“When the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the
synagogue and began to teach. And the people were amazed at his teaching
because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the
law.”
That’s what set Jesus
apart. This authority he had, in his
words, and in his actions. His stories grabbed you by the scruff of the neck
and made you sit up and take notice. He wasn’t afraid to take on the religious
establishment and question their practice and their view of God. Time and
again, he demonstrated God’s power over nature, over sickness, over evil and
even over death.
He spoke, and he ministered,
with authority.
Any fool can come into the
midst and say ‘I’m the son of God.’
But if someone comes and says
‘I’m the Son of God’ and then heals the sick and raises the dead, then he’s
going to get a hearing. It was the actions of Jesus which lent his words
authority and proved that he had indeed come from the Father above.
Now here’s the question. Where does our
authority lie, as followers of Jesus? We say we have a message that’s changed
us and can change the world. But where’s the proof?
Isn’t it our actions that lend weight to those
words? The way we live that gives them some authority?
We may be the only Bible people ever read. They
will judge the message and the church on the basis of how we live our lives.
And if they see a difference in how we live, something that makes them sit up
and pay attention, or makes them reflect on how they’re living, or makes them
glad or appreciative of something we’ve done, then – maybe – our words will
carry some authority.
Jesus says to his disciples, and to us this
morning - ‘you are the salt of the earth’
– ‘you are the light of the world’. And
it’s too easy to here that as a general ‘you’ . You plural. But it also reaches
our ears as you singular. You, as you
sit there this morning, are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of
the world.
What does salt do? It preserves; it brings out
the flavours in food;
What does light do? Light pushes back the
darkness; keeps us from harm; shows the way.
Jesus is telling us that as his followers we
don’t just live to ourselves. Our lives
are his witness to the world. Our calling is to make a difference to our
surroundings so that our witness isn’t just a matter of words, because words
are wind. Actions speak far far louder.
Over the years, the writer and pastor Tony
Campolo developed a special concern for some of the impoverished nations in the
Caribbean, including Haïti and the Dominican Republic. He’s campaigned against
multinational companies that have exploited their workers in these lands, and
he has taken groups of Christians from the United States on mission trips
there.
In particular, he tells a story about a Christian
doctor who went out to the Dominican Republic to set up a surgery in an
empoverished village. By day he gave himself to providing medical care for
people who otherwise would not be able to access it. By evening he would drive
around the area, meeting people, hearing about their lives and sharing his
faith and his reasons for being there. People listened. With a touch of
grudging admiration, a local Communist Party official said, “He has earned the right to speak.”
We too, have to earn that right. The church in
our time, in our part of the world, can’t assume that people will listen when
it speaks anymore. Maybe 50 years ago, but not now.
A whole generation, post war, grew up believing
that church was a given, and an end in itself. To a degree we lost our purpose in those years.
We didn’t have to think too much about reaching out to others because we were a
Christian country. Almost everyone was kirkit to some degree. And so we
followed the culture into the church, because that’s what people did in those
days.
It’s only now that a whole generation have
followed the culture out of the church that we’re wakening up to the fact that
church is not a given, and it’s always been a means to an end. The end of
drawing people into a relationship with the God who loves them and in Christ
died to save them: “Let your light shine
before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in
heaven.” Said Jesus.
That’s the church’s purpose. That’s why we
gather here – to worship God, to remind ourselves of God’s goodness and his
call on our lives, and to find the strength to live it out in the places where
he’s put us. Our families, our neighbourhoods, our places of work and play.
Our Christian duty doesn’t end at 12 o’clock on
a Sunday morning. That’s when it begins: when we leave this place and go back
into the world. Because the one in whose name we gather here calls us the salt
of the earth, and the light of the world.
And salt is meant to be scattered; light is meant to be shed. It’s safe
in the saltshaker. It’s safe under the bushel. But we’re no use there. We need
to get out and make a difference beyond these four walls.
It’s not often that I quote Willie Barclay, one of the
princes of the Church, but I’m happy to do so this morning. He writes that “A
Christianity whose effects stop at the church door is not much use to anyone.
It should be even more visible in the ordinary activites of the world. Our
Christianity should be visible in the way we treat a shop assistant across a
counter, in the way we order a meal in a restaurant, in the way we treat our
employees or serve our employer, in the way we play a game, or drive or park a
car, in the daily language we use, in the daily literature we read. As
Christians, we should be just as much a Christian in the factory, the workship,
the shipyard, the mine, the schoolroom, the surgery, the kitchen., the golf
course and the playing field as we are in church. Jesus did not say ‘you are
the light of the church, he said ‘ you are the light of the world’.
If our words are going to have any kind of
weight, any kind of authority, we need to be living it out.
Faced with the kind of statistics I was showing
you earlier, where 50% of our parish has no religious affiliation at all it’s
more important than ever that we’re able to live out our faith and speak about
it unashamedly.
I’m pretty sure that most of that 50% know – in
theory at least – that Jesus died for them.
They just don’t see what difference it makes. How are they ever going to
know unless people like you and I find ways of showing them, or talking about
it with them?
When church members begin to cotton on to the
fact that they are to be salt and light as individuals; and churches cotton on
to the fact that they’re to be salt and light in their communities, that’s when
things really begin to change.
A few weeks ago I heard a talk by a minister who
felt a call to plant a church in Seaton – amidst all its challenges. But the
way in for them was to start by serving the community through a foodbank.
Building up relationships and goodwill. That’s now developed into a scheme to
help poorer families during the summer holidays. It’s well known that kids on
school meals tickets often don’t eat properly during the holidays because
they’re missing their free school dinners. Now the council have asked that
church if they can find ways to roll out that same programme over the deprived
areas in Aberdeen!
Will that church’s message carry some authority
in Seaton when they explain to folk that the reason they’re doing what they’re
doing is because there’s a God who loves them and can help them in their need?
I think it might.
We don’t have much of that kind of deprivation on our
doorstep here, but we do have neighbours, friends and colleagues who need to
see the love of Christ incarnated by the local church and its members. Whatever
our parish was, in the past, I’ve tried to describe to you how it is –
according to the latest statistics we have.
And that’s why I’m excited by the things this
congregation is trying to do to reach beyond these walls with the love of God.
The church can’t survive with a maintenance mindset any longer. Those days are
gone. That river’s dried up.
We need people and buildings who are geared up for
mission and outreach. We need all of our members from the oldest to the
youngest to be salt and light in the places God has put them.
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