A Sermon given by Revd Tessa Stephens
'The shining light'
Last week we celebrated the feast of Candlemas and we heard the words of Simeon to Mary as he sees the Christ Child for the first time:
“My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people: A light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel”.
Simeon was talking about the light which Christ has brought into the world and we commemorated that light by lighting our own candles and then gathering around the font at the back of church.
Our gospel reading today helps us to move from thinking about Christ as the light of the world to thinking about how we might also be light in this world.
At the start of our gospel reading, Jesus is preaching to the people in part of what became known as the Sermon on the Mount. He uses images from everyday life to explain how those who follow him can influence the world around them for good. The two main images that he uses are salt and light.
So what does it mean to be salt? For Jesus, drawing on earlier sections of the Sermon on the Mount, the salt of the earth are the humble ones, the ones who mourn, the meek, the pure in heart and the merciful.
Jesus says that if the salt loses its taste then it is no longer any use. This idea seems confusing since salt cannot lose its taste. One explanation is that in the ancient world a pile of rock salt would be left by the field and used in tiny quantities to help fertilise it. But as the rain fell, the salt would be leached from the pile and eventually only the gravel would be left. So Jesus’ suggestion that the remains would be trampled underfoot makes sense, as what remained would only be fit for maintaining footpaths. For the salt to be of use it needs to be spread out over the field rather than huddled together in one place.
The idea of salt of the earth also links to the old use of salt as a preservative. Jesus’ followers will be people who will prevent the world from being corrupted and becoming rotten. They will be those who safeguard virtue and the teachings of the prophets. At the same time as safeguarding virtue they will reflect the glory of the one who is far greater than them.
But in order to do this Jesus does not suggest that they can leave behind their traditions and the teaching which they have inherited. Instead they need to be more righteous even than the scribes and the pharisees. Both these groups of people were admired for their righteousness and the way in which they upheld the Torah, or Jewish law. But what Jesus is suggesting both fulfills the law and goes beyond it. Jesus is saying that it isn’t enough to restrict our righteousness to one group or sphere of people. Instead we need to reach out to those who are not like ourselves. The Pharisees cared for the poor in their own community. But Jesus is saying that all those who are poor need to be our concern.
But how would this kind of love work in practice? One way of answering this question is to turn to our reading from Corinthians. In bringing the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Corinthians, Paul has chosen to overcome the barriers of ethnicity and to share the secret wisdom of God as revealed in Jesus Christ in a new culture. In this way the light of Christ is not only illuminating the house of the Jews but also the houses of the Gentiles.
We can only shine with Christ’s reflected light – we shine because we are first lit up by him. As Christians we are meant to get involved with God’s world as light and as preservative. We can’t always change things but we can always bear witness to a different set of values.
A story which has been in the news a lot this week is the continuing unrest in Egypt. There have been many dramatic pictures of the demonstrations but one which really grabbed my attention was this one. It shows Muslim demonstrators kneeling to pray. They are protected by a cordon of Coptic Christians. Just a few weeks ago, those same Coptic Christians were in the news because of a suicide bombing at a church in Alexandria which killed 21 Christians and injured 70 others on New Year’s Day. The ability of these Christians to overcome their experiences of persecution and to choose to protect their Muslim brothers seems to me to be a great example of what Jesus is calling us to do.
Life for us in Catterick Garrison is a little less dramatic than in Egypt. But nonetheless there are many ways in which we can be salt and light in our communities. And we become salt and light by relating to others; perhaps by praying for and helping those in need or perhaps through involvement in groups such as the Guides, at work, at line dancing, at the St John’s centre or by volunteering at Richmond theatre to name just a few. It was fantastic to see James, Owen, Tiani and Ann at the panto last night. By giving their time, energy and creativity they are part of the Christian salt in this community.
It isn’t always easy to be a person of faith. Sometimes we might feel as if we are no longer relevant to the wider world. But beauty and truth will always matter and we will always be called, in the words of the baptism service which are used as the newly baptised receive a lighted candle, “to shine as a light in the world, to the glory of God the Father.” Amen