11^th March 2014

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Sunday 9 February 2014

Lessons - Psalm 112:4-9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-8; Matthew 5:13-20

The question is becoming more urgent. What does it mean to belong to the Christian community today? What does it mean to follow Christ in being the 'salt of the earth' (Matthew 5:13) and the 'light of the world' (v14)?

These well-known sayings cannot be taken out of context without falsifying their meaning. They describe life in the service of the crucified Christ:
service that is neither arrogant nor introspective and seeks to glorify God 'in the midst of the world'. Folk who are 'salt of the earth' do not 'hide their lamp under a bowl' because they do not want to draw attention to themselves. They are so astounded by God's undeserved love for them that they are glad to bear the world's sorrows, hunger and thirst for righteousness, make peace, show mercy and suffer persecution without thought for their own virtue or security.

Salt preserves meat so that it does not go bad and life can be sustained for long periods. Romans and Greeks regarded salt as a 'divine gift'; the Jews celebrated God's ongoing fidelity and the gift of the Law in a 'covenant of salt' (e.g. Numbers 18:19; 2 Chronicles 13:5). Sacrifices offered to God were salted to remind them that grace preserved their life from becoming rotten!

In Mark (9:49) salt and personal sacrifice are linked. At the end of a long section in which Jesus calls disciples to follow the way of the cross, he says, 'Everyone of you will be salted with fire.' The 'salt of the earth' can expect persecution! Their responsibility to preserve the world from becoming rotten will be costly.

Jesus' disciples exist to 'preserve' life as it has been created and redeemed by God. They are not to 'preserve the status quo': leaving everything comfortably as it is. It is not an invitation to syrupy nostalgia. If that is what we want then a very different simile would be preferred. In 'The Diary of a Country Priest' Georges Bernanos notes that 'Our heavenly Father said that mankind was the salt of the earth, not the honey. Salt stings on an open wound, but saves you from gangrene' (p11, cited in 'Ministers' Prayer Book' p402). The Church is summoned to name what has become rotten in the world and invite others, too, to glorify God for having in Christ stopped the rot.

This community is to be a visible presence in a world where a 'culture of death' threatens the Gospel's 'culture of life'. It is to be like 'a city set on a hill' that can be seen from miles around (v14) or a 'lamp placed on a stand in a room that gives light to all in the house' (v15). It is not to be like a small secluded village that keeps to itself or a lamp whose light can only be seen by those who huddle under a bowl.

Jesus' followers are not to isolate themselves from the broken world, but to give themselves for others 'in its midst'. As light exposes what has been hidden in the dark, so they are to shine the light of the Gospel into the dark corners of earth. Christian communities are to be 'beacons of hope'. They are to expose what is rotten in the light of the glory of the cross in the hope that those who do dark deeds will be transformed. Across the centuries, the lives of many decadent souls have been preserved because the Church has shone a light on the victory of the crucified Jesus!

Christianity is not a religious club that exists for its own benefit and tries to keep out of trouble. Christians are summoned, not to save themselves, but to give themselves in costly love for the world! Self- preservation has no place in this community. We have been enlisted to preserve the life of the earth. We are to shine a light on dark deeds that trample human dignity and mock God, not in the hope that the world will congratulate us for being committed to social justice, but so that 'people may see the love of Christ in our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven' (5:16).

It is not always obvious that church pronouncements on social issues take account of Christ's crucifixion or are based on a 'righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees' (5:20) by encouraging others to glorify God. Sometimes they exhibit a superior attitude to the less well informed and mirror a rights agenda that is hostile to the way of life to which Jesus calls his disciples.

What does it mean for us to be a visible community of faith in a society where the Church, once a visible part of civic life, is now increasingly invisible? What will be the consequences if the cross is removed from the flag, the Lord's Prayer is banned from Parliament, religious education is removed from schools, churches are excluded from providing health, welfare and educational services and Christian businesses are forbidden to act in accordance with their beliefs?

We certainly should not be concerned about the status of the Church! We do not have to protect our power. Jesus was not speaking as a powerful civic leader but as a troublemaker destined for crucifixion. Furthermore he was not addressing 'movers and shakers' but a tiny band of followers destined for persecution. Being 'salt' and 'light' does not necessarily mean having influence with the State or political activists.

Today, without regard for our standing in the community, and as a matter of urgency, we are called to name situations where God's grace-and- righteousness is not being preserved and the light of the Gospel is being dimmed or extinguished. The Christian tradition of faith and ethics that has preserved Western civilisation is steadily being trashed. In many
places:

* The rights of individuals and groups are brashly asserted, almost always in defiance of God's embodied will in Christ.

* Choice has become absolute.

* The dark forces of militant atheism are in the ascendancy.

* Strident advocates of euthanasia and abortion do not believe that the lives of the most vulnerable are worth preserving.

* Marriage between a man and a woman is not to be preserved.

* The dignity of the poor, asylum seekers and others is not upheld.

* Recognition of our national responsibility to God must be removed from public life.

All is not well in the Church, either! The unspeakable shame of child abuse is an obstacle to anyone taking our text to heart. In the minds of many people, the Church is rotten to the core. It represents the dark forces of violence, ignorance, pettiness, cowardice, deceit and self- preservation.

When that deception is compounded by widespread contempt within the church for the magnificence of God's grace in the incarnate, crucified and risen Jesus, it is clear that, in many places, she has lost her saltiness and hidden her light! She has not heeded Jesus' stark judgment on her refusal to preserve the world in righteousness-and-mercy and to shine the light of truth on evil deeds. She is 'no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and trampled under foot' (v13b).

Friends, we have been called to exercise the most splendid vocation
imaginable: to glorify God for embodying his grace in Christ and to seek God's good purposes for our flawed and strife-torn world. In a world increasingly hostile to the Gospel, this may be costly. Persecution may come.

But far worse than anything that may befall Christians in the future would be the Church's failure to follow the way of the crucified-and-risen Lord and so point others to the one place in history where hope has been realised! As the Beatitudes make clear, this is not a miserable task but a rich blessing to be shared, enjoyed and carried out in gratitude for God's grace embodied in Christ.

That message must be at the heart of our preaching, teaching, pastoral care and political actions. Where human dignity is trampled and dark deeds are done, the world needs, not honey to sweeten what is sour, but salt to sting the wounds of unrighteousness and save us from gangrene!

'In ourselves' we cannot preserve and illuminate the world but 'in Christ'
we may gladly seek to live out the Beatitudes. We should 'exceed the obedience of scribes and Pharisees' (v20) by encouraging our often hostile fellow citizens to join our flawed and fragile community in praising the
God of grace.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is the minister of St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is a member of the Council of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.