Matthew 5:13-20 [NLTse]
13 “You are the salt of the Earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.
14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
17 “Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. 18 I tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s Law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. 19 So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s Laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
20 “But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious Law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!
[Put the hermit crab on display.] This is my son Caleb’s hermit crab. His name is “Spidercrab” (because his shell is painted like Spiderman’s outfit). Sometimes I walk into Caleb’s room and just watch Spidercrab. Hermit crabs are mostly nocturnal, so I mostly get to watch him just before bedtime. They not only like to walk around their territory and explore, but they are also great climbers. He’ll be moving and climbing around, so much of him out of his shell! They are fascinating-looking little creatures, but I only get to watch Spidercrab when he doesn’t know I’m watching, because as soon as he sees me he disappears inside his shell until I’m gone.
Watching Spidercrab gets me thinking about some comments that friends and acquaintances have made to me recently.
One fella, who worshiped here for a time before moving away, told me he’d seen me walking around town, reading while I walked, and he thought it was neat how peaceful and content I looked to him as I strolled along on my way… Another lady who attends another church in the area came to me and said she’d seen me out on the church’s sidewalk giving my wife Amy a kiss, and how much she appreciated seeing me be so publicly affectionate towards her… And just this past Friday the UPS guy came in for a delivery, letting me know he’d seen me walking home up Route 6. (My car was in the shop that day so I was walking back and forth…)
It has all got me realizing that people are watching me: People are watching us! Whether we think they are or not; whether we want them to or not; and whether we like them watching us or not: People are watching us.
Jesus likens it to our being like a city on a hilltop. Many of you have heard me or my wife or kids tell stories about summer vacations at my mom and her sister’s house on an island off the coast of Acadia National Park in Maine. It can get pretty dark around Milford at night, but there’s enough light around us – even sky glow from New York City so far away – that it’s never absolutely dark. But on Sutton Island in Maine it gets pitch. And yet when you stand on the porch late at night, so dark you can’t differentiate between the darkness of the water before you and the shore of the Mt. Desert Island mainland in the distance, the lights from docks or houses scattered across Northeast Harbor and Seal Harbor across from us shine brightly like a constellation of stars!
“You are the light of the world,” the Lord Jesus teaches us, “like a city on a hilltop (or the lights of Mt. Desert Island) that – no matter how dark – cannot be hidden.”
And yet I know that sometimes we can be like Spidercrab: We can behave one way when we think nobody’s watching but behave very differently once we’re aware of others staring around us. Depending on who we’re with, sometimes we’re quiet – about Jesus and about spiritual things – when given great opportunities to speak! There’s so much pressure on us to go along with the crowd, and when we’re surrounded by a Christian crowd we go along with them, yet when we’re with a non-Christian crowd sometimes we go along with them, as well. Sometimes we can get into conversations with others about religious things and when they bring up Jesus we can downplay our connection to Him, all but denying Him because of those who are watching us. Many Christians don’t take the sin in our lives very seriously, allowing bad habits or harmful ways of thinking remain, even though the habits and ways dim our light. Of course, oftentimes people around us will recognize our light and ask us why we’re different. And, of course, sometimes we can end up pointing to ourselves or that we’re just having a good day instead of pointing them to Christ. And in our greedy, self-centered, control-fiend filled communities, sometimes just ignoring the hurting and suffering and needs of those around us is all we need to do to have people not see us as being different, shining bright, standing out…
When people watch us, what do they see? Do they see us sometimes putting on Christ and sometimes taking Him off again, behaving differently depending upon who we’re around? We’ve been baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! We’ve been born again and made new creations through our faith in Christ. He has claimed our lives and we have freely given ourselves to Him! The Lord has given us His Holy Spirit so that those watching us might see what it looks like to live centered on Christ, our words and our deeds – like a city on a hill, like the night-lights on the other shore – bringing glory to God?
People are looking for love (in all the wrong places, perhaps, but clearly people are looking for love). And people are looking for joy and peace. (Not just happy times that come and go, but true, lasting joy. And the skyrocketing of alcohol and drug addictions and eating disorders make clear the extremes to which people will go in search of what they see as peace.)
People are looking for God. And they are looking at you and at me to see if there’s any evidence in our lives to show whether or not the God Jesus spoke of as “our Father” is the real deal.
Maybe you’re thinking people are looking for miracles and great acts of faith from us? (And, of course, they are.) But the miracles people are most-watchful for are to see if we’re generous when so many others are stingy; to see if we’re truly forgiven, or if it’s just words as they see us beating ourselves up again and again; to see if we truly care about others and put them first, or if we’re just as gossipy and nasty and out for me-me-me as everybody else; to see if we’re truly joyful, to see if we truly do have peace, even when a lot of junk and sad times and heartbreak are going on around us…
A lot of our co-workers and fellow students and neighbors around us know bits and pieces of the gospel. They are watching to see if the good news is truly good, and to see if it’s doing good things and having a good effect on our lives. People know that following Jesus means sacrifice: Not getting to do all the things they’ve grown to liking to do and having to give up behaviors they don’t really want to. And they are watching us to see if trusting in Jesus and making these sacrifices for Him might be worth it.
We may not always know it, but we Christians are like Spidercrab: Living our lives in a tank surrounded by so many people watching. Does what they see in us cause them to draw near and praise our Father in Heaven?
[Go stand behind the Lord’s Table.] Holy Spirit of God: In a moment we will eat the bread and drink the cup of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice. Today may Your body and blood – the benefits of Your death for sin – grant us the grace to speak of You when given an opportunity; grant us the grace to not go along with the foolish crowd; grant us the grace to readily and joyfully acknowledge You our Master and Savior, our Teacher and Friend; grant us grace to leave behind every sin that might dim our light; and grant us grace to notice and help provide for those in whatever need around us. We ask for Your grace Holy Spirit, so that the name of Jesus Christ might be glorified on the Earth, and so that You – our Father in Heaven – might receive all the worship, praise, and holy majesty You so rightly deserve.
In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen?