Scripture: Matthew 5: 13-16
"You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by everyone.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
"Let your light shine on this earth in such a way that all may see your good works, and glorify God, your Creator, who is in heaven.
Happy Thanksgiving--although the stores look more like Christmas and the snowflake street decorations are rapidly being hung everywhere you look. Did you ever wonder why we hang snowflakes in Leesburg? Wouldn’t that be like hanging palm trees in Boston? Anyway, I, for one, am going to hang on to Thanksgiving and refuse to let it get lost in the rush to make it to Christmas. I haven’t always appreciated Thanksgiving like I do now. For years I lived too far from family to make it home for Thanksgiving and so I celebrated Thanksgiving with whichever friend forced me to share their abundance, really preferring to spend a quiet day at home either alone or with my partner, when that was the case. This year, I’m happy to say, feels different. I find myself so profoundly grateful for everything that God is doing in my life and in the life of this church, that I look forward to the celebration and treasure the time we have together to express our thanks on this day.
You may have wondered about the scripture lesson chosen for today—not particularly about gratitude, but perhaps it is. This passage follows the beatitudes in Jesus’ sermon on the mount. Those same beatitudes were our centering meditation today. Many commentators believe that in our passage for today about salt and light Jesus describes our best response to the blessings of life just described in the Beatitudes. And so, what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving, indeed! Jesus tells us of the responsibility that goes along with receiving those blessings. We are all called to this responsibility, all of us who share in the blessings. The salt of the earth and the light of the world—this is who we are called to be.
And here is where we find the altitude of gratitude. We are not called to be merely a part of this world—we are called to a higher calling—we are called to change the world itself by our presence. And you thought, I would never get to the altitude of gratitude—here it is in this higher calling! A calling that places us in a special responsibility to make a difference in our world!
What is salt? When added to food, it both preserves it and gives it taste. Food without salt is considered so bland that millions have been spent by the condiment industry to develop salt substitutes for those who should not eat salt—but those substitutes are just that—never quite the same—mostly pointing out why we need salt in the first place. For centuries, salt was used as a preservative in all kinds of meats and other foods, and indeed still is. We talk about people we admire greatly as the “salt of the earth” and Jesus calls us all to be just that. In gratitude for blessings already received, we return the blessing, we pay it forward, by caring about our earth—we work towards reconciliation where there is discord, we give hope where there is none and we point to the meaning of life at a time when many despair. In other words, we give to life the taste of the blessings that Jesus says are ours when we are part of the reign of God on this earth.
Now I will admit to you that I have a pet peeve, and that pet peeve has to do with well-meaning Christians who focus all their energy on thinking about what it will be like in heaven—I respectfully and lovingly say to them, “You’re missing the point!” Jesus calls us clearly to make a difference in this world. That’s what I like about some of the old hymns—hymns like “I’ll Fly Away!” that we just sang with gusto. “Some glad morning when this life is o’er—I’ll fly away”. When this life is over—not now—not when I am still busy doing God’s work but when my work on this earth is done. So the altitude of gratitude is found in this higher calling—this bringing taste to this world—this transformation of life on this earth from bland sameness to the exciting in-breaking of God’s reign on this earth—this day, this time!
In this same passage, Jesus also calls us to be the light of the world. Some translations render this calling to be the “light for ALL the world”. The metaphor of light is used in both the old and new testaments. We, in the era of bright manufactured lighting have a hard time truly understanding the importance of light—why, if it’s dark, we just flip a switch and, poof, it’s light. But in the ancient world, when the sun went down and the moon was new, it was dark, really dark and so light and the lamp stands on which that light is placed take on a special importance. It is to that level of importance that Jesus challenges us to light the world—not merely shedding additional light—but to shine light into the deepest of darkness, to illuminate those corners where light never shines—to root out injustice from the recesses of our world. Jesus says, with logic that pierces all our excuses for inactivity: No one lights a light and puts it under a basket—no, they light a lamp to give light to the whole house.
Next week we begin Advent—the four weeks before the coming of the Christ child. For those four weeks, we will look together at what it means to “come to the Light”. The prophet Isaiah calls the people of God like this: “Arise, shine, for your light has come!” In the beatitudes we see a God who comforts those who mourn, cares for the weak, and satisfies the needs of the poor and hungry. To be grateful, is to be a light into this same world, where God satisfies our needs. To be grateful, is to work to right the injustice that brings darkness into this world—to be grateful is to be the reign of God on this earth!
How does this get us to Thanksgiving? Walter Brueggemann, once a seminary professor and now a contributor to the writings of the social justice organization, Sojourners, says this about Thanksgiving: “It is characteristic in American Thanksgiving that we look back and remember the pilgrims and God's providential care for them. Lodged next to Advent, Thanksgiving is not only for remembering; it waits and it expects. Faithful gratitude believes that the God who has given good gifts has more good gifts to give. While God’s gifts are welcome, in fact they do disrupt” Bruuggemann challenges us to see that God’s gift of justice and truth interrupt our complacency in the face of worldwide injustice. God’s generosity calls us to face our own self-centeredness and God’s merciful love flies in the face or our own indifference to the rest of the world. One final quote sums it up for those of us who care. Brueggeman says, “God’s gifts amount to an inconvenient reality among us”… He goes on to suggest that God’s gifts remind us that what we think of as “normal”—that is that certain people have, and certain people have not, is not normal at all and that being light in this world demands that we expose just how far from normal those kinds of injustices are within the reign of God’s justice.
Perhaps one of the best thoughts on giving thanks comes from the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold: He said: For all that has been -- thanks!
For all that will be -- yes! Gratitude is the gift of the eternal “yes”—yes to what we have been given and yes to what we have to give. Gratitude, born of the knowledge that we are all interdependent, teaches us that what we do here in this place has the ability to touch those struggling to eat in towns and cities close at hand and far away. Gratitude lends its recognition of the importance of all those who have come before. As proof that the truly great are almost always the most humble, Albert Schweitzer had much to say about gratitude. And he understood that we are to bring light to this world. He also understood that we cannot do it alone. Here is what he said: “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
Say “yes” to gratitude this Thanksgiving! Say “yes” and be the light of the world! Say “yes” and reach out to kindle or re-kindle the light of every person with whom you come in contact. At Thanksgiving and throughout Advent, be the salt that brings God’s love into the world; say “yes” and “yes” and “yes”! Amen and amen and yes!
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