Salt, Light, and More Foolishness
(Free Version): Fifth Sunday After Epiphany- Isaiah 58:1-9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-12; Matthew 5:13-20
This week’s readings can be found here. This week, in our Deep Dive, we include a discussion on personal “image curation” and the ways in which we project ourselves to the world. We also look at the role of song in the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s. Finally, we include several quotes from church fathers on the practice of fasting: good fasting vs. bad fasting.
As we find ourselves in the middle of the Season After Epiphany, our readings continue to nudge us towards the reality that the Kingdom of God is always focused outwards. How we treat those who find themselves “outside” (both individually and systemically) matters. With such readings, we may be tempted towards moralism, that we are simply care for the poor better; to let our light shine more, or to work really hard at being salt and light.
Rarely do these psychological tactics work when it comes to creating real, lasting change. The commands of scripture are always rooted in memory: what God has done and who we are in Him. Such moralism is what led God’s people to their empty fasting rituals in the first place. To impose merely a different kind of moralism on this reading is to re-create the problem.
Isaiah reminds God’s people that their fasting is empty if its purpose is to manipulate God (Isa. 58:1-9a). That’s not how any of this works! The purpose of fasting has always been repentance and sorrow. If you are trying to manipulate God and, at the same time, your character and posture towards others is not being transformed, your worship is more pagan than it is faithful.
After reminding the church of their own status as a motley crew, Paul says that he too is not all that special. Specifically, he is not that great of a preacher (1 Corinthians 2:1-12). He doesn’t have “wisdom” in the way of the world. He knows nothing except the cross. Then, he appears to tease the Corinthian “wisdom-chasers.” Acting like he does have a secret wisdom, Paul says that he knows of something which will only be revealed to the “mature.” As we imagine the audience leaning in to discover the content of this deeper revelation, Paul pulls back the curtain: the cross again. For those chasing image, worldly power, the key to the “good life,” Paul says that the deeper wisdom is found in Christ’s suffering death, revealing that death is not the end. The good news: Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.
This section of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:13-20) is all too familiar, but it ought not lose its revolutionary fervor. It is a revolution, but it is a revolution rooted in the calling of God’s people from the beginning. God’s people are called, in every age and place, to give flavor to the world; to preserve the world, reminding the world of it’s source and pointing the world to what God is doing; to reveal sin and brokenness, as Christ’s death revealed the brokenness of the world; and to light the way. We do this, not by way of earthly power, image curation, or flashy rhetoric. We trust that God is doing what God does. Light is shining through his church by the power of the Holy Spirit. This reveals itself in our good deeds and leads to praise.