Matthew 5:13 - 15

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house"

I'm presuming that these words are meant to describe those who live by the teaching implied by the beatitudes. Because they are different -being 'lucky' in ways that others might find hard to understand- then they stand out. It may feel like standing out to be picked on but the reality is that it is standing out like a well visible light. In fact the pressure of standing out might be such as to make disciples want to hide themselves -and therefore their light- but the task is to give light not to hide it. This really is in line with the idea that thoese chosen by God are chosen for their benefit and service to the world, not for special blessings of comfort and success. St Theresa of Avila, after a particularly trying day is reputed to have said to God 'If this is how you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them.'



It's interesting to note how much more comfortable churches are with thei imagery of light than with the salt image. Perhaps because salt has lost its immediacy as an image with modern technology and availability? However, the downside is that light implies a greater separation from what it lights. Salt has to be right up against and rubbed into what it preserves and disinfects and flavours. Light can serve at a distance -in fact is often better for doing so. I wonder whether our preferred metaphor is implicitly justifying an ungodly separation from the world, or even partly causing it? When we think of ourselves as light it is easy to have images that place us as the light source [or refraction point] over here and those we light over there. If we have contact with them it is because they see the light and, moth-like, fly over to join us. Implicitly a 'come to us' mission is priviledged as against a 'go and be with' missiology.



So I plead for us to take take a break from using the light metaphor in favour of the salt metaphor for a hundred years or so.

Crosswalk.com - Matthew 5:13 - 15: