Once in a while I have what I think are jewels of thoughts. Thoughts that are profound enough I am sure they are not original with me, but for which I can’t provide proper credit either. Most good ideas of mine are not very original and likely have an un-credited author. The following is such a collection that was a part of a sermon I preached recently.
Salt, light, leaven, Jesus used these three items in teaching his disciples, he said “you are the salt of the earth”, “light of the world”, and “the kingdom of God was like a woman kneading leaven into sixty pounds of flour.” Since I preach only loosely from notes I can’t repeat verbatim what I said, my points however were as follows;
Today we use salt as a poor man’s antiseptic. Like me I bet you have used it to gargle with when complaining of a sore throat, I have applied to wounds and sores. Salt had many uses in Christ’s time, many of those uses were very similar to how we might use it today, but it also served a role in certain offerings and sacrifices in temple worship. Among other things salt was used to purify vessels. In my area of the country salt is used to keep sidewalks and streets free and clear of ice, it prevents slipping and sliding. In one city where I lived there was a particular long steep hill that had to be salted in severe freezing weather or cars would slide back down.
Light it’s a pretty easy thing to take for granted, even the darkest night in my part of the country we are usually lit with stars, street lights, or the occasional headlights from a passing motorist. My house has many lights to help make life comfortable and prevent a few broken toes as I find my way past the coffee table on the way to bed in the evening. Light is used to warn people of dangers, but light also attracts things. In our area of the world if you leave the porch light on at night you attract all sorts of creepy crawling things, Miller moths in the spring, June bugs in June or July, and hundreds of other ugly critters most anytime of the year.
There are times that a particular cook in our house has made bread and in the process put in the mix too much salt, yeast, or other key ingredient. It is impossible to separate once mixed. Every piece of dough every ounce of flour has been infected with that ingredient. Imagine trying to separate the yeast and the CO2 from any bread dough. That’s the image Christ painted of the kingdom, so infected into society that you couldn’t separate it if you wanted.
My prayer is; that through me Christ could become similarly a part of my local community, so infecting those around me that removal of Christ’s influence would be impossible, that I become a light in our community attracting the creepy crawly things, the undesirable, and that I will be a good example of purity, not back sliding, helping others to avoid slipping and falling.
Make me salt, light, and leaven.
David
