Down-to-Earth Faith

In the plethora of possible religious beliefs of the Roman empire in the first century of our common era there were two that almost rivaled Christianity: Stoicism and Gnosticism. The first was a religion that taught people to accept their fate and bear it out because they could do nothing to change it. The other was about secret knowledge. (Gnosis is the Greek word for knowledge.) They claimed to have the secret to living and that by joining them and going through their secret ritual you would gain that knowledge so you could be successful in life. It seems that, in part, Paul is struggling against an understanding that Christianity was a gnostic religion – that through baptism you would gain certain knowledge. Paul, in our lesson for today, is reminding them that knowledge is not the reason why he came to them. In fact he claims not to have used lofty words or wisdom when he brought them news about Jesus. Instead, he tells them, he came to proclaim Christ Jesus. 

While it would be nice to receive all the knowledge we need to live our lives at one time through some secret initiation rite, we know that’s impossible. We have learned, and are still learning, how to live our lives in the world today through experience. What we need instead of specific knowledge is a guide that will help us make decisions in our pilgrimage through life. In the light of Paul’s reminder that we are called to a different wisdom than the world, we look at our other texts for today. Isaiah is reminding the people that they were focused on themselves. They were practicing their faith selfishly. They fasted to bring back the “good old times.” In doing so they were forgetting God’s call to bring justice to the world, to break every yoke, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the homeless poor. Jesus expands on this theme in our reading from Matthew today. 

Jesus calls us to be the salt of the world. Think about this. Jesus is calling you to be the flavor of the world: that thing that makes people enjoy the life God has given them. I know, I too have heard many sermons about how salt might lose its saltiness. It cannot; but you can waste it. If you missed the message about salt, Jesus also gives you another analogy: you are the light of the world. Did you catch that part of the reading that we use in our baptismal Liturgy? “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven.” We are those who are called to be the light to those who are in darkness so that they can see Jesus through our words and deeds. In a world that is pushing us to be selfish and to only think about ourselves we are reminded by Isaiah and Paul the call of Jesus. It is not our right to sit around and decide who to let in and who to keep out. It is not our role to decide who deserves God’s gifts. Our role is to be God’s gift to the world; salt and light to a hungry world that lives in the darkness of greed, sin, and death. 

The true gift here is that you do not have to do it, you get to do it. You get to share God’s love with the world because, no matter what happens, you will always be God’s children. So don’t throw away your gifts so that they may be trampled on, and do not hide your light. Instead, pick up your cross and follow Jesus, who by his life, death, and resurrection has made you who you are: the bringers of justice, the clothiers of the naked, the givers of hope in a troubled world.