Salt & Light
Salt & Light | Sermon Reflection | Matthew 5:13-16
Last week I quietly celebrated my 10-year mark as Cornerstone’s Senior Pastor. (It was an extremely quiet celebration because even I did not realize it had already been that long!) How did 10 years pass this quickly?
A Culturally Tumultuous Decade
I first stepped into my new role at Cornerstone just a few months before Donald Trump won that surprising election of 2016 defeating Hillary Clinton. In the immediate days that followed I had a few members of the congregation approach me with something like a gleeful smile on their face wanting to celebrate with me because “we won.” But when I delivered my already planned sermon on Philippians that Sunday and failed to address the election, I was gently rebuked by a key ministry leader in the church for not sympathizing with all those in the congregation who were “truly scared” at the election results since "we lost." I remember being frustrated at the time that as pastor I was expected not only to carefully preach God’s Word every Sunday, but, apparently, I was expected, as well, to offer insightful cultural analysis on whatever major event had transpired that week. Any proclivity I might have had as a young pastor to ignore the wider world around me was soon challenged by the social upheaval that marked, and perhaps even defined, the years that followed that 2016 election. There was the global pandemic that shut down the world (and our church as well for some time). This was followed by that wide-spread reckoning on racial inequality in our nation seen through incidents like the death of George Floyd. We saw the #metoo movement gain steam seemingly overnight. The transgender movement took a strong hold particularly amongst the youth of the country. Today it is the AI revolution that is provoking both significant amazement and anxiety.
How Should We as Christians Enter into the World Around Us?
If I could go back in time ten years and give one bit of counsel to my (slightly) younger self at the start of pastoral ministry, I would want to emphasize the need to carefully think through a biblical framework for cultural engagement. I found my seminary education prepared me well enough, for instance, to preach the Word but I was mostly unprepared to answer that basic question, “How should we as Christians enter into the world around us?” Pastors, churches, and indeed individual Christians need a thoughtful model from which to operate. I would like to attempt in this blog to articulate such a model.
3 Question We Must Ask
Any model or framework that guides our cultural engagement should answer three basic questions. Christian sociologist James Hunter asks the first and most fundamental question concerning our engagement with the world around us: Should we as Christians even attempt such a task? Arguing from Genesis 1 and 2, he resoundingly answers yes, concluding: “To be a Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing God’s restorative purposes over all of life, individual and corporate, public and private. This is the mandate of creation.[1]” Tim Keller, in his theological vision Center Church, identifies two further questions that need answers: “Should we be pessimistic or optimistic about the possibility of cultural change?” and “Is the current culture redeemable and good, or fundamentally fallen?”[2] How we answer these two questions will dictate how we engage the world around us. Will we withdrawal completely from the world or seek fully to be “in” the world? Will we compromise with the culture or seek to dominate the culture?
Salt & Light
Perhaps one of the clearest places in Scripture that we see answers to these basic questions is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world (Matthew 5:13,14).” Jesus gives us here a thoughtful and balanced way to enter into the world around us.
A Balanced Approach
The balance that Jesus strikes here is important to see. If he had simply said, “You are the salt of the earth,” we might think that Jesus most wants us to be present in world but is mostly unconcerned with Christians being set apart from the world. This, says James Hunter, can be error of the “Christian Left” who nobly seek to be relevant to the culture but can at times “soften” the hard edges of Christian doctrine and end up compromising the truth of the gospel.
On the other hand, if Jesus had only said, “You are the light of the world,” we might think that what he most wants for us to is stand apart from the world and expose all that is wrong. This, according to Hunter, can be the issue with the “Christian Right” who can favor withdrawal over relevance.
But Jesus holds these two statements in perfect tension. By calling us the “salt of the earth” he is sending his disciples out into and in close proximity with the broken places of the world. Salt, after all, only works when it gets “out of the saltshaker” and “into the world” (thank you Becky Pippert). But by also calling us the “light of the world,” we are reminded that we are to be distinct, set apart, and altogether different from the world. From Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, then, we can name three aspects of a “Salt & Light” framework for engaging the world.
#1 Jesus calls us to stand out without standing apart.
The first error I fell into as a new Christian was standing too far apart from the broken and dark world I had been “saved from.” The idea of being a “light” for me meant complete separation not just from “sin” but from “sinners.” I did not listen carefully enough to Jesus’ call for us to let our light shine “before others” in such way that they are led to “give glory” to God (Matthew 5:16). The mistake I fell into slightly later, and undoubtedly in reaction to that first error, was to be absorbed into the broken world around me. Particularly in my early days of youth ministry I was seeking so hard to relate to non-Christians that my life did not look much different from theirs. Jesus calls us to exist in that perfect tension between standing out but not standing apart. Scottish Presbyterian minister George MacLeod (1895–1991) looks to Jesus himself as our example:
Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where he died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.[3]
What does it look like to embody this tension? First and foremost, we need to be aware of the direction, standing out or standing apart, we are most prone to slide. I am convinced that most of us in our context tend to slide toward standing apart from the broken world and its broken people. If we are to exist in the proper of tension of salt and light, most of us need to be more ready to move towards those broken places. I can’t help but wonder what greater faithfulness might look like for us as a church in this area. Where might God be calling us to “get out of the saltshaker” and into the world?
#2 Jesus calls us to proximity without conformity.
The ever-present danger of entering “into” the world is that we might quickly become “of” the world. In this second tension we balance the priority of holding firm to our convictions while still seeking some common ground with others. In my campus ministry days, the parachurch organization for which I worked, I believe, too often failed in the direction of conformity to the very world it sought to change. For instance, during the emergence of the “social justice” movement on campus, I believe we to quickly and too uncritically linked arms with a movement that would eventually go in direction we would not want to go. Conversely, when I entered into the “church ministry” world, I was surprised by an opposite difficulty. For example, there was brief season where I had the opportunity to lead a homeless man to faith in Christ and to disciple him; however, I struggled to plug him into Cornerstone. Our congregation is defined at least in part by our warmness and friendliness, but I was afraid we would not know “what to do” with this homeless man. Would he be welcomed into our homes and our lives beyond a friendly conversation on a Sunday morning?
How do we pursue proximity without conformity? One of the great needs we have is to form “thick” Christian community. That is to say, we need actual depth in our relationships with other believers in order to remain solid in the faith as we are sent out to the world. We need find in one another a real ministry partnership. As our church has grown, particularly since the pandemic, forming a grounded and well-connected community has become an increasingly pressing need for us. Our small group (Life Group) ministry is a vital platform where we imagine this taking place. But forming a solid community takes time.
#3 Jesus calls to demonstration without domination.
“Let your light shine before others,” says Jesus, “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).” To be salt and light in the world means neither to abandon the world nor to rule over the world. Yes, we are called to let our light shine but not in such a way as to induce blindness. James Hunter rightly critiques many groups within the “Religious Right” for their desire to move in the direction of domination to win the “profound culture war” of our day.[4]
This final tension between demonstration and domination is perhaps the most difficult one to get right. How do we speak up against injustice and yet not rely on our might or power but on the Spirit (c.f. Zechariah 4:6)? How do we speak up in the face of sin and yet not unnecessarily tear down? The cross is the ultimate demonstration to us and to the world for how this works. In his book, The Cross of Christ, John Stott, states the fairly that obvious, that “any contemporary observer who saw Christ die” would easily conclude that it was total defeat:
If there is a victory, it is the victory of pride, prejudice, jealousy, hatred, cowardice and brutality. Yet the Christian claim is that the reality is the opposite of the appearance. What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.[5]
Conclusion
The cross is both the example and the power of how to fulfill the calling to be salt and light. We must as Christians work to stand out from the world without entirely standing apart from the world. We must strive to enter that space between proximity and conformity. We must work to demonstrate the power of the gospel laying aside the urge to dominate. As we begin a new ministry year as a church, let’s allow these words of Jesus to sink in deep: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of world.”
[1] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4.
[2] Timothy Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 225.
[3] George F. MacLeod, Only One Way Left: Church Prospect (Glasgow: The Iona Community, 1956), 38.
[4] Hunter, To Change the World, 14.
[5] John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, 20th anniversary ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006), 227-228.
Sermon Summary
In Matthew 5:13–16, Jesus calls his people to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Christians are not called to withdraw from the world, conform to it, or seek to dominate it. Instead, Jesus calls us to stand out without standing apart, to live in proximity without conformity, and to demonstrate the goodness of his kingdom without domination. We enter into the lives of those around us while remaining distinct because we belong to Christ. And we do this by following the way of the cross, trusting that the cross is not only our example but also the power of the Christian life. As a new ministry year begins, Jesus invites us to embrace a bigger vision for what it means to be salt and light wherever he has placed us.
Discussion Questions
Quotes
“Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.”
- George MacLeod, Only One Way Left, p.38
“Of course any contemporary observer who saw Christ die would have listened with astonished incredulity to the claim that the Crucified was a Conqueror. Had he not been rejected by his own nation, betrayed, denied and deserted by his own disciples, and executed by authority of the Roman procurator? Look at him there, spread-eagled and skewed on his cross, robbed of all freedom of movement, strung up with nails or ropes or both, pinned there and powerless. It appears to be total defeat. If there is a victory, it is the victory of pride, prejudice, jealousy, hatred, cowardice and brutality. Yet the Christian claim is that the reality is the opposite of the appearance. What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.” –John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.227-228
Last week I quietly celebrated my 10-year mark as Cornerstone’s Senior Pastor. (It was an extremely quiet celebration because even I did not realize it had already been that long!) How did 10 years pass this quickly?
A Culturally Tumultuous Decade
I first stepped into my new role at Cornerstone just a few months before Donald Trump won that surprising election of 2016 defeating Hillary Clinton. In the immediate days that followed I had a few members of the congregation approach me with something like a gleeful smile on their face wanting to celebrate with me because “we won.” But when I delivered my already planned sermon on Philippians that Sunday and failed to address the election, I was gently rebuked by a key ministry leader in the church for not sympathizing with all those in the congregation who were “truly scared” at the election results since "we lost." I remember being frustrated at the time that as pastor I was expected not only to carefully preach God’s Word every Sunday, but, apparently, I was expected, as well, to offer insightful cultural analysis on whatever major event had transpired that week. Any proclivity I might have had as a young pastor to ignore the wider world around me was soon challenged by the social upheaval that marked, and perhaps even defined, the years that followed that 2016 election. There was the global pandemic that shut down the world (and our church as well for some time). This was followed by that wide-spread reckoning on racial inequality in our nation seen through incidents like the death of George Floyd. We saw the #metoo movement gain steam seemingly overnight. The transgender movement took a strong hold particularly amongst the youth of the country. Today it is the AI revolution that is provoking both significant amazement and anxiety.
How Should We as Christians Enter into the World Around Us?
If I could go back in time ten years and give one bit of counsel to my (slightly) younger self at the start of pastoral ministry, I would want to emphasize the need to carefully think through a biblical framework for cultural engagement. I found my seminary education prepared me well enough, for instance, to preach the Word but I was mostly unprepared to answer that basic question, “How should we as Christians enter into the world around us?” Pastors, churches, and indeed individual Christians need a thoughtful model from which to operate. I would like to attempt in this blog to articulate such a model.
3 Question We Must Ask
Any model or framework that guides our cultural engagement should answer three basic questions. Christian sociologist James Hunter asks the first and most fundamental question concerning our engagement with the world around us: Should we as Christians even attempt such a task? Arguing from Genesis 1 and 2, he resoundingly answers yes, concluding: “To be a Christian is to be obliged to engage the world, pursuing God’s restorative purposes over all of life, individual and corporate, public and private. This is the mandate of creation.[1]” Tim Keller, in his theological vision Center Church, identifies two further questions that need answers: “Should we be pessimistic or optimistic about the possibility of cultural change?” and “Is the current culture redeemable and good, or fundamentally fallen?”[2] How we answer these two questions will dictate how we engage the world around us. Will we withdrawal completely from the world or seek fully to be “in” the world? Will we compromise with the culture or seek to dominate the culture?
Salt & Light
Perhaps one of the clearest places in Scripture that we see answers to these basic questions is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world (Matthew 5:13,14).” Jesus gives us here a thoughtful and balanced way to enter into the world around us.
A Balanced Approach
The balance that Jesus strikes here is important to see. If he had simply said, “You are the salt of the earth,” we might think that Jesus most wants us to be present in world but is mostly unconcerned with Christians being set apart from the world. This, says James Hunter, can be error of the “Christian Left” who nobly seek to be relevant to the culture but can at times “soften” the hard edges of Christian doctrine and end up compromising the truth of the gospel.
On the other hand, if Jesus had only said, “You are the light of the world,” we might think that what he most wants for us to is stand apart from the world and expose all that is wrong. This, according to Hunter, can be the issue with the “Christian Right” who can favor withdrawal over relevance.
But Jesus holds these two statements in perfect tension. By calling us the “salt of the earth” he is sending his disciples out into and in close proximity with the broken places of the world. Salt, after all, only works when it gets “out of the saltshaker” and “into the world” (thank you Becky Pippert). But by also calling us the “light of the world,” we are reminded that we are to be distinct, set apart, and altogether different from the world. From Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, then, we can name three aspects of a “Salt & Light” framework for engaging the world.
#1 Jesus calls us to stand out without standing apart.
The first error I fell into as a new Christian was standing too far apart from the broken and dark world I had been “saved from.” The idea of being a “light” for me meant complete separation not just from “sin” but from “sinners.” I did not listen carefully enough to Jesus’ call for us to let our light shine “before others” in such way that they are led to “give glory” to God (Matthew 5:16). The mistake I fell into slightly later, and undoubtedly in reaction to that first error, was to be absorbed into the broken world around me. Particularly in my early days of youth ministry I was seeking so hard to relate to non-Christians that my life did not look much different from theirs. Jesus calls us to exist in that perfect tension between standing out but not standing apart. Scottish Presbyterian minister George MacLeod (1895–1991) looks to Jesus himself as our example:
Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where he died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.[3]
What does it look like to embody this tension? First and foremost, we need to be aware of the direction, standing out or standing apart, we are most prone to slide. I am convinced that most of us in our context tend to slide toward standing apart from the broken world and its broken people. If we are to exist in the proper of tension of salt and light, most of us need to be more ready to move towards those broken places. I can’t help but wonder what greater faithfulness might look like for us as a church in this area. Where might God be calling us to “get out of the saltshaker” and into the world?
#2 Jesus calls us to proximity without conformity.
The ever-present danger of entering “into” the world is that we might quickly become “of” the world. In this second tension we balance the priority of holding firm to our convictions while still seeking some common ground with others. In my campus ministry days, the parachurch organization for which I worked, I believe, too often failed in the direction of conformity to the very world it sought to change. For instance, during the emergence of the “social justice” movement on campus, I believe we to quickly and too uncritically linked arms with a movement that would eventually go in direction we would not want to go. Conversely, when I entered into the “church ministry” world, I was surprised by an opposite difficulty. For example, there was brief season where I had the opportunity to lead a homeless man to faith in Christ and to disciple him; however, I struggled to plug him into Cornerstone. Our congregation is defined at least in part by our warmness and friendliness, but I was afraid we would not know “what to do” with this homeless man. Would he be welcomed into our homes and our lives beyond a friendly conversation on a Sunday morning?
How do we pursue proximity without conformity? One of the great needs we have is to form “thick” Christian community. That is to say, we need actual depth in our relationships with other believers in order to remain solid in the faith as we are sent out to the world. We need find in one another a real ministry partnership. As our church has grown, particularly since the pandemic, forming a grounded and well-connected community has become an increasingly pressing need for us. Our small group (Life Group) ministry is a vital platform where we imagine this taking place. But forming a solid community takes time.
#3 Jesus calls to demonstration without domination.
“Let your light shine before others,” says Jesus, “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16).” To be salt and light in the world means neither to abandon the world nor to rule over the world. Yes, we are called to let our light shine but not in such a way as to induce blindness. James Hunter rightly critiques many groups within the “Religious Right” for their desire to move in the direction of domination to win the “profound culture war” of our day.[4]
This final tension between demonstration and domination is perhaps the most difficult one to get right. How do we speak up against injustice and yet not rely on our might or power but on the Spirit (c.f. Zechariah 4:6)? How do we speak up in the face of sin and yet not unnecessarily tear down? The cross is the ultimate demonstration to us and to the world for how this works. In his book, The Cross of Christ, John Stott, states the fairly that obvious, that “any contemporary observer who saw Christ die” would easily conclude that it was total defeat:
If there is a victory, it is the victory of pride, prejudice, jealousy, hatred, cowardice and brutality. Yet the Christian claim is that the reality is the opposite of the appearance. What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.[5]
Conclusion
The cross is both the example and the power of how to fulfill the calling to be salt and light. We must as Christians work to stand out from the world without entirely standing apart from the world. We must strive to enter that space between proximity and conformity. We must work to demonstrate the power of the gospel laying aside the urge to dominate. As we begin a new ministry year as a church, let’s allow these words of Jesus to sink in deep: “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of world.”
[1] James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 4.
[2] Timothy Keller, Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 225.
[3] George F. MacLeod, Only One Way Left: Church Prospect (Glasgow: The Iona Community, 1956), 38.
[4] Hunter, To Change the World, 14.
[5] John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ, 20th anniversary ed. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2006), 227-228.
Sermon Summary
In Matthew 5:13–16, Jesus calls his people to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Christians are not called to withdraw from the world, conform to it, or seek to dominate it. Instead, Jesus calls us to stand out without standing apart, to live in proximity without conformity, and to demonstrate the goodness of his kingdom without domination. We enter into the lives of those around us while remaining distinct because we belong to Christ. And we do this by following the way of the cross, trusting that the cross is not only our example but also the power of the Christian life. As a new ministry year begins, Jesus invites us to embrace a bigger vision for what it means to be salt and light wherever he has placed us.
Discussion Questions
- Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth” and “You are the light of the world.” What do those two images tell us about the way Christians are meant to live in the world?
- Of the three incomplete postures toward the world (war, appeasement, or withdrawal) which one are you personally most tempted toward? Why?
- What do you think it means to “stand out without standing apart”? What might that look like in your everyday relationships?
- Jesus warns about salt losing its saltiness and light being hidden. Where are Christians most tempted to hide or minimize the ways we are different because we belong to Jesus?
- The sermon emphasized that being light is more than simply being a “nice person”; it means embodying Jesus Christ. What is the difference?
- What people or situations in your life might God be calling you to enter into rather than avoid?
- What does “proximity without conformity” look like in practice? How can we genuinely love and build relationships with people without compromising our convictions?
- The sermon emphasized that our ordinary work matters to God. How could you be salt and light in your workplace, school, neighborhood, home, or other places where God has put you?
- Jesus says others should see our good works and “give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” What kinds of good works might make the character of God visible to others?
- What is the difference between demonstrating the truth and goodness of God’s kingdom and trying to dominate those who disagree with us?
- The cross looked like defeat, yet it was actually Christ’s victory. How should the cross shape the way Christians think about power, influence, success, and faithfulness?
- As Cornerstone begins a new ministry year, where do you think God may be calling you personally to say “yes” to being salt and light? What is one concrete step you could take this week?
Quotes
“Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what he died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.”
- George MacLeod, Only One Way Left, p.38
“Of course any contemporary observer who saw Christ die would have listened with astonished incredulity to the claim that the Crucified was a Conqueror. Had he not been rejected by his own nation, betrayed, denied and deserted by his own disciples, and executed by authority of the Roman procurator? Look at him there, spread-eagled and skewed on his cross, robbed of all freedom of movement, strung up with nails or ropes or both, pinned there and powerless. It appears to be total defeat. If there is a victory, it is the victory of pride, prejudice, jealousy, hatred, cowardice and brutality. Yet the Christian claim is that the reality is the opposite of the appearance. What looks like (and indeed was) the defeat of goodness by evil is also, and more certainly, the defeat of evil by goodness. Overcome there, he was himself overcoming. Crushed by the ruthless power of Rome, he was himself crushing the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). The victim was the victor, and the cross is still the throne from which he rules the world.” –John Stott, The Cross of Christ, p.227-228
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1 Comment
Very good blog, Billy. Well articulated and explained. Hard to believe 10 years have passed already. God has truly blessed you. Keep writing! And preaching.