Sermon OTM (Mt. 5:13-16) – 12/22/2024

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord join us here today
This week we will be consumed with giving and receiving
With tokens, symbols, expressions of our affection
For our circle of family and friends
Large or small
According to our means
All of this to celebrate your coming,
Emmanuel, God with us
Our hope
Our salvation
And anticipating your coming again, to set things right

And we and our gifts are like echoes of the Magi
The wise men
Bringing gifts to you, when first born.
Deepen our impulse to bring gifts in your honor
And round them out with more kindness
More gentleness
More patience
For those we hold in our affections
And for those we are called to love
Who we hold no natural ties or bonds
Deepen our love with courage
Humility
Reverence
And steadfastness

And help us to live in this moment
Fully giving ourselves to you
In your presence
Just now
Full of joy
Taking another step forward into
The mystery of your coming
Becoming, each of us, in the flesh, peace in this world
Becoming the embodiment of goodwill for all
In our loving becoming Shalom
Amen

Morning Talk: chuck smith, jr.

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp to put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven Matthew 5:13-16

Intro: Back in the days, when I was the pastor of a sizeable church,

We would celebrate Christmas with big productions. One year, when the stage was crowded with props and children, the music still ringing in our ears, I went to the microphone with my Bible in hand. As I began to speak, a girl six or seven years old, who had been sitting on a step right in front of me, stood up. She turned around, and with hands on her hips looked up at me and said, “Boring!”

– Christmas is a challenge – we run through the same story every year
• but here’s a twist:
◦ we’ve heard (plenty of times ) that Jesus is God’s Christmas gift to world
◦ but coming to Christmas through the Sermon, we hear something new
• Jesus announces that he is not God’s only Christmas gift
◦ we are also God’s gift to the world–we’re not the big one;
◦ we’re more like stocking stuffers – but still, we’re salt and light

The Big Idea
Jesus’ positive influence in your life
makes you a positive influence in the world

Jesus has shown us a portrait of his “Beatitude people”

The Beatitudes describe character traits, alien to human nature
– they won’t help you achieve success in any human culture
• they appear as weaknesses, not strengths; deficits, not assets
◦ so there must be some secret behind them that makes sense
◦ and there is! Later in Matthew, Jesus explains it to his disciples,
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Mt. 13:11); “secrets” translates the Greek musterion – mystery
• everyone in the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time knew about the kingdom
◦ it was in the prophecies of Isaiah, especially – the coming Messiah and restoration of the Davidic dynasty
◦ they were waiting for the kingdom to come, praying for it, longing for it
◦ but the mystery was that the kingdom had arrived
George Ladd, “The most distinctive fact in Jesus’ proclamation of the Kingdom was its present inbreaking in history in his own person and mission. . . . There are several texts that speak of entering the Kingdom as a present reality.”
– in the next chapter, Jesus will teach his disciples to pray,
“Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10)
• God’s kingdom is where everything runs according to his will
◦ that’s heaven – everything perfect, good, beautiful; everything done in, through, and around love
• so Jesus’ “Beatitude people” live in two realms:
◦ the present, natural world and also a present, yet heavenly, realm
◦ in his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote:
“He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col. 1:13)

We need this insight regarding God’s realm to understand Jesus
– to appreciate where he is taking us and we need to be willing to embrace it
• but most of all, we need to experience the mystery
• the more we move our lives toward Jesus,
◦ the more real the presentness of God’s realm becomes

In these verses of the Sermon, Jesus uses two metaphors

They are obviously connected, because they have same pattern
– both begin with “You are”; both locate us on earth/in world;
• and both emphasize the importance that we be what we are
– when Jesus says, “You,” it’s the same you as in the last Beatitude
• “You who are poor in spirit, who are meek, who mourn,” and so on
• the point of the metaphors is, Jesus’ “Beatitude people” have an influence in the world

“You are the salt of the earth”

What can this mean?
– salt is a necessity for both physical and mental health
– salt is used to purify water
– salt is a preservative
– salt adds flavor to foods
– salt was added to Israel’s sacrifices, to sanctify them

Jesus doesn’t designate a specific interpretation of “salt”
– biblical examples of the above possibilities include families and cultures that were:
• “preserved” by the presence of God’s people
• “cleansed or purified” because a servant of God was present
• “made healthier” by habits they shared with God’s people
– but I also like to think, that when Christians are at their very best,
• they add flavor to the life of a community
• I wish we were all as lively and confident as Paul, who wrote:
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere” (2 Cor. 2:14)

Jesus raises the possibility that salt might not do its job
– he doesn’t describe what is lost in the environment–e.g., without salt meat stored at room temperature would go bad–
• but he tells us what happens to the useless salt–it’s “tossed out”
• technically, salt can’t lose its taste (any more than light can lose its visibility)
◦ but “lose its taste” translates the Greek word is moraino; it’s root is moron and is translated “foolishness” elsewhere
◦ through foolishness, disciples can forfeit their influence in the world
– useless salt is tossed out and trampled
• trampled, perhaps, because they don’t stand out and so no one sees them
• or maybe they’re so beneath others that no one bothers to look out for them
– the value of salt is in what it IS
• not what it has to try to be or must be trained to do
◦ salt is its essence, its nature
• I think it’s beautiful to think of our new nature in Jesus in this way
◦ we don’t have to try to be anything we are not
◦ we only need to be our true selves (e.g., Ep. 4:20-24)

“You are the light of the world”

Like salt, there are different meanings that light can have
– obviously, to illuminate a dark environment
• but also as a beacon – like a lighthouse, where we look at the light
• for centuries, we’ve known the healing properties of sunlight
◦ some internal lesions are now treated with light’s energy by way of fiber optics
• also recently, crime scenes can turn up evidence through the help of forensic light
– again, Jesus does not identify a specific quality of light, other than it is useful in dark environments

Jesus says something so obvious, that we may pass right over it
– you don’t light a lamp or flip a switch just to cover the light that is emitted
• why would Jesus even bother to make this point?
◦ I would say it’s because he knows us so well
◦ sometimes we do want to hide our spiritual life
• we’re with people whose reaction to us being disciples would embarrass us
◦ or we want to cross a line, without being held accountable to Christian beliefs
◦ or we don’t want to be identified with all the nonsense and ugliness
– whenever someone asks my wife Barb if she’s a Christian, she asks them, “Tell me what that word means to you?”
• their answer may not match hers or the life she wants to life

“let your light shine before others . . .”

Jesus does not say, “Get out there be my sales force”
– or “Be my police in the world, passing and enforcing religious laws”
• what he says is, “Just live truth in you define who you are, and let that be your witness to the world”

“so that they may see your good works . . .”

There are Christians who have a totally wrong idea regarding “good works”
(one Bible commentator wrote, “Good works are good for nothing”)
• Paul’s criticism of “works righteousness” is related specifically to works of the law with the intention of earning salvation
• but when it comes to good deeds, or “random acts of kindness,” Paul is all over that
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ep. 2:10)
◦ and he makes similar comments in at least eight other places in his letters

“and give glory to your Father in heaven”

Christians doing good in the world reflects well on God
– here is the first time in the Sermon that Jesus refers to God as Father
• and when he does, he says God is your Father in heaven
◦ which is also how he taught us to pray: “Our Father”

Eddie Piorek began teaching and demonstrating “The Father’s Love” after he discovered it for himself in a profound encounter, that was both healing and enlightening. Since his initial experience, he has been asked to share what receiving the Father’s love can release, heal, and empower in God’s children here and around the world.
• “The Father’s love” is a new vision of a true Father–our heavenly Father

Conclusion: I want to stress on last thought

There are “good works” that come naturally for you
Ways that you assist others, meet needs, provide care, and so on
Those good works are not like chores for you–you may not even think of them as a big deal
It doesn’t feel like you are going out of your way,
nor do you groan when the opportunity comes for you to share what you have to give
You don’t have to mimic others.
You have your own brand of good works
And . . .
Christmas is the perfect opportunity to go wild with good works