Sermon preached by The Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
The 5th Sunday after the Epiphany
There are over 600 laws in the Old Testament. The scribes kept track of the laws and interpreted them for as many contexts as they could think of, and they could think of a lot of contexts! The Pharisees devoted their whole lives to keeping each of those laws in every context. They were the most religious of the religious. Jesus told the disciples that their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. How could that be possible?
It would be partly possible because Jesus saw beneath the religiosity of the scribes and Pharisees an underlying hypocrisy. Religious people of every age, and I suppose of every religion, are susceptible to the sin of judgmentalism. We know the law, we know what is required of us, and we can see very clearly, we think, when someone else isn’t measuring up. When it comes to our own following of the law, we can make any manner of excuses why we don’t.
Jesus saw this hypocrisy in the scribes and Pharisees (It wasn’t necessarily because he was the Son of God that he saw it, by the way. He was the Son of God, but that kind of hypocrisy is easily recognized by the casual observer!). This being the case, Jesus didn’t set the bar too high when he said their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.
But let’s assume that the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was what they wanted others to think it was. It still wasn’t good enough! In order for the disciples’ righteousness to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees—and of course, we are the present disciples of Jesus—they had to be two things. What were those two things? Salt and light. Jesus’ emphasis was not so much on the doing of something as it was on the being of something.
Over and over again, in his criticism of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus made the point that they were missing the point. They were doing all of the right things for the wrong reasons. They were majoring in the minors. They had not internalized the Law, and in so doing they forgot that it was all about love—the love of God and the love of one another. They might have gotten close, but they missed the mark. The Law only made sense in the context of love, and love must come from within.
When that love is present in a person’s life, informing every thought, word, and deed, then it changes everything around it. One person acting out of love in a group of people can change the whole atmosphere of the group. It’s like adding a little pinch of salt to a dish and all of a sudden it livens it up.
Jesus’ choice of salt and light as symbols of what his followers are tells us a great deal about the nature of our faith. It isn’t uncommon for some people to say, “My faith is between God and me. it is a very private matter.” But the person who says this is sadly mistaken. Jesus is telling us that our faith is a very public matter. You cannot hide a light, and if you do it isn’t light any longer. It’s darkness. And salt is not meant to be an end in itself, but it is meant to enhance and preserve other things. Love that does not manifest itself in acts of love is not love at all.
Secondly, salt and light do not call attention to themselves. Salt enhances the taste of food and preserves it. Likewise, the Christian enriches the lives of those about him without calling attention to himself. The same applies to light. Light is good because it illuminates whatever it touches. The Christian helps others to see what is good around himself or herself. And always the nature of the Christian life is not to call attention to itself, but to God. Every act of love should be done for the glory of God and not for our own glory.
Third, in calling his disciples salt and light he is telling us that we are important for the work of God. Each of us is important, significant. This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of his teaching to accept. “I’m just one person. I really don’t have that much to give to the Lord and his work. Let those who are more talented and have more time do the necessary work of the Church. I can’t sing, or teach, or play the organ, or read publicly, or serve on a committee. I’ll just sit back and let the others do the ministering to me.” But a pinch of salt can add just the right flavor to a marvelous dish. And if that particular ingredient is missing, the whole thing goes flat. There is nothing more exciting than a parish where every member realizes how important he or she is to the life of that parish. That kind of a living community of faith is a strong witness to the glory of God.
Individually and together we are signs of the love of God. We are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. If the world is going to know of the boundless love of God, we are the ones who will show it.