"Bringing out the flavour and colour in life"

Today in many churches the Festival of the Transfiguration of Christ will be celebrated. Because this is one of those moveable feasts dependent on the date of Easter the lectionary offers alternative readings and I've chosen to speak from them, although as I hope you will see there is a clear link that can be made. But I did have the Transfiguration in mind as I've prepared music and prayers for today's worship service.

As I have preached on the Transfiguration story from at least two of the gospels before I wondered how I might find a fresh angle. I was speaking about this at home and the boys' eyes lit up when they heard the word Transfiguration, but I realised their familiarity was through none other than Harry Potter - since at Hogwart's school of wizardry and witchcraft one of their subjects is "transfiguration" - taught by Professor McGonagall and full of interesting exercises such as changing beetles into buttons.

That would be a fresh angle, but as I read it the gospel accounts of the Transfiguration are much more about Light than change - you only have to look at the hymns in our hymn book: "There's a light upon the mountains", "Christ upon the mountain peak stands alone in glory blazing" "It's good lord to be here, your glory fills the night. Your face and garments like the sun shine with unborrowed light", "Jesus transfigured . like the sun, shining bright. the splendour and radiance of light"

According to the Gospel of John Jesus himself said on another occasion "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). As Christians we look to this light like flowers look to the sun, because in it we grow and flourish and the purpose of our lives is brought into sharp relief. This motif of light has been central to the church in all places and at all times. Let me share with you the first part of an Irish blessing where the gift of God's light is bestowed on the listener:

May the blessing of Light be with you - light outside and light within
May sunlight shine upon you and warm your heart
'Til it grows like a great peat fire
so that the stranger may come and warm himself by it and also a friend.

May a blessed light shine out of the two eyes of you
Like a candle set in two windows of a house
Bidding the wanderer to come in from the storm"

But in the reading we heard this morning from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus said to his disciples "You are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth. You are a city built on a hill. It was not a command, not a suggestion, but a statement of fact. A given. We might be light under a bushel basket or light on a lampstand, but we, the people of God, are the only light that God has chosen to spread through the world. We might be good salt or bad salt, but either way we, the people of God, are the salt of the earth. If we don't have the effect that light or salt is supposed to have, there is no back up plan.

One translator expresses it like this: "let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt - seasonings that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste Godliness? Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, to bring out the God-colours in the world" (Eugene Peterson).

The God-flavours of this earth. The God-colours in the world. These are beautiful expressions for what sounds like an important task. And it is. But we shouldn't be overwhelmed by our role. The very choice of these metaphors following on from the Beatitudes has the message that even something small and insignificant can have a great effect. What is a pinch of salt in contrast to the amount of food that it flavours? What is a single light in contrast to a whole world of darkness? What are you disciples, especially you who hunger, who mourn, who are poor, who wait for God, in contrast to the whole world?

And yet, even a bit of salt, (as Jenny told the children) even a small light, can make a great difference.

We believe that God is present and active in the world all the time. But God acts through the people of God. Little Israel, insignificant in contrast to the great empires surrounding it, nevertheless became the vehicle for God's revelation and incarnation. The Church - began as a small persecuted movement, (after all, the people of the Beatitudes were the disciples who started the church) but the message got out and influenced almost every corner of the world.

But we know that the church has not always been an influence for good. So we need to keep asking ourselves, are we fulfilling the expectation of God that we will be salt and light to the world? Salt has the purpose of bringing out flavour. Just as some foods need salt to bring out their true flavours, so too God's presence in the world may not be detected unless we are living as God's representatives.

Sometimes this saltiness will enrich the good things of life that are already present. So the church has a special role to play in marriages, in the blessing of children, in presiding over or celebrating events of national significance. When we are the salt of the earth in this way we bring out the flavour, the colour, and the zest of life. We help the world to see the God-flavour of life, help the world taste the godliness in creation.

But sometimes being the salt of the earth will mean preserving something that might otherwise be lost. When scientific and economic progress ride roughshod over the needs of human beings we need to remind our world of the dignity of all people. When advertising and the arts uses sexuality to get a message across, we need to remind people to show respect in the way they treat each other. When in this age of information every secret is laid bare, we need to recognise the need in humanity for an expression of the sacred, a connection with the other dimensions, the mystery of life.

And sometimes salt will sting in the open wounds of the world: a healing sting but painful nonetheless. We live in a world characterised by racial prejudice and ethnic hostility, by a widening divide between rich and poor, where children are exploited and women and men denied their human rights. How will God's ways of truth and justice be known if God's people will not speak out, or act differently?

As we act as salt and light in our world we must always remember that we represent God. In the church we commonly use the expression of hiding your light under a bushel with the meaning that people are not using their talents. But that isn't the message of this passage. Here the focus is on God. Let your light shine so that others may see your father in heaven.

We don't shine ourselves, but God shines through us. A favourite song of mine when I was growing up was Keith Green's song with the lyrics that went something like this: "we are like windows - stained with the colours of the rainbow. Set in a darkened room so the bridegroom can shine through us". As a young Christian wondering how to evangelise my peers it was a song that reminded me that I only needed to be a vehicle for the light already there to be seen. I don't want to steal Neil's thunder for next week but the image of stained glass as a picture of the church is one that I find particularly helpful: the light of God shining through a window made of many hues, glass that has been shattered but carefully rearranged by an artist's hand to form an image of harmony and beauty. We know the importance of the rainbow as a biblical image to remind us of God's love and faithfulness. And what is a rainbow if not the light of God refracted into diverse colours but moving together in an arc that spreads its influence right across the land.

You see, our text reminds us that the light was for "all in the house". Even a single lamp would light a one-roomed Palestinian house, providing it was not put under a bushel. The earliest Jewish disciples heard the message that God's love was open to all: Jews and Gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, religious and apostate.

In Israel salt and light were images used to describe the Law - but the words of the prophets and the actions and teaching of Jesus showed that the law alone could not be salt for the earth. It would only have its effects of flavouring, preserving and healing when the word took flesh in the followers of God. It was possible to keep the letter of the law without having life. It is possible to observe religious duty without compassion, mercy or integrity. It is possible to pray without living that prayer. But that is not what Jesus meant by fulfilling the Law.

These verses we've read come from the Sermon on the Mount, that great passage of Jesus teaching in the gospel of Matthew. And for Matthew there is no right teaching that does not include doing. The disciples (and we) are to teach the world about Jesus through what they (and we) do. Jesus "did" what the Law spoke of (he "fulfilled" the law). Not by counting the commandments and ticking them off religiously. He fulfilled the law of his Father by living joyously, with a passion for life and a loving compassion for all who shared the journey with him.

We are the light of the world, the salt of the earth. We are the human face of God in our world today. Another little metaphor slipped in to the text that expresses the givenness of our role is the statement "A city built on a hill cannot be hid." Perhaps the followers of Jesus were being reminded of the prophetic expectation that the nations would come flocking to Zion, the city on the hill. Again a reminder that the message of God's love in Jesus was to be open to all. But it could not be a city with closed gates and walls to climb, but instead a city with gates open in welcome, a city from which life-giving streams would flow and a city whose inhabitants would invite the stranger in and shelter them from the storm. The church is not light and salt if it closes its doors and focuses on itself. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said many years ago, the church is the church only when it exists for others. Only when it makes its priority to bring out the God-flavours of the earth, and to shine forth the God-colours of the world.

Because of the way Jesus lived, his light shined before all people, and they could see the goodness of his father in heaven. May we be the windows through which his light will shine as we seek to follow him in our time and place.

Last updated: 13 February 2002