Salt and Light

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 5:13-20                                      

February 8, 2026

Epiphany 5A

 Dear saints of Our Savior~

        Jesus says that you are the salt of the earth.  And Jesus also says that you are the light of the world.  These two majestic metaphors make up the heart of what’s come to be known as the “Sermon on the Mount.”  I can hardly improve upon what Jesus has already proclaimed.  So, if you don’t mind, let’s just lean into the words of Jesus and see where they take us.

        You are the salt of the earth.  And you are the light of the world.  You—dear baptized believer, faithful follower of Jesus—you are salt and you are light.  What does this mean?

        First of all, notice the present tense: You are salt; you are light.  This isn’t a demand or a command to be something you’re not.  It’s not an order to try harder.  And it’s not that you should aspire to be salt and light.  It’s what you already are through faith in Jesus Christ.

        Jesus’ followers knew that salt was a valuable and useful substance.  Salt seasons and preserves.  And you don’t need much to make a big difference. A dash here, a pinch there.  But, oh, so necessary!  You can’t be the chili champion of the church without salt.  Last weekend as I was baking my second place award-winning carrot cake, you’d better believe there was a half-teaspoon of salt in that cake.  I’m not giving away any secrets here—everybody knows that salt is a difference-maker.  It’s absolutely essential and useful.  It’s necessary and needed.  And that’s you, my friends—the salt of the earth. 

        You’ve been shaken and scattered here and there to season the world with the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  You are the special sodium that makes this fallen world a better place—because you follow Jesus who died and rose again to redeem the whole world.  On your head and heart you have received the sign of the holy cross, to mark you as one redeemed by Christ the crucified.  For that reason you are destined to make a difference in this world.  You are salt.

        St. Paul knew what it meant to be the salt of the earth.  He knew what his audiences wanted.  They wanted miraculous signs and impressive wisdom.  But Paul gave them neither.  He told the Corinthians: For I decided to know nothing among you. . . except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  You can’t get more salty than that.  You can’t season the world in a better way than to give the world Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 

        We should follow Paul’s salty example.  We should season the world with our Savior, not with ourselves. When you draw attention to yourself instead of “Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” you are losing your saltiness.  This is especially true here in the church.  When pastors and personalities become the center of attention—or when budgets and boards and programs and institutions are the main thing—then the church has lost her saltiness. The death and resurrection of Jesus have taken a back seat to something far less important.  Don’t lose your God-given saltiness.

        Not only are you salt; you are light—the light of the world.  By virtue of your faith in Jesus Christ, you are a light shining in the darkness.  Now, your light is like the light of the moon—a reflected light.  It doesn’t originate in you; but you reflect Jesus who is the light of the world.  You make a critical difference in how this world turns.

        Light is visible.  Light is noticeable.  You can’t miss it.  The light you give the world is seen in your good works.  Faith is known only to God.  Only God can see faith in the heart of a sinner. But the world wants to see your works.  In fact, the world needs your good works.  That’s why Jesus says: Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  Let your light shine.  Let the good works fly—not so that you get the glory, but so that people see the light of Christ in you and give glory to your Father in heaven.

        You let your light shine when you do the good works that God has called you to do.  You don’t have to be a missionary to Micronesia.  Just do what God has put in front of you.  Don’t just be a dad—be an all-star dad—an all-star mom.  Be the best brother—the best sister a sibling could hope for.  Don’t just be an employee—be an excellent employee; not just a citizen—but a super citizen—a great neighbor.  Be the difference-maker Jesus has declared you to be.  Your good works matter so much. 

        Sometimes we forget about the importance of our works.  We hear a lot about faith alone, and grace alone and Christ alone.  The most important teaching in the Christian faith is justification by grace, for Christ’s sake, through faith.  There’s nothing about works in there.  It teaches how you, a sinner, can be justified before God.  And there, works have no role—none whatsoever.

        But in the horizontal dimension of faith, good works are everything!  Before other people, before family, before friends, neighbors, coworkers and classmates, let your good works shine.  God doesn’t need your good works, but those people—they sure do.  It’s faith alone before God; but it’s works alone before other people—because in those glorious good works others might just see more clearly your gracious Father in heaven who, in His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. 

        Your faith in Jesus Christ finds expression in the good works you do for others.  You love others because you are loved in God’s beloved Son.  You forgive others because all your sins have been forgiven in Christ.  You have mercy on others because Jesus Christ has shown mercy to you, and laid down His life as a sacrifice for your sin. 

When we don’t love—when we don’t forgive—when we don’t serve and sacrifice for others—we are hiding our light under a basket.  We are hiding what Christ is doing in us and through us.  And that’s just plain stupid.  Let your light shine.

        All that you are and have is a gift from Jesus—who is God of God and light of light.  Like you, Jesus had a job to do—a job no one else could ever do—one supremely good work.  Jesus had to change the trajectory of the world—had to engineer a fourth-quarter comeback from twenty points down.  If Jesus fumbled or failed, all would be lost, including you.  For us and for our salvation He came down from heaven.  For us and for our salvation He became man—was crucified, died and was buried.  For us and for our salvation He lived a perfect life of obedience.  His righteousness exceeded even that of the Scribes and Pharisees.  He was the righteousness of God.  He kept the Law of God perfectly—including every last iota. 

        And wonder of wonders, He gives away that perfect righteousness to you.  He gives you the credit for what He did.  He makes you the salt of the earth and the light of the world.  It’s not by what you do; it’s by what He does—and still does—for you.  As you eat and drink His body and blood, He puts His life into your life.  You are baptized to live each day beneath the umbrella of God’s grace, through faith in Jesus.  And in that grace, you will not fail.

        Under that grace you can be the person you have been baptized to be—a person so valuable that God gave up His one and only Son to be crucified in your place, to save you from your sins.  Be who you are in Christ.  Live as the person you have been baptized to be.  Let your light shine so that others can see the Savior and give glory to your Father in heaven.

        In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Not Divided, but Died For

Jesu Juva

1 Corinthians 1:10-25                                    

February 1, 2026

Epiphany 4A                  

 Dear saints of our Savior~

We conducted a lot of business at our first voters’ meeting of the year last Sunday.  We debated, we discussed, we nominated, we addressed issues of money and finance.  We voted; and then we voted some more.  And despite some differences of opinion, we somehow emerged from it all unscathed, with our unity intact—our oneness preserved.

It doesn’t always work out that way.  Unity is a precious gift in the life of every congregation; and it is precisely at this point that the devil likes to unleash his favorite weapon: division.  Drive a wedge between Christians.  Divide congregations.  Divide the church.  “Divide and conquer” is Satan’s strategy against the saints of God. 

The devil wants to divide and isolate Christians.  He’s a wolf looking to attack and scatter the flock.  And there’s nothing more vulnerable than a solitary sheep, divided from the flock and isolated, all alone.  To be a Christian in that position makes you an easy mark—a tasty morsel for an enemy with an insatiable appetite for the faithful.  “Divide and devour” is what he does best.

When reports about divisions in the Corinthian congregation reached St. Paul, it likely sent a shiver down his spine.  He had founded that little congregation a few years earlier.  It was still a congregation in its infancy, filled with “baby Christians” and new converts from paganism.  To make matters worse, the Corinthian Christians didn’t consider themselves to be rookies in the faith, but regarded themselves as paragons of wisdom—seasoned sages who could smartly sample the latest fads and philosophies.

St. Paul realized the situation at Corinth was a dumpster fire in the making.  The report he received from Chloe’s people described the congregation as a hotbed of quarreling and dissension and disagreement and division.  They reveled in church politics and a party spirit: I follow Paul some said.  I follow Apollos said others.   I follow Cephas said some, insinuating that they were on a friendly first name basis with Peter, the foremost of the Twelve.  Some even dared to boast, I follow Christ, as if they were the only ones who did.  Division in the church is always dangerous, especially among those who pride themselves on being more spiritually mature than everyone else.

Into all this nasty division and party pettiness, Paul fires the first arrow of His Apostolic epistle:  I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment (v.10).  Paul leaves no doubt that the way of Christ and His Spirit is unity; while the way of the devil is division.  In a long laundry list of problems that needed correcting in Corinth, restoring unity was job number one.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, these sinful divisions would be fixed first of all.

Corinthians chapter one is a great reminder that we need to see the congregation as God sees it.  We need to see our congregation through the lens of God’s Word.  And seeing things through the Word always requires an adjustment in our thinking.  When Paul pleaded with the Corinthians for no divisions and for unity in the “same mind and the same judgement,” he wasn’t demanding a bland conformity among Christians.  It’s okay to acknowledge that we are, indeed, many individuals of differing opinions, ages, skills, temperaments, perspectives, and demographics.  Paul elsewhere compares us to different parts of the body of Christ.  We are as different as eyes, ears, and pinky toes.

But we are united as members of the body of Christ.  We share the same baptismal bath.  We eat the same bread which is the body of Christ.  We drink the same cup which is the blood of Christ.  We share together in one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph. 4:5-6).  We are united in Christ, in a unity that surpasses our individuality. 

And this unity is not something we achieve.  It is God’s doing.  It is God’s gift.  It is the work of the Holy Spirit, calling, gathering, enlightening, sanctifying, and keeping the whole church with Christ in the one true faith.  God works unity; the devil sows division.

This means that division in the church is much worse than just “not getting along” or “not playing nice.”  Divisions are not merely believers sinning against believers; divisions are sins against the body of Christ—the very body that was nailed to the cross for our salvation—the body once crucified for the sin of the world and now preached from pulpits like this one. 

Consider yourself warned: to actively perpetuate division in the church—to be an agent of discord—is to offer yourself up as a tool in the hand of the devil.  You don’t want to be in that position, I assure you.  Far better to be a blessed peacemaker, for the peacemakers shall be called sons of God.  If ever you find yourself actively engaged in sowing division in the church, stop, drop, and repent.  You’re playing right into the devil’s hands.

The solution to sinful division is not compromise.  Nor is it some version of just “playing nice” and “getting along.”  The solution is always—and only—the cross of Jesus.  Paul squares up the divided Corinthians to the cross of Christ.  He preaches nothing but Christ and Him crucified.  He literally holds before their eyes Jesus Christ on the cross, taking away their sins, delivering them from sin, death, and the devil, as if to ask them with apostolic authority:  How do all your divisions stack up against this?  How do all your cliques and quarrels look when viewed against Christ crucified?

The cross sounded so foolish to the Corinthians who were infatuated with human wisdom.  The cross sounds so foolish to modern ears.  The cross defies all common sense and worldly wisdom.  The message of the cross is the message of how sinners nailed their Savior to a piece of wood so that He might bleed and die for our salvation—so that He might pay the debt of our sin.  It is the message about a Man who was also God—about a Lamb who was also a Shepherd, about a defeat which was also a victory.  That is our message.  That is what Paul preached; that is what we preach—Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The answer to division in the church is the cross—not merely the “symbol” of the cross, but the fruits it produces by God’s power in us—the members of the Body of Christ.  The power of the cross comes to us in our baptism.  There we die to self and are raised up as children of God—members of one body.  That power comes to us in the preaching of Christ crucified.  That power comes to us in the Holy Supper of Christ’s body and blood, which is made up of many grains, but one loaf—of many grapes, but one cup.  There are many members, but one Body.  And this blessed unity is entirely the loving work of our Savior.

Our oneness comes from the Word.  So let’s rejoice in that unity.  Let’s nurture and nourish that unity right here at every opportunity.  For here, by the grace of God, we preach Christ crucified.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.