Salt and Light

Salt and light
Read Matthew 5:13-16

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 

It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” 

                                                                                       Matthew 5:13,14.

As Christians, we are called to influence the moral and spiritual climate of the world.
I grew up in a generation who’s credo was “do your own thing.” What is good for you may not be good for someone one else. Still, as long as it didn’t hurt someone else, it was fine.
It resulted in the psychedelic sixties and all that went with it.
As my generation grew up, while some of our ideas changed, still the basic tenant  remained. “What was good for you may not be good for me.  So as long as you don’t hurt someone else, it’s fine to do your own thing.”
The trouble with that kind of thinking is we as a society failed to give ourselves a moral absolute.
The church in many ways also failed my generation.
From what I remember, at the time the North American church, especially some high profile people in the evangelical movement wanted the status quo.
They condemned everything from rock and roll to Elvis’s gyrating hips to wearing blue jeans in church and long hair on men.
Even so called “Jesus freaks” the movement I owe my salvation to, were looked down on, particularly by the Evangelical Church.
The church, I believe at that time, here in North America lost much of its saltiness. Simply because it wanted to keep it’s own status quo. That status quo being you come to church in suit and tie, "your Sunday best." You leave the jeans at home.
You keep your hair cut short, you sing hymns from the hymn book and if you listen to more modern Christian music it better not have a rock and roll beat.
It was a time when the church had  had a fantastic chance to reach millions of young people looking for direction and missed out.
All too often, I think the church forgets where it came from.
We, at one time, were a minority, unauthorized religion, espousing radical thought in an Empire that reached from the British Isles to the borders of India.
In those early days we didn’t care how a person was dressed when they came to a church meeting.
We were simply a small number of men and women, mostly Jews given the single most important task in human history.
Our strategy was simple, follow the example of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
While here He walked throughout a dusty, dry land. He wore clothes of the everyday man.  Entered the houses of Jew and non-Jew alike.  He spoke to Jewish religious leaders and Roman secular leaders.
Jesus spoke in the temple, in a house, and on the side of a hill.
He taught and spoke with authority, yet he knelt down and washed his disciples feet.
 He showed us by example, what He wanted us to do.  He left us a commission “to go into all the world and preach the good news to all who would listen.”
Yet, sadly, many within our church today have failed to follow that example. They’ve become side tracked with everything from what a person wears to church to church politics, to secular politics, to navel gazing and trying to predict when Christ will come back.
Question. Are you side tracked or are you truly reaching out for the Lord to others around you?