Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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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?
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