Sermon notes for November 21, 2010
Salt and Light: Bright Lights, Good Deeds
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Problems:
When your life is radically different than those around you, you stick out!
Have you attended a high school reunion?
Perhaps in the early reunions, your class was mostly single,
And those Christians stuck out because they stories were not nearly as wild
Then 5 years later, they are mostly married, and
10 years later, they are mostly divorced,
and people are curious why you are still married – and you like it
Are you an alien?
It comes time for the annual end of the year donation,
And you feel lead to give a generous gift
And everyone around looks at you like you don’t really love your own kids
Are you an alien?
Its Saturday night, and you leave the party early
And every asks where you are going
And you say you have church in the morning, and its really important to you
Are you an alien?
You receive bad news – like Kevin Chenoweth did this week
And you don’t freak out, you act as if there were some higher power
Who loves you and has your back, and you are actually peaceful
Are you an alien?
How on earth to we make sense out of the “strange alien” look.
Point one: YOU ARE
It is not a suggestion. It is not a goal. It is not a choice. It is a declaration to his disciples. You are radically different from the world.
You are light.
I would have expected this at the end of the three year training process, Jesus’ school of discipleship. Congratulations, Peter, I didn’t think you were going to make it. Particularly with that triple denial at the end there, but you pulled it out, and now I declare you – LIGHT!
I also would have expected Jesus to point to the religious leaders of the day. Now they are the light of the world. Look how good they are. Look at how they follow the rules, even the obscure ones, and they are very careful in their teachings to make sure everyone else also follows the rules.
But instead, Jesus points at his rag tag collection of fishermen and tax collectors and says, “I just want you to know, YOU ARE THE LIGHT OF THE WHOLE WORLD.”
Point two: Let your light shine before others.
Second phrase I want to pick up is the line, “let your light shine before others.” We are God's plan for lighting up the world. We must do our jobs. It is who we are, and it is what we do.
When I was young we did a lot of camping. We had a Coleman lantern. This was a monster. You had to have the right filament. You had to fill it with kerosene, and you had to pump it forever. But once it was lit, the whole campsite would light up with this blue/green hue. We were free to continue with whatever activities we were doing – dominoes, UNO, even reading Charlie Brown comic books to each other.
This is what we are called to do. We are to bring light to the dark campsites of the world.
Now this bright beacon of light was not always a welcomed addition, particularly to a heavily populated camp ground. I learned new words, as the people in the tents near us shouted out, “Turn off that @#$%@ light, we are trying to get some ^&*$% sleep.”
Which brings us to point three: The light goes into the darkness.
Point three: Hill tops, bushels, and candle operas. Where does the light come go?
We are called to expose the darkness. People don't necessarily even know that its dark until the light comes on. We make it possible for people to see themselves and we expose their motives and expectations. It is all dark.
The world hates the light and loves the darkness. But the light goes into the darkness.
We have been placed by God on hilltops and on candle stands. But we often want to crawl under a bushel (A bowl).
Why would we not shine our lights? Because it is too hard to “stick out.” We want to be unique, but we also want to be popular. Some of us have a very strong desire to be liked. To be admired. To be welcomed as an equal and as a friend, is just a part of life. Just watch jr high kids in action some time.
But the bible teaches clearly that the world will not embrace the light. And we must choose. To either shine our light, or hide it under a bushel. And to be fair, it is not really a choice. If we are truly a follower of Jesus, we can not not shine. That is Jesus point when he says, “A city on a hill can not be hidden.” When Jesus places us on a hill, we are by our very nature “un-hide-able.”
The light comes from with in us, as the Holy Spirit dwells with in us.
Light not only exposes sinful deeds, it shows the way to the go. It provides hope.
Point 4: Hope
According to Peter we are children of light, who declare God’s praises.
1 Peter 2:9-10
9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
God will lead us to hope.
In John 3, Jesus declares he did not come into the world to condemn the world, but to save it.
If our lives only condemn, and do not lead to truth, we leave people in a worse place than before they encountered us. Our lives should lead people to Jesus.
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