In ’56 I learned to write, dot i’s and t’s to cross.

My smile would be much brighter now if I’d also learned to floss.

Most of the time we write and speak in what is known as “prose,” defined in one dictionary as “the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure; matter‑of‑fact, commonplace, or dull expression, quality, discourse.”  Poetry, on the other hand, is defined as “the art of rhythmical composition, written or spoken, for exciting pleasure by beautiful, imaginative, or elevated thoughts.”  For expressing the most beautiful, the ultimate ideas in life, we often turn to poetry.  Even the lyrics of our love songs are poems set to music.

It should not surprise us, then, to discover that the Bible is full of poems and hymns.  When it comes to expressing ideas about God and His love for us, nothing common will do.  These ideas are captured best by poetic phrases.  Whenever we see poetry in the Bible, we should stop and realize that the fact that the writer used this literary form is because an idea is just too special to be expressed in ordinary prose.

Paul waxed poetical occasionally when he was telling us something that he hoped we would at least remember and perhaps memorize.  One of these is recorded in Philippians 2, and it is intended as poetry even if it doesn’t rhyme: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death‑‑ even death on a cross.  Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (NRSV).

Paul’s poem speaks of the right attitude we should have, the right mind.  Are you “in your right mind” today?  Our mental attitude as we go about our lives is all important, and we are also told to have the mind of Christ.

We have had some very fine Bishops in our Annual Conference during my lifetime, but I got to know only one of them personally and that was because of my children – getting them baptized!  Bishop Roy Clark was my Bishop when I left my position as associate pastor in Irmo to become a pastor on my own for the first time.  Maybe that is why he took a personal interest in this young pastor.  One of the first things he did was to hold a Bishop’s School of Ministry at Myrtle Beach to teach us about First Century shepherds.  Since a shepherd was the model of ministry for Jesus and the early church, Bishop Clark thought that this imagery needed to be stamped onto our brains.  Enoch Finklea had already told me that I was not to be a goatherd but rather a shepherd.  “Goats have to be driven from behind,” Enoch said, “but sheep must be led.”  Bishop Clark didn’t talk much about preaching or pastoring that week but he did talk a lot about how shepherds live among the sheep, protecting the sheep from dangers from outside and also inside the fold.  Sheep sometimes wander off, and they won’t find their way back by themselves.  A good shepherd goes after lost sheep, gently returning them to the flock.  Bishop Clark really believed that if we saw ourselves as First Century shepherds, we would be better pastors.

Have the same mind set that Jesus had, says Paul.  This is much deeper than just wondering “what would Jesus do?”  It is inviting us to think like Jesus thought, to see the world through His eyes of love, to look at life through His eyes of faith.  Jesus always found a way to uphold the integrity of the Law and yet He always found a way to extend grace to lawbreakers.  The title “Christian” was a derogatory term, used by a First Century critic of our faith, and it meant “little Messiahs.”  “Those followers of Jesus think they are little Christs!”  Just how would Jesus think about things we confront in life?  How would our lives be more abundant if we took time to pursue the mind of Christ before we embarked on our daily routines?

Paul begins by saying that Jesus had the same form as God, we are told.  He was of the same Being or substance as God, as we say in the Nicene Creed.  As I told my fellow Alaskan travelers several years ago whenever they tried to wake me up to see yet another glacier or whale, “I’ve seen one!  If I’ve seen one, I’ve seen them all!”  That is what Paul is telling us here about Jesus.  Do you wonder what God is like in His heart, mind, and attitudes?  Just look at Jesus and you will see the answer.  To see what Jesus is like is to see what God is like.

Since we humans like power, wealth, and prestige and since we like to have power over each other, we need to remember Jesus’ mental attitude when He encountered these same temptations.  The Son of God was used to the power, wealth, and prestige of heaven and yet He emptied Himself of these things when he took upon Himself our human nature.  Having been One Being with Almighty God since the beginning, the earthly Jesus didn’t try to hang onto the power or the equality with God He had always enjoyed.  He chose to live as a humble servant, a slave, subject to all of the illnesses, fears, and even death of human life.

I find it fascinating how Paul says that Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” or held onto or exploited.  Most human beings, when given power and opportunity, have misused this power.  This certainly was true of kings and dictators throughout history.  Some of my favorite science-fiction shows have been on the theme of how people, who were given great power, tried to discipline themselves not to use it.  Somehow Jesus managed to keep a lid on His almighty power, to limit its use so that only others were blessed, never giving in to the temptation to show off or to gain popularity by turning stones to bread.  When Jesus was being arrested in the Garden of Gethsemene, Peter defended Jesus with a sword, but Jesus stopped him, saying, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”  Jesus was very careful not to exploit His position or His power.  He wanted love to be His only weapon, the only reason people would choose to follow Him.

I am also fascinated by Paul’s poetic assertion that Jesus emptied Himself.  He poured Himself out, emptying Himself of all His power, prestige, and position as God.  The One Who spoke and created the universe was found in swaddling clothes, helplessly lying in a manger, totally dependent on human parents for everything.  He gave it all up so that He could come be with us.  He still pours Himself out for us and upon us today!  Have you ever poured yourself out for someone else, emptying yourself of your position and power so that you might befriend the friendless, the homeless, the powerless?

My coffee buddy Bishop Lloyd Cartwright repeated a thought once preached by the great revival preacher Dwight L. Moody that there are three things God cannot do.  First, God cannot lie.  Second, God cannot deny Himself and be Who He is not.  Thirdly, God cannot see our sins when He looks through the blood of Christ.

I find it helpful to see that God has set some limits upon Himself in His interactions with His creation.  Any loving parents set self-limits so that their children may become independent and self-sufficient.  Because we turn loose of our children, they made a few mistakes as they grow up and they can even get hurt, but we do them even more harm when we hover over them constantly.  God set some self-limits for His almighty power in our lives so that we might grow up.  If He hovered too closely over us, He would do us great harm.  That is why God gave us free will.  It is why bad things happen to good people and why planes are allowed to fly into twin towers.

For Jesus to be able to take on the form of a servant and serve us, He had to empty Himself of His divine powers.  But then the descent from heaven continued during His earthly life. Being totally human although divine, He humbled Himself even further, submitting Himself to human frailties, learning obedience, finally experiencing death itself and not just any death but rather the cruelest form of death ever devised by human beings.  Jesus had to be able to feel our pain and to die a human death.  Only then could He heal our hurts and rise to life, raising us up with Him.

Because of His willingness to turn loose of His grasp on divinity and to accept humanity, because of His willingness to empty Himself out for us, to live humbly and die obediently, God has highly exalted Him, giving His name the highest respect of any name.  Even those who belong to other religions and those who dislike the Christian Church find themselves admiring Jesus of Nazareth.  I believe that it was Mahatma Gandhi who said that it is a pity that Christians don’t practice what Jesus preached!  Every time I watch a baseball game and hear another baseball player from south of the border introduced as “Jesu,” I remember that there could be no greater name for a mother to give a child and no greater hope for that child than that he would be a person like Jesus of Nazareth!

But that is not all!  Paul said that one day every knee will bend, acknowledging Jesus as Lord – every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth.  Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  What hope this must have given to the early church which was being persecuted, whose Lord had recently been crucified.  A day is coming, Paul says, when Jesus will be universally accepted and praised.  But why wait until then?

One day every tongue will confess You are God.

One day every knee will bow.

Still, the greatest treasure remains for those

Who gladly choose You now.

Have the same mental attitude that Jesus had.  He was God and yet He didn’t exploit that position.  Instead, He emptied Himself, poured Himself out for us, becoming a servant of all people, embracing humanness all the way to death on a cross.  Therefore, God raised Him up, giving Him a name that has more respect than any other name.  A day is coming and is now here when we can bend our knee to Him and acknowledge Him as Lord, to the glory of God.  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

I was doing something religious one day: playing Bingo at a Catholic Church.  I thought I had won a game, but when the nun came to check my card, I had made an error in the first column, causing her to exclaim, “B2 or not B2: that is the question.”

“To be, or not to be: that is the question.”  So says Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and so also said Paul of Tarsus.  If you went to your family doctor or to a counselor and said what Paul said, he or she might put you on suicide watch!  “I’m torn between two desires: Sometimes I want to live, and sometimes I long to go and be with Christ. That would be far better for me” (New Living Bible).  If you were in prison, as Paul was when he wrote these words, they really would worry about you being suicidal!  It is usually a very sad thing when someone gets to the place where they don’t care if they live or die, to feel like they have nothing to live for.

But that is not where Paul was emotionally when he wrote about his torn feelings.  He wasn’t saying that he wished he could die or that it really didn’t matter to him whether he lived or died.  In Philippians Paul tells us about several instances of being torn in his desires.  First, he isn’t sure whether he wants to be free or in jail because he rejoices at how God had used his imprisonment.  Some of the local citizens, including his jailers, had seen the injustice of his sentence – being jailed for preaching the Good News about Jesus – and this had made them interested in learning more about Jesus.  Also, some preachers had taken courage from seeing how Paul could embrace suffering, seeing this as evidence of just how valuable faith in Christ could be.  This made them preach more enthusiastically.

Another ambivalence was over the motivations of some Christian preachers.  Some of them so disliked Paul that they rejoiced in his imprisonment and saw it as an opportunity to grab some of the limelight away from Paul.  Now before we condemn those preachers, we need to remember how we have sometimes rejoiced when we have heard about trouble in some nearby church.  Maybe we will get some of their members here!  Maybe we will get some of their rich members!  But rather than feeling hurt by this, Paul rejoiced that at least these other preachers were out preaching the Gospel, whatever their motives.  Whether jailed or free, Paul was going to preach.  Whether people preached Christ in order to bring shame upon Paul for being in jail or whether they preached Christ because they saw his imprisonment as validation of his preaching, either way Christ was being preached and Paul was happy about that.

It is in this context of wanting to see the Christ made known that Paul shares his ambivalence about living or dying.  Whichever served Christ the best was what Paul wanted.  If dying would advance the cause of Christ, then Paul was ready to die because this would mean that he would be in heaven with Jesus.  If living would advance the cause of Christ, then Paul was ready to keep on living.  After he thought about it a while, he decided that perhaps it would be best if he continued living on earth for a while longer so that he could offer guidance and encouragement to other Christians.  Either way, living or dying would be for Christ.

How did Paul get to this place of such deep dedication?  First of all, Saul of Tarsus had blindly followed the teachings of his ancestral faith and had persecuted Christians, jailing some, helping execute others.  If he had been present for the crucifixion, Paul would have gladly helped execute Jesus as a heretic and blasphemer.  His conscience told him he was doing the right thing.  But after his Damascus Road experience, a blinded Paul saw clearly how wrong he had been.  Jesus was the Messiah after all.  Sometimes those who oppose Christ with the most enthusiasm also serve Him with the most enthusiasm after they learn the truth.

Back when our space program was all about getting to the moon, the question that had to be answered was “how do we get a rocket to go fast enough to not only escape the earth’s gravity but also to get all the way to the moon?”  It was going to take an enormous amount of fuel unless some other force could be used.  Some scientists said that if we aimed the rocket away from the moon, circling the earth, then the centrifugal force would sling the space craft to the moon, and that is how we did it.  Sometimes those who start out going the wrong way end up being propelled in the right way by a force they don’t quite understand.

So Paul, the greatest threat to the early church, became its greatest salesman!  The one who had hated Jesus became Jesus’ most devoted friend, ready to do whatever Jesus asked of him, whether living or dying.  But perhaps there was another reason Paul could wish to depart this life.

One thing Paul tells us about his life is that it is lived in the presence of Christ’s Spirit.  Death would bring an even better, richer reality: living in the literal, physical presence of Christ.  Dying is departing earth to be with Christ.  “I want that!” says Paul.  Something made Paul sure that life continued on after earthly death and that this eternal life was going to be pleasant and good.  What made him so sure of these things?

First, Paul believed that Jesus had been raised to life on Easter.  Paul had spoken personally to Simon Peter, John, James, Mary, Martha, and others who had seen Jesus alive again after His death.  He had spoken with some of the 500 Christians who together had witnessed the resurrected Christ in their midst when they were worshiping.  He saw their conviction, their faith that could sustain them when they feared for their lives.

Comedian Mike Warnke tells of a time when he got so angry with two men who were witnessing to him about Christ that he pulled a gun on them, threatening to shoot them.  Warnke says that one of the men said, “Well, praise God!” and just waited for Warnke to pull the trigger.  Warnke said these men were sure that they had a paid up eternal life insurance policy and so they faced death with confidence, and that really shook Warnke up.

Paul was there to see Stephen stoned to death.  He was there to see Stephen’s faith, courage, and confidence in the face of death and to hear Stephen say, “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”  That had to have an impact on Paul.

You and I have these same sources for our hope for eternal life.  The Bible contains the written witness – the affidavit if you will – of the closest friends of Jesus, saying to us, “We saw Jesus crucified; we buried Him; we saw Him alive again on the third day.”  We also have the witness of their convictions to strengthen our faith.  What would make those people willing to lose all of their earthly possessions, to endure beating and imprisonments, to face execution?  They knew what they had seen.  They knew Who they had seen!  They knew that there was a better world waiting for them!

But Paul also had some personal experiences that confirmed his own faith in Christ and his belief in heaven.  You and I do also.  An answered prayer, an unexplainable sense of God’s presence with us, and other mysteries confirm our faith.  Occasionally we hear about someone who, in this life, had what Stephen had, a vision of heaven.  My grandfather’s brother was dying while he was still a young man, and on his deathbed he exclaimed, “I hear the music!  I hear the music!”

Paul had a very unusual experience.  He wrote about it in 2 Corinthians 12, writing in third person to make it less obvious that he was talking about himself lest someone think he was boasting.  He speaks of being caught up into heaven and paradise where he heard inexpressible things, things that he was not permitted to tell us about.  He wasn’t sure if this was a bodily experience or a spiritual journey, but it was very real to him.  This could have been one of those near-death experiences we have heard about, and it could have been when he was struck blind by the light on the Road to Damascus and saw Jesus.  Biblical archeologist Jim Fleming says that the area just outside of Damascus is one of the most lightning-prone areas on our planet.  It is where to go if you want to increase your chance of being hit by lightning!  Fleming says that this could be the natural cause of the light that knocked Paul to the ground and burned his eyes to the point of temporary blindness.  The blisters or scales would have begun coming off his eyes in several days.  I would love it if God zapped Paul!  He sure deserved it!  Could it be that Paul experienced near-death at that moment, causing him to be caught up into heaven into the presence of Christ?  People I have known tell me that after you have one of these experiences, you no longer fear death.  If fact, you long for the day you can return to heaven.

Don Piper is a Baptist pastor who was is a horrible wreck on an icy January day in 1989.  His little Ford Escort was crushed by a tractor-trailer truck.  Paramedics at the scene found no pulse when they examined Piper and they pronounced that he had been killed instantly.  Ninety minutes later, another pastor asked police to allow him to go pray for the injured driver of that Escort.  “He is already dead,” he was told.  He explained that God had told him to go and pray for that man in the car, and they finally agreed to allow this persistent preacher to pray for the deceased man.  He climbed into the smashed car via the trunk, felt for a pulse, and finding none, began to pray anyway.  At the conclusion of the prayer, the pastor began singing the hymn “What A Friend We Have in Jesus” when suddenly the dead man started singing with him!  Now, that preacher had to convince the paramedics that the “deceased” man was alive.  Rev. Piper says that for that ninety minutes between the wreck and his resuscitation, he was in heaven, reunited with his loved ones, hearing the most beautiful music he had ever heard, seeing sights that he could not put into words.  For the next year of his recovery, with multiple surgeries and unbelievable pain, all he wanted was to return to paradise.  But like Paul, he came to believe that God had kept him on earth for some purpose, and that purpose is to serve His Lord.

“My deep desire and hope is that with my whole being I shall bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die.  For what is life?  To me, it is Christ. Death, then, will bring more.  But if by continuing to live I can do more worthwhile work, then I am not sure which I should choose.  I am pulled in two directions.  I want very much to leave this life and be with Christ, which is a far better thing; but for your sake it is much more important that I remain alive.  I am sure of this, and so I know that I will stay.  I will stay on with you all, to add to your progress and joy in the faith, so that when I am with you again, you will have even more reason to be proud of me in your life in union with Christ Jesus” (Good News Bible).  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

By now most of you are aware that I follow the ecumenical lectionary in planning my weekly sermons.  For any who might not be familiar with the lectionary, it was born in the 1960′s after Vatican II and revised by a committee of the churches in the 80′s and the 90′s, and it divides the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles into short sections for use in our weekly services.  These short reading from the Bible are arranged into three annual groupings known as Cycle A, B, and C.  The idea is that if a pastor follows the lectionary, then most of the Bible will be read to the congregation during each three year period.  What’s more, if all the churches used the lectionary, then the same passages would be read in every church each week and preachers would preach on the same themes on the same Sundays.  Theoretically, this would be a force of unity within the Christian movement, and it also explains why your Sunday School lessons are often on the same subject as the sermons.

Sometimes the three scripture texts and the psalm are on the same theme, but sometimes they are not.  Today’s three lessons don’t seem to have much in common on first reading, but a closer look might find some commonality.  The Old Testament Lesson tells the story of the Exodus, how the people of Israel saw God deliver them from Pharaoh’s army and continued forming them as the people of God.  Soon after this, God gave the 10 Commandments to the people, commandments that would teach them how to live with each other in peace and with God’s favor.  Paul’s words also are aimed at helping us get along with each other, especially in times of severe disagreements.  The Gospel lesson concerns forgiveness and the frequency of extending forgiveness to each other.  So perhaps there is a common theme within these passages after all.  For relationships to succeed, we must have love and respect for each other as outlined in the commandments, tolerance for people who differ from us as Paul reminds us, and the ability to give and receive forgiveness as Jesus reminds us.

The Ten Commandments are all about respect -  for God, self, and others.  At this point I need Aretha Franklin singing “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.”  We are told to respect God by worshiping Him only and by keeping His name holy.  We are told to respect God and ourselves by resting on the Sabbath.  Respect for our parents will add days to our lives.  Respect for our fellow humans is shown by not killing, by not being unfaithful to our spouse, by not stealing, by not lying, and by not coveting what others have.  Healthy relationships occur when people respect one another, and the basis of our respect is that we believe that all people are God’s children.  If I really believe the Bible, then I believe that God made us all.  If I really believe that Jesus died for the sins of the world, then I must respect everyone as one for whom Christ died, one that God loves, whether on not they realize that yet.

When we think of respect, we naturally think about respect for our elders, as we should.  But the best way to get children and youth to respect us older folks is to make sure that we also show them respect. That is how they learn everything – by watching our example.  If you want a child to learn to say “Thank you,” then tell them “thank you.”  It can get a bit redundant and interesting to teach them this.  I remember being thanked by our toddler Hillary one time, and I said, “Thank you for saying ‘thank you.’” She responded, “And thank you for saying ‘thank you’ when I said ‘thank you.’” Respect is better taught than demanded.

The words of Paul remind us that tolerance of one another in our disagreements is a necessary ingredient to getting along.  We live in a time when Christian people and denominations are greatly divided on many issues, much like our nation as a whole is.  There really is no Christian consensus on issues like capital punishment, social programs for the poor, science versus creationism, or environmental issues.  There isn’t even consensus among Christians on the issue of Roe vs. Wade.  Christians are divided almost 50-50 on these issues.  By the way, one of the Presidential candidates was asked about Roe vs. Wade and he said, “I’m against illegal immigration, whether they get here by rowing or wading.”

In Paul’s day, the disagreements were largely due to racial and cultural differences.  Hebrew Christians wanted all Christians to observe all the religious festivals and traditions of Judaism while Gentile Christians saw no need for this.  Which was the correct day for worship, the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) or the Lord’s Day (Sunday), or did it matter?  Maybe every day was the Lord’s Day.  Can we eat food that isn’t kosher?  How about meat that had been sacrificed and cooked on a pagan altar and then sold in the market?  Can a Christian eat this meat?

It is fairly easy to see what Paul believed on these subjects.  Although he himself was a Jew, he refused to force Gentiles to become like the Jews, to practice Hebrew dietary restrictions and religious rites such as circumcision.  Food was food; it didn’t matter where it was prepared.  Meat sacrificed to idols was harmless because the gods to whom the meat was sacrificed did not exist.  But even though he shows his hand and lets us see what he believes on these issues, he refused to issue binding commands on how these issues should be settled.  Instead he gave us some good advice.

First, Paul tells us to allow others to hold opinions which differ from yours.  Secondly, he says that each of us should make up our minds based on what we feel honors the Lord and what our conscience can live with and to allow others this same freedom.  Third, avoid arguing. Fourthly, aim at producing peace within the body of Christ because few things are more important than that.  We are all God’s servants, and therefore Paul reminds us, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant?” Only God can judge His servants. This is sound advice in every age, and it reminds us that we need to accept the fact that not all brains think alike.  Some folks don’t process information the same way you do.  As someone has said, “Those of you who think you know it all really irritate those of us who really do.”

Tolerance is defined as the ability to relate to people whose opinions, beliefs, and appearance are different from yours without insisting that they change and without your having to change.  In Washington state, three pastors known as “Seattle’s Three Amigos” are trying to model tolerant behavior in their community.  Rabbi Ted Falcon, Congregational Pastor Don McKenzie, and Muslim cleric Jamal Rahman have become close friends and led their three congregations to hold joint ventures in worship, fellowship, and service.   Rather than achieving agreement by arriving at some least common denominator, they instead have insisted that each one remain faithful to the tenants of his own tradition and yet find a way of getting along.  I realize that the word “tolerance” has bad connotations for some folks, and I supposed anything, even tolerance, can be taken too far.  But when I think about the horrible examples of intolerance in our world in recent years as demonstrated by the Nazis, Al Qaeda, the Communists, the KKK, and Louis Farrakhan, I would prefer that we err on the side of excessive tolerance for a change!  Even Paul, the greatest spokesman of all time for Christianity, told us to strive to live in peace with all people.

Respect and tolerance are two ingredients for getting along.  But no matter how much we respect and tolerate each other, we will never fail to fail one another some time.  The words of Jesus apply to these times of utter failure.  But how often are we to forgive each other?  The rabbis taught three times was plenty; Peter was being absolutely magnanimous by suggesting seven times.  But Jesus’ answer indicates that true forgiveness doesn’t keep a scorecard!  It doesn’t keep a count or a tab of debts.  The number seven had a symbolic meaning as often as it had a literal one.  It often meant perfection, Godlike, limitless.  Seventy would be ten times more perfect than perfect – 1000 percent!  Seventy times seven was limitlessness multiplied by extreme limitlessness.

The first reaction I have to this is to say, “That is impossible for me to reach!”  When my feelings get hurt, it can be a long time before I can forgive.  And when I fail someone, it is a very long time before I can forgive myself.  God forgives me long before I am able to forgive myself!  My second reaction to Jesus’ statement that forgiveness must be extended to our fellow human beings an infinite number of times is to rejoice that this is what God does to me!  God forgives me an infinite number of times, as often as I need it.

The teacher asked little Johnny what one thing we must do in order for God to forgive us.  The teacher was hoping to hear Johnny say, “Ask God for forgiveness,” but instead he answered, “The one thing we must do in order for God to forgive us is to sin!”  Johnny was right.  Jesus told a story about a king who forgave his servant for a huge unrepayable debt and about that servant who then refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him a very small debt, resulting in the king reinstating the debt owed to him by the first servant.  The first implication of this story is that when we don’t pass along forgiveness to others, we lose the effectiveness of forgiveness in our own lives.  “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  But the second implication of this story is that the servant who was forgiven the unrepayable debt had no idea just how large his debt was.  He didn’t realize just how generous the king had been or else he would have been willing to forgive his fellow servant.  When you and I find it difficult to forgive a fellow human being, then we have forgotten how great a forgiveness has been given to us.  If we will concentrate on the debt we owed God, we will find the power to forgive.  The hole we dug for ourselves can become the well from which we draw the water of forgiveness for others.

Respect for God, self, and others, tolerance of our differences, and the ability to forgive one another are my guidelines of getting along with others.  May we all be peacemakers, for then we will be called sons and daughters of God.  Amen.

Arthur H. Holt

Doctors now say that salt in our diet is harmful, causing high blood pressure, which could lead to strokes.  Salt will also cause you to retain water and thus gain weight (I’m not overweight; I’m just too salty). By all means, salt should not be rubbed into wounds!  And since our earth’s ozone layer has been depleted, doctors tell us to avoid sunlight.  Light from the sun can cause skin cancers and even melanoma. Light can also be blinding.  If you doubt that, try driving West any sunny afternoon around 5 P.M.  Salt can give you a stroke.  Light can cause skin cancer. And Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.” I’m not so sure that, in our day, that is such a compliment!

But those symbols had a different connotation in Jesus’ day.  Prior to refrigeration, salt’s primary use was to preserve foods from spoiling.  As such, it was indispensable.  A bag of salt was said to be as precious as a human life!  And light ‑  it seldom gets really dark in our world ‑ only at night after something has knocked down power lines.  But most nights, our world is an active, busy place with street lamps that make our streets safe.  But in Palestine 2000 years ago, when it was dark, it was dark.  People stayed in their houses, afraid to venture out. The only people out were those up to some kind of mischief.  Even in the house it was very dark except for a candle or lamp that gave off about as much light as our nightlights.

Because salt and light were two important factors in life in those days, Jesus chose these as symbols for His followers.  In doing so, He gave us very lofty titles!  And it must have seemed like a presumptuous statement for Him to make to such a small number of followers! “You handful of people are salt and light for the world.”  It also was a scathing indictment against human society, because you don’t salt a living thing.  You salt a dead thing to keep it from rotting!

Dr. Alexander McLauren paraphrases Jesus’ words this way:  “Human society, without my influence, is a carcass that is rotting away and disintegrating; and you, faithful handful, who have caught something of the spirit of my life, you are to be rubbed into that rotting mass to sweeten it, to arrest decomposition, to stay corruption, to give flavor to its insipidity, and to save it from falling to pieces of its own wickedness.”  McLauren also says that without Jesus and His followers, the world is in a state of darkness.  Jesus didn’t call us into a monastery. Salt can only do its work when it touches the decaying substance!

Jesus’ confidence in His followers has, for the most part, been rewarded.  A pinch of salt does go a long way.  The church of our Lord has been a preserving influence in our world! Sometimes when you get discouraged with Christianity, just think what the world would be without it! What evils would there be in our world if people of faith were not there?  What evils have we prevented just by passively being there?  And next time you hear a wonderful testimony of how Christ has made a real difference in someone’s life and you say, “Has Christ made any difference if my life?” just think what your life would be like without the influence of Christ and His gospel of salvation!  And what little life might we be influencing now who, without us, might destroy itself someday?

Back when the Berlin Wall was falling, I almost never missed the nightly news because I found the changes in Communist Europe to be so exciting!  One night I tried to impress upon my children what it was like to be a child in the 1960′s when people were putting bomb shelters in their backyards and where we were almost certain that we were headed for World War III.  My children grew up in a world without that cold war fear!  But could these changes in Europe have occurred without the salt and light of America in full view?  The Europeans scoffed at us in 1776, laughing at the notion that people could govern themselves. We’ve shown that it works!  Not only does it work, but it works better than any other system!  We didn’t change Europe through military conquest but by letting the light of democracy shine!  In the same way, Christians don’t always know whose life they are influencing. But our salt and light are preserving individuals and even the whole world from destruction.

Someone has said that the presence of a good person hinders the devil from having elbowroom to do his work!  McLauren says that it is our responsibility to arrest the decay around us by our purity.  He also says that when we do the right thing, we influence public opinion in favor of doing right and that when we lower the standards of morality in our own lives, we lower the standards of morality in society.

But salt and light don’t just stop decay and darkness; they also add flavor and brightness to our lives. In calling us salt, He was inviting us to spice up the lives of people around us and enlighten others.  “You are the ones who can add flavor to tasteless existence and enlighten the minds of others,” Jesus was saying. This calls us from the task of keeping the world from sliding downhill to actually pushing it uphill.  We offer alterations!

A minister was trying to calm an anxious bride who was afraid that she was going to forget something that she was supposed to do during the wedding ceremony.  The minister said, “You only have to remember three things.  First, you walk down the aisle.  Then you stop when you get up near the altar.  Then you remain there until the hymn is played at the end of the ceremony.”  So the anxious bride condensed these three items into three words, and she was heard to utter as she walked down the aisle, “Aisle, altar, hymn; I’ll alter him.”

I see that the church has performed alterations in our world throughout its history. It has been the church that has encouraged education.  Our denomination is building a University in Africa to enlighten the minds of that continent. In just a few years they will probably be dominating college football!  It has been the church that has built hospitals in forgotten regions of the world.  It was a Christian lady named Mother Teresa that cared for dying people on the streets of Calcutta.  And in this country, organized groups of citizens are taking to the streets at night in drug prone areas.  Have you seen them on TV?  They go, unarmed, and take neighborhoods away from the pushers, to claim that neighborhood for civilization!

And in our own lives, Christians have been salt and light to us.  From time to time when I am with a grieving family, and they feel surrounded and upheld by Christian friends, they will say to me, “How do people survive without the Lord and Christian friends?”  I don’t know!  But I do know that my life is full of meaning, joy, and spice because of people like you who laugh with me (and sometimes at me).  Our Christian task is not only to prevent destruction.  It is to help civilization march onward and upward!

And since salt increases our thirst and appetite, it is our task to live in such a way that makes others hungry and thirsty for Christ.  We don’t have to be spectacular in our efforts.  Remember, salt works quietly, inconspicuously, and gradually.  It is our prayerful consistency that pays spiritual dividends!

Now, why did Jesus talk about salt losing is savor and hiding our lights?  It is chemically impossible for salt to lose its character and no one would bother to turn on a light and then hide it!  Perhaps the reason Jesus said this was to express His confidence in the disciples, saying that they couldn’t fail any more than salt can lose its savor.  But salt can become impure and adulterated, and light can be hidden away from view.  Jesus’ concern seems to be that we salt shakers might stop shaking and shadows of lesser goals might hide our lights.  The fears of rejection and persecution might tempt His followers to hide their treasure away.  William Thomson in his book The Land and the Book tells of a merchant who hid some salt on the earthen floor of his mountain home, thinking he could keep it safe.  In time the earth mixed in with the salt, making the salt worthless.  It was used to pave the street.  In science class students learn that if a candle is placed in a container without air, it will go out.  Perhaps Jesus was warning the disciples that if we fail to salt the world, the world will rob us of our saltiness.  And if we smother our lights under bushels of meaningless activities, they will go out.  Rev. Dwight L. Moody wrote these words in the Bible of one of his converts: “This book will keep you from your sin or your sin will keep you from this book!”  But clearly Jesus expected the salt to keep its character and do what it did naturally.  And He expected that our lights would be visible for all to see.

But even we are faithful as salt and light, we find ourselves weakened somewhat. When salt is rubbed into rotting flesh, some of the decay gets into the salt. And when a candle shines, its wax is consumed.  Perhaps Jesus was warning His disciples that they and we need a source of re-salting and reigniting.  Jesus is our source.  We derive our saltiness from Him and as the moon is only a reflector of the sun’s light, so are our lights only reflection of Jesus’ light. Unless we draw away from the dark, rotting society for times of refreshing and nourishing through Bible Study, prayer, worship (both private and public), and time spent on theological thought, we can lose our ability to be salt and light for the world.

Jesus still has confidence in His disciples. He sees us with the ability to prevent a dark, rotting world from destroying itself and with the ability to prevent individuals from perishing. He sees us with the promise of bringing Christ to people where their lives can be seasoned and enlightened.  He sees the danger of our losing our faith if we don’t give it away, and He see our need for renewal and nourishing which we get through fellowshipping with Him and each other. I know I need you, so please pass the salt and give me a light!

Arthur H. Holt