Musical Prelude and Service.

Matthew 5:13- 20
The first part of today’s gospel reading is one of my favorites. It is a combination of assurance and encouragement. It is a reassurance of God’s love and faith in all of us and a directive to live fully as we were created.
The second part is more of a challenge. The words of Jesus directing his followers to hold fast to the commandments and the law has and continues to be a challenge. It has been used to argue that we who follow Jesus must stick to all the commandments found in scripture. And if we are honest with ourselves, no-one does that.
People will point to this as justification for their position on same sex relationships, but choose to avoid conversations on dietary restrictions, or wearing clothes with mixed fibers or directions on shaving or how they manage their fields for farming and harvesting; never mind prohibitions on tattoos.
So, once again I find it important to take a step back and consider who Jesus is talking to and where this particular passage fits in the entirety of this Gospel, and also in relationship to Jewish scripture.
How do we hear God speaking to us today, when we listen to these words of scripture?
This passage follows directly from the words we heard last week when Jesus starts his sermon by assuring his listeners that the poor in spirit, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness and justice, the peacemakers – are all blessed. God is with all of them and at work in the world through them. All of them.
Jesus then looks at them and states, you are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.
In an article for the Jewish Encyclopedia, its authors explain that salt is an essential part of life, and this was very well known by the earliest of Jewish communities. The importance of salt in association with food and sacrifice is mentioned in a number of places in Jewish scripture. And in subsequent Rabbinic writings it is noted that while a sacrifice cannot be performed without a priest, neither can it happen without salt. Acknowledging the vital importance of the substance, salt is an essential component of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel. This was no secret and not a new insight.
In pointing to his listeners and calling them salt, Jesus is utilizing imagery that his audience is already familiar with. He is telling people they are essential. They are important, and God deems them as essential.
In a similar fashion, he tells these followers that who they are and the religious practices they follow make a difference. That they help make the world a better place just by being faithful to who they are, how they were raised, what they do. It is important to remember – to never forget – that Jesus is a Jew. He was born and raised and practised within the Jewish religion and community. He was talking to other Jews. He debated with other Jews. Jesus was not setting up a new religion. He was not interested in overturning a millennium of religious tradition. I do not come to end the law but to fulfill it.
The Law is not just the series of commandments and instructions found in books like Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is the whole of the first five books of Jewish scripture. It is the story of how the Jewish people came to be in their land. It was the story of how they held onto their faith and their culture and their practices, despite facing so many different forces and empires and attacks from inside and out.
Now I am in no way an authority on Jewish scripture and faith, but I think I can say that Torah is essentially the revelation of God’s relationship to the Jewish people. It is part of the covenant between God and the people. How people live in that relationship, how they live out that covenant is a matter of ongoing conversation and debate. And that is what Jesus is engaged in when he gives his sermon on the mount.
When we read scripture and try to figure out what it is calling us to do, I think we can fall into a trap of reading particular verses or passages without the full context of scripture. We can each little bit as an instruction or commandment without considering where it is actually pointing us. What kind of world does God envisions for us?
One week we read Jesus telling his followers that the meek; the poor in spirit, those hungering for justice, and the peacemakers are blessed. The next week he is saying to follow the commandment to the letter. What is the overall message?
Again, we need to consider the totality of scripture. Later in Matthew he ends up in a debate with religious authorities when he is questioned, because some of his disciples take grain from a field on the Sabbath, which on the surface is contrary to Levitical law. He argues this is allowed based on compassion and circumstance.
In coming weeks, we will hear Jesus note conventions and instructions around how people are to respond in certain circumstances. Jesus doesn’t exactly say don’t do that but says to go further. To truly live out the idea of making the world a more generous and loving place. To go beyond the letter of what they are called to do.
Also in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will point to the commandment to Love God with all your heart and might and to love one another and argue that all the law hangs on those commandments.
The entirety of law is the goal of creating a world of love, of kindness and peace. It is to fulfill God’s vision of a world of justice and mercy. If we become so focused on the minutia of scriptural dictates, we lose sight of love and compassion, we then fail to fulfill God’s desire for creation.
Jesus calls us to be salt; to let our light shine. When we experience the most painful parts of this world. When we are poor in spirit, when we are oppressed, when we grieve, we are blessed.
We are blessed with empathy, with compassion. We are blessed with a knowledge of how this world is broken, but also with a vision of what this world can be. What God desires the world to be. We are not meant to keep these things to ourselves. We are not meant to be silent and cut off from the world. Name the injustices and the violence we witness and live out the example of love and mercy and peace that Jesus has revealed to the world.
Jesus is calling us to add flavour to the world. To preserve it and hold fast to the gentle and loving and kind qualities that God instilled in us. We can be tempted to remain silent. To not make a fuss for fear of being accused of becoming political; of causing division, when we are only pointing out the divisions that already exist. We can hide away for fear of making trouble, or calling trouble on ourselves. But God says, let your light illuminate the house, or the world.
Be a beacon for what God offers.
Thanks be to God.
Rev. Warner Bloomfield

Music provided with permission through licensing with CCLI License number
2701258 and One License # A-731789