Isaiah 58:1-9
Matthew 5:13-20

Perhaps you heard the story about the pastor who said to the congregation, "Everyone who wants to go to heaven, stand up."  All but one person quickly jumped to their feet.  The pastor was surprised when he looked out and saw Josh still seated.  The pastor said, "Josh, don't you want to go to heaven."  And Josh replied, "Sure, but I didn't know you were getting up a load right now."
  
My guess is that while heaven may have a variety of meanings most of us want to go to heaven. But how do we get there?  Jesus said, "I tell you, then, that you will be able to enter the reign of God or the kingdom of heaven only if you are more faithful than the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees in doing what God requires."             
  
First, let's be clear about Jesus and his relationship with the Pharisees.  He was not at odds with every Pharisee he met.  He was invited to the homes of some.  Jesus really was closer to the Pharisees in his thinking and teaching than to any other denomination in Judaism--Sadducees, Essenes, Zealots.  The fact Jesus disagreed with some of the Pharisees does not mean he disagreed with all of them.  Our tendency is to lump all of the Pharisees into one group.   
  
Second, Jesus made this statement about entering the rule and reign of God as a summary of his comments about salt, light, and the Law or religious guidelines.  It is as if Jesus said to his disciples, "You have noticed how zealous the Pharisees are about their relationship with God.  I want you to add zest to their approach.  Only then will you be doing what God expects and wants."  That's a tall order.  Let's see what that might mean.
  
I recently read of a couple of researchers who have been conducting experiments on salt. We North Americans consume huge quantities of the stuff in small amounts. They want to know why. Of course, the most immediate answer is salt makes food taste good. It seems to bring out the flavor. But why? They report that salt actually obscures many flavors of food. And yet we love it. One of their theories is that salt makes food taste so much better because it masks some of the bitterness of some of our foods. And yet, they don't know why.
              
Some of you who have been restricted to salt-free diets can probably testify that it is amazing what a difference a little salt makes. In today's Scripture, Jesus tells his followers that they are "the salt of the earth," that they are the "light of the world." A little thing like salt, a fragile quality like light makes a major difference.
              
I find it interesting that when Jesus speaks of the difference his people make in the world, he uses two rather small, often unnoticed, seemingly insignificant substances-salt and light.
               L
ight can be very fragile, but even in small quantities it makes quite a difference.  Have you ever done any exploring in a cave?  Wow, it can be really dark in a cave, but turn on a flashlight, the smallest of flashlights, and discover what a difference a little light can make. When the darkness is particularly great, one doesn't need a huge amount of light to make a great difference. Isn't it interesting that when Jesus spoke of us, seizing upon some metaphor to characterize who we are, he didn't say, "You are a great army marching into the world." He didn't say, "You are a loudspeaker put up in the marketplace to shout my message to everybody." Rather, Jesus said that we are "salt," and we are "light." Small, fragile, and yet both of these substances go a long way. They can make all the difference.
              
Jesus said his disciples were the salt of the earth and the light of world.  Several interpretations have been given to Jesus' use of the salt metaphor.  Reference has been made to the preserving, flavoring, and purifying aspects of salt and conjecture has led to the emphasis of first one and then the other of these powers of salt.  All of us know something about the use of salt for flavoring.  Salt is what makes McDonald's French fries so tasty.  Some of us know about the use of salt for preserving.  The reason country ham is available is because of the use of salt to preserve the meat.  In the days before refrigerators, meat was salted and smoked as a way to preserve it.  I recall as a young boy going to the smokehouse with my grandfather to cut a slab of bacon and bringing it to the kitchen for frying.  Salt also was used by many as an ingredient for cleansing and purifying.  However, it is pure conjecture to choose one of these meanings to interpret which analogy Jesus had in mind when he said, "You are the salt of the earth."  There is no conjecture needed in what is significant about this statement.  It is the quality of saltiness that gives salt its identity and purpose.  Salt which has lost its saltiness is no longer salt.  It has become something else and is to be used for something else.  It can be thrown on the ground and serve as a cover for the paths that people walk, but it cannot be used as salt anymore because it isn't salt when it has lost its identity, its saltiness. 

Being a follower of Jesus and seeking to embody in our living the same type of hope, love, and peace that was evident in Jesus, even under hardship, difficulty, persecution, is what gives a disciple identity and purpose just as saltiness gives salt its identity and purpose.  Jesus and his disciples were as serious about matters of moral and ethical behavior as anyone else in Judaism.  Jesus clearly stated that it was not his intent or purpose to abolish or destroy the religious guidelines.  Rather, Jesus said it was his intent to fulfill them, that is to complete them.  And the followers of Jesus are to complete them as well.  Following Jesus does not mean being careless about conduct nor does grace mean permissiveness.  Jesus said that the righteousness of his disciples was to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.  Righteousness means to do what is right to complete a relationship.  These two groups, scribes and Pharisees, were the most conscientiously committed to the observance of the religious rules and guidelines.  They were the most diligent and the most determined to complete their relationships, in other words to be true and honest in their covenant and commitment in relationship with God and with people.  Jesus was urging his disciples to exceed the best, not the worst.  Jesus' disciples were to be the best of the best when it came to loving God and loving neighbors.       
  
The disciples of Jesus were to be salt for the earth, not for themselves.  They were to be light for the whole world, not for a closed fellowship.  
  
Harry Lauder, a Scottish comedian, liked to describe the old lamplighter who came by his boyhood home each evening to light the gas lamps.  He would light the lamp in front of Lauder's home, then make his way, back and forth, down the street.  In the deepening twilight, the boy would lose sight of the old lamplighter.  "But," he explained, "I always knew where he was by the avenue of light he left behind him."  God seeks to leave an avenue of light for us by being present to us in the world so we can determine the direction our journey needs to take.  By being in relationship with God, not only do we determine the direction for our journey, but also we help light the path for others.  In this way as Jesus suggested, we are the light of the world.  
  
An old Rabbi once asked his students how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun. 

"Could it be," asked one of the students, “when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it's a sheep or a dog?"

"No," answered the Rabbi.

Another student asked, "Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it is a fig tree or a peach tree?"

"No," answered the Rabbi.

"Then when is it?" the students asked.

"It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see that it is your brother or sister..  Because if you cannot see this, it is still night."  (Found in Touching the Holy, Robert J. Wicks) A characteristic of the cotton plant is that each leaf faces the sun.  In the morning, as the sun rises, the leaves turn eastward.  Then throughout the day they gradually turn, following the sun as it moves across the sky.  When the sun sets at evening, the leaves are pointed westward, always kept at an angle to receive the maximum amount of sunlight.
  
It is the nature of the cotton plant continually to seek its source of light and energy that enables it to grow.  It is our nature to seek our Source--God.  From morning to evening we can look to God for life-giving power and strength.             

There is good reason for us to seek to live in the light, to see more light, to desire to be enlightened.  If for no other reason, the characteristics of light should be enough to cause us to want to be in the light, to live in the light.  The characteristics of light are:

1)The nearer we are to the source, the brighter the light appears
2)Light reveals; the brighter the light, the more revealing it is.
3)Light reflects more clearly from a clean surface.
4)Light reveals uncleanness but cannot itself be impure.
5)Light is nothing to the blind; they cannot see it or appreciate it.
6)A person walking with his face away from the light walks in his own shadow, hence in darkness.
7)A person walking toward the light walks in the light.
8)Light cannot dwell with darkness nor darkness with light.  (C. F. Bundy)
    
Salt and light are small but make a huge impact. You can recall all of the stories Jesus told in which something that the world regards as small and insignificant is, when seen through the perspective of God's rule and reign, full of power.
              
He told about the one pearl of great price, the one lost coin, the one lost sheep, about a tiny mustard seed that grew and spread its branches up to the sky. Didn't he thereby warn us that it was our peculiar vocation to seem small and insignificant to the world, to work behind the scenes, secretly growing? I know many of you do this. Those of you who are teachers arrive at school in the morning to teach your class. You don't show up with a sign "CHRISTIAN" emblazoned your back. You slip in quietly. You do your work. You don't look that different from anyone else. However, from that moment when you stuck up for that wayward child whom everyone else had given up on was when you became salt and light. That time at work when you noticed the colleague who was quieter than usual and you simply ask how he was and to your surprise he told you that his life was falling apart.  You listened, offered care and compassion and you became salt and light. You became that substance which savored a world which for another had become tasteless and dull, not worth living. You became that light shining in the darkness. Jesus has put a great deal of trust in us, making us his salt and his light. Odd. You may think that here he might say I am the light of the world. I am the salt of the earth. Of course, that may be implied. The amazing thing is that he turns to ordinary, unspectacular people like us and says, "You are light. You are salt." And by the grace of God, we are.
              
It was a tense, very difficult meeting, growing more difficult. The committee had been dealing with the problem of an employee who had committed a theft.
"This business cannot function with people who are thieves," said one of the members of the committee. There was widespread agreement in the group. “None of us want to work where people can not be trusted,” said another. “I think a rule is a rule. All of the employees will be watching us," added a third
  
"We must make an example of her as a warning to everyone," said another.
              
"As I see it, this is a cut and dried case. No need for agony over this one. She admitted that she stole the money. She knows that it is wrong. It's as simple as that," chimed in yet another. At length, one of the colleagues spoke up, a rather quiet person, not known for her leadership. "I think our company ought to be the sort of place where people are more important even than good rules. As you say, she has admitted her guilt. There are mitigating circumstances-her marriage situation, her two children. None of that excuses this. But I don't think she is asking us to be excused. I think she is asking us to give her another chance. I would like all of our employees to know that this is the sort of company where someone can make a terrible, tragic mistake, and yet be given a second chance." In that tension- filled, darkened room, light shown. Some might say, in that light, there appeared a vision of the rule and reign of God.

What a powerful statement Jesus made.  It applies to all who are his disciples.  The authentic disciples of Jesus are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.   Learning from Jesus and living our lives in the same manner and method that Jesus lived his, even under hardship is what gives us our identity.  The term Christian means to be like Christ.  To be like Christ is to be light, not drawing attention to ourselves but pointing to the source of all light.  A family had visited one of the great cathedrals with its stained glass windows.  Many of the pictures in the windows were of the early followers of Jesus.  Sometime later, in a church school class, the teacher asked the class what a saint was.  The boy who had been to the cathedral said, "A saint is someone the light shines through."  He was right.  Is the light of God's love and grace shining through us?  When that happens we are salt and light as Jesus said we are. We are saints.  May the light of God’s love shine through us, through you and me.