5th Sunday before Lent

Isaiah 58.1-12; 1Corinthians 2.1-16; Matthew 5.13-20

The Sermon on the Mount - Carl Heinrich Bloch

We find ourselves in Ordinary Time now and delving this year into St. Matthew's gospel. And of course we start near the beginning of his gospel, after the accounts of Jesus' birth, baptism, temptation in the wilderness and calling of His first disciples, with readings in what is commonly referred to as Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Unfortunately we've missed the beginning of the Sermon because last Sunday we celebrated Candlemas. If we'd ignored the feast, instead, we could have read the other readings set for that day, the beginning of Jesus' Sermon and that part of it known as the 'Beatitudes'. It's a very well  known text. In a way, I think the Beatitudes set out what is the outcome of living the Christian life. They tell us what we can expect, that is, how we can expect to understand what being 'blessed' means in a Christian context. And we come to understand all of that only as we embark upon and live out the Christian life to the full. Because being blessed in God's terms, is very different to what we might see as being blessed in human terms. And we only have to read Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 to 12 to see that. And I'd encourage you to read those verses and think about them as we make our way through what's before us over the next two or three weeks in Jesus' Sermon.

It's a pity really that we don't read the Sermon on the Mount during Lent. I think it's the best Lent study text we could have. It's the best reflection on what being a Christian means for our daily life and for our own Christian self development if you like, that you can find anywhere in the world. There are countless thousand books that tell us how we should be and what we should do, to be good Christians, good followers of Christ. But nothing beats the words from the Man's own mouth. This is Jesus speaking directly to us, telling us exactly what He wants of us. He aims it straight as an arrow right at your heart; and He's uncompromising. Because He wants to change your heart; as His Father spoke in the Old Testament, from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. And so after he sets out who are blessed He tells us who and what we are. And this telling, this Word is at the same time the greatest challenge and also the greatest affirmation for His disciples, for you and me.

'You', Jesus says, 'are the salt of the earth'. There's no ifs and buts about this; no qualifications. 'You ARE the salt of the earth'. This is, as I said, the greatest affirmation. There's nothing like knowing what you are about and nothing like being praised and valued for what you are. And I get the impression from this that this is what Jesus is doing; at the same time as telling His disciples what that actually means in real terms AS His disciples.

Those of you old enough to remember will recall the bags of crisps that had a little blue wax wrap of salt in them. This was an aspect of the good old days which really was far better than today. You were given salt with your crisps but you could choose whether or not to put it on your crisps. And if you did put it on you could choose how much. I think you can still get that arrangement but usually it's all, lightly salted or nothing and somebody else chooses the amount of salt for you. The point about that really is that the salt made all the difference, it brought out the flavour of the crisps as much as you wanted it to. It enriched your crisps in that way. And this is what we, as Christians are meant to do for the world - enrich it, in a very particular way. And not only are we meant to enrich the world but Jesus says that we DO enrich the world.

But Jesus goes on to say that you have to stay 'salty'. You've got to keep being what you are meant to be. He'll say this in a different way further on in the sermon. You are useless if you lose what you bring to the world as its 'salt'. And this is where the real work lies, keeping up, keeping on, staying the Christian course and BEING what you are meant to be as a disciple of Christ. And that means continually becoming what God intends for you. So, a Christian enriches the world in his or her own particular, distinctive way.

And then Jesus changes the image to bring another way of seeing what a Christian contributes to the world. Again, Jesus is affirming us in our discipleship. This IS what you are as a disciple - a light to the world. And a light is only a light if it's put where it's light can be seen and where it can do its work. A light hidden away is as useless as salt without its saltiness. You don't hide a light, you put it on a stand, you lift it up where it can do its best work. As a disciple you are only any good to the world if you can be seen and if what you are spreads out into the world. This light does a number of things which Jesus leaves for another time. For the moment He says that the purpose of your light the purpose of being a disciple of His in the world is so that others will see you and give glory to God. And what a challenge THAT is. The question is obvious. Do people see you and me and give glory to God because of what they see?

So again, affirmation and challenge. It's a great and wonderful thing being a disciple of Christ but it has consequences. You are here for the sake of the world, your life, as a Christian, is for the life of the world, to borrow a phrase from the late Fr. Alexander Schmemann. And we round off this affirmation and challenge by hearing what Jesus says next; that all of this is what He's here for, and all of this is that we are hearing in this sermon is what we are about as Jesus' disciples. Nothing that has gone before this time, with God's people is done away with. On the contrary, in Jesus and His followers is the fulfilment of all that has gone before. And it's for we His followers to make sure that we keep ourselves in His way and teach others the same.

This is truly serious business. When we are called by God to be salt and light to the world we are called to something special, for us and for the world. And it is not to be compromised. For in the end it is all so that others might look towards God and like us find in Him, their hope, their joy and their life.