WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.700 Our scripture reading tonight is from Matthew chapter 5 in the New Testament, verses 13-16. 00:00:07.780 --> 00:00:10.820 ! A very brief, very famous part of the Bible. 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:13.140 This is God's holy word. 00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:19.080 You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:25.160 It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. 00:00:26.199 --> 00:00:27.640 You are the light of the world. 00:00:27.859 --> 00:00:29.500 A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 00:00:30.600 --> 00:00:36.640 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:46.760 In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:48.799 This is God's holy word. 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:55.500 On Sunday nights, we're working our way through a series called Questions Jesus Asked. 00:00:55.780 --> 00:00:57.140 There are about 300 of them. 00:00:57.140 --> 00:01:00.460 So we've just got one or two left, so we won't get to all of them. 00:01:01.520 --> 00:01:11.939 But it's really a free pass for every preacher to pick a gospel story and to look at one of the many questions Jesus asked in the summertime. 00:01:11.939 --> 00:01:19.459 So tonight we've got this very famous passage about salt and light, and it opens with a question in verse 13, the second clause. 00:01:19.579 --> 00:01:22.920 But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.879 And then in the second part of the passage, there's an implied question. 00:01:26.879 --> 00:01:32.039 So you're the light of the world is a light, a lamp to be hidden and then placed under a basket. 00:01:32.039 --> 00:01:40.879 So that gets put in question form in Mark 4, the parallel version of this passage where Jesus says, is a lamp meant to be lit and then put underneath a basket. 00:01:40.979 --> 00:01:43.500 So we've got two questions here that Jesus asked. 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:44.319 It's a short passage. 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:45.519 It's a very famous passage. 00:01:45.519 --> 00:01:52.179 I think it's got four really clear ideas, either explicitly or implicitly, that come out. 00:01:52.259 --> 00:01:54.319 So number one, you are salt and you are light. 00:01:55.239 --> 00:02:02.280 Number two, you are a pinch of salt and you are a lamp, not the sun. 00:02:03.679 --> 00:02:07.640 And number three, salt's not to be wasted and thrown on the ground. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:09.240 Don't hide your light. 00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:11.240 Don't put it under a basket. 00:02:11.439 --> 00:02:13.759 And then lastly, instead, let your light shine. 00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:16.459 So those four ideas, that's what Jesus says here. 00:02:17.239 --> 00:02:18.799 There's not much text. 00:02:18.919 --> 00:02:20.259 It's almost exactly what he says. 00:02:20.359 --> 00:02:21.979 So let's think about it together. 00:02:22.079 --> 00:02:28.120 First, he tells us in verse 13 and then just after that, in verse 14, you are salt, you are light. 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:31.500 So in the first century, you are salt. 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:38.680 In the first century, salt was primarily used as a preserving agent more than something that you flavor your food with. 00:02:38.699 --> 00:02:40.139 It wasn't that easy to get. 00:02:40.139 --> 00:02:45.339 And so that means that most of the time, salt was there to keep things from decaying. 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:46.699 So you would put it on meat. 00:02:46.819 --> 00:02:47.719 You would put it on fish. 00:02:48.359 --> 00:02:59.939 And as the people who know more than me about science say, by osmosis, the salt is absorbed into the meat, the fish, and it dehydrates it so that bacteria cannot grow. 00:03:00.419 --> 00:03:01.259 And so it preserves. 00:03:01.259 --> 00:03:06.419 So salt, for the ancient person, the first century mind, for Jesus' mind, is an arresting agent. 00:03:06.599 --> 00:03:07.819 It arrests decay. 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:10.259 It slows down the process of decay. 00:03:10.340 --> 00:03:11.879 And that was the main way it was used. 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:14.120 But he doesn't just say you are a preservative. 00:03:14.159 --> 00:03:15.240 He says you are a preservative. 00:03:15.340 --> 00:03:16.139 You arrest decay. 00:03:16.620 --> 00:03:17.819 And you are of the earth. 00:03:17.919 --> 00:03:19.340 So he says salt of the earth. 00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:22.659 Why does he add that little prepositional phrase, of the earth? 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:29.159 And I think it's because the word earth in the Old Testament had such importance. 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:33.740 And it shows up very early in Genesis 1, and then in Genesis 2, and then in Genesis 3. 00:03:34.419 --> 00:03:37.719 And it's the same word as the word ground in the Old Testament. 00:03:37.819 --> 00:03:39.780 So earth and ground are the same word. 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:45.439 And so God made the ground or the earth, and Adam, humans, came from the earth or from the ground. 00:03:45.439 --> 00:03:53.560 And then as soon as Adam sinned against the ground, against the earth, we learn in Genesis 3 that what the ground or the earth was cursed. 00:03:54.240 --> 00:04:00.780 And so I think Jesus says you are salt of the earth because he's trying to call his followers to think about the curse. 00:04:01.840 --> 00:04:07.120 You are the preserving agent that arrests decay amid a world that is cursed. 00:04:07.659 --> 00:04:09.780 Amid a world that is decaying, in other words. 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:16.839 It's so you've got to be, we're called to be, you are, it is your identity to be an arresting agent amidst the decay because there is decay. 00:04:17.019 --> 00:04:21.959 There is a cursed earth all around us, and we are existing in a place like that. 00:04:23.019 --> 00:04:24.660 So the world is decaying. 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:25.500 That's what he's really saying. 00:04:25.699 --> 00:04:26.800 The world is decaying. 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:28.779 Things are falling apart. 00:04:28.779 --> 00:04:40.279 And that's very important to say, for the church to say that in 2026, because for the past couple centuries, it has been a norm to talk about progress in a place like Edinburgh. 00:04:40.939 --> 00:04:48.079 And to say that we are a city of progress, and the modern world is an age of progress, and we are constantly making progress as human people. 00:04:48.079 --> 00:05:07.060 And so that was preached very loudly on the Royal Mile during the Scottish Enlightenment in the 18th century, that human beings, the modern person, is learning enough, is studying enough, is doing enough scientific experimentation that we can really arrest decay ourselves and make progress and get past all the problems of this life and this world. 00:05:07.060 --> 00:05:18.160 And we know today that the progress narrative is still very much with us, is transhumanism and technology, technocracy grows and grows, and people hope that we can arrest the decay maximally. 00:05:18.259 --> 00:05:20.660 And there's a thousand examples of how that works. 00:05:20.759 --> 00:05:28.860 But now philosophers and sociologists and theologians and so many who write in these areas, what do they call this narrative? 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.019 They don't say, we're making progress. 00:05:31.019 --> 00:05:36.379 Most people now today say, that have really looked at it, they say, we have lived through the myth of progress. 00:05:36.379 --> 00:05:39.699 That the idea that humanity is making progress is actually just a myth. 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:49.540 There's a writer, Joseph LeConte, who writes about the Inklings, about Tolkien and Lewis and all these folks, and I like some of his work. 00:05:49.719 --> 00:05:55.839 And he writes about especially how the Great War and World War II affected Tolkien and Lewis. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:59.879 But he writes about this question of, is history progress? 00:06:00.199 --> 00:06:01.959 Or is humanity getting better and better? 00:06:02.279 --> 00:06:03.860 Are we making this world better and better? 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:05.920 And this is just a summary of what he says. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.819 He says, is history progressing in the sense of becoming better and better? 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:14.680 And he says, well, progress means getting nearer to where you actually want to be and should be. 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:25.060 So if you take a wrong road, the one who turns back to go the other way, retracing their footsteps, is actually the most progressive person. 00:06:25.780 --> 00:06:28.200 Because they are returning to where one should be. 00:06:28.700 --> 00:06:30.420 In other words, progress is directional. 00:06:30.420 --> 00:06:31.420 It's not automatic. 00:06:31.420 --> 00:06:31.580 It's not automatic. 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:32.920 Mere motion. 00:06:33.819 --> 00:06:35.160 Just making things. 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:41.460 Isn't progress if it is motion, if it is movement away from the true, the good, and the beautiful. 00:06:41.459 --> 00:06:52.819 And so the myth of progress is really the failure to think that just because our technology is getting better, just because we can live a little bit longer than we used to, that we can talk about an age of progress. 00:06:52.819 --> 00:07:00.060 But for Lacan studying Tolkien and Lewis in the Great War, he said the Great War shattered that enlightenment myth of progress. 00:07:00.159 --> 00:07:00.279 Why? 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:04.560 Because it was the bloodiest, the 20th century was the bloodiest century in world history. 00:07:04.719 --> 00:07:06.019 Are we making moral progress? 00:07:06.019 --> 00:07:14.839 Every culture, every century, in other words, without a clear sense of what is true, what is good, and therefore what is beautiful. 00:07:15.379 --> 00:07:16.319 What is the beautiful life? 00:07:16.899 --> 00:07:17.759 Can't progress. 00:07:17.899 --> 00:07:18.959 Can't move forward. 00:07:19.139 --> 00:07:20.099 We can only regress. 00:07:20.259 --> 00:07:22.659 And so listen to what Tom Wright says about this. 00:07:22.659 --> 00:07:31.079 The myth of progress doesn't work because it misunderstands the nature of evil, and it underestimates the power of evil. 00:07:31.079 --> 00:07:39.300 Well, I think of Yates' poetry, what he wrote in 1919, things fall apart, the center cannot hold. 00:07:39.839 --> 00:07:44.539 And if you think about what Jesus is saying here, you are the salt of the cursed ground. 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:46.479 That is exactly right. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:47.819 Things are always falling apart. 00:07:47.959 --> 00:07:48.799 They can't hold together. 00:07:48.979 --> 00:07:50.479 The center is not holding together. 00:07:50.659 --> 00:07:53.680 So physically, we're falling apart, right? 00:07:54.659 --> 00:07:55.620 Physically, we're falling apart. 00:07:55.699 --> 00:07:58.899 And relationally, it's very hard for a couple to stay together. 00:07:58.899 --> 00:08:04.799 We know that you've got to be pulling the weeds up of relationships or they're going in the wrong direction. 00:08:05.739 --> 00:08:09.859 And scientifically, I read that disorder is always increasing. 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:17.599 I don't know all that that means as a non-scientist, but I do know one example people talk about is that if you leave a car, it's going to rust. 00:08:18.279 --> 00:08:21.120 It's always going to go towards disaster and chaos eventually. 00:08:21.299 --> 00:08:26.699 Coffee, when I leave my coffee on the countertop in the mornings, it always goes cold. 00:08:26.699 --> 00:08:31.579 And if you plant a garden and you don't go out and tend to it, it's going to grow weeds. 00:08:31.699 --> 00:08:33.240 Things are always moving towards decay. 00:08:33.659 --> 00:08:35.100 They're always moving in that direction. 00:08:35.220 --> 00:08:35.720 Things fall apart. 00:08:35.860 --> 00:08:39.679 I experienced this this past week, week and a half ago. 00:08:39.819 --> 00:08:48.059 We came back from a holiday in France, and somebody had very kindly come to our house and cleaned, and the kids' bedrooms were spotless. 00:08:48.059 --> 00:08:50.959 I've never seen it before. 00:08:51.119 --> 00:08:52.799 In fact, it was a new site. 00:08:52.939 --> 00:09:08.459 And, you know, if you come to my house today, as many of you actually did, and you went into those rooms, you know that a child's bedroom is a microcosmic scientific—it could be an experiment of exactly what the cosmos is doing. 00:09:08.939 --> 00:09:10.819 It's naturally ordered to decay. 00:09:10.820 --> 00:09:13.000 It is always moving to chaos. 00:09:13.220 --> 00:09:16.560 It is always moving—it's entropy, I think, as they call it, right? 00:09:17.500 --> 00:09:18.080 And so what? 00:09:18.100 --> 00:09:18.360 What is it? 00:09:18.360 --> 00:09:19.140 Let me make it concrete. 00:09:20.460 --> 00:09:34.940 Jesus is saying, when he says, you are salt in the midst of a cursed, decaying world, I think he's asking us to read that metaphor in the light of what he had just said, which is the Beatitudes. 00:09:35.320 --> 00:09:36.200 What does this mean for me? 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:36.980 What does this mean for you? 00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:39.040 If you're a Christian tonight, what does this mean? 00:09:39.039 --> 00:09:45.759 And he has just told humanity what it is to live the beautiful life and the Beatitudes, the blessed life, the life of truth and goodness and beauty. 00:09:46.079 --> 00:09:46.740 And this is what he said. 00:09:46.779 --> 00:09:48.919 He said, here's the great virtues. 00:09:49.120 --> 00:09:52.019 It's to hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:09:52.219 --> 00:09:53.819 It's to be poor in spirit. 00:09:54.039 --> 00:09:57.500 It's to be meek in the midst of selfish ambition. 00:09:57.659 --> 00:09:58.620 It's to be merciful. 00:09:59.599 --> 00:10:01.159 It's to be a peacemaker. 00:10:01.379 --> 00:10:07.319 It's to have public faith that's willing to be persecuted and stand unashamed of the gospel. 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:08.800 And he said, that is the blessed life. 00:10:09.040 --> 00:10:10.020 That's the beautiful life. 00:10:10.060 --> 00:10:13.980 And then he turns and says, and you are the preserving agent of the cursed world. 00:10:14.040 --> 00:10:14.600 What does it look like? 00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:17.200 It looks like a life that lives out the Beatitudes. 00:10:17.780 --> 00:10:19.080 I think that's what he means. 00:10:19.220 --> 00:10:22.580 And so notice that it's indicative, not imperative. 00:10:22.780 --> 00:10:28.320 Meaning he doesn't say you should be salt of the earth or I command you to be salt of the earth. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:30.820 He says the indicative, you are salt of the earth. 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:32.220 It is the Christian identity. 00:10:32.640 --> 00:10:33.460 It is who you are. 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:40.840 You, as a follower of Jesus, are arresting the decay of the cursed ground in the world. 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:42.120 It's a statement of fact. 00:10:43.240 --> 00:10:50.720 All right, so secondly, we learn here, I think, by implicitly a caveat. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:55.060 And that's that, yet, you are a pinch of salt. 00:10:55.720 --> 00:11:01.379 And you are more like a little small table lamp than the sun itself. 00:11:01.480 --> 00:11:03.220 Or you're more like the moon than the sun. 00:11:03.540 --> 00:11:04.840 So we've got a big problem here. 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:09.040 And if you think about this metaphor of salt, salt arrests decay. 00:11:09.180 --> 00:11:09.879 It preserves. 00:11:10.519 --> 00:11:13.840 But salt only preserves for a time. 00:11:13.920 --> 00:11:14.920 It only arrests decay. 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:17.740 It only pushes back the darkness for a moment. 00:11:17.740 --> 00:11:19.919 But the meat is going to go bad. 00:11:19.940 --> 00:11:21.100 And the fish is going to go bad. 00:11:21.159 --> 00:11:21.899 And it's going to smell. 00:11:22.940 --> 00:11:26.220 And so we're left here asking the question, I think, by this metaphor. 00:11:26.879 --> 00:11:35.100 Is the story of the church, the followers of Jesus, you, is it a story where we have to say what Galadriel said in the Fellowship of the Ring? 00:11:35.419 --> 00:11:37.580 That we're all just here living the long defeat. 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:40.980 That, yeah, you can push back the darkness for a little while. 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:42.580 You can arrest the decay for a moment. 00:11:42.580 --> 00:11:45.200 But eventually the story is the story of loss. 00:11:45.299 --> 00:11:45.960 It's the defeat. 00:11:45.960 --> 00:11:48.139 It's that you will never win. 00:11:48.240 --> 00:11:49.379 It will always be Babylon. 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:51.780 Babylon will always overwhelm. 00:11:52.500 --> 00:11:57.080 And that's why I think he adds, verse 14, you, he gives you two metaphors side by side. 00:11:57.220 --> 00:12:00.280 Same grammar, same claim, but a different angle. 00:12:00.639 --> 00:12:01.759 It's not just that you're salt. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:04.000 He says you are the light of the world. 00:12:04.120 --> 00:12:06.480 So think about how different salt and light are. 00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:11.620 Yet he's using them to effectively say the same thing with slightly different angles and nuances. 00:12:11.620 --> 00:12:15.720 So when you take salt in the ancient world, you put it on something to preserve it. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:17.320 It blends in by osmosis. 00:12:17.399 --> 00:12:18.379 You can't see it anymore. 00:12:18.580 --> 00:12:19.240 It's gone. 00:12:19.320 --> 00:12:21.480 It's doing the work of slowing down the problem. 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:24.039 But how different is the nature of light? 00:12:24.139 --> 00:12:29.759 Light, you turn light on and it advances against the darkness. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.779 You know, salt arrests and slows down a problem. 00:12:34.539 --> 00:12:37.819 But light gets rid of the problem. 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:40.840 Light enters a room and the darkness can't stay anymore. 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:41.779 It has to go away. 00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:47.299 Light accomplishes exactly the mission that it's been set out to accomplish. 00:12:47.439 --> 00:12:48.600 It's not just a preservative. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:49.480 It's an advance. 00:12:49.480 --> 00:12:54.820 And so he uses this metaphor of light, I think, in the context of the Old Testament again, 00:12:55.680 --> 00:13:02.240 where in Isaiah 42 and Isaiah 49 and Isaiah 60, he had said to his people in the Old Testament, 00:13:02.360 --> 00:13:04.320 God did to Israel, you are light. 00:13:04.440 --> 00:13:05.440 You are the light of the nations. 00:13:05.560 --> 00:13:06.539 You are the light of the world. 00:13:07.060 --> 00:13:10.159 And here he's picking back up on that and saying it again. 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:16.500 But if you read the Old Testament, you may be thinking the same thing as the Israelites were in the Old Testament. 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:20.340 That we can't do this job. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:21.960 We can't be the light of the nations. 00:13:22.279 --> 00:13:26.620 We have failed at every step of the way to push back the problems of Babylon. 00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:29.679 The world, the flesh, and the devil are always getting into us. 00:13:29.779 --> 00:13:31.220 The temptations are overwhelming us. 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:35.240 And you come to a passage like this and it says, it's not an imperative, it's an indicative. 00:13:35.419 --> 00:13:37.100 It says, you are salt. 00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:38.120 You are light. 00:13:38.259 --> 00:13:39.059 You are the light. 00:13:39.100 --> 00:13:39.559 What does he say? 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:40.419 Of the world. 00:13:41.639 --> 00:13:44.259 And you think, how am I supposed to be the light of the world? 00:13:44.259 --> 00:13:46.179 A city set on a hill for the nations. 00:13:47.000 --> 00:13:48.600 That's what he said to Israel and they failed. 00:13:48.740 --> 00:13:51.100 That's what he then comes to say here at the Sermon on the Mount. 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:57.080 And you've got to first read it and realize that he's talking to the whole church, the Gentiles, and the Jews all together. 00:13:57.159 --> 00:13:57.919 The new Israel. 00:13:58.299 --> 00:14:01.820 And we've got to look and say, I also have failed at this. 00:14:01.879 --> 00:14:03.139 I could never do this. 00:14:03.179 --> 00:14:04.799 I could never be the light of the world. 00:14:04.860 --> 00:14:05.799 A city set on a hill. 00:14:05.799 --> 00:14:17.639 And that's why you've got to remember that we read this passage in the light of the gospel redemption accomplished and therefore applied. 00:14:17.639 --> 00:14:19.939 So, think about it like this. 00:14:21.059 --> 00:14:23.480 Matthew 5 comes right before Matthew 4. 00:14:24.179 --> 00:14:28.179 And if you read Matthew 5 and him say to you, you are the light of the world. 00:14:29.139 --> 00:14:31.399 You are, it sounds a lot like he's saying, you are the hope. 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:39.539 But in Matthew 4, just one chapter back, verse 16, he says, we read, quoting Isaiah 9, Jesus reads from the scroll in the synagogue. 00:14:39.740 --> 00:14:43.939 He says, the people living in darkness have now seen a great light. 00:14:43.940 --> 00:14:47.880 So, Jesus has just identified himself as the light. 00:14:48.520 --> 00:14:51.380 And then he explains what it's like to live the beautiful life. 00:14:51.880 --> 00:14:55.020 And then he turns and says, and now you also are the light. 00:14:55.040 --> 00:14:57.240 Or you can think about what he says in John's gospel. 00:14:57.380 --> 00:15:00.240 He says, I am the light of the world. 00:15:00.980 --> 00:15:07.920 And that means that when you read a metaphor like this, such an important passage in the New Testament for what a Christian is, what our identity is. 00:15:08.580 --> 00:15:11.380 What he's saying to us is, you are the light of the world. 00:15:11.379 --> 00:15:17.360 But it's more like you're the moon and you don't produce the light yourself. 00:15:17.519 --> 00:15:18.939 You simply reflect the light of the sun. 00:15:18.980 --> 00:15:20.019 Or you're a lamp. 00:15:20.139 --> 00:15:23.500 You're not the sun, S-U-N itself, because you're not the sun, S-O-N. 00:15:23.899 --> 00:15:27.840 Or you're just a little bit of pinch of salt in whatever little place God has put you. 00:15:28.100 --> 00:15:31.100 But you are not the preserving agent of all of history. 00:15:31.960 --> 00:15:38.080 And so your mission in life, Christian friends, is to reflect the sun, to be the moon, to be a lamp. 00:15:38.080 --> 00:15:44.860 And whatever little place God has put you, to be a preserving agent, a pinch of salt sprinkled on whatever place God has directed you. 00:15:44.940 --> 00:15:48.100 Because he is the salt and the light of the world. 00:15:48.200 --> 00:15:51.240 And so think about some passages in the New Testament. 00:15:51.820 --> 00:15:53.820 In Christ, all things hold together. 00:15:54.080 --> 00:16:00.580 You know, if the world, if the myth of progress is a myth and the world is in decay, this cursed ground. 00:16:00.580 --> 00:16:07.780 We learn in Colossians 1 that Jesus Christ is the gravity that is holding everything together. 00:16:08.400 --> 00:16:10.960 Without which it would all just disintegrate and fly apart. 00:16:11.000 --> 00:16:18.220 In that metaphor, we are little magnets trying to act like the great gravity that is Jesus Christ holding all things together. 00:16:18.379 --> 00:16:19.180 But listen to what he says. 00:16:19.259 --> 00:16:23.639 I think Paul puts it all together so helpfully in Ephesians. 00:16:24.280 --> 00:16:25.879 When he says in Ephesians 5, 00:16:25.879 --> 00:16:28.059 You are a light to the nations. 00:16:28.179 --> 00:16:29.000 You're a light to the world. 00:16:29.220 --> 00:16:29.480 How? 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:31.460 He says because you are in the light. 00:16:32.200 --> 00:16:34.840 And so what he's saying there is if you have been united to Jesus Christ, 00:16:34.899 --> 00:16:37.759 if you say tonight, I am a follower of Jesus Christ, 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:43.820 your public identity is to be a little lamp and a little pinch of salt in wherever God has put you. 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:50.419 In other words, the way that we're to read this passage is to read it in the light of everything that's going to happen after. 00:16:51.259 --> 00:16:53.539 Jesus is at the beginning of his ministry here. 00:16:53.539 --> 00:16:56.539 But what did happen? 00:16:58.059 --> 00:17:01.500 The light of the world came into the world to become the ultimate subject of decay. 00:17:02.819 --> 00:17:05.319 Jesus Christ, the light of the world, what did he do? 00:17:05.379 --> 00:17:09.619 He came to enter into the fullness of darkness itself at the cross. 00:17:10.399 --> 00:17:12.639 So that light could be shed unto us. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:16.180 That he could go right into the heart of darkness and bring the light from the inside out. 00:17:16.299 --> 00:17:19.359 He, we know, experienced physical decay. 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:22.720 The God of creation, the light of the world, he experienced physical decay. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:24.700 He experienced relational decay in this life, in his body. 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:26.220 He experienced relational decay. 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:28.180 His friends abandoned him. 00:17:28.279 --> 00:17:29.720 He experienced political decay. 00:17:31.120 --> 00:17:37.339 Because the great rulers of Jerusalem tried him and executed him in a completely unjust court. 00:17:37.339 --> 00:17:44.000 He experienced the decay and the disintegration in his earthly life that our sin brought to the ground. 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.339 That we did when we cursed the ground. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:51.799 So that we could sit here today and be saying, now all of it is being preserved. 00:17:51.799 --> 00:17:55.319 Because the light of the nations is going to enter into the darkness. 00:17:55.319 --> 00:18:04.579 And until he does, fully and finally and forever, it is our mission in the light of the cross and the resurrection to be a little pinch of salt and a table lamp. 00:18:04.980 --> 00:18:07.779 And wherever God has put you in your life today. 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:10.079 So let me get practical with this. 00:18:10.700 --> 00:18:18.639 Thirdly, that means that we're told here, I think Jesus anticipates a problem when he turns and he asks this question. 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:24.720 In verse 13b, he's telling us, salt needs to be used. 00:18:24.900 --> 00:18:26.120 Light shouldn't be hidden. 00:18:26.360 --> 00:18:29.660 And so here's how he gets us there to think about how this looks practically in our lives. 00:18:30.380 --> 00:18:34.200 He says, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 00:18:35.080 --> 00:18:38.520 Now that has been a tricky verse for people, for interpreters. 00:18:39.820 --> 00:18:43.520 Because salt can't lose its chemical makeup. 00:18:43.740 --> 00:18:44.980 It can't lose its taste. 00:18:45.580 --> 00:18:47.460 So what exactly does he mean by this? 00:18:47.460 --> 00:18:50.140 And I think there's a couple possibilities, but they both come together. 00:18:50.920 --> 00:19:00.240 The Greek word that he uses for losing taste here is a word that only slightly changed means to play the fool. 00:19:01.620 --> 00:19:06.660 And so in Greek, it sounds like a play on words where it would read something like, 00:19:08.380 --> 00:19:15.240 he would be saying effectively that if you use salt in a foolish way, then why are you using? 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:15.819 Why do you have it? 00:19:15.819 --> 00:19:17.500 In other words, let me make it more concrete. 00:19:18.139 --> 00:19:25.460 Sometimes at my house with toddlers, they want so much salt on their food. 00:19:25.679 --> 00:19:29.679 And our two-year-old has started to understand the salt, the pepper, 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:35.559 and can beckon the salt consistently throughout a meal and want more salt and more salt. 00:19:35.559 --> 00:19:46.500 And so Heather and I, we either put the cap on top of the salt and shake it over her food to make her think that salt is coming out so she'll be satisfied. 00:19:47.220 --> 00:19:50.119 Or, you know, you'll just, if there's no cap, you just throw it on the ground. 00:19:50.299 --> 00:19:52.960 And technically speaking, that is a dumb use of salt. 00:19:53.740 --> 00:19:55.480 Salt is not meant to be used that way. 00:19:55.579 --> 00:19:56.519 It's not meant to be. 00:19:56.659 --> 00:19:58.839 It's meant to flavor the food and to preserve things. 00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:04.519 But in order to protect her, we just throw it on the ground and we trample upon it, just like Jesus says right here. 00:20:05.399 --> 00:20:13.139 So he's saying, if you are salt of the earth, but you're not living a life of public faith, 00:20:13.140 --> 00:20:18.200 you're not providing preservative and flavor to the world that God has put you in. 00:20:19.320 --> 00:20:21.380 There's another way to read it too, and it's something like this. 00:20:22.540 --> 00:20:25.080 Pure salt was unattainable in the first century. 00:20:25.620 --> 00:20:31.320 So I think one of the ways people have found this tricky is probably because we think of salt as, you know, 00:20:31.800 --> 00:20:35.120 Himalayan table salt that you bought at Costco last week. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:41.360 But pure Himalayan salt, pink salt, rock salt, none of these things were around. 00:20:41.819 --> 00:20:45.740 Of course, they existed, but you couldn't get them some pure, unadulterated form. 00:20:45.839 --> 00:20:49.939 Nobody was processing them and bottling them and shipping them out to the world through Amazon. 00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:53.459 You couldn't get table salt in the way we think about it. 00:20:53.519 --> 00:20:58.500 No, salt for the ancient person was mixed with all sorts of minerals like gypsum. 00:20:58.639 --> 00:21:02.579 And sometimes it came from the Dead Sea and other mines and places like that. 00:21:02.579 --> 00:21:03.579 But it was never pure. 00:21:03.579 --> 00:21:10.719 And so it was very possible that you could use a compound that was called salt that was full of all sorts of other minerals. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:16.000 But eventually you would taste it and say it doesn't taste like salt, but it looks like salt. 00:21:16.039 --> 00:21:18.920 And it's probably because it's just gypsum or it's some other mineral. 00:21:19.140 --> 00:21:24.980 And so Jesus is probably pulling from that and saying you can look like salt. 00:21:25.700 --> 00:21:26.960 You can appear to be salt. 00:21:27.259 --> 00:21:32.620 But if you're not going out into the city and living a life of public faith, then you don't have saltiness. 00:21:32.619 --> 00:21:38.099 There's no actual sodium chloride deep down in the chemical compounds of your life. 00:21:39.199 --> 00:21:44.199 And we know what he means because the light metaphor helps us so much to make it even clearer. 00:21:44.459 --> 00:21:45.539 In verse 14 he says, 00:21:45.899 --> 00:21:47.479 A city set on a hill can't be hidden. 00:21:48.000 --> 00:21:51.779 People don't light lamps and put them under baskets, but they put them on a stand to give light. 00:21:51.859 --> 00:21:56.899 Because in the first century, light, a lamp is very expensive, the oil for it. 00:21:56.900 --> 00:22:04.420 And so you would only light your lamp right at dusk and right at dawn because you lived a life where you went to bed when the sun went down. 00:22:04.540 --> 00:22:06.380 You got up before the sun came up. 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:10.920 And so you would only use a lamp very rarely or if you had to leave your home in the night. 00:22:11.740 --> 00:22:12.840 So how silly would it be? 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:14.040 How foolish would it be? 00:22:14.580 --> 00:22:20.160 In a culture where light is so expensive to light a lamp in the middle of the night and put it under a basket. 00:22:20.820 --> 00:22:23.320 In other words, are you being who you are? 00:22:23.319 --> 00:22:26.319 Are you living a life of public faith? 00:22:26.859 --> 00:22:29.019 In the very last of the Beatitudes he said, 00:22:29.579 --> 00:22:33.319 Blessed are you when you go out into the city, wherever God has put you in, 00:22:33.579 --> 00:22:36.859 and you are persecuted even, reviled for what you believe, 00:22:36.960 --> 00:22:41.679 and yet you stand with faithfulness amid that revulsion, amid that persecution. 00:22:41.939 --> 00:22:43.000 And then he turns and says, 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:44.480 You are salt, you are light. 00:22:44.519 --> 00:22:46.919 Meaning, are you living a life of public faith? 00:22:46.920 --> 00:22:51.519 The big idea that he's offering us to hear, offering us in this passage is that as Christians, 00:22:51.820 --> 00:22:54.560 we are people of public faith, not private faith. 00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:57.460 So not only do we live in the age of the myth of progress, 00:22:57.460 --> 00:23:01.860 we also live in the age of the myth that faith is just to be privatized. 00:23:02.300 --> 00:23:04.800 And that your faith is okay as long as you don't share it with anybody, 00:23:04.900 --> 00:23:07.779 as long as you don't live it out, as long as you don't try to convert anyone. 00:23:08.019 --> 00:23:11.080 But Jesus is saying the exact opposite about both. 00:23:11.800 --> 00:23:12.759 Progress is a myth. 00:23:12.860 --> 00:23:13.920 The world is in a state of decay. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.539 And only Christ is the gravity that holds it together. 00:23:17.420 --> 00:23:20.800 And that you are to live as a Christian, a life of public faith. 00:23:21.019 --> 00:23:26.160 So James Davidson Hunter has written very helpfully on this topic. 00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:30.420 And he talks, as so many have, about what Jesus is giving us here is, 00:23:30.519 --> 00:23:36.060 I think, the right thing amid some bad options for how to live the Christian life. 00:23:36.240 --> 00:23:38.200 You know, there is a road to walk down, 00:23:38.360 --> 00:23:41.019 and there are several types of ditches all around us 00:23:41.019 --> 00:23:43.680 when it comes to the calling to be salt and light. 00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:44.560 And the earth. 00:23:44.620 --> 00:23:47.680 One of those is to go out into the city and compromise. 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:51.759 So you can be a Christian, you can be made up of sodium chloride, 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:55.640 but you're struggling with going out into the city and compromising. 00:23:55.980 --> 00:23:59.960 Just in order to fit in, adopting the values, the patterns, 00:24:00.680 --> 00:24:03.960 that the moral order of the city is moving towards in decay. 00:24:04.779 --> 00:24:05.900 That's the problem of compromise. 00:24:05.980 --> 00:24:06.920 That's one of the great ditches. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:09.259 But on the other side, there's a complicated ditch, 00:24:09.259 --> 00:24:11.180 and that's the ditch of isolation. 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:13.600 So he says, when you're salt, you're light. 00:24:13.759 --> 00:24:15.240 A lamp can't be hidden. 00:24:15.360 --> 00:24:17.100 It should brighten up the whole city. 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:20.580 He's very clearly calling out this problem of isolation 00:24:20.580 --> 00:24:24.720 that was present in his time through groups like the Essenes or the Zealots 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:27.880 who lived in communities far away from everyone else. 00:24:28.840 --> 00:24:30.180 And what is the problem of isolation? 00:24:30.180 --> 00:24:33.160 The problem of isolation is really twofold. 00:24:33.279 --> 00:24:36.580 It's that you can say the world is in such a state of decay. 00:24:36.740 --> 00:24:42.000 It's so Babylon out there that the best thing we can all do is say the good guys are in here, 00:24:42.080 --> 00:24:43.160 the bad guys are out there. 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.640 And so in order to keep ourselves pure, we're going to stay away from the culture, 00:24:47.100 --> 00:24:48.060 stay away from the city. 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:49.720 We're going to have Christian friends. 00:24:49.799 --> 00:24:51.060 We're going to eat with only Christians. 00:24:51.259 --> 00:24:52.240 We're going to worship with Christians. 00:24:52.580 --> 00:24:54.759 We're going to live our lives as much as we can in Christian community. 00:24:54.759 --> 00:25:00.339 but never go and extend ourselves into the city and make friends of all kinds 00:25:00.339 --> 00:25:01.759 and pursue people of all kinds. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:04.640 That's a type of isolationism that I think Jesus is attacking 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:07.879 because, boy, that does not look like the ministry of Jesus Christ. 00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.500 On the other hand, there's another type of isolationism. 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:14.000 And that's the isolationism where we do go out 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:16.400 and we do pursue our vocations in the city 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:18.980 and we live in our neighborhoods and we get to know people, 00:25:19.660 --> 00:25:23.240 but we stay hidden in plain light. 00:25:23.240 --> 00:25:25.799 So we're in public context. 00:25:25.960 --> 00:25:28.039 We know so many people outside of the Christian community, 00:25:28.339 --> 00:25:32.019 but nobody ever knows that we're followers of Jesus. 00:25:32.519 --> 00:25:36.019 So we're staying hidden in the midst of the city. 00:25:36.259 --> 00:25:41.180 And that's another type of isolationism that I think Jesus is probably attacking here 00:25:41.180 --> 00:25:43.440 or trying to draw us away from. 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:45.579 And here's how James Davidson Hunter puts it. 00:25:45.579 --> 00:25:51.700 He says, the calling here is to be faithfully present within the city and the culture. 00:25:51.700 --> 00:25:54.319 And so we've got classic language. 00:25:54.420 --> 00:25:58.680 This language informs this passage like this informs the vision of St. Columbus so much 00:25:58.680 --> 00:26:02.100 that we are called to be in the world, but not of it. 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:06.259 That we are to hold what's good in our culture together 00:26:06.259 --> 00:26:09.460 with the antithesis toward what is idolatrous. 00:26:10.140 --> 00:26:11.580 To look out at our city and say, 00:26:11.700 --> 00:26:14.660 I want to go and celebrate what's good, be a part of what's good, 00:26:14.660 --> 00:26:19.019 because all that's good is actually the gift of God's common grace to the city. 00:26:19.180 --> 00:26:23.240 But I want to hold in antithesis, stand against what is idolatrous. 00:26:23.779 --> 00:26:25.420 And that's how to go out and to be in the world, 00:26:25.500 --> 00:26:28.140 but not of it to be salt and light in the midst of the city. 00:26:28.180 --> 00:26:31.640 In other words, Christians are not called to hate Babylon, 00:26:32.220 --> 00:26:34.640 just like Jonah was not called to hate Nineveh. 00:26:36.120 --> 00:26:39.840 Jonah was called to love that city and to plead on behalf of that city 00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:43.819 and to pursue that city and to want Babylon and want Nineveh 00:26:43.819 --> 00:26:47.159 and want every other human city that's ever been built, the city of man, 00:26:47.240 --> 00:26:49.799 to see hope in the light of the nations themselves, 00:26:49.879 --> 00:26:52.759 to be little lamps and a pinch of salt wherever we might be. 00:26:52.879 --> 00:26:54.980 And so I'll summarize it like this and wrap up. 00:26:56.359 --> 00:26:59.000 You are not called, you are being called here, 00:26:59.159 --> 00:27:02.579 you're being invited here not to compromise in your public life, 00:27:02.759 --> 00:27:05.059 not to relativize your faith to fit in, 00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:09.299 but at the same time you're not being invited to be a cultural warrior activist 00:27:09.299 --> 00:27:14.099 trying to take over the culture and reestablish Christendom 2.0 in the modern world. 00:27:14.740 --> 00:27:18.879 You're not being asked here, you're being compelled away from separatism, 00:27:19.079 --> 00:27:22.299 where you just wait for the world to pass by until the rapture comes, 00:27:22.779 --> 00:27:28.159 nor are we being asked here to think of ourselves as the light of the world ourselves, 00:27:28.220 --> 00:27:32.119 like we're going to go fix the whole city and bring everybody that we could do this, 00:27:32.200 --> 00:27:35.279 that this is our big mission and we can fully accomplish that. 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:36.440 No, what is our job? 00:27:36.440 --> 00:27:42.039 Our job is to be a pinch of salt and a little lamp, a little moon, 00:27:42.680 --> 00:27:49.779 that is spotlighting Jesus Christ as often as we can in whatever place God has put us. 00:27:50.680 --> 00:27:51.480 That's our mission. 00:27:51.640 --> 00:27:54.420 And the Holy Spirit has to decide what to do with that 00:27:54.420 --> 00:27:57.420 and how to make that powerful in people's lives. 00:27:57.799 --> 00:27:59.360 You know, how could you live the Beatitudes? 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.100 How can we live the Beatitudes if we're not amongst the people of the world? 00:28:03.099 --> 00:28:07.019 How could you ever be a peacemaker if we're not stepping into conflict? 00:28:07.199 --> 00:28:11.319 How can we be persecuted if we're never in relationships outside these walls? 00:28:11.419 --> 00:28:14.759 How can we be merciful if we never go where people need mercy? 00:28:15.319 --> 00:28:18.299 How can we be meek if we never put ourselves in a position 00:28:18.299 --> 00:28:22.259 where pride can be turned away with a gentle word? 00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:25.599 So lastly, let me briefly finish with this. 00:28:25.740 --> 00:28:27.000 Let your light shine before others. 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:28.159 That's the last thing he tells us here. 00:28:28.160 --> 00:28:33.800 So, let your light shine before others so that they would see your good works 00:28:33.800 --> 00:28:36.600 or being clearly called to good works and to give glory, 00:28:36.940 --> 00:28:39.880 that others would give glory to the Father who is in heaven. 00:28:40.840 --> 00:28:44.080 All right, so let me wrap up with a couple ideas, 00:28:44.200 --> 00:28:45.800 pithy ideas of how to work this out in practice. 00:28:45.900 --> 00:28:50.140 Number one, the light exposes darkness. 00:28:50.140 --> 00:28:54.280 That means that you go out into the world, 00:28:54.560 --> 00:28:58.120 and as a Christian, your presence is meant to show things for what they really are. 00:28:58.759 --> 00:29:00.940 You're meant to be light in the midst of darkness. 00:29:01.840 --> 00:29:05.040 So that means that by being present in a place with people, 00:29:05.759 --> 00:29:10.000 you can reveal the darkness of gossip by refuting it, 00:29:10.100 --> 00:29:11.400 by refusing to participate in it. 00:29:12.080 --> 00:29:16.560 You can reveal corrupt practices in business 00:29:16.560 --> 00:29:18.560 by declining to participate in them. 00:29:18.559 --> 00:29:21.980 That's what it means to let your light shine out into the darkness. 00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:23.279 R.T. France puts it like this. 00:29:23.399 --> 00:29:27.839 Disciples must function in society as an alternative and challenging community 00:29:27.839 --> 00:29:30.259 to the cultural norms around them that are dark. 00:29:31.319 --> 00:29:34.980 Secondly, salt also preserves and flavors. 00:29:36.579 --> 00:29:39.379 And I think by this, what I'm thinking of here is that 00:29:39.379 --> 00:29:43.200 salt extends the length of life of things. 00:29:43.299 --> 00:29:44.879 It makes things good for longer, 00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:49.020 and it adds something that tastes good to wherever it is. 00:29:49.660 --> 00:29:50.780 So you go out into the world, 00:29:50.820 --> 00:29:52.180 and you let your light shine in darkness, 00:29:52.180 --> 00:29:55.640 but you also flavor the context God has put you in, 00:29:56.080 --> 00:30:00.320 meaning you're not the office morality police. 00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:02.759 You go out into the world, 00:30:02.759 --> 00:30:04.159 and you let your light shine amidst darkness, 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:06.079 and yet you don't, at the same time, 00:30:06.119 --> 00:30:08.859 be the one who scolds everybody in the break room for a crude joke. 00:30:09.279 --> 00:30:10.679 You're not the office morality police, 00:30:10.700 --> 00:30:11.720 because you flavor a space. 00:30:11.879 --> 00:30:13.299 You extend its life. 00:30:14.099 --> 00:30:18.019 You know in wisdom what to say, when to say it, 00:30:18.099 --> 00:30:22.319 and you know how to operate in the midst of the world that God has put you in. 00:30:22.399 --> 00:30:23.819 No one wants to be that person, 00:30:23.859 --> 00:30:25.099 and no one wants to listen to that person. 00:30:26.019 --> 00:30:27.740 And so instead, we've got to go out into the world, 00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:29.539 and know we're also flavoring agents. 00:30:29.819 --> 00:30:31.539 We give life to spaces. 00:30:31.799 --> 00:30:35.579 We draw things back to the good in subtle and wise ways. 00:30:36.159 --> 00:30:40.319 The third thing we learn here is salt is also an agent of healing. 00:30:41.639 --> 00:30:42.919 So if you put salt, 00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:44.779 salt was used sometimes for healing in the ancient world. 00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:47.579 If you put salt on a wound, as we sometimes still do, 00:30:48.019 --> 00:30:51.399 we know that it can help, and it burns. 00:30:51.399 --> 00:30:52.179 It hurts. 00:30:52.299 --> 00:30:52.719 It bites. 00:30:53.299 --> 00:30:54.200 And so in the same way, 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:58.700 Elisha in the Old Testament threw salt into the bad water at Jericho 00:30:58.700 --> 00:31:02.680 and said, I have healed this water miraculously by God's power. 00:31:02.839 --> 00:31:03.720 And D.A. Carson says, 00:31:04.140 --> 00:31:09.500 Christians have the effect of delaying moral and spiritual decay 00:31:09.500 --> 00:31:11.440 in whatever place they've been put. 00:31:11.579 --> 00:31:15.079 And so salt has a bite to it. 00:31:15.559 --> 00:31:17.779 Salt, you put it in a wound, 00:31:17.900 --> 00:31:19.500 it helps, but it also hurts. 00:31:19.500 --> 00:31:22.799 And that means that sometimes it is right to call out injustice, 00:31:23.119 --> 00:31:24.380 to come with a bite, 00:31:24.519 --> 00:31:27.220 and to stand against injustice in the midst of the world. 00:31:27.599 --> 00:31:30.460 One German theologian, Helmut Tillich, he says this, 00:31:30.500 --> 00:31:33.819 a Christian might make their ambition to be the honeypot of the world. 00:31:34.359 --> 00:31:35.839 So Helmut says, 00:31:35.980 --> 00:31:38.500 it would have been a lot nicer if Jesus would have said, 00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:39.640 you are the honeypot of the world. 00:31:39.859 --> 00:31:41.339 You know, just go out and make everything sweeter. 00:31:41.859 --> 00:31:44.259 Only sweetening the bitterness of life. 00:31:44.259 --> 00:31:48.700 Only talking about the ever-loving God that you serve. 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:52.339 But we all know that the God of love is also the God of justice. 00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:54.259 And so Jesus picks salt. 00:31:54.619 --> 00:31:57.819 And sometimes salt bites and stings a little bit. 00:31:57.879 --> 00:31:58.359 And so he says, 00:31:58.460 --> 00:32:00.400 we are not only people who preserve and bring light 00:32:00.400 --> 00:32:02.879 and bring levity and clarity, 00:32:02.879 --> 00:32:06.059 but we also call out the problems of injustice in our city. 00:32:06.539 --> 00:32:07.099 And then lastly, 00:32:08.859 --> 00:32:11.720 salt only works in contact. 00:32:11.720 --> 00:32:13.480 It has to touch something to work. 00:32:13.819 --> 00:32:14.839 And in the same way, 00:32:14.920 --> 00:32:18.860 light only works when it's actually pushed into the darkness, 00:32:19.400 --> 00:32:20.500 opened into the darkness. 00:32:20.819 --> 00:32:21.440 And in the same way, 00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:22.940 to be effective, 00:32:23.220 --> 00:32:25.500 we've got to be involved with where we work, 00:32:25.579 --> 00:32:26.160 where we live. 00:32:26.259 --> 00:32:29.620 We've got to go into the places God has sent us. 00:32:29.640 --> 00:32:30.900 So this is an invitation tonight, 00:32:31.420 --> 00:32:32.000 as we finish, 00:32:32.140 --> 00:32:34.680 to live with a definite purpose this semester, 00:32:35.299 --> 00:32:37.680 to pursue God's glory 00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:40.620 by thinking very intentionally 00:32:40.619 --> 00:32:42.879 how has God called me 00:32:42.879 --> 00:32:43.659 and is calling me 00:32:43.659 --> 00:32:45.659 to be a pinch of salt and a lamp, 00:32:46.239 --> 00:32:47.500 spotlighting Jesus Christ 00:32:47.500 --> 00:32:49.619 in the very specific neighborhood, 00:32:50.259 --> 00:32:50.859 vocation, 00:32:50.939 --> 00:32:51.599 and relationships 00:32:51.599 --> 00:32:53.059 that God has given to me so far in life. 00:32:53.079 --> 00:32:54.019 What are you being asked to do here? 00:32:54.299 --> 00:32:55.339 Another way to say it is this. 00:32:56.819 --> 00:32:57.979 As one writer puts it, 00:32:58.539 --> 00:33:01.259 to love the city like Jesus loves you. 00:33:04.619 --> 00:33:06.899 Because Jesus pursued us 00:33:06.899 --> 00:33:07.859 when we were Babylon. 00:33:07.859 --> 00:33:11.319 And so you're being asked to go out 00:33:11.319 --> 00:33:13.339 and pursue the city, 00:33:13.979 --> 00:33:15.479 whatever little bit of it God has given you, 00:33:15.719 --> 00:33:17.399 in the same way that Jesus loves you 00:33:17.399 --> 00:33:18.319 and has pursued you. 00:33:19.059 --> 00:33:21.179 That's what it means to be salt and light. 00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:23.119 Let us pray. 00:33:23.240 --> 00:33:25.219 Father, we ask that you would teach us this, 00:33:25.919 --> 00:33:27.279 that we would be preservatives, 00:33:27.659 --> 00:33:29.539 agents arresting decay, 00:33:30.079 --> 00:33:31.699 and little lamps, 00:33:31.819 --> 00:33:32.740 little moons, 00:33:33.699 --> 00:33:34.899 spotlighting Jesus. 00:33:34.900 --> 00:33:36.340 And so we ask, Lord, 00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:37.519 for courageous witness 00:33:37.519 --> 00:33:39.500 and wisdom and intentionality this week, 00:33:39.620 --> 00:33:42.360 that we would repent 00:33:42.360 --> 00:33:43.519 of the ways we've compromised, 00:33:43.840 --> 00:33:44.960 that we would reject 00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:46.060 the ways we've isolated, 00:33:46.259 --> 00:33:47.300 and instead that we would 00:33:47.300 --> 00:33:49.019 be faithful witnesses, 00:33:49.300 --> 00:33:50.560 faithfully present 00:33:50.560 --> 00:33:51.540 in wherever you put us. 00:33:51.560 --> 00:33:52.600 And we pray that in Christ's name. 00:33:53.080 --> 00:33:53.400 Amen. 00:33:53.400 --> 00:33:53.500 Amen. 00:33:53.500 --> 00:33:53.560 Amen. 00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:53.560 00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:53.560 00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:53.560 00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:53.560 00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:53.560 00:33:53.560 --> 00:33:53.560