Contact Matthew 5:13-16 (Wednesday Night Reflection)
We
live in a nation that is hurting right now…we are reeling from one thing right
after another…from Harvey to Irma to Maria…from Charlottesville, Virginia to Las
Vegas, Nevada. Closer to home we find ourselves confronted with folks far too
young to be dying being laid to rest because of drug overdoses, and others
across every socio-economic and racial barrier finding themselves trapped in
the web of addiction. We have neighbors
whose children go to school hungry and seniors whose cupboards are bare. There are loved ones who receive unexpected
and dire diagnoses. There are families
we know whose lives are completely disrupted and shattered for one reason or
another.
What
is our first instinct? Usually it is to
reach out and send folks a message and let them know in some way, “we’ll be praying
for you” or “you’re in our thoughts and prayers.” We hear pastors and others tell us to
remember a given situation, a person, or a group “in our prayers.” And that is a good and powerful thing. I believe in the power of prayer. I believe in petitioning God to act in
unmistakable ways in places where there is hurt and pain, and I have faith that
God will respond. However, if that is
where our response to these tragic events end, there is a problem—and it is a
problem that I have been guilty of, maybe all of us.
James
confronts us, “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have
faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is
naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep
warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is
the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”[i] Another way of putting it would be, “If all
we are doing is offering up words, offering up lip service, then what good is
that? The folks need more than that—they
need salt and light—they need contact.
Jesus
says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can
its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out
and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a
hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel
basket, but on the lampstand, 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 in heaven.”[ii]
Some
of us are now wondering how each of these connects to the other…what do
“thoughts and prayers,” “faith and works,” and “salt and light,” have to do
with each other? The truth of the
matter is that they have everything to do with one another.
“Thoughts
and prayers,” we lift up those in need, here and globally, in prayer, because
we believe in the power of prayer. We
believe that through prayer God hears and responds wherever there is a
need. That belief is the faith that we
have that God is good, that God pays attention to our prayer, and that God is
going to do something…and God will—through salt and light.
Are
we still scratching our heads?
Let’s
reverse it as we consider this and ask, “what do light and salt do?”
Light…light
should be easy…right now we are only 6.4 miles from our unique Diamond Lady.
What does light do?
Light
dispels the darkness…light points the way…and light reveals danger.
Salt...if
you are like me…we love salt. What does
salt do?
Salt
seasons and adds flavor…salt preserves…salt can remove danger (such as melting
snow and ice on roads and driveways—or preventing their freezing if
pretreated).
What
do they both have in common? They have
to have contact with that which they are seeking to dispel, show, or
reveal…that which they are trying to flavor, preserve, or remove. For light to dispel darkness, it has to shine
into the darkness. The light has to
contact the darkness in order to remove it.
The light does no good if it simply is shone into an already lit room or
already lit place. In fact, when it is
blazing in a place that is already lit, it is hardly noticeable or seen. When we would vacation at Atlantic Beach, on
a bright sunny day, the light from Cape Lookout was never seen…it was
shining…but it was not seen. However,
stand on that same spot at night, as the light came in contact with the
darkness, and it was clearly visible.
Light has to shine into the darkness in order to be useful. Light has to shine on the places of danger in
order to warn folks of the danger.
Another
thing about light, even in the darkness, it has to be pointed the right
direction. We always do it, probably
because they always beg so much, and when I say “we” I mean all of us, because
if Anita and I are the only ones who have ever done this, I’ll be shocked. There have been times when we would go
walking at night as a family, often it has been when we would vacation at the
beach. It never fails that if we have a
flashlight along, one of the kids would want to hold the flashlight we are
using to light the path. Everybody knows
the problem that causes, right? That
flashlight usually shines everywhere but where we are walking. Light has to
shine in front of us to show us the way, it leads us forward—and does no good
shining where we’ve been or anywhere else.
We
are to be light in the darkness…
And
then there’s salt. Salt is a lot like
light. For it to do any good there has
to be contact. If I am trying to season
my food and rather than shake the salt on the food I shake it on my napkin,
what good is that going to do…if I want to use salt to preserve or lengthen the
life of my ham or other meat I want to cure, and I pour it out on the ground
instead of rubbing it into the meat, what good does that do…if I want to use
salt to melt the ice in my driveway, but instead pour it out under my carport,
how does that help? The salt has to make
contact with the food, with the meat, with the snow, ice, and sidewalk for it
to be of any use.
We
are to be the salt of the world…
Thoughts
and prayers lifted up should move us to action.
They should move us to be salt and light.
We
become salt and light when we not only pray for those affected by the
hurricanes, but by the offerings we have received, and the items that we are
collecting for flood buckets and health kits.
Those traveling to Goldsboro two and a half weeks to prepare these and
other items for shipping will be salt and light for those who are hurting. Those who might make trips to repair or
rebuilt homes will be salt and light…in the face of these and other disasters.
We
become salt and light when we move from thoughts and prayers about the hungry
in our community to distributing food at the EMS building on fourth Wednesday
or packing the backpack blessings for the school kids each month.
We
become salt and light when we so flood the world with the love of Christ for
each and every person that there is no room left for the hate that filled
Charlottesville…that there are none feeling so alone or distraught that they
flood a room with a shower of bullets.
We
become salt and light when we connect with those who feel so empty that they
turn to drugs and reveal to them the “high” that comes from being loved by a
God who offered His only Son on their behalf—a love that is not made up of
hollow words, but a love that flows from our very hearts and hands.
We
become salt and light when we keep company with those who are struggling with
their health…
We
become salt and light when we become a place of refuge for those whose lives
have otherwise been filled with neglect or violence…
Lifting
“thoughts and prayers” must call us to action…must call us to contact. To quote my devotional reading from earlier
this week, “Prayer may seem at first like disengagement, a reflective time to
consider God’s point of view. But that
vantage presses us back to accomplish God’s will, the work of the Kingdom.”[iii]
We
lift our “thoughts and prayers” to a God who loved us enough that He didn’t
just offer His thoughts and prayers when we were lost in sin, but instead came
as the “Light of the World” in order to make contact, in order to touch our
very lives with His presence…and in doing so, presses us, the Body of Christ,
the Living Presence of our Resurrected Savior…to be light and salt that makes
contact with the world.
In
the Name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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