The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, February 6, 2011, St. Peter’s Church Columbia

 “You are the light of the world” (Matt 5: 14).

I don’t remember the sermon, but I do remember what my parishioner Russ Rudolph said at the church door after the liturgy was over. He was an “early Christian”: not that he was confirmed by St. Peter, mind you, but he went to the early service. “Thank God for the Church,” he said, by way of comment on the sermon. He felt like he owed a lot for all he’d received over the years, from Sunday School teachers and clergy, things he couldn’t get anywhere else. “What would we do without the Church?”, he asked. What indeed? The fact that I can’t remember what I said in the sermon is a reminder to preachers that what we say isn’t nearly as important as what the congregation hears. There is a difference. Russ had been going to my church for years, but I hadn’t been there very long, so he certainly wasn’t talking about me; he was also still a Presbyterian, so I couldn’t even feel like he was talking about my “brand.” He was just grateful for the Church, and conscious of the gifts he had received.

In our Gospel today, Jesus tells the disciples that they are “salt” and “light.” His focus is on the life of the Church, something which is highlighted in Matthew’s Gospel by the way in which Jesus presents these images. In the Gospels of Mark and Luke we find various of Jesus’ sayings about the lamp on the lamp stand, and about the salt that has lost its flavor, but it’s only here in the Sermon on the Mount that we find these sayings attached to Jesus’ clear description of his followers as salt and light. So the teaching is made acute, sharpened so that the meaning is plain.

The teaching gives us the opportunity to think about the character of Christian community. That’s the emphasis in Jesus’ teaching about salt and light. The salt that Jesus talks about is not a flavoring but a preservative needed to keep things fresh and wholesome. The light that shines in our Gospel today is the light of good works that are supposed to shine before all. That’s a high call for the Church. We need to have salt in ourselves, and we need to shine with a light that can be seen. If we’re going to be salt and light for the world, then we need to be both salty and shiny in ourselves.

This doesn’t mean that the Church has to get itself completely right before it can do its mission, or that the disciples can’t look outward until they have fixed themselves. If the church waits to do its mission until we have taken care of ourselves then we will never get moving. It’s an operational temptation in the Christian community to serve itself before it serves others. We must not give into this temptation, even though there are so many needs and much to be done. But most Christian communities have enough margin of grace within themselves that they are able to move forward in mission to others without neglecting to have salt and light in themselves. People are supposed to see our good works, for heaven’s sake, and that means we are going to have to reach out to others.

In this Epiphany Season, St. Peter’s is reminding itself that the Church has a mission to all nations, and not simply in its own neighborhood. It’s not an “either or” situation, but of course it’s much easier to forget those that we don’t see who are far away. Here the good work that needs to be seen and shared is the gift of Christian community itself, the gift of relationship in Christ that comes to us by being related to him as brothers and sisters. It is only by being related to him, the crucified and risen Lord, that we are related to each other. He is alive, not dead, and we are in a living relationship with Christ. This is by way of saying that the life we share is Jesus’ own life, and we are called to share it with all the nations of the earth. Thank God for the Church. What would we do without it?

So let your light shine, let your good works be known by all. Have salt in yourselves so that the world may be preserved and kept for salvation. Let all of you at St. Peter’s Church be salty and shiny so that you may reach out in care and concern for others.

- The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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