Salty and Bright

Matt 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. 5:14 You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill cannot be hidden. 5:15 People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.

1. Intro – Have you ever tried to feed a moth? Mayflies and many varieties of moth have no usable mouth or digestive system. So – don't think they are being rude or finicky. After maturity, they seek the swarm of similar mayflies mate and then die – all within a few hours. Frequently American Christians exhibit the same life cycle. We spend our lives looking for wholeness in a world of brokenness and, having found it, we ensconce ourselves within a “safe” church with other like-minded mayflies and submit to spiritual death. Jesus cautioned against this behavior in today's text, Matt 5:13.

   1. MANY USES OF SALT:

   2. flavor enhancer – mangoes, apples

   3. preservative – keep things from spoiling – moral disinfectant.

   4. rare to see salt – except focaccia, pretzels, etc but you can taste it!

   5. Salt loses its saltiness in soup the second day

2. Contact – putting a light under a bowl does more than hide it it KILLS the flame.

   1. Isolation – biggest danger to the American church. World Church is growing, American church – not so much – WHY? Different gospel? Different methods? Different audience?

   2. U.S. evangelical leaders are especially downbeat about the prospects for evangelical Christianity in their society; 82% say evangelicals are losing influence in the United States today, while only 17% think evangelicals are gaining influence. Pew research

   3. In the developing world, the members live among those in need of Jesus' loving attention – in the US, we can Isolate ourselves – so we do.

      • Sabbath school class and trying to convert other Christians.

3. Contrast in Conduct – Academic v. Citizenship grades

   1. NOT BY DECLARATION

• John 3: 17 God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

• John 16:8 When [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

• There are many passages in the New Testament that confront sin and talk about how inappropriate it is. But As far as I know, every one of those passages is addressed to those within the church and deals with the issue of sin in the church among believers. They do not reproach unbelievers for their sin. Rather, they plead with them to accept forgiveness if they recognize they need it.

1. what we say

• Philippians 2:14-15 Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation.

1. what we do – Look down the row left and right forward and backward – who do you see? Proud, mean-spirited, adulterous, assaultive, hateful, narrow-minded, stingy people . . . . whom God is transforming into his personal army of holy, apostles.

   • In a moving tribute to Fred Rogers, Jonathon Merritt recounts how Rogers chose to reform society through his gentle and persistent influence on a children's television show.

   • In 1965, a thin, soft-spoken man sauntered into Pittsburgh's WQED, the nation's first public television station, to pitch a show targeting young children. The concept was simple enough: convey life lessons to young children with the help of puppets, songs and frank conversations. It doesn't sound like much. That is, until you realize that the man was Fred Rogers, and the program was Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

   • But Rogers was more than a great neighbor or good host; he was a restorer. According to Gabe Lyons in The Next Christians, a "restorer" is someone who views the world as it "ought to be." Faced with the world's brokenness, restorers are "provoked, not offended." They work to make the world a better place by "creating, not criticizing" and by "being countercultural, not relevant." Using this definition, Rogers may be one of the greatest American restorers of the 20th century.

   • Rogers got into television because he "hated" the medium. During spring break of his senior year in seminary, he encountered television for the first time and what he witnessed repulsed him. "I got into television," he recounted, "because I saw people throwing pies at each other's faces, and that to me was such demeaning behavior. And if there's anything that bothers me, it's one person demeaning another. That really makes me mad!"

   • In the wake of WWII …., [Fred Rogers] worried that the type of programming that was becoming normative would create a generation of emotionally-bankrupt Americans. Faced with the decision to either sour on television itself or work to restore the medium, he chose the latter. He dropped out of seminary and began pursuing a career in broadcasting. Fourteen years later, he would create one of the most beloved American television shows of all time, and one that would shape entire generations of children.

   • Rogers was a devout Christian that almost never explicitly talked about his faith on the air, but the way his show infused society with beauty and grace was near-biblical …. "You've made this day a special day by just your being you," he'd famously sign off. "There is no person in the whole world like you, and I like you just the way you are."

   • In many ways, the lasting legacy of Fred Rogers will not be the greater emotional stability of generations of children or even a reinvigoration of imagination. It will be his example of how to restore the world through impassioned creativity and craftsmanship. For nearly four decades, Rogers entered our homes and entered our hearts. And each day without fail, he left our collective neighborhoods better and made our days a little bit more beautiful.

2. how we live – Are we different from the world? Are you different from how you were? Have you been behaving in ways that make sense to unbelievers?

3. how we love – They will know

   • I John 3:16 We have come to know love by this: that Jesus laid down his life for us; thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians.

   • John 13:34 “I give you a new commandment – to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples – if you have love for one another.”

1. Confess

   1. Give glory to Father in Heaven – What do you call a person who lives in DC and has a big house north of the white house and is sent by and works for another country... Ambassador or Spy

      • 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 God ... gave us the ministry of reconciliation: … We are Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.

   2. Have a testimony

2. Conclusion – what would our church look like if we rubbed elbows with the NEEDY?

   In his book The Gospel According to Jesus, Chris Seay mentions a profound lesson he learned from his father about loving the "bad people":

Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money, so we used to get outfield deck seats (aka "the cheap seats") to see the baseball games at the [Houston] Astrodome. Most of the people buying the cheap seats did so to save more money for beer. After the first few innings, they were drunk, and by the time the seventh-inning stretch rolled around, there would be beer mixed with peanut shells on the floor, spilled beer down your back, and a brawl two rows over and back to the left. It was ugly out there. As a kid, I learned from a lot people that we were sitting with the "bad people."

There was one consistent drunk fan named Batty Bob. He was a self-proclaimed Houston Astros mascot. He'd come to all the games wearing a rainbow wig, and he'd lead slurred cheers in the stands. I remember one time my dad went out to sit and talk with Batty Bob. He spent the whole game with Bob, then walked him out to the parking lot to bring him home with us. I was more than confused, because this guy was one of the "bad people."

When we got home, my dad came to me and explained how God loved Batty Bob. I remember thinking, Really? Batty Bob? And he stayed with us for a few days to get back on his feet. This is when I started to realize that God did not despise these people; he dearly loved them.

Are we hiding out in here? Is the work of the church here? Or there?