Adding Flavor, Shining the Light — June 9, 2024
June 9, 2024
Matthew 5:13-16
Adding Flavor, Shining the Light
Our current worship series is called “On Purpose.”
Last week we took a look at who determines who we are as we seek to discover our purpose.
We explored whether our identity is based on the geographical location of our birth and who our parents are or something else.
Could it be that our identity is determined by our relationship with God?
Today we are going to look at what it means to have a purpose and how we determine what that purpose is.
I want to talk a little bit today about what is probably my favorite beverage. Here is a video by way of introduction.
Video can be found on Youtube “1972 Coca Cola Commercial –“It’s the Real Thing”
As you know, Jesus never talked about Coke. It hadn’t been invented yet, which may have been the only reason he didn’t talk about it. I have a super strong feeling if Jesus had come in our day and time Coke would ended up in one of his sermon illustrations, although I have no way to prove that and it is just conjecture on my part.
Jesus did not talk about Coke, but he did talk about salt. Salt does what Coke does. It adds flavor.
Salt that loses its saltiness, is worthless.
As we heard when our text was read he says: “you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”
You do what salt does. You do what light does.
That is pretty important. Adding flavor and shining light in a world that can be tasteless and dark.
So, it is important that we identify who Jesus is addressing.
Who is this ‘You” to whom Jesus speaks?
According to the context they are those who hear him and do what he says. Ideally, it is the church.
In Thomas Long’s commentary on the Book of Matthew, he says:
The church that lives according to the vision expressed in the Beatitudes (which immediately precedes our text for today in the Sermon on the Mount) is a colony of the kingdom of heaven placed in the midst of an alien culture.
“They are peacemakers in the midst of a violent world.” I talked about the importance of being peacemakers last week in light of this unprecedented political environment we are in.
He says, “In a world that turns its head away from unpleasant sights, they” (those who are the salt of the earth and the light of the world) “mourn for the homeless, for the sick, for the lost, for the brokenhearted.”
In other words, what Jesus says, which could not be said more clearly, is that what Christians do in the world matters.
To live “On Purpose” matters.
I could talk a long time about what that might look like, but I think it would be more helpful for you to hear from members of our congregation some of the ways we are adding flavor and shining the light in our world.
Here is another video.
Video will be available on our Facebook page following the June 9th services.
We are called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
There have been those who have challenged Jesus’ words….There are those, more than ready to point out that technically salt doesn’t lose its saltiness – I would argue Jesus was aware of that as much or better than anybody else.
The point is the church and those who follow Jesus have ONE PURPOSE. To reflect the kingdom of heaven, up there, down here, to live the kingdom life in the world.
Whenever the church loses its way and becomes something else
– a social club
– a theological debating society, whatever, it becomes as worthless as salt would be if it weren’t salty
So shine your light, add the flavor and embrace the purpose God has for us all!