A Resistance Position

Friday, January 3, 2025

In this homily based on Matthew 5:13–16, Father Richard explores what Jesus meant by calling us to be salt and light:  

The great temptation of Christianity has always been to think that if we were in control, if we had power, we would “win,” but that’s exactly what Jesus warns us against. In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us to be salt—not the meat, the potatoes, or even the vegetables—just the invisible but very effective salt. Salt is what gives zing and taste to food and Jesus is calling us to be people who give purpose, meaning, and desire to life. If we look at the history of Christianity, whenever we were “in charge,” that’s when we became the most corrupt. Christianity operates best in a resistance position, in a position where we can discern and choose how to be salt, how to be light.  

Likewise, the metaphor of light as Jesus uses it here is not controlling or forceful. As Alcoholics Anonymous says, it’s not moving forward by self-promotion, but by attraction. Just set the light on the lampstand and if it’s good, and if it’s real, and if it’s beautiful, people will come. This is very different than what we expect. We basically think we can only move the world by being in control. Yet both of the images that Jesus offers here warn us against wanting to be in control.  

That is so contrary to our common sense. We think “If only we had the power, if only we had the majority, we could create the kingdom of God,” but it’s never been true. I know from my years of traveling that when Christians are a minority in a country, and they have to choose and decide to be the salt of the earth, to be light on a lampstand, they make a real difference.  

Jesus calls us to give the world taste, meaning, purpose, direction, desire. It’s a humble position, isn’t it? We’d much sooner be in charge. But whenever someone or something has all the power, they mostly misuse power. Jesus warns us against power, because very few people can handle it. Most of us use it for our own aggrandizement, our own promotion and advancement in the ways of the world, which usually means more money and more power.  

Either we learn how to be the salt of the earth, a true alternative to the normal motivations and actions of society, or as Jesus put it very clearly, we might as well throw it out and trample it underfoot. We have to find our inner authority through Christ in us; we have to find our purpose in our love of God and neighbor, and actions of mercy and justice. Otherwise, we’re not offering anything that the world doesn’t already have or can’t find in other places.  

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Your needs and My riches are a perfect fit. I never meant for you to be self-sufficient. Instead, I designed you to need Me not only for daily bread but also for fulfillment of deep yearnings. I carefully crafted your longings and feelings of incompleteness, to point you to Me. Therefore, do not try to bury or deny these feelings. Beware also of trying to pacify these longings with lesser gods: people, possessions, power.
     Come to Me in all your neediness, with defenses down and with desire to be blessed. As you spend time in My Presence, your deepest longings are fulfilled. Rejoice in your neediness, which enables you to find intimate completion in Me.

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Philippians 4:19 (NLT)
19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Additional insight regarding Philippians 4:19: We can trust that God will always meet our needs. Whatever we need on earth he will always supply, even if it is the courage to face death as Paul did. Whatever we need in Heaven he will supply. We must remember, however, the difference between our wants and our needs. Most people want to feel good and avoid discomfort or pain. We may not get all that we want. By trusting in Christ, our attitudes and appetites can change from wanting everything to accepting his provision and power to live for him.

Colossians 3:2-3 (NLT)
2 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3 For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

Being a Light for Others

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Jewish New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine focuses on Jesus’ exhortation to his disciples to be the “light of the world”:  

Just as salt is necessary for life, so is light. Without light, we have no plants, no warmth, no beacons. Next, just as salt can become so diluted that it loses its intrinsic character as salt, so darkness, as the Gospel of John puts it, seeks to overcome the light (John 1:5). “This little light of mine” can shine, but it can also be snuffed out. Thus light, too, is a precious commodity that must be preserved. And just as too much salt can kill, too much light can blind. Effective light does not call attention to itself; rather, it lights up the world….  

For the disciples, Jesus is the light of the world. Yet as he states in John 9:5, he is the light “as long as I am in the world.” The disciples therefore take up his role: acting as he instructs them.… They too can be the light of the world…. 

Once the disciples recognize that they are light, they also recognize that their role is to shine so that others can find their way. Jesus knows that, just as salt can lose its intrinsic identity, light can be hoarded and fail to fulfill its proper function. He states first the obvious: “A city built on a hill cannot be hid” (Matthew 5:14). His followers are to become like that city: a refuge, a home, a place where there is salt and light, love and compassion….   

That light cannot be restricted to the house church (or any church building or community), as the city metaphor indicates. To be the light of the world is to shine … in any place where there is loneliness or despair, sickness or pain. Even in times and places, still today, when the church has had literally to go underground, it cannot be hid since it is known for its good deeds. 

Jesus’ call to be salt and light impacts the choices we make:  

If we think of a church as a house, as a home where family and friends gather, we get a different image than if we think of a place to be visited maybe for an hour on Sunday. And if we think of our homes as the place where our light shines, we are more likely to be patient with the children or with those whose minds have reverted to childhood; we are more likely to find that light within ourselves as we go through the day.… 

Any faith that does not manifest itself in works is not faith; it is complacency and self-satisfaction. It is not salt, because it contributes nothing to the earth. It is not light, since its shining is only for self-reflection. Disciples are to glorify God by being their true selves: salt and light; existing for others rather than for only themselves.   

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Sara Young Jesus Calling

Jesus Calling: January 2nd, 2025

Jesus Calling: January 2

Relax in My Healing Presence. As you spend time with Me, your thoughts tend to jump ahead to today’s plans and problems. Bring your mind back to Me for refreshment and renewal. Let the Light of My Presence soak into you, as you focus your thoughts on Me. Thus I equip you to face whatever the day brings. This sacrifice of time pleases Me and strengthens you. Do not skimp on our time together. Resist the clamor of tasks waiting to be done. You have chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from you. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Psalms 105:4 (NLT)

Search for the LORD and for his strength; continually seek him.

Luke 10:42 (NLT)

There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Additional insight regarding Luke 10:38-42: Mary and Martha both loved Jesus. On this occasion, they were both serving him. But Martha thought Mary’s style of serving was inferior to hers. She didn’t realize that in her desire to serve, she was actually neglecting her guest. Are you so busy doing things for Jesus that you’re not spending any time with him? Don’t let your service become self-serving. Jesus did not blame Martha for being concerned about household chores. He was only asking her to set priorities. Service to Christ can degenerate into mere busy work that is totally devoid of devotion to God.

A Free Gospel and Free People

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

New Year’s Day 

Richard Rohr expresses the liberation the gospel offers when freed from our cultural and religious expectations:  

Without God’s definition of freedom, we will continue to use the gospel as if it were a product that can be bought, sold, imposed, or attained. The gospel is not a competing ideology that’s threatened by anything outside itself. It is the light of the world that illuminates the whole household; it is the yeast and not the whole loaf; it is the salt that gives flavor and nutrition to the much larger meal (see Matthew 5:13–15, 13:33).  

Once we can accept that Jesus has given us an illuminating lens by which to see and measure all things, we can no longer treat Christianity as a threat—or allow it to be a threat—to human or cultural freedom. In fact, it is true freedom’s greatest ally. The gospel is a process much more than a product, a style more than a structure, a person more than a production. It is a way of being in the world that will always feel like compassion, mercy, and spaciousness—at least to honest and healthy people.  

The gospel stands against death; it equally critiques every culture, and is identical with no culture or institution, even the church. As John’s Gospel states so poetically, the Spirit blows where it will (see John 3:8). How different and healing Western history could have been if we had received such gospel freedom and modeled it for others! 

Jesus has not come to impose Christendom like an imperial system. The gospel flourishes in the realm of true freedom. I don’t think Jesus ever expected the whole world would become formally Christian, but I do believe that his truth about right relationship, his proclamation of the power of powerlessness, is the message that will save the world from self-destruction and for an eternal truth. This is how Jesus is the “Savior of the World.” He does it by choosing a minority position, entering Jerusalem on a donkey.  

Jesus has a different understanding of personal freedom. Freedom is not the capacity to be what we are not, but the capacity to be fully who we already are, to develop our inherent selves as much as divine time and circumstances allow. The perfect and full freedom of a fig tree is to become a perfect and full fig tree. Thus, Jesus curses one that does not (see Matthew 21:19). Many of us are like sick or dead fig trees, but with happy faces painted on our anemic fruit shouting, “But I’m free!” Our addictive society will do what it wants to do, but the freedom offered by all great spiritual traditions is quite different: spiritual and true freedom is wanting to do what we have to do to become who we are.

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Sarah Young Jesus Calling

Jesus Calling: January 1st, 2025

Jesus Calling: January 1st

Come to Me with a teachable spirit, eager to be changed. A close walk with Me is a life of continual newness. Do not cling to old ways as you step into a new year. Instead, seek My Face with an open mind, knowing that your journey with Me involves being transformed by the renewing of your mind. As you focus your thoughts on Me, be aware that I am fully attentive to you. I see you with a steady eye, because My attention span is infinite. I know and understand you completely; My thoughts embrace you in everlasting Love. I also know the plans I have for you: plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Give yourself fully to this adventure of increasing attentiveness to My Presence. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE:

Romans 12:2 NLT

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Jeremiah 29:11 NLT

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.