Lent 3 - False Gods never satisfy

Our Lenten Bible Study this week asked us to consider our propensity to use stuff to make us happy.  We buy more and more in the hope that if I have this or that it will make us happy.

Strangely, despite constantly finding that the latest things did not make us happy, we keep on doing it.  We just look for something else to make us happy.

There are a number of remarkable features of our Gospel story today that invite us to consider such things.

Let me begin with a diversion.  The work of interpretation is a very tricky thing.  I find this every Sunday when I prepare a sermon for our Nuba people that I know will have to be interpreted.

I want to invite you to consider some new understandings of this story based on an interpretation issue that resolves what has always been something of a disconnect in the story.

Jesus did not speak Koine Greek.  He spoke Aramaic which in some ways was rather like Hebrew but was different enough to have its own name.  So, the stories of Jesus began in Aramaic but then were translated, probably verbally, into Koine Greek and then written down in it when the Gospels were written.  This Koine Greek then was translated in English for us.

So, at each step along the way with this it is possible for the original intention of a word to be lost or at least changed a little.

There are many remarkable features of the story – not least that Jesus would talk to this woman in a public place.  By doing this he was breaking some very important social mores.

They jumped right into a religious conversation – discussing the merits of Judaism over the claims of the Samaritans.

Clearly this lady was a bit of religious seeker.  She was quite literate about the issues.  The world she lived in was full of religious choices – and maybe she had tried a few.

Then comes a bit of a disconnect.  Jesus asks where is your husband?

They have been talking about various aspects of Samaritan religion and Jesus raises her marital status.  Over time many preachers have offered plausible explanations for this – all making points that are worthy of consideration.

Let’s see if I can offer another explanation that avoids the apparent disconnect and makes another point worthy of consideration as well.

In Aramaic the word for Husband is Ba’al – a term that we are not unfamiliar with, but where we get the transliteration of this word we are generally not talking about husbands.  This is because there is a link in the idea of Ba’al as God or Lord and the idea of husband in the Aramaic.

What if Jesus actually asked her “Where is your false God?”

She says she has none.  He says she has five.

Then she raises the idea of the Samaritans not having to worship on the Mount at Jerusalem.

If the interpreter has to use the context to decide on the meaning of ambiguous words, I would like to suggest that this is a worthy alternative reading of the text.  It eliminates the disconnect I suggested was there, and it invites us to consider some very worthwhile teaching of Jesus that is presented in the story.

Religious seekers are the most wonderful people to meet.  They have tried to find something that satisfies, but have been left wanting more.  And this gives us an opportunity to talk about what it is about our faith that works for us.

And we can tell them about how Jesus said that he would give us “living water” that truly satisfied our thirst.  And even if we can’t describe it we can say that somehow it works – because it works for us.  It really satisfies.  It doesn’t leave us looking for something else.

This is a story for our time – where people have more choice about religion than ever before.  It’s simple but penetrating message is that what Jesus has to offer is all you will ever need.  This is truly good news.

Lent 2 - Trust in God

There is a song I learned as a child, and then loved getting children to sing when I was a Beach Mission leader.  It went like this:

Father Abraham had many sons

And many sons had Father Abraham

And I am one of them

And so are you

So let’s just praise the Lord

We would then do strange things progressively in between singing the song again – like put our arms in the air, lifting our feet, turning around and finally sitting down.

The song was a lot of silly fun really, but it was passing on to our children a very important truth – that we are descendants of Abraham in the family of faith.

Paul uses the example of Abraham to illustrate what righteousness is really like.  In his day, and perhaps even in our day, many people thought righteousness had to do with meticulously keeping all the requirements of the Law.  But he said how clear it was that Abraham was accepted as Righteous long before the law was given, so righteousness has to do with something else.

Maybe it was in not understanding this that poor old Nicodemus gets a bit confused, too, in his little chat with Jesus.

Someone I read this week suggested that in many ways Nicodemus was like Abraham, except before Abraham was about to leave Ur, and that unlike Abraham, Nicodemus is not that enthusiastic about setting out on the adventure.  Just as YHWH had earlier invited Abraham to embark on an adventure of trust, Jesus invites Nicodemus to open to the rush of God’s Spirit in such a way that his very being would be renewed – being born anew or again.

And this same invitation has been echoed down through the years as generation after generation of people have been invited to consider the faith and a life committed to trusting Jesus.

This story of Nicodemus is a very good one for us as we have a group of people embark on the Catechumenate in preparation for the Baptism and/or Confirmation.

Jesus has told Nicodemus – and us – several very important things about what it means for us to be born again, or born anew, or born from above (all of which are adequate translations of the term Jesus used). 

Firstly we cannot be born again by our own efforts.  There is no DIY kit for salvation.  If nothing else, the Good News of Jesus is that our salvation is totally a gift from God.  It is only by God’s love and grace that we transformed into God’s children.  It is a gift.  And the Grace God shows towards us in giving this gift is completely unmerited.  There is nothing we can do to earn it. 

Poor old Nicodemus took Jesus’ words “You must be born again” literally and it got him into a real pickle.  He was only thinking in earthly terms.  So Jesus rephrases it to make it clear that he was talking about God’s work.  And it is God’s work to bring to birth in us such a new creation as will bring glory to God – that is being born of the Spirit.

But there is an earthly dimension.  Jesus says we must be born of water and the Spirit. 

There are two dimensions to this idea of being born of water – there is our physical birth which is preceded the gushing of waters from the mother as she prepares to give birth, but there is also a hint here of our baptism.

This earthly dimension in our baptism is the only pre-requisite for God’s Gift – this is the physical demonstration of our CHOICE to follow Jesus, to turn our live totally towards God.

This week, some of our young people, and some of the older ones, have embarked on a journey that is their response to the same question God asked Abraham.  God has said “Will you turn to me and trust me” and these people have said “Yes, that is what we want”.  By turning their lives towards God they are opening the doorway for God’s grace to enter into their lives – for them to be born from above, to be born of the Spirit.

Their Baptism is the water-sign of that choice, and the hands of the Bishop on their heads while he says “Receive the Holy Spirit” is a visible way for us to say that this re-birth has begun.

It is a journey.  The transformation has just begun.  We will need each other every day, all along the way, to encourage us al and always to trust in God.

Lent 1 - Living Within the Boundaries.

An old Chinese saying that is probably familiar to you goes like this:

“A journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.” – at least that is the way we say it in English these days because I am sure that the ancient Chinese did not measure journeys in miles.

Here we are at the beginning of our Lenten journey and the Lectionary of Readings has given us some texts that take us right back to the beginning, too.

Our Old Testament text reminds us of that story we call “The Fall” – the best way we can understand how it is that it is so true that we, all of us, are less than what we know God created us to be.

Our Psalm is a wonderful song reminding us of God’s grace and forgiveness. 

And our Epistle reading has Paul making that lovely parallelism between Adam and Christ – sin came into human experience through the act of one man, and grace and salvation was also brought into our experience through another man – Jesus Christ our Lord.

And of course, our Gospel reading tells that wonderful story of Jesus encounter with “the tempter” or the devil or Satan, as Jesus finally calls him.

So we are reminded right from the outset about Sin, the temptation to Sin and the Grace of God who calls us to be confident of his forgiveness.

I think it is fair to say that the story we have in Genesis 3 is one over which there has been a great deal of controversy over the centuries, not least about the way it has been used to justify the abuse of women by men.  So here is a reasonable question for us all to consider: “What can we learn from this story that might help us toward keeping a holy Lent?”

Phyllis Trible, reflecting on this story, says “A happy ending to the story is impossible; only the aftermath of disaster remains.”  And this creates a challenge for all preachers:  “How do we preach Good News from a text that is fundamentally about human disobedience and sin?”

Well, I’m going to have a go for you.

The punishments meted out to the serpent, the woman and the man are pretty dramatic and the result is that through human disobedience all of God’s good creation suffers corruption.  It is no longer what it was intended to be.  In fact the main truth in this story is that everything that’s wrong with us came as a consequence of sin rather than divine intervention.

So, how did we get into this mess?  We are each made in the beautiful image of God; and in the very beginning God looked at us, smiled and said: “Yes, this is good.  This is very good.”  But all we have to do is look around us to see that things aren’t so good, and we are not so very good.  What happened to all that blessed goodness?

The Bible answers this question with a story.  God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man and the woman he had made.  God said very plainly: “You may eat freely of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

The serpent, the tempter, latches onto these words:  You will not die!”  he says, and this is how it begins.  What was once a given – trust in God’s goodness – is now treated as naïveté.

So what happened when they reached out, took that fruit and ate?  At that precise moment, they reached beyond the boundary set by God.  They decided that there was something better than living within the limits set by God, something better than trusting and enjoying the goodness of God – so they reached out for knowledge and power over the mysteries that once were only known by God.

This is how the Fall happens – this is how we keep on falling.  Not in the decision to disobey.  Not in the decision to do evil.  Rather, in the mistrust of God’s goodness, in reaching beyond God’s limits to conquer mystery, and in the determination to take our lives into our own hands.

The snake was right about what would happen once the man and the woman took what did not belong to them.  Their eyes were opened.  What they saw was their own nakedness and shame.  And we, like them, have seen our shame.  We are all “fallen,” which is to say we aren’t nearly what we are meant to be and we know it.

The snake was right about another thing, too – they didn’t die.  They lived on long past their mistake.  Long enough to regret it.  Long enough to blame each other for their problems.  Long enough to know there are many kinds of dying.

This is where we start our Lenten Journey – east of Paradise.  No way back.  The only way is forward – towards the cross.  The thing to do with our open eyes at this point is to look hard, to see who we are and how we’ve fallen short.  Denial about our condition has never made it better.  Once we’ve really seen what’s in our hearts, we can see how clearly we need the One who came to save us.

In the beginning there was a tree.  On that tree there was a tempter.  What he offered was knowledge.  He said:  “Take it.  Eat it.”

A long time passed.  There was another tree.  On that tree hung one who was tempted but did not sin.  What he offered was life.  He said “This is my body, given for you.  Take.  Eat.” 

And through his self-sacrificing love, he gave us the one thing we could not take for ourselves. 

New Life. 

New Hearts. 

Not what we grasped for,

but what we needed most of all.

Lent - a time for decluttering

So, what do you make of Ash Wednesday and Lent?

By tradition it is a time for penitence and fasting, but this has been stylised down to a penitential feel to our liturgy and perhaps giving up some sort of food that any of us think we may over-indulge in – like chocolate, coffee, or maybe sugar. 

As something of a modern innovation some people have used Lent as a time to limit or eliminate their internet use for the period – or TV viewing.

For me, two ideas are at the heart of Lent and if you get the idea, then the possibilities for you during Lent are unlimited.

At the heart of the idea of penitence is the idea of making time to be with God.  For many of us, our lives are so full of commitments and activities that it becomes a real challenge to create space for God.

A word that embodies the essence of this and may inspire us as we enter Lent is DECLUTTERING.  There is both a spiritual dimension to this as well as a physical dimension.

Lent provides us with an invitation to simplify our routines of life as much as possible.  This may mean avoiding a hectic social life during the period or making sure we have our time with God each day or being determined to be mindful of God in each and every day – wherever we are, whatever we are doing.

But is not just our interior life that needs a good decluttering during Lent.  We all accumulate stuff all the time.  Lent is a great time to go through your things – books, CDs, household goods, pot plants, even, whatever – and pass them on (your favourite op shop will love you to bits) or try Freecycle through your local Council.

And when it comes to going without perhaps you could consider doing it differently.  Who benefits from your denial of coffee or chocolate?  Some of you might tote up the expense you have saved and pass it on to a charity.  But really, we could go without a whole lot more.  Most of us are abundantly blessed materially and perhaps we could acknowledge this as a sign of God’s abundant grace and make some extra gifts to your favourite charities – maybe church, maybe secular.  But it is a way of saying we have so much to be thankful for.

These are just examples – not instructions.  But I encourage you all to see this Lenten time as a really fertile season for your spiritual growth as you find all sorts of ways to spend time with God and seek out new ways of expressing your gratitude for God’s grace to you.

Radical Discipleship

Well, you will be pleased to know that the Warden didn't call me up in the week to talk about my sermon.  But it’s there again, isn't it – in that Leviticus reading.  Being a neighbour to those who live around us is not optional, is it?

The question I want to begin with today is “Do you consider yourself to be a radical?  To be living a counter-cultural lifestyle?  Or maybe in even simpler terms do you sometimes feel that your being a Christian makes you a bit of an odd-bod?” 

I know – that was three questions.

It seems that again and again, the descriptions we have in Scripture of how God wants us to behave in relation to each other expect us to do pretty much the opposite of what the rest of the world thinks is the way it stands.

The idea of leaving your gleanings around the field so that the poor and have a share was not good business to the Canaanites – but it save Ruth and Naomi’s life when they were otherwise destitute.

I am guessing that every clause that follows these words in the Leviticus passage is a call to the people of God to do just the opposite of what everyone else would normally do.  Now that is pretty radical.

The whole of Psalm 119 is a cycle of 8 line verses carefully crafted so that each line in a verse began with the same letter of the alphabet, and each verse with varying imagery extolling the merits of allowing our lives to be guided by the Law of God.  The Statutes of the LORD were the supreme guide for life.  Keeping them, rather than doing what felt good, was also pretty radical.

And Paul gets the radical bit, too.  He reminds us that as god’s creatures we should have a special regard for our bodies, in which the Spirit of God lives, thus making our own bodies effectively the TEMPLE of God and therefore something to be cared for rather than abused.  Now that is very radical in our time and place, isn’t it?

But perhaps the most radical thing for us to consider today comes from the mouth of Jesus in our Gospel reading.

Twice Jesus begins some teaching with the words “You have heard it said:…”  He is appealing to the conventional wisdom of the day, and perhaps even the general consensus of the meaning of God’s Law, and then he turns it upside down.  As I have said before this is part of Matthew’s clear message to the Hebrew Christians he was writing the Gospel for that Jesus stands in the tradition of Moses, but goes even further.

Jesus says that if we are to become his followers we will have to forgo our “right” to have just recompense – an eye for an eye – from those who would injure us.  Rather we show up their bad behaviour by radically inviting them to do it again – in front of everyone who knows they have done something wrong.

Jesus says we have to beyond the ordinary obligation of loving those we have an obligation to love.  We are to love the unlovely, and even those who are actively working to hurt us – our enemies.  Indeed we are to pray for them.

These things are a call to live differently from everyone else – and we as Christians should live with the tension of this all the time; because it is so easy for us to want to just fit in.

I went to see a film last weekend called “Occupy Love” which was a reflection on the OCCUPY movement of a few years ago that grew out of our dismay over the aftermath of the GFC and the way the banks got away with wrecking the place.  This revealed their utter selfishness and determination to win for themselves no matter what the cost to the people was.

If you listened to what the people involved with the Occupy Wall Street were on about, they wanted to move away from a self-centred approach to life that was fundamentally destructive of society and towards a communitarian approach in which love and the well-being of the other was at the heart of the value system.

Their occupation was peaceful, not violent.  The violence was created by those who wanted to remove them – city officials or the Police.  Their purpose was not to harm others.  Rather to call others to work together for the common good.

This sounds pretty close to what Jesus was talking about there in the Sermon on the Mount.  There is indeed some deep wisdom there – but living this way makes you as radical as all those OCCUPY people were, perhaps without the dreadies.

Many of you might have been struck by the abruptness of the final sentence in the Gospel:  Be PERFECT therefore as your Heavenly Father is PERFECT. 

At first glance this seems to be an impossible goal for all Christians because of our contemporary understanding of PERFECT.  But in the etymology and cultural context in which Jesus said this, this is not so much about keeping all the rules perfectly, as it is about trying to be consistent in thought and deed, living with integrity of word and action.  This word is about wholeness and living in authentic relationships that show these radical ways of living we have been talking about.  God really does want us to turn the world upside down in so many ways.

Putting this all together with what Jesus said before, we are called to live in ways that make extravagant moves towards reconciliation, new attitudes towards men and women, simple truth-telling, outrageous expressions of generosity and that totally unexpected care for one’s enemies.

These are to be the essential signs of the rule of God in our lives.  It is these that will make the light of Christ within us shine ever more brightly as I said a week or two ago.  This is the Perfect will of God for us all.

Did you get it yet?

The new vicar of St Swithans had just finished his seminary studies and had been ordained two weeks before he started in the parish.

Parishioners were very excited.  They had waited over a year to secure a new priest.  Now he was here.

On his first Sunday he preached well – a rather moving sermon about the Good Samaritan.  People thanked him warmly at the door and he was rather pleased with himself.

 The next week he preached the same sermon – about the Good Samaritan.  He seemed a little more earnest about it, but it was the same sermon.  People still greeted him at the door with some warmth, although he did notice a few people who made their way out through a side entrance, avoiding him.

His third Sunday came around and he preached the same sermon again.  He changed his introductory illustration, and he turned up the level of passion in his speech, but it was the same sermon.  The people who shook his hand on the way out seemed a bit lost for words, and seemed relieved to let go of his hand and move on.

It was time for the Wardens to say something.  They were very kind about it and began by saying that they understood that he was fresh out of seminary and might not have had time to write many sermons, but they just wondered if there was a reason why he had preached the same sermon for three Sundays in a row.

Without the slightest hint of defensiveness he replied:  “When I feel like this sermon has changed the way you are living, then I might move on to a new one.”

I am wondering if, after today, I met be asked to meet with the Warden, because it seems to me that we have been confronted with the same old story these past three weeks – at least from the Old Testament readings.

We began three weeks ago with Micah saying that what God really wanted from us was that we should do JUSTICE, love MERCY, and walk HUMBLY WITH GOD.

Then, last week, Isaiah expanded on that with:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?” … and a whole string of other social justice things that God expects of us.

Now, this week, we have the same old story all over again.  Despite Deuteronomy being regarded as one of the five books of Moses and therefore part of the Torah – the first Hebrew Canon of Scripture, it was clearly written in the 7^th Century BC during the reign of King Josiah, not many years fore the Exile into Babylon.  So it seems written somewhere between the passages we referred to over the past two weeks.  Listen again:

¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes.  ¹⁸ He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.  ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.  ²⁰ Fear the Lord your God and serve him.

So it seems to me that there is a common theme here and it will be very useful as we prepare for our Parish Consultation over the next couple of weekends.

These Old Testament prophets are in complete harmony with the teaching of Jesus when they remind us that God wants action, not self-righteousness.  God wants us to do stuff rather than show that we have orthodox beliefs.

I am not sure if any of you have come across people who are Quakers before.  They prefer to call themselves The Society of Friends.  I know that some Christians are unwilling to accept that they are Christian because they are a bit vague on their doctrines.

They are members of the Council of Churches of WA and one of them once said to my wife when she was the General Secretary of CCWA that generally Quakers do not care if you believe in fairies at the bottom of the garden, but they do care about how you live your life – embodying the things Jesus called us to do. 

I suspect that some of you would like to think that what you believe is important too – I won’t disagree with you on that – but I do hope you also agree that what you do, how you live is important.  This certainly seems to be the message for us today – and last week – and the week before.

What better preparation could we have for our Parish Consultation than this? 

As we consider our situation I am sure that much of our thinking will be directed towards the question “How can we get more people involved with us at Holy Cross?”  That, I think we will find, is a secondary question.

The first question that we will need to consider is what things would we be doing in Hamersley that is an expression of us “defending the cause of the fatherless and the widows, and loving the foreigner residing among us, giving them food and clothing?” 

What would we have to do that showed we loved those who were foreigners among us?

Now I don’t mean literally the fatherless and the widow or the aliens who live among us.  These are examples that are leading us into lives in which we

         DO JUSTICE

         LOVE COMPASSION and

         WALK HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD.

These are examples of ways in which we might be loosening the chains of injustice for someone or untying the ropes of oppression for them.

Jesus makes it very clear that as we love one another, as we express our commitment to him by doing these things, his LIGHT will shine from within us and make it clear to everyone who is our LORD.

So, one of our fundamental tasks will be to find a way of understanding what the needs of people are in our area and which ones we might be able to do something about.

Now some of that might involve quiet specific activities with our Nuba people that will help them overcome some of the things that are holding them back – language, qualifications, steady work, etc.  But it will need to be them who tell us what they need help in, not us saying “this or this will be great” and then find they won’t come.

But there are people who actually live here in Hamersley and Warwick whose needs are not being addressed by any community services and this failure to have those needs met leaves them with a poorer life than they should have.

I trust that as we discuss these things together, we will have sufficient information to inform us, and an abundance of faith in the leading and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that we will be able to see a fantastic future ahead of us doing everything we can to brighten up that light of Christ that will be shining out of us.

Jesus & The Law

The story is told a long time ago of a man who wanted to give his wife a very special present – one she had dreamed of having since she was a little girl – a beautiful Music Box.  You know the kind – you lift up the lid and a tune plays, and maybe even a ballerina dances.

He found an exquisite one in a shop one day when he was shopping alone and knew this was it.  It was extra special because it also glowed in the dark.

Her birthday came around and after they had had a lovely dinner together he said he had a little extra surprise for her.  He turned all the lights out, and he got this precious gift from his wardrobe and gave it to her.  She carefully unwrapped it in the dark and when uncovered all she could see was a dark kind of box thingy.  The husband was really disappointed.  He was sure it would be glowing and give her such a thrill.  In clear disappointment he went and turned the lights on and said he was very sorry.  It must be broken.

Undeterred, his wife opened it up and just loved the music and the little ballerina, and as she was looking it all over she saw a little sign on the bottom.  It said “If you want me to shine all night, keep me in the sun all day.”

Of course there was nothing wrong with the box, and once it had spent a day in the sun it fairly glowed in the dark.

Light is a bit of a theme for the readings today.  In the Isaiah reading we heard these words:

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
    and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
    and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
    and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
    and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
    and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
    and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
    you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

There is an echo here of the Prophet Micah’s words, that we hear last week about doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God.  It is clear that we are called to reach out and share what we have with those who do not.  But Isaiah goes further.  He says:

                ⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

By doing these things our lives take on the quality of light – they shine for all to see; and they challenge others to praise God and to do likewise.

In our Gospel reading Jesus declares that we ARE the LIGHT of the WORLD.  Not that we WILL be.  Not that we CAN be.  We ARE the Light of the World.  And he makes the observation that this is about taking on his ministry of service and compassion and so making those who observe us doing this aware that God is good and worthy of our praise.

In the ancient world you had to keep a light burning all the time – it wasn’t always easy to get it started again; there were no safety strike matches.  If your light went out you would have to go find a neighbour to borrow some light from.  The flame for your light had to come from the flame of another’s light.  Light was always being passed on and around.

Another way of looking at it is that the light that shows when we are engaged in this ministry of good works is a REFLECTION of the light of Jesus that is within us – just like the moon’s light is a reflection of the light of the Sun.

And, of course, we need to realise that this kind of light was never intended to be hidden away.  When there is just a single light in a room, it has to be put on a stand so that everyone can receive the light.

Years ago, when I was in teacher’s college, I was involved in a geology excursion to the caves in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste region.  We were privileged to gain permission to explore the Devil’s Lair cave.  This cave is not open to the public and which has no electrical lighting in it.  We came to a huge cavern area and were all told to douse our lights.  After our eyes had adjusted to the most absolute darkness I have ever experienced one of the crew lit a single candle.  It was amazing how much light came from that one candle.  In time we could make out all the basic features within the cavern just from that single light source.

The light of Christ within us is so needed in our day.  There is so much darkness around us.  There are many many dark places but they will never overcome the light of Christ.

Light is also used to warn us of danger and lead the way – especially on the oceans.  Lighthouses and navigation lights keep people safe – that is part of our calling, too, if we are to be the light of the world.

To me, this is a call to action.  We are called on to undertake these same acts of mercy and kindness to those around us. 

But there are two other images in our selection of Gospel that I thought I would mention in passing – just worth a thought.

Jesus actually says that we are the Salt of the earth.  He says this before he says that we are the light of the world and its an image full of meaning.

In Jesus’ day salt was a very precious commodity.  You may be familiar with the term “Off to the salt mine” as a reference to going off to work.  Work is where we earn our salary and the etymology of salary lies with the word for salt – saline, for example is similar to salary.  How did this happen?

In Roman times it was not uncommon to actually use salt to pay wages.  Salt was very useful, and according to the Romans it was the purest of all things because it was made of two very pure things – the sea and the sun.

There are two wonderful dimensions to this image if we are to understand what it means for us to be the salt of the earth.

Firstly, salt makes things tasty, it brings out flavours and without it many foods are insipid.  As we live out the mission and ministry of Christ in our world we are adding that same zest and flavour to the world.  We are changing what would otherwise be an insipid experience of life into something rather vibrant.

But salt is also a preservative and cleanser.  Many things, when treated with salt or brine are able to be kept for long periods of time without refrigeration.  We, too, can have that same life-preserving effect in our society, the same cleansing effect id we live out the mission of Christ.

I think I have told you before that many of the things we have in the Gospel stood alone as stories or what they call aphorisms – little sayings of Jesus – that people remembered and passed down orally for many years before the Gospel writers created a text. 

In writing the Gospel, each author has created their own sort of “string of beads”.  By stringing the stories and aphorisms together in their particular way they end up with a string of beads that looks a bit different from the string the other gospel writers made.

There are three beads in this week’s selection from Matthew – the salt aphorism, the light aphorism, and the teaching about the law.  We have considered the salt and light aphorisms.  Why do we have this teaching about the Law just here?

The first thing to say is that we have already seen that for Matthew, the story of Jesus needs to run parallel to the story of Moses.  So it should not be a surprise for us to hear Matthew giving Jesus an opportunity to say he was not doing away with all the Law stuff – rather he was fulfilling it.

But if we are to take this too far in a particular direction we will end up failing to understand the importance of God’s amazing grace.  Like Seventh Day Adventists we would be trying to keep all the LAW as our pathway to salvation and I am sure that’s not the way it should be.

Perhaps the salt and light aphorisms will give us a way through this conundrum.  

The two aphorisms seem to point us to a way of being and doing that is an expression of the life of Christ within us.  It is Christ in us that inspires the good works that we do – not the demands of the Law by which we are working out our salvation. 

It is in this way that our righteousness will exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees, not by us being even more meticulous than they were in keeping the whole law.  To me that is the absolute fulfilment of the law that Jesus was talking about. 

Someone asked the question are we saved by works or grace – I think in truth that the answer is both, but the works are not driven by the burden of the law.  Rather they are the outworking of grace.