Sermon for Epiphany 5: "Salt and Light"

+ 5^th Sunday after Epiphany – February 9^th, 2020 +

Series A: Isaiah 58:3-9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Whenever I drive up Milton Way, I always know I’m close to home when I see the light shining through the stained glass windows. 

Whenever you go driving around town on a snowy or icy day you appreciate the salted roads that melt the ice.

Light and salt are both useful. Light, we know, is essential to life – to see, to grow plants, for warmth, and so on. Even in our day of low, or no-sodium diets, salt is also helpful, and essential to life; it preserves, flavors, and cleanses. 

But of course, Jesus isn’t talking about salt and light simply to give us a culinary lesson, or to educate us on the importance of proper exterior illumination. Both are useful. Both have a purpose. And that’s the point of comparison. The same goes for Jesus’ followers. The world needs you, Jesus’ redeemed, baptized, blessed disciples. 

Jesus uses salt and light to teach his disciples, and us, about our identity, purpose, and the pattern of our life in Jesus as his beloved, baptized, redeemed disciples.

“You are the salt of the earth. “You are the light of the world.” 

Notice how Jesus says what he says here. It’s not a command, as in, “you must become salt and light.” It’s not a wishful saying, “I might become salt or light.” No. It’s a sure thing. It’s Jesus’ promise. You have Jesus’ word on it. This is your identity in Jesus. You are salt. You are light. We heard a similar promise from Jesus last Sunday from the Beatitudes; in Jesus you are blessed. As Jesus’ beloved, baptized, disciples, you are salt. You are light.

Oh to be sure, there are plenty of days we don’t feel very salt-like or full of light. Days when the darkness of our sin seems to overshadow our every thought, word, and deed. Days when we’ve probably all felt like useless salt left to be trampled on. All the more reason to find comfort in Jesus’ declaration to us and his disciples here in Matthew 5. You are salt. You are light. It’s a fact, a promise that’s determined not by how we think or feel, but by who Jesus says you are. It’s his word over ours. You are salt. You are light. 

And, Jesus goes on, salt and light have a purpose. 

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 

It sounds obvious to say, but part of what Jesus is telling us is that salt can’t help but be salty. That’s what it is and does. Light can’t help but shine. Turn on a lamp in a dark room and it gives light. That’s what it is and does. So it is for us, his disciples, we can’t help but be who we are in Jesus. Remember how Jesus says that good tree produces good fruit. In Jesus, you are that good tree. You are salt and light. For what purpose? 

Jesus tells us that too. Just as salt is useful for many things and light shines in the darkness to light up a room or the path for a traveler on the road, so it is for our good works.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Now, before we get a little antsy talking about good works, notice who gets the glory here. Not you but the Father. Father presupposes Son. Your light is not you shining but Christ who is your light. Let your light shine before others. Let Jesus shine before others so that in His light, in the light of His death and resurrection, in the light of His life, others may see your good works and in the light of Christ give glory to your Father in heaven.

Good works are the fruit of faith, the breath of faith, faith’s exhalation in the direction of the neighbor. Works are faith’s faithfulness. We love because we are loved in God’s beloved Son. We forgive because we have been forgiven in Christ. We have mercy because Christ first had mercy upon us and laid down His life as a sacrifice for our Sin. When we don’t love, when faith doesn’t breathe, when we fail to do the mercy that our neighbor needs, we are putting a basket over the light of Christ, hiding what Christ has done and is doing in and through us.

Our Lutheran Confessions say it this way. God doesn’t need your good works, after all, he’s won salvation for you in Jesus crucified. But your neighbor does. You neighbor needs you to be salt and light in this world. What do those good works look like? Consider where God has placed you in life, what vocations, or callings, he has called you into. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife, worker, or employer? Think of the ways you can be a salt and light for those around you at home, in your neighborhood, at work, at church, at school, and so on.

Through it all, we find comfort in Jesus’ declaration of who we are. You are salt and light in him. You are blessed in him. No matter how many times we fail to be his salt and light, his promise still stands. You are his beloved, baptized disciple. No matter how many times our sin seems to overshadow us or death appears to swallow us up, Jesus is the Light no darkness can overcome. Jesus went to the cross, was enveloped in darkness, and death swallowed him up so that in him you are who he says you are. 

In Christ, “You ARE the salt of the earth… You ARE the light of the world.” In Christ, you have a new and everlasting identity. Jesus declares that you are His people. Forgiven. Restored. Blessed. Baptized children of God. 

In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.