From April 15 – May 15, 1874, a group of 30 artists exhibited their new paintings outside the traditional French Salon, where all respectable artists exhibited their work. By all stretches of the imagination, this little exhibition was a bust. No one took their art seriously, and the art critics were particularly harsh. These artists depicted salt of the earth images of daily life around them like Paris street scenes, a thriving French port city, peasants in the countryside, working women, and mothers with their children. No one seemed to appreciate their depictions of everyday scenes or how they painted out of doors so that they could carefully notice how the light of the sun glinted off of these everyday scenes, and no one seemed to appreciate their salt of the earth subjects or the unique way they captured the light of the world. One particularly nasty and satirical review named the exhibit “Exhibition of Impressionists,” based on a painting named Impression: Sunrise, as a way to discredit the work of these artists.
Despite critics’ lack of appreciation back in 1874, that little ragtag group of artists, now well-known as the Impressionists, are having the last laugh. While Claude Monet’s Impression: Sunrise is deemed to be priceless, in 2016, Monet’s Haystack sold for over $81 million. These paintings of salt of the earth subjects depicting the light of the world are now deemed invaluable.
We come to today’s well-known Gospel passage from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew in the season of Epiphany. Epiphany begins with the light from the star in the sky that the Magi followed to find the Christ Child, who John’s Gospel tells us is the light of the world.
And this week, we are told that we, too, are the light of the world.
And like the Magi, we give gifts to the world. Our gifts are salt and light.
As it happens sometimes with well-known passages, Jesus’ warning on the Sermon on the Mount to be salt and light to the world has lost its own saltiness.
In today’s society where refrigeration is commonplace, we forget that salt could literally be the difference between life and death. Without salt to preserve meat, ancient people could starve. Because of this, salt was a major commodity in the ancient world.
So Jesus is telling his disciples that they need to be like salt – that element that can literally preserve life.
Jesus continues and tells his disciples exactly why they are to be salt and light.
Jesus says, in the same way as you put a light on a lamp stand to illuminate a house or put a city on a hill so it can be seen from miles away, in that same way, let your light shine before other so that they may see your good works and give Glory to your Father in Heaven.
Jesus tells us that we are to be salt and light so that others may see our good works and because of those good works, others will give glory to God.
Because they will see God when you are salt and light to the world.
Because when we are salt and light to the world, we reflect back God to the world.
That is the purpose of being salt and light.
To reflect the Glory of God back to the world.
After the Impressionists began to gain popularity, other artists took the way the Impressionists’ techniques of depicting light on the canvas and went even farther.
One group of artists created a style of painting called Pointillism, which is nothing more than thousands and thousands of little dots of paint on canvas, with each dot capturing the play of light on that tiny part of the larger painting.
Decades before computer monitors were invented using tiny pixels of different colors of light to display images, Pointillist paintings create blends of colors from these tiny dots of paint.
When you are up close to the painting, you see each individual dot of paint.
But when you stand back, the painting comes into focus and you can see the beauty that the artist created.
Like a Pointillism painting, we all are dots of light that reflect the Glory of God back to the world.
And together, we create a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Just like a Pointillism painting, when each individual Christian goes out and is salt and light for the world, it is a beautiful picture.
Unfortunately, for many young people around us, they don’t see a beautiful picture of heaven presented by the Church.
For many young people, the Church has lost its saltiness.
I am a member here at Holy Comforter, but I also work on Bishop Doyle’s staff at the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. I commute every day to the diocesan center downtown to work with the Mission Amplification team, which is the bishop’s team that works directly with congregations.
My official title is Missioner for Congregational Vitality: Youth and Young Adults, which means I work with existing congregations, like Holy Comforter, to help them be healthy and vibrant, and the lens that I do that through is youth and young adults.
Sometimes that means I spend weekend after weekend at Camp Allen, like I did for these past two weeks, first running our high school Happening retreat which had over 150 youth and adults getting to know Jesus better. Last weekend I was at Camp Allen again, this time for College Retreat, where I was invited to share with college students how to evangelize to their peers, because increasingly their fellow college students have no church affiliation at all.
These college students know that their friends are not there with them at church. And many of those students have left because for all intents and purposes they think the church has lost its saltiness.
I could give you the data and statistics on how few young people are in churches these days, but you all can see it. Holy Comforter is actually one of the younger churches, statistically speaking, in the diocese and in the Episcopal Church. On the whole, the Episcopal Church is growing older and shrinking. Members are dying off and young people are leaving.
Back in 2011, David Kinnaman, an author with the Barna Research Group, did a landmark study asking why young people were leaving the church. He found the following six main themes in their reasoning:
- Church is unimaginative and uncreative.
- Church is shallow and boring.
- Church is anti-science.
- Church is anti-gay.
- Church is exclusive.
- Church is no place for doubts.
In other words, the church has lost its saltiness for young people, because young people fail to see the church acting as a vibrant, creative, thoughtful or inclusive space for the Holy Spirit to be active in the world.
The church has lost its saltiness for young people.
Which takes us to the second half of the gospel reading.
Jesus continues to describe how the Kingdom of Heaven works in the world.
Jesus says: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 5:17-20
Jesus says our righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, which would have been seen as absurd to the disciples who were hearing Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The Pharisees were the most righteous of righteous. The ones who went above and beyond what the Hebrew scriptures prescribed. Remember the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee.
Notice that it’s not just about our righteousness. It’s about sharing our righteousness with others. It’s about teaching others. It’s about our reflection to the world too. That’s what creates the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
Because righteousness is never for ourselves.
Just like salt and light is never for ourselves.
It’s to reflect back God and God’s kingdom to the world.
This idea lines up with today’s reading in Isaiah. Isaiah shows us how to be salty again. How to be light. Isaiah shows how our righteousness can exceed the Pharisees.
The Pharisees would have been well versed in Isaiah’s prophecies. This section of Isaiah was written as the Jews were returning to Israel from their exile in Babylon. They spent decades living in a foreign land after being conquered by the Babylonians and now returning to a land that was in ruin. The Israelites wanted to know why God didn’t hear their cry. Why God hadn’t listened to their fasts.
So Isaiah responds with God’s word and tells the Jews:
Your fast has lost its saltiness. And quite frankly, Isaiah (and God) are salty about this.
Fasting is not about your own food and drink. Just like how our righteousness is not only for ourselves.
It’s about how you treat others.
The fast God chooses is: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin.
Then Isaiah says: your light shall break forth like the dawn.
You will be the light of the world.
Your fast will have saltiness again.
And God will say, Here I am.
Just like in Matthew, God promises in Isaiah that God’s kingdom will shine forth when our fasting – our righteousness – points to God.
This is the church young people long for. The salty church that shines the light of Christ to the world.
Even the Psalm today shows what that looks like:
- The hearts of the righteous are firm.
- They have given to the poor.
- Their righteousness endures forever.
The salty church young people want to see and want to stick around for is creative and life-giving, is meaningful and transformative, and gives space for thinking and doubts and includes all people.
The salty church young people want is the same one God describes in Isaiah of justice and freedom and of love and compassion.
The salty church that young people want is a light to the world around them.
The good news is that Holy Comforter is salt and light to the world already.
You all are doing this already. Being a beacon of light. Transforming Angleton into the kingdom of heaven. Each and every week you open up your space to the community to the Peach Street Farmer’s Market and soon in Lent for the Fish Fry to create a little piece of the Kingdom of Heaven here in Angleton.
I am so proud to be a member here because of the work each and every one of you do in this community.
So Go! Keep up the good work. Continue to get out and be salty.
Amen.