i'm bound by the sweet commission
we don't need permission
Today’s Gospel continues our trek through the Sermon on the Mount. In fact today’s reading comes right after what we heard last week, the beatitudes, Jesus unlikely decoration of the unexpectedly-blessed.
That’s not all though, today’s Gospel really puts the screws to our “Incarnation Sermon Series,” it really pushes up against why all this matters.
In fact, today is a bit of a pay-off in the middle of our journey through contemplating the incarnation. Today is a moment when all the pieces fit, oh so nicely, together.
As much as I hate to say it, though, I must admit that all the pay-off of today only delivers itself precariously; the pay-off doesn’t come easily…
You know, our homework for this sermon series, saying “I am a Child of God” daily wasn’t chosen arbitrarily.
I haven’t been asking us all to say this because it’s just some nice sentiment, it’s much more than that. And I haven’t even asked us to say this because we need to hear this promise daily, either. Although we do need to be reminded at least daily.
No.
The reason this sentence has been chosen for our sermon series is because before Epiphany, I read the Gospel readings we’d be going through during this season. I looked ahead to try and discern a larger theme that would help us see the continuity from Saturday/Sunday to Saturday/Sunday; so each wouldn’t be some unconnected episode, to connect each week to a larger narrative.
Reading ahead made it clear that the Sermon on the Mount; specifically last week’s Gospel, the “beatitudes;” as well as today’s Gospel, salt and light; are the center of Matthew, the theme of this season between Christmas and Lent.
To help us really wrestle with the center of this season we’ve been saying, “I am a child of God” daily, to prepare us.
The truth is, today’s Gospel, for as famous as it is, is not well understood, and it is even less likely to be trusted, to be believed. As we wrestled last week with God’s unlikely and unexpected blessing, today we must wrestle with God’s declaration about folks such as you and I.
To help us really hear how unbelievable Jesus’ words are, I am going to read another translation of today’s Gospel. If you’re willing, I’d like us to listen to this reading as we did last week; as if we were one of those first disciples called or maybe someone in the crowd following along and eavesdropping on Jesus’ message.
Jesus said:
“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here because you are the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.
“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here because you are the light of the world, bringing out the God-colors. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine!
Keep open house;
be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.”
That sounds a little different, huh?
Not only does it sound different, though, frankly it sounds unbelievable; albeit more subtly than last week.
While it may not be as obviously scandalous that the poor, mourners, meek and hungry are God’s blessed; today’s words of Jesus ought to give us just as much pause.
If we really let ourselves hear his Words, that is…
This unbelievable nature of God’s proclamation is why we’ve been saying “I am a child of God,” daily, so we will know, deep in our bones, just how hard this stuff Jesus preaches is to believe.
See, because for a while now we’ve been reminding ourselves that we’re children of God, and that’s nice and all; but today Jesus ratchets that up, lest we try and domestic such a promise.
Today Jesus declares it isn’t just some warm but impotent message that we’re God’s Children…
Rather Jesus declares that this claim makes all the difference in the world, literally.
Just try and imagine the world,
try and even imagine life without salt or light.
After all, those are the terms Jesus uses to describe you, to describe us. Notice, though, Jesus doesn’t just describe you, describe us, as any old salt or light, either. No, Jesus states unequivocally that you, that we are the salt and the light for the world.
Those are the two images, salt and light, Jesus uses to describe God’s children, the people God claimed when God became one.
Now, I’m not going to unpack all the different meanings and nuances salt and light have, for that kind of academic excursus we’ll have to get a Bible study going.
Suffice it to note, though, that in the Bible only God is ever described as the light of the world.
…Until, of course, Jesus uses that expression to say what you are.
In case you didn’t catch that, I’m going to say it again;
Jesus uses a term that is only used to describe God, to describe what you are,
not to say what you should be,
not even to say what you will be,
but to declare what you are, what you are!
Are you ready to agree that today’s Gospel reading is just as hard, if not harder to believe than last week’s unpredictable blessings about now?
How does that make you feel, that God in bones and flesh takes the term for the highest and most holy to describe you?
Is it shocking? Is it hard to believe? Are you telling yourselves Jesus was just a little excited and said something he didn’t really mean? Are you doing your best to sit there and not jump out of your skin, to pretend like this isn’t a promise that has changed the course of history and is threatening to do so again right now?
Today, God in bones and flesh says you are what God is, the light of the world.
That’s pretty hard to believe…
I really am convinced that the harder Jesus’ words to believe, the more we enshrine them, lest they get too close and change everything.
In fact, the implicit temptation with our “Incarnation Sermon Series” is to domestic, to tame this saying, “I am a child of God.”
The terrible truth, though, is that this simple sentence makes all the difference in the world,
it sets the devil’s teeth on edge,
it even makes saints out of us.
While it might sound nice, cute and cuddly here, in our familiar pews, protected within these walls,
we know it’s hard to say this simple sentence becomes once we set foot outside of those doors,
we know that this sentence isn’t simple at all,
and the proof is in the pudding - as they say.
If we have such an easy time with God’s promise that nothing will separate us from God,
then why are do we get incredulous, squirmy, when we hear that Jesus describes us the same way the faithful describe God?
The terrible reason, is the same as why we pretend to know these words of Jesus so well,
why we make them popular sentiment and enshrine them,
because we know if Jesus’ Words get loose on us and the world, everything will change.
It’s the truth.
If I had to guess, it sounds many of us started well with our “I am a child of God” exercise; but perhaps its gotten harder as of late;
Those six words started to sound a little flat,
that sticky note you posted started to blend in with the wallpaper,
those words that can only be true if God rents apart creation to join it start to sound a little hum-drum.
We all know that it’s hard for doubting-Thomases like us to trust such Words of Jesus’ for long. That is why we try to pretend we’re so familiar with these promises, why we put them in frames;
because otherwise they’d burst apart our lives.
That is why I am glad Jesus ups the ante today,
why I am glad Jesus won’t let us off the hook,
why I am glad Jesus says, in effect, “fine, you think you can handle being called God’s child, let me tell you what that really means.”
Today Jesus declares that as God’s child, you are to the world what God is; salt and light.
This is the million dollar pay-off for our “I am a child of God” exercise,
it is the final nail in the coffin of our doubt.
Whether we recognize it or not.
Admittedly, Jesus’ Words today makes us feel uncomfortable.
Jesus pushes our little exercise too far, Jesus makes it too real, Jesus raises the stakes much higher than we like playing with.
“What do you mean, I am what God is,” we do our best to piously scoff…
It is no accident then, I suppose, that at the moment Jesus ratchets everything up, Jesus also acknowledges all this is probably a little hard to believe, to trust…
“If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you?” Jesus rhetorically asks.
Or as the version we proclaimed put it; “ No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel basket.”
Jesus just comes out and says it, “you are the light of the world,”
and Jesus acknowledges that might be a lot for us to take, so he grants that perhaps we may try to hide that light,
lest we become too discomforted about what God is up to…
Here’s the thing, while Jesus grants his proclamation about us may be hard to believe,
he doesn’t let us off the hook.
Jesus is clear that the only thing that will take the luster out of our shine, is us;
our refusal to let God’s light shine,
our desperate attempts to hide God’s light under a bushel…
While we might like to pretend that God’s light within us is hidden by someone or something else,
or maybe we pretend we never had much light to begin with,
Jesus is resolute, Jesus is blunt:
the only thing that can hide God’s light within us, is us…
So then what is it that tempts us to doubt Jesus Word today?
Something you said or did,
a broken relationship.
a ticket,
an overdraw notice?
What is it?
Or what is it that tempts us-all here at Trinity to doubt?
The tight budget?
Weekly attendance?
What is it?
In your pew are cards,
write down what it is that tempts you to doubt God’s word - do it.
Be honest. We’ll take some time so we can all write whatever it is that tempts us to hide God’s light…
Okay.
Now, crumple that up.
Here’s what we’re going to do:
On your way out you’ll pass the baptismal font we moved last week - as you dip your finger in the water to make the sign of the cross and remind yourselves of God’s promise to you,
drop that crumpled piece of paper in the baptismal font - leave your doubt there, let God put it to death.
That’s what God does in baptism, drowns your doubt to raise up new saints.
So put whatever it is that tempts you to doubt in that water and let God do what God does with doubt.
See, because here’s the truth about whatever your doubt may be;
Jesus, God in bones and flesh, has declared you are a child of God,
the light of the world,
the salt the world longs for.
This is a promise that blows our baskets of doubt into pieces, the promise that God has declared us children, that God’s Word is more powerful than your doubt, because God has said you are God’s child, the light of the world, it’s true.
I know it’s hard to believe, but our doubt will not have the last word - your light, our light, cannot be hidden.
God has chosen us to be the evidence for the world that God is good, that God is loving.
You are the light the world is longing to dawn from on high,
You are a child of God.
Amen
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