The Salt of the Earth is a modest metaphor … it’s how Christians can flavor the world.How much salt does it take to flavor a radish?
Yes, just a pinch.
If the lid falls off the salt shaker, and the radish is buried beneath a pile of salt, it’s ruined … too much salt, and nothing tastes good … just a pinch, and the food is always good.
A pinch is all it takes!
God never intended that all the earth should be Christian.
Oh yes, someday, all the world will bow the knee and confess Jesus as LORD and Savior … but that will be a day far and removed for now, and only God can bring it about.
Right now, just a pinch of salt.
That’s what God intends.
Just a few Christians; that’s all takes.
A few Christians here, a few Christians there … scattered throughout the nations … just a pinch, not a pile, just a pinch.
Gently doing our work.
Christians … the Salt of the Earth.
Jesus envisions the power of our influence.
To flavor the world.
Like good salt, that brings out the flavors of love and life in every culture, every part of the world, in every human life.
Gently, and quietly, even anonymously, to flavor our world, to bring out the best.
The best everywhere.
Salt of the Earth is the story behind the Great Commission … to move out into the world … to engage the world flavorfully, not forcefully.
That people might taste the love of God, and decide for themselves, just how good God truly is.
O taste and see that the LORD is good …
We are the Salt of the Earth … and it works!
Because authority has been to Jesus, for the sake of the earth.
All authority has been given … not just some, not just for heaven, but for earth, as well …
Authority … to love, to make all things new, to restore, to build up, to bless and to hold.
Authority as Jesus lived it …
Not to gain power, but to empower.
Not to rule over, but to stand beside.
Not to give orders, but to invite us to walk with him.
To make disciples might better be translated – to disciple.
To disciple people!
And we know the meaning of disciple.
To be a student.
To help people become students of Jesus.
I’ve been a student of Jesus this week.
Reading Matthew.
And much of it this morning.
I wanted it to be fresh.
Jesus says, everything I have commanded you.
And where does Jesus establish his commandments for us?
The sermon on the mount.
His ministry begins on the mount.
His ministry reaches its culmination on the mount.
Places high and lifted up.
To remind us of Moses and the Commandments.
To remind us of the Mount of Transfiguration.
And the mount on which the Holy City is built.
High places where God comes close to us.
To disciple someone is a gentle thing.
We don’t grab people and threaten them with hell-fire and brimstone and everlasting punishment.
We walk with them for awhile.
Maybe a long time.
We practice kindness.
And we pray.
Maybe we’ll never see the day when someone accepts Jesus … but what is that to us?
Why must we always see the fruit of our efforts.
There’s something selfish about that.
We put it into God’s hands.
Because God does the work.
When and where God will.
And it’s just right, when God does it.
Always is.
At the right time.
I think of Dr. John Fowler in Turkey.
Medical missions, twenty years of labor and love.
How many converted?
Thousands?
Hundreds?
Just a few … in that land where it’s hard to be a Christian.
But it’s not about big numbers.
It’s about big love.
And Dr. Fowler has big love.
Dr. Fowler mentioned last night an Anglican Church that’s been there for several hundred years.
Slow and steady.
Steady and sure.
He said, “It’s an example of perseverance.”
You bet.
We don’t give up.
We stay on course.
Slow and steady.
And God does the rest.
Kindness is our greatest power.
Kindness can open someone’s heart to the love of God.
You see, we can’t convert anyone.
Only God can convert someone.
It’s God’s business.
Our business is kindness.
Conversion is God’s business.
No one knows when the disciples were converted.
It was a long process.
Even after three years with Jesus, they’ not at all clear … even as Matthew notes, some doubted, or maybe all of them had a little doubt.
Conversion belongs to God.
It’s a long process.
It takes a life-time.
I’ve heard pastors talk with one another on a Monday morning – “How many people came forward yesterday?” … “How many conversions?”
Look, with all the right pressure and harsh preaching, we can get people to do anything.
Lots of people have “converted” under duress.
They were frightened.
They were cajoled.
They were pressured … and that does more harm than good … it may build statistics, but it doesn’t build the kingdom of God … it doesn’t change hearts.
Only God does the converting.
Even Saul’s story.
When was the conversion?
On the road in the blinding light?
When he fell down.
When he got up.
When he was blinded?
When Ananias prayed for him?
When the scales fell from his eyes?
When he went to Arabia?
When he went to Jerusalem?
Conversion is a slow and beautiful process.
Some things happen all at once, of course.
Maybe.
But the real story is a story of time.
Time to think.
Quiet moments.
As God works in our lives.
It’s important for us to appreciate the power of kindness.
A gentle work!
Being with someone.
Kindness counts for everything.
And it’s effective.
Think of the Christians who’ve made a difference in our lives.
What were they like?
For me, they were all gentle and wise.
All of them were kind.
All of them were patient.
Jesus then takes us to baptism.
Baptism is grace.
Pure grace … something given to us.
Something good.
Something godly.
Just given to us.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
All of God.
Not just some of God.
But the whole realm of God’s mercy and goodness.
Creation, salvation, empowerment.
The Father.
The Son.
The Holy Spirit.
Nothing more needed.
Nothing left out.
We get all of God.
Teaching people to obey, says Jesus.
Obey?
Wow … let’s unpack that word.
For many, it simply means conformity.
Conform to someone’s rules.
Do this, do that; don’t do this, and don’t do that.
When someone is telling us what to do, how does that make us feel?
It never makes me feel very good?
But the word obey is beautiful and wonderful.
It means to listen.
Listen deeply.
So deeply that something changes inside of us!
Think of a parent trying to make a child understand something really important.
We might walk up to the child.
Put our hands on the child’s shoulders.
Say to them, “Look at me.”
“Look into my eyes.”
And then we might say to them: “Listen to me.”
It’s not about commands, or rules.
It’s not about conformity.
It’s about listening.
Listening to the one who loves us.
To the one who says to us:
Blessed are the poor in spirit …
Blessed are those who mourn …
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness …
Forgive, and forgive again …
Love one another as I have loved you …
Abide in my word …
If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father …
Listen to him, says the Father, when Jesus is baptized.
Listen!
That’s the word obey.
To listen to God.
Deeply.
And God will do the rest.
The best evangelism is our kindness.
We can help clear the way.
Give people encouragement and love.
We help them listen.
Listen to God.
We help them listen.
Because we’re listening, too.
That’s our task.
That our work.
And that’s how we join with God to make this a better world.
After all, we’re the Salt of the Earth!
Amen and Amen.
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