I. Margot's Baptism 00:00
Lord, we lift up this day to you. Father, we pray, even as we prayed in the collect, that you would set us free from the bondage of our sins and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
Today, in case you didn’t know, is an amazing and wonderful day. We are welcoming my youngest, Margot Bloom Harris, into the kingdom of God through her baptism this morning. So I’m very excited today.
And today I’m going to talk about what it really means that we are baptized into the kingdom of God. What are the people of God? Because honestly, I need a refresher. If I look at my life, the way I live, the way I act, the way I think, I could probably get adjusted a little bit. I could probably learn something today as I sing these worship songs, as I hear those powerful scriptures, as I approach the table of the Lord in Eucharistic communion.
I have to admit that I have failed. In case any of you thought you were going to get a sermon from someone who has figured it all out, that is not the case this morning. And if you ever think that, think again. Unless Jesus is standing here this morning, every one of us needs to think about the ways in which we have failed. And so as I talk today about what Jesus said in his Gospel, I want you all to know that I have lost my saltiness. I have covered my light, and I have not represented a city on the hill where people can come, refugees, people who are burdened and oppressed, and be set free. I haven’t lived in such a way that has shown the world the goodness of God. And so when we’re talking about these things, that is the attitude I have as I approach the Gospel this morning.
II. Where Jesus Walked 02:13
In fact, anytime you get a reading from the Sermon on the Mount, you just have to stop for a second, because Jesus does not hold back. Every line in that sermon, his most famous, all of Matthew 5, 6 and 7, all of those lines are convicting to me.
And so as I talk about it this morning: it was really fun to be studying this passage and preparing for it, and I get a text message from my sister and brother-in-law, who are in Israel right now. This is actually the site, we believe, of the Sermon on the Mount. So it’s a really interesting moment. I’m literally in the moment thinking about Jesus preaching these words, and I get this text message. They just got to Israel yesterday, and they’re walking around and seeing the holy sites.
And you know what else? We’ve lost the saltiness of a lived, embodied Jesus Christ who walked right there on this earth. Some of the saltiness the church has lost is that we make it a program, a self-improvement program, a self-help place, a community you can be a part of, and we lose the reality. No: the God of the universe walked on this earth, like there in the picture. I don’t know about you, but it just refreshed me this morning to think about the fact that God cares about the ground on which we walk. He walks there too. He created it, and then he came down so that we could be a part of that embodied existence that he lived on earth.
So as we’re reading this, I don’t want you to think of it as some moral text that some philosopher thought up in his ivory tower. This is Jesus standing in front of you, just like I am today, saying, “Here is the kingdom of God. Come be a part of it. This is what it looks like.” That’s what we’re talking about this morning.
III. The Salt of the Earth 04:03
So let’s go ahead and start in Matthew 5, verse 13. Jesus says:
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” Matt 5.13
Okay, we need a little bit of digging to figure out what Jesus is saying here. Nowadays when we call somebody salty, it’s not necessarily a compliment: “Are you being salty with me?” What’s going on here? Jesus is trying to point to something we’ve almost lost in our modern usage of salt.
We get the taste. Salt that’s tasteless: nobody wants that. You always need good, tasty salt. In fact, one of the best foods that’s ever existed, bacon: what’s the key flavor you get out of bacon? It’s that salty richness, the fat that just sits with you. Imagine tasteless bacon. That’s awful. And Jesus is saying, “Hey, what’s going to happen if you lose your saltiness? It’s awful. We’ll throw that to the street.”
But there’s another aspect of this. Back then, especially before refrigeration, salt was the primary preservative. So when you gathered your food to feed your family, if you didn’t have salt that could be effective in preserving food, you would lose it. It would rot. Have you ever seen a science experiment you accidentally left on the counter, and the mold is growing and multiplying? I mean, once again, throw it into the streets.
So there’s a preservative aspect of it, there’s a taste aspect of it, and there’s a purification aspect of salt. In fact, even in the baptism today, we’re using holy water to baptize Margot, and in our holy water there’s always a sprinkling of salt. What it does is symbolize the purifying nature of the Spirit of God in the water. In fact, if you look at the ancient symbolism, they say it’s the element of fire being added to the water: the fire of the Spirit, the saltiness of the water. It’s not empty, powerless, thin water. It’s salty water. And trust me, if you’ve ever had a drink of the Pacific Ocean, you can tell salt water from not-salt water.
The problem with us today is that you can’t tell the church from the not-church. And that’s what Jesus was warning them about. In fact, I would argue that he was already critiquing the Pharisees and the Sadducees frequently on this same thing: “Yeah, sure, you’re trying to follow Yahweh, the God of the Torah, the Old Testament, all the scriptures. But you’re acting like a priest of any other god, putting undue burdens on the people and making it about your glory, your religiosity, and not about loving and serving the people.” Losing the saltiness. And so Jesus was calling forth the people in front of him, and warning us for all time, not to get caught up in that game. We are to save the world and preserve it. But if you look at the world and you look at what the church has done, we could do better.
I don’t want to sit here for a long time, because this could be a huge topic, what our role is as the church in the culture. So I’m just going to say this: if you don’t affect the culture, then you’ve lost your saltiness. Period.
We all know what it’s like when you become friends with somebody who is an addict of some kind. Maybe they’re a TV addict, maybe they’re an alcoholic, maybe they’re a drug addict. All of us have probably engaged with somebody like that at some point or another. Do you pull them out of their addiction, or do they pull you toward it? I know for me, when I worked in the restaurant industry, there were a lot of people who were living lifestyles I did not admire, that I did not want. And yet I felt myself being drawn to their way of thinking, drawn to their way of living. I was drawn to lose my saltiness. They knew me as the pastor’s kid, the guy who wants to be a pastor someday, and so I was kind of an oddity to them. And yet still I was being pulled in this direction. I found myself wanting to be a part of their life, their lifestyle. And I had to remind myself, “Oh yeah, I am not of this world. I’m here, hopefully, to pull them in to the goodness of God.”
And I’ll say one more thing about that. I think we can get really twisted in this culture, because we think, “It’s not my place to critique how they live their life.” That’s kind of common social etiquette nowadays: none of us should impose our faith on others. But you know what? There is nothing I wouldn’t give to invite my friends into the comfort, the joy, the sustenance, everything I get from God in my life. I think about especially my worst moments, when a friend has died or a betrayal has happened, and I honestly think to this day that the only reason I’m still here the way I am is because of God’s presence in those moments. And I think about all my friends who don’t have that. How do they live without the goodness of God, the comfort, the presence of God? And so I want to invite them to that. If you don’t think our Christian life is worth inviting people into, you aren’t paying attention. You need to enter in more. There are better things: deeper, richer joy, wisdom, courage. All of these things are offered to us in our faith, and I want to invite people into it.
IV. Disordered Affections 09:33
And that leads us straight into this taste argument, because the big problem in the world is disordered affections. It’s kind of a technical term, but the point is that we want what we shouldn’t want. We want things that are bad for us. In fact, that very same thing, bacon, that I want so badly can sometimes be a disordered affection. Sometimes I want too much bacon. Even good things we want too much of. And so our affections, our desires, our tastes are shaped by our culture for things that are unworthy of us.
In fact, C. S. Lewis has this great quote. I won’t quote it in its entirety, but he says we ignore the invitation for a holiday at the beach while we’re making mud pies in the slum. What are we focused on? Is Netflix bingeing your joy in life? Is getting to the weekend, so you can go to a bar and hit on women and drink a bunch of drinks and go home and sleep it off and get up the next day and try to find another way to find that desire, that party? Now, maybe most of us aren’t doing that particular thing. But man, I feel convicted when I think about the ways I live my life so that I can read my book at the end of the night and have my cup of scotch. Not a bad thing. However, if that’s what I’m living for, I’m doing it wrong.
What are you living for? What are you training your affections for? What excites you in your life? Do you have a mission? Do you have a goal? Do you have something you’re looking for? Now, I am so blessed to have four beautiful children who remind me every day that there’s more in life to live for than Netflix and scotch, who remind me that there’s more in life that I’m called to do. Sometimes I don’t like that they remind me I have other things to do, but it keeps me grounded in some way.
But I want to invite each one of you: God has a purpose for your life that is so much better, so much deeper, than anything you’ve experienced before. In fact, Kristen was just inviting us into that today: “Lead us deeper than my feet would ever wander.” We need to go farther in. Otherwise we’ll lose our saltiness.
V. The Light of the World 11:47
Okay, there’s a lot more here. We’re going to keep going. We’re going to go with “You are the light of the world,” in verse 14:
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.” Matt 5.14–15
So what’s the symbolism of light? Well, light illuminates. It shows us reality. It shows us the truth. True light shows us what is real. It shows us the good, the beautiful. In fact, you cannot look at your beautiful spouse or a beautiful painting without light. They might be there, but without light you can’t see.
However, and this one we don’t like so much, light also shows us our own inadequacies. It shows us what’s wrong. In fact, I heard an illustration: sometimes you flip on a light and you see the bugs crawling in the corner. You see the thing you don’t want to see in your life. But the invitation of being the light of the world is that Jesus came and he exposed our weakness. That’s number one. That’s what we’re afraid of when the light comes. But then he showed us that we could enter into a better way. He showed us the way: “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matt 16.24). In fact, he invited us into the light of resurrected life.
Because what we want to do, when we see the sin and the shame and the difficulty in our life, is hide it from everybody else. We want to wrap ourselves around it so nobody can see. And all that happens when you do that, when you don’t have somebody you open up to, when you don’t let the light in, when you don’t talk to Jesus about it, is that it takes control of you. But if, as we’re encouraged, you confess your sins, God is faithful and just, and he will deliver you and he will forgive them and he will redeem it (1 John 1.9).
Now, that means not just on Sunday mornings when nobody can hear you. In fact, I want to argue today that you need to find somebody you can talk to about the things you’re struggling with, whether that’s a home group leader. We also have the sacrament of reconciliation, where you can go to confession with the priest. Light is about renewal, not just about truth, about the good things. It’s absolutely that, and we need to have our eyes open to the goodness of God. But it’s also about exposing the lies we once believed, which need to crumble. And if you don’t ever bring anybody into your weakness, into your pain, into your difficulties, into your brokenness, it will rule you. You’re giving it control over you. That’s why they say light is the best disinfectant.
VI. The Glowing Rectangle 15:03
And so I just want to argue today that part of us, the church, being the light to the world is that we need to stop hiding. We put a bushel over our head. Why is that? Because we don’t want the light to expose our weakness, our insecurities, our problems. But if you get that sorted out, if you live in a family where you’re secure in the love of God for your life, then you want everybody to be a part of that. There’s nothing better than to know that in spite of you, you are loved, and you are called to better things.
So let’s be the light to the world. Because currently, what light are they looking to? They’re looking to the glowing rectangle god that we take with us everywhere: the one in our pocket that we pull out every time we feel a little uncomfortable; the one we mount on our wall in the most prime space in our house, so everybody can see our rectangle god; or the one you build a little altar to, and you put a little wheelie chair there, and you go up and you’re on your rectangle all day at work.
We have such an obsession with screens in our world, because we think Google is going to help us. We think the words are going to set us free. They are absolutely useful. I’m not saying they are evil. But man, if you let them, they will take over your life. I told my wife, “If I have my phone at the table, not even looking at it, but if I have it at the table, tell me to put it somewhere else.” Because when we sit down to dinner, there’s just no way. I know I’m not supposed to look at my phone, but if my phone’s there, I don’t even think it has to vibrate for me to want to check it. I just end up grabbing it. She’s like, “Jesse, you’re on your phone again.” Okay, well, we solved that problem: we’re going to put the phone away from the table. But think about that. I’m a fully grown adult. I have decent self-discipline. And yet I cannot not pick up the phone if it’s next to me. That’s a problem.
VII. A City Set on a Hill 16:51
Now, I hope every one of you is thinking, “Wow, I should probably think about my phone,” and not, “Wow, what a schmuck.” But there is a difficulty in our culture where we think we have all the answers. You all have Google. That is not all the answers. It might help you with a math problem. But “What should I do?” Google cannot answer. Only God can tell you. Only the church, illuminated by the light of Christ, can lead you in the good life we all crave.
Let’s be the light to the world, so that instead of going to Google, they come to us. That’s the idea of a city set on a hill. When you’re traveling in darkness, instead of pulling out your phone and going to Google, they say, “I’ve got to get to that city. Look at it. It’s all lit up. I want to be a part of them.”
But you know what that means? We’ve got to grow up. There are many times in my life when I wouldn’t have wanted [people] to ask me for advice, if I think about it really: “Am I going to go to this guy who has this whole list of problems?” So we all need to grow up, because you know what? It’s not just about us. We’re not the glowing center of the universe. God is. And the church needs us to be all about him, so that we can be the light that leads everybody to him. He will give us wisdom if we make our lives all about him.
In fact, I want to say one thing. We get a little confused, because we think our whole goal is to get back to the garden. That’s one of the ideas: we get back to the Garden of Eden, where there’s this kind of naive pleasure and goodness, and we eat fruit, and we’re vegetarians, and all this stuff. And we get this language that’s not biblical. Our job is to build a city, to bring the kingdom of God and the City of God to earth. We are a city set on the hill. We go from the walled garden to the city of Jerusalem. Now, there’s some beautiful imagery in the garden, imagery we can take forward, absolutely. Wonderful, great. But I want you to know that we are meant to build cities of the kingdom of God, which means there’s going to be organization, hierarchy, communication, infrastructure. We need to build things people can rely on, because God knows they can’t rely on California’s infrastructure, organization, hierarchy. So we need to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth, a city set on a hill.
VIII. Not to Abolish but to Fulfill 18:58
Let’s move to this last point we’re going to talk about today. In verse 17 Jesus follows up what he’s saying, and he says:
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Matt 5.17–18
So what’s Jesus saying here? He says, “You’re going to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world, a city set on a hill.” Now he’s getting into the how. That’s what everybody’s saying: how are we? Well, guess what: it’s not by abolishing the Law and the Prophets in the Old Testament. It’s actually by fulfilling them. Because there were some rumors going around: “This Jesus is weird. He’s doing things differently. Maybe he’s come to overthrow religion and make everybody just happy, and why can’t we be friends?” There were these ideas about what Jesus was doing, and Jesus wanted to make it very clear: “No, actually, the Law and the Prophets point to me, point to what I’m doing, and I’m here to fulfill them.”
So what does that mean for us, saltless salty people who need to be re-seasoned? What does it mean that we need to be a part of the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets? Instead of giving the entire Bible’s worth of Law and Prophets this morning, I am just going to focus on one particular idea that I think encapsulates the whole point of the Law and the Prophets.
IX. Written on Their Hearts 21:10
It can be found in Jeremiah 31:33. This is talking about the New Covenant, and this is God:
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Jer 31.33
The Law and the Prophets, while there’s so much more to them, were at the very least intended to do this. They were intended to transform you to be like Jesus. The law was external, the Ten Commandments and the 613-some-odd laws they had to follow in the Old Testament, and it was intended that you would actually embody goodness in your heart by being transformed.
“Well, what does that mean, Jesse?” Well, I’m glad you asked. A couple of verses after this, Jesus says some of the more famous Sermon on the Mount lines. He starts saying these “You have heard it said” lines. So in Matthew 5:21 he says:
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’” Matt 5.21
Very easy. Have any of you, raise your hands, killed someone? No, I’m just kidding. But there’s this idea: cut and dry. “Have you murdered?” “No.” “Okay, great. Love it.” But he takes it farther. He says:
22 “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” Matt 5.22
Jesus, that seems unrealistic. What is he trying to get at here? What he’s saying is that he doesn’t just want you to control yourself on the external side. He doesn’t want you walking around thinking, “Well, I have never murdered that filthy…” You know what? My brother Gavin, blah, blah, blah. Those of you who know Gavin probably think that’s funnier than those of you who don’t. But there’s a real sense in which we can justify ourselves while having wicked hearts. We can say, “Well, I go to church on Sunday. I go to small group. I go to a Christian school. I am a Christian.” And Jesus says that’s actually not what being a Christian means. What being a Christian means is taking up your cross, following him, entering into death and resurrection.
Now, does that mean all of us need to find a way to actually die physically? No. It means that you have to give up your own desires, your own will, and lay them at the foot of the cross spiritually. Today you’re invited to do that. You’re invited, especially as we renew our covenant of baptism, where it says that in our baptism we are buried in death with Christ and raised with him to newness of life (Rom 6.4). You’re invited to remember to lay down your will and look for his.
Ultimately, what is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying that your heart has to be transformed, not just your actions. And all of these scriptures he says, about lust and all these things, are getting to the deeper problem. The deeper problem is our disordered affections, which I was talking about earlier. We want the wrong things. We live in a thought life that glorifies the wrong things. Celebrities: we’re real big fans of these people who live awful lives, and we’re admiring them and modeling our dialogue, our thoughts, our life, our clothing after people who are living awful lives. I’m not here today to say that you can’t like a celebrity who does bad things. I understand they might be really good at the music they make or the movies they’re in. I’m really not here to be a judge of all of these things. I’m here to invite you to think about how we are looking at and worshiping and imitating the wrong things, and we’re losing our saltiness.
I could give a whole list of things that twenty years ago we all knew were wrong, that we’re expected to just go along with today. And man, it is so hard when you’re in that conversation not to be like, “Yeah, they can do what they want.” Everything in our culture is pulling us away from the ways God wants us to live. And I just want to tell you today that it’s a lie. Truth, goodness, that abundant life is found here. It’s found in the death and resurrection. It’s found in the Christian life. It’s found in being more righteous, as it says, than the Pharisees and the scribes (Matt 5.20): more righteous not in how we act but in how we live. It’s kind of a fine distinction, but you get my point. God wants to change who you are on the inside, and that will lead to you living differently.
Jesus even said, “I do nothing except what I see the Father doing” (John 5.19), and “I say nothing except what I hear the Father saying.” What does he mean? He means he was so shaped by his relationship with the Father that he only said things the Father would say, he only did things the Father would do.
So today, as we enter into this rite of baptism and we invite Margot Bloom Harris into that community, and as we’re invited to renew our baptismal vows, let’s remember that we’re being invited into the transformation that is the Christian life. Let’s get salty today. Let’s turn our lights on. Let’s be a city set on a hill. The world needs us. Amen.