Salt and LIght

Feb 9, 2014  Kitchissippi United Church. Matt 5: 13 - 20  Salt and Light    Rev Dr. George Hermanson

We know the importance of salt.  At one time in humans history it got us through times when we had to preserve food before we had freezers.  We know it does spice up food and we know sayings like salt of the earth.  It is one of those  familiar sayings that Jesus used to remind us that, after being called to be a disciple we are called to make disciples. Jesus, after giving the beatitudes, came down from the mountain and  called us to get involved in the nitty grit of life.

Then there is the saying about being light all can see.   It is an image we can all relate to.  Watch any movie or tv show and people stand on a hill and the lights of the city call to them.  Or driving in the dark and  the light  of the town beacons us, warmth in the dark night.  Again a reminder that our role is to be a light to others.  It is proactive.  Tells us what we are about in human flourishing.

It takes time to be salt.  It takes energy to be the light.  It is not easy to be a witness.  We sometimes think it is a matter of words.  Pressure .  Right belief.  However it is a matter of living our faith.  To live well, though, takes time and practice.  

One issue is how do we transmit the faith?  We thought of the church as a place where we taught people — usually very young people — about their faith. Our job was to teach the Bible, our beliefs, the history and stance of our church, and to form good habits, including regularly attending Sunday worship and supporting the church. This was what Christian Education was all about and we were very good at it. However, this may not be our business any more. It is spiritual formation.

Spiritual Formation happens continuously throughout our lives. Its less about knowledge about church, bible, beliefs and more about learning to discern the call of God’s spirit in diverse places in the world. Its about equipping people to be able to see where God is at work in the world and how to align themselves with that. It requires different tools, a different approach and involves different, non-church partners.  (Suzanne Sykes)

A sociologist has spent his career looking at how faith is pasted on.  Bengtson studied the influence of family on the passing on of faith.  His common sense results were that it matters more how we practice the faith.  To attract one to light, one has to be a bright light and salt that does not lose its flavour. His conclusion: “Don’t give up on the Prodigals” — those who drift away — “because many do return.”

In graduate school and after, Professor Bengtson abandoned his faith. Recently, he has found his way back to church.

“By golly, I had this religious experience when I was about 67 years old,” said Professor Bengtson, now 72. Easter morning of 2009, he woke up and decided to check out “this Gothic-looking church down on State Street” in Santa Barbara. He entered church a bit late, after the service had started.

“The organ was roaring,” he recalled, “the congregation was singing, the pillars were going up to heaven, the light was sifting down through the stained-glass windows. I was just overwhelmed. I found my way to a pew and started crying. ... I haven’t been the same since.”

What he saw as important is “passion these parents had for wanting their children to achieve the peace and the joy and the hope and the inspiration they had found for themselves.”   (hIs book is: Ways Faith Is Kept, or Lost, Over Generations
JAN. 31, 2014  New York Times)

To ground faith is learning the practices of faith. They ground us for action.  Christian practices are things Christian people do together over time to address fundamental human needs.  We are learning to be the signs of the  light. When we live the practices of Christian faith, we join together with one another, with Jesus, and with the communion of saints across time and space in a way of life that resists death in all its forms — a way of life that is spilling over with the Love of God for creation, for our neighbours, and for ourselves.

Practices point beyond the individualism of the dominant culture to disclose the shared quality of our lives, and especially the social quality of Christian life, theology, and spirituality. Our thinking and living take place in relation to God and also to one another, to others around the world and across the centuries, and to a vast communion of saints.

A practice is small enough that it can be identified and discussed as one element within an entire way of life. But a practice is also big enough to appear in many different spheres of life. For example, the Christian practice of hospitality has dimensions that emerge as (1) a matter of public policy; (2) something you do at home with friends, family, and guests; (3) a radical path of discipleship; (4) part of the liturgy; (5) a movement of the innermost self toward or away from others; (6) a theme in Christian theology.  Thinking about this one practice can help us make connections across spheres of life-connections that often get disrupted in our fragmented society. For example, reflection on the Christian practice of hospitality would provide a way of exploring the relations between spirituality and social justice.

In one sense we know the experience of hospitality.  After all, all human beings encounter strangers, rely on one another's help when ill. However, those who embrace Christian practices engage in these fundamental human activities in the light of God's presence and in response to God's grace as it is known in Jesus Christ. Ultimately, Christian practices can be understood not as tasks but as gifts.  The gift is to cultivate openness and responsiveness to others, to the created world, and to God.

Most of our practicing takes place at an unreflective level, as we go about our daily living. When we consciously practice, thinking and doing are bound together. Those who offer hospitality come to know themselves, others, and God in a different way, and they develop virtues and dispositions that are consistent with hospitality. When people participate in a practice, they are embodying a specific kind of wisdom about what it means to be a human being under God, even if they could not readily articulate this wisdom in words.

By reflecting on being the salt and light we move beyond the unreflective character of living.  It is our responsibility to receive and reshape our living in our own time and place. The community of faith is where we  begin as the embodiment of God.  Our practices are formed and grounded in community to send us into the world. This is a life time journey.