A Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
The Rev. Patricia A. Gillespie

Habakkuk 3:2-6,17-19
Psalm 27:1-7
1 Corinthians 2:1-11
Matthew 5:13-20

"You are the light of the world." Don't hide it. Just as salt that has lost it's taste is useless, a light that doesn't shine is good for nothing. What do you do when a light doesn't shine? What do you do when there's a power failure?

Like most people in Stearns County, I call Ann Beard. Maybe you wonder why I would call Good Samaritan's youth minister when my light doesn't shine? Because when she's not doing wonderful things for the church, she's a dispatcher for Stearns Electric. Something's wrong and she sends the crews out to fix it. It could be more than the inconvenience of my little light not shining. It could be life threatening: an elderly person with no heat in sub-zero weather. or someone with medical equipment that requires electricity. When there's no power things, small and large, go very wrong.

Yet the reality of a power failure is that Stearns Electric has sufficient power in its generating system to meet all the needs of the county. But if there's a problem with one transformer or with a transmission line then then some places there will be no light.

This is the parable, right after the one about the vine and the branches, where Jesus says "I am the generator and you are the transformers and transmission lines." (I think that makes "Grannie Annie" our youth minister, as dispatcher, a prayer!)

Scripture tells us two seemingly contradictory truths about the light of the world: In today's gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells his followers, "YOU are the light of the world." But then in the gospel according to John, Jesus says "I am the light of the world." This is a not an "either-or" but a "both-and." Christ and us -- WE are the light of the world.

The light shines in us but the power belongs to Christ and the light comes from Christ. Or to use our other gospel image: We are the salt of the earth but the seasoning belongs to Christ. "We are the light of the world."

Notice that Jesus is not saying: "BE the salt or the light!" He says his followers already ARE the salt and the light. What can he mean by that? When people ask who I am, my response doesn't usually include, "I am salt and I am light."

Perhaps Jesus is suggesting that we're like what salt and light have in common. One thing that salt and light have in common is that for each of them their form and function are the same. That's different from many things. Like this lavabo bowl. I use it to wash my hands before communion. But I could use it to put flowers in, or for taking up the offering, or even to take out the garbage. It's more than what it does as a lavabo bowl. Or I could use something else to wash my hands. The bowl's form and function differ.

But with salt and with light, what they are IS what they do. Their identity is defined by what they do. If they do anything different, they stop being what they are. If light does not chase away the darkness; it isn't light anymore. If salt doesn't exhibit the chemical properties of salt; if it doesn't taste salty, is it still salt?

Another thing they have in common is that neither salt nor light can "do their thing" (that is, be what they are) alone. No one eats salt by itself. Imagine: "What's for dinner?" "We're having salt."! What salt does, it does with something else: it penetrates and seasons or preserves food; it dissolves in water and melts ice. Salt often changes things by making them more themselves by bringing out the best in them. Anyone who's had to live with a salt-free diet knows that many things lose their flavor without salt-- they seem less "themselves."

And try to imagine light all by itself, without shining on anything. That taxes our imagination and the reality would be blinding. What light does, it does with something else: it shines on things so we can see them; Light changes things by making them clear and bright.

We are salt and light. Like salt and light, what we are made to do is part of who we are. And, like salt and light, we don't do alone. We are made not for ourselves alone but to do God's work in community. Who did God make you? What darkness is in your world that needs the light of Christ to shine through you? Someone living in the darkness of loneliness waiting for your light? Someone with an unrecognized talent that you can bring to light?

What is it that you can spice up a bit? Maybe what faith and joy God has given you can be shared with someone living in fear. Perhaps your neighbor in the pew just shined their light on your unrecognized talent -- maybe you could spice our congregational life with it. This begins to sound rather like the ministry discernment our churches are doing right now. Or even like that unmentionable E-word: "evangelism." So sometimes it's easier to hide our light or deny our saltiness.

But really, God asks very little. All God wants is that we be what God has made us to be. God made us the salt of the earth and the light of the world A light, Jesus tells us, not for our own sake or even for the sake of others, but to give glory to our Father in heaven.

That seems too big a task. Isn't that just like Jesus? -- giving his followers more than they could possibly do. Telling his early followers, as if it were no big deal, to go out and heal people and cast out demons. Telling us today, as if evangelism weren't uncomfortable and embarrassing, to go out and preach the Good News that God's love and forgiveness is for everyone. And then, as if that weren't enough, adding that "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

My immediate response is: "No way, Jesus! Okay. Maybe I am light -- sometimes I do seem to brighten some people's day. Maybe I am salt -- sometimes I do seem to spice things up a bit. But to outdo those goody-two-shoes holy folk, forget it. After all, you, of all people, know how many of those bits and pieces of your commandments I've broken."

And Jesus smiles and says, "Get yourself out of the way, my child. Did you hear what I said? -- I, not you, am the one who will fulfill the Law."

It is Jesus -- not me or the scribes or the Pharisees or even the Pope or the fundamentalists, but Jesus who fulfills the Law. Jesus is the only one righteous enough to enter the kingdom. The only one who, on his own, is in "right relationship" with God, which is what righteousness means.

The pharisees mistakenly tried to fulfill the Law themselves. As salt and light, we allow the Law to work in and through us in God's world. That's the only way we are able to "keep" the commandments. It is Christ shining through us that makes us right with God. It is Christ working through us makes us righteous. "I am the generator and you are the transformers and the transmission lines."

Jesus does ask too much of his followers, but he gives us what we need. All the power we need is readily available. We just need to get out of the way and keep the power lines open.

All the Light, the Salt, and the Righteousness we need to bring God's love to the world has already been given to us. In Christ you are more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees. You are the salt and the light of the world. So you can do what you were made to do:

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