Be Salt and Light

Led by: Rev. Magdalena Marais

Scripture: Psalm 96, Matthew 5: 13 – 16 and Isaiah 60: 1 – 3

There are some things we only really notice when they are missing.  Salt is one of them.  You can prepare a meal, put it on the table, sit down and take the first bite — and suddenly realise something is missing.  The strange thing about salt is that when it does its work properly, it doesn’t ask to be noticed.  It disappears into the food.  You don’t sit there thinking, “What wonderful salt I am tasting today.”  You simply enjoy what the salt has brought out.  And perhaps that is part of the mystery of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5.  He looks at His disciples and says: “You are like salt for the whole human race.”  And then He says: “You are like light for the whole world.”  Two very ordinary things.  Salt and light.  But Jesus uses them to describe something extraordinary about the people who follow Him.  He is telling us something about what happens when a life shaped by God becomes part of the ordinary world around it.

Salt That Becomes Part of Something Bigger

Salt does not have to dominate the meal – too much salt can ruin it.  Its purpose is to become part of something bigger than itself.  It changes what it touches, brings out flavour and helps preserve.  And in the ancient world, salt was valuable precisely because it had a purpose beyond itself.  Perhaps that gives us a different way of hearing Jesus’ words.  The Christian life is not lived in isolation.  We are part of families, workplaces, neighbourhoods, friendships and communities.  We live among people who don’t necessarily believe what we believe.  They have very different experiences of life.  People who may never walk through the doors of a church.

And Jesus says: You are salt.  Your life is meant to become part of the world around you.  Not to dominate it or withdraw from it, but to bring something of Christ into it.

Sometimes we may never know exactly what difference we make.  Because salt rarely receives the credit – it simply does its work.

The Man Nobody Noticed

I was reminded of a story about an elderly man who cared for the mountain springs above a small village in the Austrian Alps.  His work was simple.  He walked through the mountains and kept the springs clear of leaves, branches and debris so that clean water could continue flowing down towards the village.  It was quiet work.  Nobody really noticed him.  Eventually the village decided that they no longer needed to pay him – so he stopped working.  At first, nothing seemed to happen but slowly the springs became blocked.  The water became dirty.  The mills began to suffer.  The village began to lose some of the life that had always flowed from those mountain springs.  Eventually they realised something.  The man they hardly noticed had been doing something that mattered.  So they brought him back.  And slowly, the water began to flow clearly again.

I love that picture.  Nobody noticed the man, but everybody benefited from his faithfulness.  And perhaps that is one of the quiet truths of Christian life.  Not everything that matters are visible.  Some of the most important things God does through His people happen quietly.  There may be no applause, recognition or a feeling of changing anything.  But our faithfulness benefits all around us.  And sometimes, years later, we discover that something we thought was small had become part of God’s work in somebody else’s life.

Then Jesus Changes the Picture

But Jesus doesn’t stop with salt.  He says: “You are like light for the whole world.”

And suddenly the image changes.  Salt disappears into what it touches.  Light does the opposite; light makes things visible.  You walk into a dark room and switch on the light.  Suddenly you can see where you are.  You can see the things that were there all along but were hidden by darkness.  Light reveals, gives direction and makes it possible to see.  So, when Jesus says: “You are like light for the whole world.”

that means our faith is not meant to remain invisible.  There are moments when our lives should make something visible.  And that something is not us or our goodness but Christ. 

What Becomes Visible?

I wonder if that is a question worth carrying with us.  When people encounter us what becomes visible?  Does our presence make hope and grace easier to see?  Does it make forgiveness possible to imagine?  Make peace seem possible?  Or make people wonder where our strength comes from?  Not because we always get these things right – because we don’t.  We are still learning and growing in our faithfulness.  We still become tired, lose our patience.  We still have days when our own faith feels small.  But perhaps the point is not that we become perfect examples.  The point is that, even through imperfect people, Christ can become visible.

That is what makes Jesus’ words so hopeful.  He doesn’t say: “You are the perfect people of the world.” He says: “You are the light of the world.”

Light Needs a Source

And that raises an important question.  Where does the light come from?  A lamp doesn’t produce electricity.  And we cannot manufacture the light of Christ by simply trying harder.  The light we carry comes from somewhere else – it comes from Christ.

That is why our relationship with Him matters so deeply.  We need His presence, His Word, His grace and his Spirit.  Not because Christianity is another project we have to manage, but because we cannot give away what we are no longer receiving. I once saw a little glow-in-the-dark figure with a simple instruction attached to it: “If you want me to shine in the dark, keep me in the light.”  There is something wonderfully simple about that.  If we want Christ’s light to be visible through our lives, we need to keep coming back to Christ.  Back to the source. 

A Light That Cannot Be Hidden

Jesus continues: “No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl; instead, he puts it on the lampstand, where it gives light for everyone in the house.”  A lamp hidden under a bowl may still be burning but nobody benefits from it.  And perhaps that is the warning Jesus gives us.  It is possible to have faith and keep it hidden.  To have experienced God’s grace and never allow it to reach beyond ourselves.  To know the love of Christ but never let that love become visible.

Jesus says: “Your light must shine before people.”  Not so people will praise us.

Not so they will think we are wonderful.  Jesus says that when people see our good works, they should praise our Father in heaven.  The light points beyond itself.

That is its purpose.

Salt and Light

Perhaps that is why Jesus gives us both pictures.  Salt and light.  Salt becomes part of something.  Light makes something visible.  Salt works quietly.  Light can be seen.

Salt changes what it touches.  Light reveals what is already there.  Perhaps there are times in our lives when we are called to be more like one than the other.  Sometimes our faith is quietly woven into an ordinary conversation.  Simply in the way we carry ourselves through a difficult situation.  Something that nobody notices – like salt.  And sometimes there are moments when we need to let our faith be seen.  When we need to speak, need to stand for what is right.  When we need to say, “This is what I believe.”  Like light.  Both belong to the same calling.  To let something of Christ become present in the world around us.

A Small Light Is Still Light

Perhaps some of us wonder whether our lives are significant enough to make a difference.  We can list all the darkness around us – loneliness, division, suffering, uncertainty the list is endless.  And we think: “What can one person possibly do?”

But Jesus doesn’t ask one person to light the whole world.  A single candle cannot remove all the darkness outside, but it can change the darkness in the room where it burns.  And perhaps that is enough.  You don’t need to illuminate the whole world.

You simply need to allow Christ’s light to shine where He has placed you.

The same is true of salt.  You don’t need a mountain of salt to change a meal a little is enough.  A small act of faithfulness is still faithfulness.  And God has always been able to take small things and use them for something much greater than we imagined.

Let Christ Be Seen

As we come to the end of August, I find myself thinking about the journey we have taken together.  We began by asking God to show us His ways.  We have spoken about following Christ through uncertainty.  About remembering to see Him when life becomes overwhelming, remaining connected to Him, becoming neighbours who carry His mercy into the world.  And perhaps today Jesus gives us the natural next step.  Not another complicated instruction.  Simply this: Let Christ become visible in your life.  Sometimes like salt – quietly changing the place where God has put you.  Sometimes like light – making hope visible in a dark place.  The salt does not need to know who tasted it.  The light does not need to know who found their way because of it.  Our calling is simply to remain close to Christ and allow Him to work through us. 

With the summer coming to an end and we’re looking towards a busy September Jesus reminds us that we need to make Him visible in the world.  The rest we can leave to Him because we are not the source or the Saviour.  We are simply people who have received grace and have been placed in this world to let a little of that grace be seen.  So may we be salt, may we be light, may our lives quietly carry the flavour of Christ.  And may the people around us, sometimes without even knowing why, catch a glimpse of the One who has made all the difference.  Amen.