Tuesday, June 10, 2025
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Salt and light
However many are the promises of God, their Yes is in Jesus; therefore, the Amen from us also goes through him to God for glory.
- T. Wright describes five acts in God’s play.
- Creation
- Fall
- Israel
- Jesus
- Church
Paul’s words to the Corinthians are part of #5, of course. Beginning the day after Jesus’ resurrection, God’s Church has been following in Jesus’ footsteps, searching out the ways God has communicated with his people on earth since the beginning.
At church Pastor Steve asked us in class for our favorite Bible verse. I remembered from Philippians 4, “Let your gentleness be evident to all,” an aggressively peaceful commandment from Paul to his friends, in the same sentence with “rejoice always,” “do not be anxious about anything,” and “with praise and thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Out of this encouragement I am learning to say “yes” to as many of the opportunities life presents as I can. Paul promises his listeners that as we rejoice always, “the peace of God which passes your understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Lord, let your face shine on me.
Let your countenance shine upon your servant,
and teach me your laws.
A foundational truth of God’s law is “love your enemies.” In the Old Testament many stories describe the battles of the enemies of Israel, but threaded between them are stories of grace and mercy. Elisha, tough guy that he was, insisted that the Hebrew victors be gentle and generous in victory with their foes (2 Kings 5 and 6). Violence begets more violence, but peace-making breaks the cycle.
As far as it is possible, as much as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12)
Paul inserts a loophole, but he does not expect us to take it. “As far as it depends on you” means the “you” you have surrendered to God. God insists that as I believe in Jesus, I will do what he does. And Jesus loved his enemies.
However many are the promises of God, their YES is in Jesus.
Like the Fall, like the ups and downs of Israel, this fifth act of God’s play, the history of the Church, continues to be laced with poor choices and nasty consequences, along with repentance and new beginnings. On our own, that’s the best we can do. The 1st and 4th acts (Creation and Jesus) are something else again; that is where we got our start and how we come into our future. God is not mocked, but he does not mock us. His faithfulness endures always, and in that faithfulness he teaches us and insists that we learn to be like him.
You are the salt of the earth.
But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?
It is no longer good for anything.
You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Do not light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
set it on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
A local family calls their thrift-based enterprise “Salt and Light.” Like the rest of us, as best they can, they follow their leader into whatever happens next.
(2 Corinthians 1, Psalm 119, Matthew 5)
(posted at davesandel.net)
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