. In today’s Gospel he reinforces that vision with two more points: live those Beatitudes and you are like salt and like the light shining from a city on a mountain or from a lamp in a home. How?
The people knew salt was significant in covenant offerings, making meat savory and meals of unity or repair of unity pleasant events, but entirely useless, of course, if it had lost its flavor. Jesus’ disciples must maintain their internal integrity. If it looks like salt, but has no saltiness—if we look like disciples, going to church and all, but have not maintained our internal integrity, putting effort into living those Beatitudes—what use are we? We might as well be “thrown out and trampled underfoot” as “no longer good for anything.”
Internal integrity in Jesus’ followers is complemented by external visibility—light! That is, we his followers show what our lives are about by acts of generosity, outreach, aid of the poor, of the sick, of the abandoned. Outsiders should find our lives illuminating. This may happen “outside” and publicly (“on a mountain”) by setting up an orphanage, for instance. Things that can be seen from a distance. Or the illuminations may happen “inside,” more privately within a family or small group, such as interpersonal reconciliations or various acts of helping one other. These kinds of things are not public events but in-house actions that give “light to all in the house.”
Finally, Jesus does not mention outsiders seeing our “Beatitudinal efforts,” our public good deeds and praising us for them. Instead, his aim (and OUR aim) is that outsiders glorify our heavenly Father instead. Jesus counts it a victory for the Kingdom if some pagan concludes, “If that dorky church goer I have always considered a loser and a pinhead can be as generous or self-sacrificing as I just saw, then maybe there is something to this following Jesus stuff. Hmm… .”
For further reflection:
Internal integrity: am I committed to doing the things that make me a stronger, more complete follower of Christ? Regular prayer, regular worship, attempting to grow in understanding of the faith, receiving Holy Communion, interaction with fellow Christians?
External visibility: do I make it my concern to help fellow Christians and others outside our community who are in various kinds of need? Do I support mission activity in our country and/or abroad? Am I willing to be identified as an active believer in Christ?