Feb 9,2020                     Salt and Light                                   

It was the same old argument, the same one I’ve heard dozens of times, and this time it was about churches in the Illinois Conference. I was at a meeting for the Illinois Conference, and one of the members of the group thought it would be nice to share some Good News. For the first time in years, there was actually an increase, not only in the number of churches that gave to OCWM, but in the amount of OCWM for the whole conference. And instead of rejoicing in this Good News, what followed was a number of comments about churches that hadn’t contributed. How they should be given some kind of secondary status, or admonished for not contributing, after all, the rest of us were carrying them. Aaaaaarrrrgghh!

As I was driving home for the meeting, I was thinking about the knot in my stomach and about our gospel lesson for this morning. And I thought hey folks! We are supposed to be salt and light! Complaining about others, punishing other for their sins, saying they are worthless, or that we should treat them as second class citizens is the way of the world, the way of sin and death. That way is the way of the Pharisees, and unless our righteous exceeds that of the Pharisees, than we shall surely die as a conference, and God’s kingdom will not be established among us.

Our gospel lesson this morning continues Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Last week, Jesus gave us the beatitudes, in which he spoke about the reversal of fortune for those who believed in the kingdom of God. And in this week’s lesson, he encourages his followers to be salt and light, in order that this kingdom might come into being among us.

Now for the Jewish people, to whom Jesus was preaching, there were many who wondered if Jesus wasn’t preaching some new religion. The Jewish religion believed that in following the law, they would bring about God’s kingdom among them. Jesus statement that he has not come to abolish the law or prophets, but to fulfill them, makes it very clear that Jesus is not preaching a new religion. But Jesus is saying, that something is missing, and that something is the Spirit of God.

Jesus concludes this section of his sermon by saying that unless the righteousness of his followers exceeds that of the Pharisees, that the kingdom of God will not come into being. As I am sure you have heard many times, the Pharisees were a political group that advocated keeping the law as the path to God’s salvation. The problem was, as Justo pointed out, that path left them plenty of room to look down upon those sinners around them, and justify their not helping, not caring, not loving those who had gone astray.

I guess what I want to say this morning, is that God’s law is not the problem. As the psalmist says, it is perfection, guiding us in the living of our lives, and will indeed lead us to God’s kingdom. But there is something missing, the Holy Spirit. That a worldly spirit turns into something as a judgement over others. Jesus proclaims instead the Spirit of God, which calls us to waste our time, to challenge ourselves, to love not the sin, but the sinner. To hope and believe that with God’s love, all things are possible. After all, while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Or to better personalize it, while we were sinners, Christ died for me. How could we do any less for those sinners we meet in our lives. For that is the path to salvation, and the Good News of Jesus Christ. Amen.