Sermon - 2/5/23

<p>I still vividly remember the time fifty plus years ago when I first came to Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos. I was in High School, and I came with my mother to Faith Lutheran Church for a gathering of the Michigan District ALCW (the American Lutheran Church Women).  I clearly remember that day because Evelyn Frost was the speaker. I am sure some of you who are long time members remember her.  Evelyn’s remarks on that day made a huge impression on my young, formidable mind.  The gospel passage on which she spoke was the gospel reading we have today.  I remember being fascinated as she talked about salt, the many properties and varieties of salt, and the multiple ways in which salt is used.  As I studied today’s gospel reading, that experience of roughly fifty years ago came to mind.</p> <p>Salt and light.  Today, Jesus tells us <strong>we</strong> are the salt of the earth, and <strong>we</strong> bring light to the world.  Last week we heard Jesus launch his ministry by beginning his inaugural address, the message we now call the Sermon on the Mount.  Last week we heard him begin with The Beatitudes, that wonderful vision that lifts up the most unlikely people – the poor in spirit, the meek and the merciful, those who mourn and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.  Last week we heard Jesus call these most unlikely of people “blessed.”  Today, Jesus continues his sermon by addressing the crowd as “you,” and offering them words of both reassurance and challenge.  The “you” he addresses is plural.  It is to be heard by us not as privately pious Christians but as the Body of Christ active in the world God so deeply loves, even if that activity is at times risky business.  As Jesus continues, he uses the metaphors of salt and light.  And, like that second generation of Christians to whom Matthew was writing, we listen with the crowd to hear that we, too, are “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.”  </p> <p>One of the fascinati