Salt City light and the Law...

In Matthew 5:13-20 we find the words of Jesus where he describes our lives as Christians with the pictures of salt, a city on a hill, light, all things that are as noticeable by their absence as they are by their presence. Too much salt or too little salt and food is inedible or tasteless. A city on a hill dominates the sky line, but if it is destroyed it's absence still dominates the view. Light can be so bright it blinds us or so dim it does no good. There is something here about our faith and our public life. Though we see our faith as personal and therefore private, Jesus implies that it must be lived out in public...in full view of the people around us. This is something that many of us find uncomfortable because we know that living publicly means that failures, as well as successes, are easily seen by others. Yet to withhold our faith from public display makes us tasteless salt or a hidden city or a lamp under a bushel and therefore all the more useless. Better we try to live out our faith with all our failures and weaknesses, and let those around us experience authentic and real Christian faith and life, than we remain silent and hidden, and as a result, God also remains silent and hidden.

As to the Law...Jesus makes it pretty clear...but to exceed the Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees is actually quite simple. We seek to fulfill the Law as a response to the grace that we have received from God, not to curry his favour. That's all it takes. Again, it is not about the perfect performance, but about authenticity and reality. Paul puts it so well in Ephesians...for it is by grace that you have been save through faith, not of works lest any one should boast.

When the world is crying out for people who are real and authentic, and looking for that which is truly of value and purpose, the message of the Gospel is all this and more as you and I strive to live it out each day.