Genesis 12:1-3; Matthew 5:13-16 To Change the World Together

Why does the church exist, why do we or Jesus bother with it? A recent study on the North American church tells us that about 25% of those who regularly attended church before the pandemic have no intention of returning. The reasons are varied, but ultimately, they see little value in the church; they don’t see the “Why” of the church. They see the church as too political, of little value to society, and too obsessed with their own agendas which have little to do with making their communities a better place to live. 

The North American church has forgotten its reason for being because it’s strayed away from its roots. So why is the church here? One of the first places to turn to is the story of Abram. Things have not gone well for God’s very good creation since he created Adam and Eve in his own image. With God’s image comes his ability to imagine and create, and Adam and Eve’s descendants use this ability to imagine to control and dominate each other in order to build themselves up and make others and God small and unimportant. Even after God does a reset with the flood, humanity keeps seeking after heaven on their own terms instead of God’s, resulting in God scattering them across the face of the earth and creating new languages and cultures.

Now God changes tactics and begins a new chapter in his plan to redeem creation and restore it to where it’s “very good” again. God chooses one family to bring knowledge of God into the world again, and to bring the promised Messiah. God begins a journey with Abram and his family to change the world, not because Abram is so special, just read his story to realize how messed up Abram was at times, but God chooses Abram to show it’s God who accomplishes his plan of bringing a saviour to the world through ordinary people, and sometimes in spite of the people.

Abram wouldn’t have really understood this, yet he moves forward in faith with little knowledge of what exactly God’s doing, but trusting in the path, opportunities, and situations God places him in to do the best he can with the knowledge of God he has. God promises Abram a place where his family will grow into a great nation, a huge promise to a man who is childless, unable to have any children with his wife Sarai.

God promises to bless Abram and anyone who blesses him, but the important part of God’s speech to Abram is not what he will do for Abram, but what he will do through Abram, “You will be a blessing… and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” God chooses Abram and his descendants to make a difference, and to be a difference in the world by being a blessing and revealing who God is through their lives lived out in faith in God. Being in a different culture and time, being a blessing looked different, and Abram likely understood this a lot differently than we do today, but we see examples of great faith and actions mixed in with his mess-ups; his tithing of his war spoils to King Melchizedek of Salem, his trust in the promise of a son even though he and his wife were way too old to still have children, his pleading to save the righteous people living in Sodom and Gomorrah. There’s his willingness to offer his son as a sacrifice after he had chased his oldest son and his mother off into the wilderness. Abram shows the people around him the power of God in his life, but also that God is a God who desires a relationship with his people. Ultimately, the way Abram’s descendants bless all the nations and change the world is through the coming of Jesus from his family line.

Jesus comes and the world has never been the same since. It’s not just Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins on the cross, echoing back to Abram’s willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, but it’s also Jesus’ teaching and modelling on what the kingdom of heaven looks like. Jesus went through the land calling the people to repent and believe in God for the kingdom of heaven is near. Jesus calls us salt and light; this is about who we are and not just about what we do. Salt seasons and brings taste and flavour to food while preserving it; keeping it good just by being salt. Light helps you to see what’s going on around you, it lights the way before you and around you, it offers hope on a dark night when you’re heading home, it chases away the dark just by being light.

When Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth, the light of the world,” he uses the plural you, meaning “you all,” pointing to all his followers, pointing to us today as the church. Jesus is saying that ‘you all,’ the ones who are going to be insulted and persecuted because of me, the ones who are the poor in spirit hungering and thirsting for righteousness, the peacemakers, merciful, pure in spirit and meek are the ones being called the salt and light of the world. We’re being called to be the blessing to the nations and to each other by being who we are as the blessed ones of God. In being these people, we are salt and light, we are being the church and giving the world a glimpse of what the kingdom of heaven looks like.

Salt and light affect their environments. Salt changes the food that it’s in, making it taste better, making certain ingredients stronger. When you bake bread and don’t add salt, it tastes bland, but the bread also doesn’t rise as well because salt also has an impact on the yeast, helping the bread to rise better and be lighter. Salt is also used to preserve food, helping it stay good for a much longer time before it starts to rot. Salt doesn’t change so much as it changes whatever it touches.

Light also changes its environment. Light chases away darkness, showing us the things, we can’t see when there is no light. Light helps us see the path or the road ahead, just try driving at night in the country on a cloudy night with no headlights. Light serves as a beacon to guide us; it can act as a warning like a lighthouse warns ships of dangerous waters. Light brings hope. Jesus adds a snarky comment with both examples, reminding us that unsalty salt is useless, just like a light hidden under a bowl. The question then becomes, how are we salt and light where we are, what might that look like? Soren Kierkegaard, a Christian philosopher writes, “to be a Christian means to be salt and to be willing to be sacrificed,” referring to how salt was sprinkled on many of Israel’s sacrifices as a symbol of purity and making the sacrifice a tasty sacrifice for God. This echoes Paul’s call in Romans 12 to offer our lives to God as a living sacrifice.

Being salt and light first of all is about who we are as individuals and as a church; it’s about how we see and understand who we are. In Jesus’ teaching, being salt and light is in the context of being humble, mourning for the state of the world, meekness, having a hunger and thirst for righteousness because we see the inequity and injustice all around us, being merciful and pure in heart, focused on being who Jesus is calling us to be, and being peacemakers wherever we are. Being salt and light is about the condition of our heart for others, our community, and the world. This leads us to act because of who we are: to season our community by standing up for those being oppressed, those weighed down by the burdens of life, by looking for ways we can be involved as individuals, as families, or with friends to make our community a better place to live where everyone feels they have opportunities to grow and contribute, no matter the colour of their skin, or ethnicity. It means speaking out about the sins of racism, of being aware of how our systems can keep people down, it’s about walking along side those wrestling with addictions, especially at a time like we’re in when opioid deaths are exploding, it means being aware of the sharp increase of domestic violence and homelessness. We do this to give people a glimpse of Jesus and his love for them, a glimpse of what his kingdom looks like, working to bless them with help and safety.

The church is a place where we learn to serve and be encouraged to serve rather than a place to be served, where our eyes are opened to who God is and his heart for the world. We can then become voices for the oppressed, the vulnerable and begin to change the world together. This doesn’t happen through church programs, but by each of us becoming involved as families and individuals in the causes that God opens our eyes and hearts to. This is how we change the world, by being who God is calling us to be as church together.