Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and our redeemer. Amen!
Once upon a time, in a land far away, there was a lighthouse that sat on a rocky shore and helped ships get through the water safely without hitting any big nasty rocks. One day the lighthouse operator became sick and a temporary substitute was put in charge of the lighthouse. While he was there tending the lighthouse a big storm blew up and sand and branches and all kinds of things were flying around in the wind. The temporary lighthouse keeper got out a big piece of canvas and covered up the lantern so it would not get wet or damaged in the storm. That night a ship blew upon the rocks and sank with all hands.
Sounds silly doesn't it - I mean - who, as Jesus puts it, lights a lamp and then put it under a bowl?
Shortly after my confirmation a question was put to me that I would like to ask you today - a friend at that church asked me - "What are you? Are you a thermometer or a thermostat?
I was a little bit slow that day - I couldn't figure out what he was driving at - so I asked him a simple question in return: "What the are you talking about?!
Edwin, he said - a thermometer reflects its environment, it shows what the temperature is, if its hot outside - it says its hot; if its cold, it says its cold; it exerts no influence on what's around it - rather it is influenced by it; but not so a thermostat. A thermostat has power, it sets the temperature, it changes things.
So - what are you? A thermometer, or a thermostat?
What a great question! It is one that Jesus puts to his disciples in today's reading when he says:
"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven."
Think about it for a minute - Jesus tells us - "You are the salt of the earth..." And again, "You are the light of the world".
What an incredible thing that is! What an incredible gift! Somehow - because of who God has made us. Somehow - because of our decision to follow Jesus we are made into salt - into light - for the world.
That is the beautiful realty of what God does to us, in fact it is the most important thing that God does through us, when we live by our faith.
Think of the people who have touched you, the people who first spoke to your yearning heart, the people who first, because of their love and care for you, inspired you to believe in the God of Love.
Did they not light up your life? Did they not bring new savour and zest to the diet you once lived on? Did they not penetrate and change your lives with their care and concern and honesty? just as the presence of Jesus changed the life of Peter and John and James?
The divine is a light within us, and faith is the match that sets it glowing.
We are here today because the light of God has come into our life. The only question we need to address is - what are we going to do with that light?
Some time ago at a Bible Study someone asked the group:
Do you know what Christianity is? It is a wildly infectious disease. When you got a good case of it everyone around gets it too. The only problem is - so many people try to cure it...
People cure faith by stifling it and by ignoring it and by hiding it. They destroy faith by living like thermometers rather than like thermostats.
It doesn't take much to be a thermometer you know, all you have to do is be agreeable. All you have to do is to go along with what everyone else wants. All you have to do is think of your own comfort and ease.
When others around you are scoffing and mocking - all you need do is be quiet, to not make waves - you may even perhaps join with them in a gentle put down.
When someone is being racist and intolerant all you have to do is be silent about how in Christ there is no Jew nor Gentile, no Pakistanis nor Arabs....
When someone is hurt and alone, or feeling offended or betrayed, or simply depressed, all you have to do is walk on by - all you have to do is go on doing what you were doing before, as if nothing was happening that needed your attention.
All you have to do to be a thermometer - is go with the flow, to not speak about God's power and love, to not witness by your deeds to God's grace and mercy.
Reginald Bibby, a well known sociologist said in one of his books he examined the various churches in a certain part of North America, he polled their members and he polled a large number of non-Christians and he discovered an amazing fact - a disturbing fact:
He discovered that on almost all major social and political issues Christians did not differ in their opinions from non-Christians.
Bibby concludes his book by saying that the reason that the Christian church is dying in North America is because it does not offer anything that anyone else does not offer.
Indeed, Bibby continues - the very things that make the church unique - most of the established churches refuse to talk about - they would rather talk about psychology than about faith, and about the need for politic reform rather than about spiritual change.
Bibby, with the tools of modern social science echoes the statement of the 19th century philosopher and sceptic Frederick Nietzsche. Nietzsche said this about the churches of his day:
"They must sing better songs, ere I learn belief in their Saviour. They must act like they are redeemed before I will believe in their redeemer."
Well, we have great songs - but where do we sing them?...Are we like the Israelites at the time of the prophet Isaiah? Do we only sing the songs of the Lord when we are in church? Do we only sing about our faith when we want something from God?
Are we like those who believe quietly and only when it is safe? Or do we sing loudly and cheerfully and triumphantly in public? In those places where those who sing only the songs of the devil will be confronted; where those who hear only the songs of despair can at last know that there is hope; where those who have only the songs of self-hatred to listen to can, at last, hear that they are loved?
In the winter of 1978 a very heavy snow storm struck the city of Boston. It lasted a week, and during part of that time the power went off. While the power was off a number of things happened.
A man got lost trying to find his way to an unfamiliar section of the city. He almost froze to death wandering around the streets, until he happened upon a place he knew.
An elderly woman whose house was without power went through a night of terror. Of fragile health, she sometimes suffered hallucinations. Alone in her dark home her imagination distorted all the sounds of the wind and storm into signals of some kind of attack upon her.
In a house just a block away from her - a man died when the equipment he relied upon to breath failed to function.
A few blocks away, made bold by the darkness, vandals broke into an appliance store and carried off a lot of valuable merchandise.
The reality of one part of this parable I am telling you will help make all the rest clear.
The reality was that the Boston Edison Power Company had sufficient power in its generating system to meet all the needs of the city. The problem was in one simple transformer in the main plant and with the transmission lines from a substation.
This is like Christ and us as his disciples - we who are the light of the world.
Christ is indeed the one who shines with God's light.
But just as the whole city of Boston does not live in the generating plant itself, no more can people live in the immediate presence of their source of divine energy. Power has to come out into the world were they live.
That requires "transformers" and "transmission lines". It requires disciples who will cause their light to shine where people live and die.
We are the salt of the earth.
We are the light of the world.
We are the thermostats in a world of varying temperatures.
We are the infectious disease that God wants all people to catch.
We are the transmission lines, the transformers, that God has chosen.
We are the singers of the songs of the Lord.
And what in all this does God ask of us? The God who puts his light into us. The God who seasons us with his presence. The God who imparts his song into our hearts?
God asks very little. All he wants is that we be what we he has made us to be.
The power is, after all, his.
The light comes from him.
The seasoning is mined from his word, and the song is first sung by his lips.
All God asks is that we follow him, and witness to him as faithfully as we can.
And we can do that easily. All we need do is remember a simple fact, and do a simple deed.
The simple fact is this:
God makes us the salt of the earth. Salt, however, does not exist for its own sake. No one sits down to eat salt and salt alone. Salt is a seasoning meant to be applied to something, it is meant to penetrate and preserve and flavour the food that people eat. And in the same way light is not meant to be looked at, it is not meant to be covered and treasured like some precious object, it is given so that people might see what is around them and walk in safety, it is meant to penetrate and overcome darkness.
In other words we are saved - not just for ourselves, but to do the work of God.
And the simple thing we can do is this - we can stand up for our faith in God. And we can stand upon our faith in God.
When we do so - when we stand up and stand on - when we believe and act in faith, then we will be full of light, and of power, and of grace, we will be beacons in a dark place, and praise and glory unto God will be the result
We have God's word on it, that word by which we were made, and by which all life is given.
Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father in heaven. Amen!
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