"Jesus's Very True Sermon"

 “Jesus’s Very True Sermon”

Matthew 5:1-20

Jan. 29, 2023

Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to attend the College of Arts & Sciences Teach In that’s a part of the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. observance at K-State each year. One of the talks I attended was given by our friend Nate McClendon, in his role as the museum specialist for the Beach Museum of Art. Nate’s talk was called “what you see is what you get” and was a delightful exploration of one of our human superpowers: noticing other people and learning more about who they are when we take time to observe them carefully. When we take the time to truly see one another and get to know each other, it brings Dr. King’s dream of the Beloved Community so much closer to reality. 

Nate began his presentation by playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” on saxophone. Now, if you’ve heard Nate play, you know this is always a treat, but the music was just the beginning. After we listened to him play this short song, he told us this music was his way of introducing himself to us. He wanted to know what we thought we had learned about him from watching and listening. 

Now, I didn’t raise my hand because I already have the honor of knowing Nate, so I didn’t want to spoil the thought experiment. But I was fascinated when I heard other people share their observations because they were spot on. As each person made guesses about Nate, he reflected their statements back to them to make sure he understood and then asked, “What did you observe that led to that conclusion?” I was floored at how good everyone was guessing. 

As Nate continued on, he shared that there were, of course, some things we hadn’t been able to guess about him from his musical introduction. But a lot of what we guessed was right. Perhaps we humans really do have a superpower when it comes to learning about one another, when we take the time to do so with great intention and care. 

Nate said that we humans are essentially doing this all the time, everywhere we go. We see people and then go through our mental files, sorting and comparing and making guesses. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we are way off, of course. A lot of pain in this world gets caused when our judgments are clouded by stereotypes and misperceptions and the evil of systems like white supremacy and misogyny. This is why it’s so important to take the time to actually get to know one another - spending time together and seeing the face of Christ in each other - not just jump to conclusions.

As he was teaching us, Nate said something else that I found particularly interesting: one of the OTHER things we humans do ALL the time is wonder, “what is everyone else thinking about ME?”

When we raise our hand in class and offer an answer, “Will they think I’m smart?” When we initiate small talk at a party, “Does this person think I’m interesting?” When we go to the gym, “Did that person notice how much I’m lifting?”

The thing is, I think most people at the gym don’t notice other people at the gym at all because we’re all so busy spending our emotional energy wondering what everyone else thinks about us! 

This is kind of a freeing realization, isn’t it? 

But even better than that realization is the good news that comes to us in the 5th chapter of Matthew’s gospel today. Jesus’s sermon is full of blessings, of course, that’s why it’s called the beatitudes. But there's so much more here beyond those familiar needlepoint verses. 

In today’s passage, Jesus has gathered a crowd around him. At first, it’s just his nearest and dearest, the disciples. But by the time the sermon ends, several chapters later, we are told that there are crowds. He begins with those well-known words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit...blessed are those who mourn….blessed are the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart….the peacemakers.”

Blessed, blessed, blessed - echoes the refrain. 

Now the word “blessed” here is not as simple as it first appears. We don’t really have a word in English that quite captures the Greek. That’s why some versions of this text say “blessed” and others say “happy are…” It’s not quite either. Instead it’s more like “those who are blessed by God have the emotion of being happy because of that blessing.” [1] Which is a mouthful. 

But I think the distinction matters. Because the feeling of happiness, satisfaction, delight comes from the knowledge that we are blessed. That we are beloved by God. That we belong. That we are worthy. 

And this blessing is for all people, but Jesus especially lifts up here that it is for those who might not be valued by society. It is for those who may not know their worth. You are blessed, he says. 

Jesus knows that one of the things we absolutely need is a sense of being blessed. That sense of worth is not the same as feeling like we are smart, or funny, or good at our jobs, or wealthy, or healthy. Our worth is separate from those things - even though we mostly seem to spend our whole lives being told otherwise. 

We are all conditioned from an early age to strive for the best version of ourselves. To be smarter. To work harder. To be more successful. To look a certain way. Act a certain way. To take up less space...or more space. To be quieter...or use our voices more. The list of things we are supposed to be goes on and on and on. 

We spend hours, weeks, years of our lives wishing we were different, better. And this obsession with being better affects not only ourselves but everyone around us. Sometimes our sense of not-enough-ness causes us to act with hatred towards other people. Sometimes our sense of lack causes us to do the opposite. We become obsessed with helping others, caring for others…..because it’s often easier than doing the excruciating work of learning to love ourselves. 

But Jesus offers an alternative narrative. Jesus speaks to those gathered about their worth. After reminding them that they are blessed, he spins for them a short love story: Salt. Light. You are these things, he says. 

“You are the salt of the earth,” he says. Salt is something most of us probably take for granted. For much of world history, salt was such a valuable commodity that trade routes were established because of it. Wars were fought over it. What we now grab at the grocery store casually had to be mined, distilled, or evaporated in a laborious process. 

Then, as now, salt was incredibly useful. Just think of all the ways we use salt: flavoring food, of course, but also preserving food (mmmmm….saurkraut, pickles). Salt is important when we want to make homemade ice cream, but also handy for melting ice on the sidewalk. Salt is a requirement for good nutrition and it can also be used to soothe the spirit by helping us float in water or making a delightful body scrub. When my kids were younger we kept a lot of salt on hand for making big batches of play doh. And salt heals. Grandmas and doctors alike know that gargling with warm salt water is good for a sore throat. 

Salt truly is a wonder. Salt is ubiquitous AND precious. Salt is necessary for life. And Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” 

You, living as who God created you to be, are a healing gift to a world that desperately needs healing. 

You. You are precious. You are important. You are necessary for life. You are salt. Just like light - salt doesn’t solely exist for itself. It exists to be of service to the world around it. Jesus reminds us, just as salt is desperately needed, YOU are desperately needed. The world needs you - your voice, your care, your commitment, your passion. 

And Jesus also speaks of light. Jesus says we are light to the world. Can you imagine with me for a minute what it was like to live in a time before artificial lighting? These days,  the sun goes down around 6:00pm and we, unthinkingly, flip on the lights. But if we lived in the time of Jesus we would have to work much harder. If we wanted to see our families’ faces over the dinner table, we would have to create light. If we wanted to do something at home - reading, making music, washing the dishes, we would have to create light. If we wanted to go outside to care for the animals or visit a neighbor - again, we would have to create light to see where we were going.

So when Jesus says “you are the light of the world.” That’s what he means. You, my friends, are that element that makes the invisible visible. You create a sense of safety and security, bring warmth on a cold night, illuminate possibilities. You are the light of the world. 

You. You are. You are the light of the world. 

In the words of the poet nayyirah waheed:

you are a sea of light.

open your eyes.

see yourself. [2]

Pausing to acknowledge that you are that simple, amazing, elementally-good thing - a “sea of light” - is not about being proud or puffed up. It is to acknowledge that you have worth simply because of who you are AND that your goodness is a gift to the world around you. Light doesn’t exist for itself. Light exists to be shared. You exist to be blessed AND be a blessing. That’s why the song says “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”

The world will keep telling us we’re not enough. And the world may also tell us we are too much - more than others can handle. We will be told that our worth is dependent on our beauty, our smarts, our competence, our success, our checkbooks, our abilities, our health. That’s how things are sold. That’s how money is made. 

But Jesus speaks truth from a deeper place of knowing. You are salt, he says. You are light. And when we start to tell ourselves THIS story, everything shifts. Because we start to find that we not only hear the invitation to believe in our own worthiness, but everyone else’s too. We start to see beacons of light everywhere. We come to appreciate the unique flavor of each person we encounter. With Christ’s help, we stand a fighting chance of learning how to love one another - every single other. 

Nate said, “what you see is what you get” and it occurs to me that, so often, when we see good in others, that’s what we get. When we see salt and light, we are delighted by flavor and clarity and blessedness over and over again. 

What an invitation. What a blessing. 

SOURCES:

[1] BibleWorm podcast 

[2] salt by nayyirah waheed