Listen to YouTube: Taste and See lyrics Shane & Shane
or: Taste and See lyrics Brooklyn Tabernacle choir
How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I gain understanding from your teachings;
therefore I hate every wrong path.
Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
(Psalm 119: 103-5)
Think about verses of scripture which have recently been a ‘light on your path.’
Thank God for his guidance and help.
On Sunday we read the opening section of ‘The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continues to teach using a couple of very familiar illustrations.
Read Matthew 5: 13-16.
We spent a lot of time in 2019 considering what it means to ‘let our light shine’ but I don’t think we considered what it means to be ‘the salt of the earth.’ Some older people may still use that phrase to describe someone, but it’s meaning today – that a person is regarded as genuine, unpretentious, and morally sound, isn’t what Jesus was saying here in these verses.
We are told not to put too much salt in our diet, and so we have perhaps lost sight of the positive benefits of it. Before fridges were invented, salt was the main way of stopping meat from decaying and becoming rotten. Another phrase about salt which is still used today, is ‘to rub salt in the wound’ which originates from a time when salt was used to purify a cut, to stop infection spreading.
So Jesus is declaring that we, his followers are to stop the earth becoming rotten or infected! Throughout the history of Christianity followers of Jesus have tried to do this through bringing about the idea if hospitals and hospices, and also fighting against injustice wherever they found it. Christians have been at the forefront of stopping the rottenness of slavery, of child prostitution, of sweat-shops and other actions which do not treat people with respect and in other countries. In other countries such as the USA and South Africa it has involved getting laws changed which discriminated against a person’s skin colour. Many of these battles have to re-won generation after generation, so that the battles won by William Wilberforce and Willian & Catherine Booth are currently being fought again by Christians in the UK.
Some of us perhaps back in 2005 took part in the campaign to ‘make poverty history’ with the outcome that some countries got some debt relief and so hopefully improving the life of millions of people. A few of us can go back even further to the 1980’s and the campaign begun by Christians who wanted to be ‘salt’ to challenge us to buy ‘fair-trade’ items, which ensured that those who grew and picked our food were paid a living wage. It took a long time to bring about significant change, but today there are many brands of coffee, sugar chocolate and bananas which claim to be fairly traded. And so the challenges continue to come with many Christians and churches now being at the forefront of bringing ‘green issues’ to a wider public attention. You may remember your lent booklet entitled ‘Care for God’s creation’ was constantly connecting scripture with environmental concerns. You may remember it asking you to look at ecochurch.arocha.org.uk
What about us? How are we doing at being the salt of the earth? As well as supporting some of these national and international issues, I’m sure there are many, many occasions where we can challenge the spread of the rottenness of people’s bad attitudes, especially where that results in discrimination. Perhaps we can also stop the decay brought about as a person in your street gets ignored or treated worse because they don’t ‘fit in’! What does it mean to be salt and stop decay and rottenness from spreading in your locality?
But so far we have only considered one aspect of salt. The main way we use salt today is to bring out the flavour. So now add that phrase to stopping the rottenness on your street. What does it mean it bringing out the best in your locality? Ask God to show you! We are perhaps beginning to see enormity of task Jesus gives us when he calls us to be ‘the salt of the earth,’ a task we can only begin to tackle as we rely on God’s help.
We can only begin to be ‘salt’ in our neighbourhood as we rely on God’s Holy Spirit to help us to see our neighbours through the eyes of Jesus and so see how to bring out the fullness of life which Jesus told us he came to bring (John 10: 10)
Use these lyrics to lead you into praying for your neighbours
Here I am, wholly available,
As for me, I will serve the Lord
As salt are we ready to savour,
In darkness are we ready to be light,
God’s seeking out a very special people
To manifest his truth and his might.
(Chis Bowater © 1986 Lifestyle Music)
On YouTube listen to: Forever Jesus lyrics
We look forward to a guest writer on Friday, and I will share with you a message on Sunday - Stephen