Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Richard Davenport February 5, 2023 - Fifth Sunday after Epiphany Matthew 5:13-20 Most of the time when you're thinking about Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount," you're probably thinking of the passage we had for last week. Jesus sits down on the grass and begins teaching the crowds and he starts off with the Beatitudes. Matthew 5:1-12 is what we had for last week, where Jesus lists off a number of statements. "Blessed are you...Blessed are you..." There's a big list of them. All of the things on his list, the meek, the peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness' sake, and so forth, aren't really things most people would aspire to be. They aren't glamorous. They aren't popular. They aren't in vogue. They aren't anything someone is going to advertise. Yet, God sees them differently. In fact, God views those who live like this as being even more blessed than those who act like what's popular or glamorous or whatever. He doesn't say it's fun, but it is something he blesses. Most people aren't going out of their way to be persecuted. It just doesn't sound like much fun and it isn't something you should be trying to bring down on yourself anyway because then you're back to making a big show of it. But, if it does happen that you are persecuted for doing the right thing, God is still blessing you. The Sermon on the Mount doesn't end there, however. This sermon fills chapters 5-7. It's just one long speech by Jesus. We'll get through part of it before we hit Lent and things get changed up a bit. In any case, it's important to remember that what we have here immediately follows the Beatitudes from last week. Jesus is explaining something about who his people are and what's important. Those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are pure in heart, etc. are all people who have or will have some great gift from God. Those who hunger and thirst will be satisfied. Those who are pure in heart will see God. Whether the blessing is in your hands right at that moment or whether it awaits you in the future, in either case this is who you are. You are someone who has been put on this course. This is what you have to look forward to. This is how God sees you. Whatever the world may think, God sees who you are and blesses you. That leads into the passage for today. Salt and light. Salt that isn't salty. Light that doesn't shine. The law and its fulfillment. Salt that isn't salty doesn't make much sense. In our day, you can go to the store and buy a can of Morton's table salt, or some kind of fancy sea salt for your cooking. Back in Cincinnati there was a seasoning shop we'd go to every once in a while when we were downtown. You could get just about any kind of seasoning you could think of, and many I'd never heard of before. They had a whole section of salt, mostly sea salts of all different varieties. Apparently they all tasted just a bit different, so you could get the type that would best compliment the kind of cooking you were doing. Even Walmart and other grocery stores around here will often have more than one kind. You buy the kind you want. You take it home and add it to your food to make it taste better. That's what it's for. If the salt you get wasn't going to do the job, you wouldn't buy it in the first place. It's useless. The same can be said of lights. We've got rooms in our house where the lighting isn't so good. If we'd been the ones to put those ceiling lights in to begin with, we probably would have opted for fixtures that would do the job better. Replacing an existing fixture is obviously possible, but it's a lot more hassle than some other options. We've got some lights to put in under the counter in our kitchen and Laurie has a lamp for her desk downstairs. Those are easier to manage. It makes us wonder a bit, why you'd even put lights in if they weren't going to do the job. Why spend the time, effort, and money just to have lights like that? It's just a waste. A light you can't see doesn't really do anyone any good at all. It can't do its job if it's covered up or blocked. Why even have it? What purpose does it serve? The answer is, none at all. If you got something to serve a purpose, then it should serve that purpose. If it doesn't, it's a disappointment. It's taking up space that could be used by something that will do the job required. This is a pretty standard part of life. If something you use breaks, you'll probably check to see if it can be repaired. Sometimes that just a simple matter and it just takes you a minute to sort out. Sometimes it's more serious, requiring an investment of time and energy from you, or maybe money if you have to hire someone to fix it. If it works again, well and good. If something is beyond repair or not worth the time or money to fix, you throw it away. It can't do the job anymore. God isn't much different in that regard. Except that he isn't really talking about salt or lights or cars or chairs or blenders or anything else you can think of that might break down and fall apart. He's talking about people, people who have been given a job, people who need to do that job. This is what happened to Adam and Eve. They were tasked with tending the garden and caring for God's creation. They instead were more worried about themselves. God gives blessings to the meek, to the poor in spirit, to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, but they tried to demand those blessings from God instead of being grateful for what he had given them. This is what happened to the Israelites who had been brought into their own land to be the light on the stand, showing the world what God had done for them. But instead they wanted no part of it. They hid themselves and refused to shine. In both cases, God throws them out for not doing the job. Why shouldn't he? It's no less than any employer would do for an employee who refuses to work and wastes company time and resources. God casts Adam and Eve from the garden. God casts the Israelites out of their land. They didn't do the job, so they aren't of use in that position anymore. Is that where you are too? Are you waiting for the day the pink slip shows up and God's angels escort you from the building? I mean, are you doing the jobs given to you? Are you selflessly giving your attention to everyone else around you without fail? Are you treating the world around you as something to be cared for, instead of something there just to provide you with pleasure? God doesn't bring us here to be a bunch of emperors and dictators, lying around being pampered all day. He put us here to be servants, giving our lives in the service of others. In business, you might get off the hook if you don't get the job done once or twice, but sometimes if you botch things badly enough even once could be the end. If you're doing it so often it becomes an established pattern, you're really sunk. So how would you rate your performance? Have you brought someone's mood down today? Have you made someone's day a little worse? Have you put yourself before others, belittled others, ignored others, treated others with contempt or apathy? If any of those are true, then this day isn't looking so good, and that's just today. Salt that isn't salty. Light that doesn't shine. Worthless. Useless. Trash. Can any of us really say Jesus is wrong when that's how just about everything in this world works? Can any of us say we deserve better? What argument can you make to change his mind? The evidence of your inability is all around you. Grace, the gift of something entirely undeserved. Salt that isn't salty and lights that don't shine should be thrown in the trash and yet they are not. Many times when something is broken, you can scavenge the parts you need to replace it from another broken item. A car that gets smashed can been pulled apart and each of the pieces that are still useful can be resold to restore another car. Any repair shop for electronic or mechanical things will be full of random parts of all shapes and sizes that are still deemed useable. The question is, is what was broken worth repairing? When God examines us, he sees that it isn't just a busted spring or a cracked peg, it's the whole thing. The whole thing needs to be replaced because every tiny piece is broken. There isn't a bit of you that is free of corruption, that is actually doing the job it's supposed to do perfectly. It all has to go. Now, where any of us might look at something in need of complete replacement and know it to be not worth the time and money to fix, God sees things differently. God chooses to spare no expense in fixing what is broken, in making a full replacement. One problem though. Where to get the parts? For us to be of any use we need new parts, parts that aren't already broken. We can't just trade them around among ourselves because all of us are in the same boat, completely useless. We need new parts, perfect parts. If we are to be saved, rendered useful again, the only solution is for God to take the one perfect man and use him to replace us. The cross is where Jesus is killed for our sake, where he is deemed useless for our sake, where he is thrown out for our sake, all so that he might be used to save us. Jesus was the perfect servant, always living his life for others, never failing to go where he is sent or to do what needs to be done, no matter how unpleasant. Jesus never ignores or belittles anyone and he lives this way every single day without fail. This is the great exchange. God gives his Son in your place. Everything that should go to you, the verdict that comes down against one who repeatedly fails to do what is required, goes to him instead. The acceptance and glory that comes from a job done perfectly goes to you instead. This is what God gives to you, an unmerited, undeserved gift, all done out of love because God doesn't want to throw you out even though he should. This is what God seeks to do for everyone and is doing for you now, recreating you. As your sin goes to Christ, his perfection goes to you. We continue throughout our lives learning and growing so that each day we might be made a little more like him and we await the day when that work is completed, when we are fully perfect again and able to do the work given to us without fail. Still, even now, we are the light on the stand. Though, because of Christ, God doesn't see our imperfections, we are not yet perfect. We still hide ourselves. We let our light flicker and fade. Nevertheless, we know that when we shine, it is not our light that others see, but the light of Christ that shines through us. Those fitful and sporadic times when we actually are doing what we are supposed to, it is because Christ is there working through us, his life, his light shining through into the world. Other see the love God has for us as they see what he was willing to do to keep us from being thrown away. Truly, the only ones who are cast out are those who refuse to be fixed, who think there is truly nothing wrong with them. For everyone else, it is simply a matter of letting God do the work, letting him make us new through the sacrifice of his Son. Remember what God gave to save you. Remember that you are truly saved through the sacrifice of Christ. Remember that he is making you new, a new person, a new servant, remaking you so that you will no longer be in danger of being thrown away. Remember he does this because he loves you so much he is willing to do whatever is necessary to save you. Remember the work you are given, to be a servant. Let your light shine and do not hide it. Let your service flow freely, because the light of Christ will shine through you. Let others see that even people so thoroughly broken and useless like you and I can be remade and restored. Salvation is there for all, because God's love and grace are there for all.