A PRAYER TO START
Nan Doerr and Virginia Stem Owens invite us to pray with them the following prayer today. Pray 3xs to begin your time…
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Almighty God, whose Son Jesus is the light of the world: Grant that your people may so shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth.
John said, “Here is the Lamb of God…I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” (Jn. 1:29, 32). Happy are they who trust in the LORD! They do not resort to evil spirits or turn to false gods. (Ps. 40:4)
The glory of the Lord has been revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. Amen.
GETTING THOUGHTFUL
Jesus gives us two adverbial names in his foundational sermon. He calls you and me, “salt of the earth” and “light of the world” (Matthew 5:13, 14). In essence, Jesus is giving you and I our place in the story of salvation.
Leviticus 2:13 says,
“Season every presentation of your Grain-Offering with salt. Don't leave the salt of the covenant with your God out of your Grain-Offerings. Present all your offerings with salt.”
Each of the sacrifices instructed for God’s people were precisely outlined gifts and services that were meant to aid in the maintaining of Israel’s relationship with God, and salt had a special place in this relational mediation. Each component of the offerings were exactly measured, and every offering, sacrifice, or way of life in honor of God was to be presented with salt. It's as if this common-enough preserving seasoning was the very witness that sacrifices offered where indeed done so for the God of Israel; rather than any other reason for such giving.
Now salt it this subtle seasoning that gets included in almost every dish which comes to mind. Sometimes you notice it, sometimes you do not. But whether you are baking or grilling, salt is the understated but necessary ingredient to make the dish a favorable, even successful. In a similar way, you are I are the subtle, understated but necessary ingredient to ensure that the earth and all within it is reconciled to the Father. That our way of life is an offering to the God of Israel, rather than to any thing other. Jesus believes it is important for you I to hear him affirm our place in God’s story as God's witness to life with him. Even if it’s that common, ordinary, everyday used role of salt.
Jesus also says that you and I are the “light of the world”, meant to bring light to that part of the house which is in darkness without it. Our ordinary saltiness is not meant to merely be an affirmation of our own relationship with God, but a way of life that makes known to all the nations (see Isaiah 49:6)—which includes your spouse, your neighbor, your children, your co-workers, and those in our city without a voice—what a life reconciled to God actually looks like.
You and I are subtle, if not pervasive, witnesses to a life lived in relationship with the Father. That is our place in the story of salvation.
REFLECTION
Jesus grants us a profound, and ubiquitously ordinary, place in God’s kingdom. I wonder sometimes if we would not prefer a different part to play; whether out of ambition or fear. Is being light through saltiness the vision you have for kingdom life?
Use these questions to help you prayerfully reflect individually and/or discuss as a DNA group
- Describe a “salty” life. In what ways might one’s life be sprinkled with the subtle witnesses of her or his relationship with the Father?
- Why describe us as “salt”, why not a spice or preservative that is more potent or more valuable or more immediately distinguishable?
- How does the metaphor and nature of salt give shape to (or reshape) our image of a faithful life in God’s kingdom?
- Read Romans 12:1-3. If our daily existence is meant to be a living sacrifice, one that is presumably to be presented with salt, in what ways could your life be described as “salty”? An ordinary witness to your relationship with our Father.
- Though our relationship with the Father is described in ordinary terms, such ordinariness is not meant to keep us hidden from the world, but rather shine forth into the world. Describe the impact of light on a darkened space. What does light do?
- In what ways might the ordinariness of your relationship with the Father shine light on your “good works” that doesn’t bring you praise but “glory to our Father who is in heaven?
ECHO
Wendell Berry offers us a refreshing image of our daily and gracious task of making much of Jesus in the ordinary things of life. May his exhortation echo in your mind, in your heart, and into your actions this week.
Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day,
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.