Matthew 5: 13 – 16

A salt acrostic

is for Seasoning: salt brings flavour to life.
Lord God, may we add colour and taste to the world
and help others to enjoy life in all its diversity and beauty.

is for Antiseptic: salt cleans, preserves and draws out poisons.
Lord God, may we be honest and open,
enabling healing and justice for our world and all its people.

is for Life-affirming: salt is a hidden thing, yet essential for life.
Lord God, may we be constant and dependable,
offering acts of kindness without making a fuss.

is for Thirst-making: salt creates a thirst for the water of life.
Lord God, may we thirst for a deeper relationship with you
and create a thirst for others to seek life in all its fullness.

Lord God you have built salt into creation,
you have hidden it in surprising places:
in salt lakes and seas,
in rocks hidden beneath the ground,
in our bodies and our food.
Help us to be salt to those we meet,
adding flavour and healing
to the world around us.
Amen

Jesus also talked about us being the light of the world – we’re used to Jesus being described as the light of the world, but here Jesus says ‘you are the light of the world’. Wow, that’s a bit of a responsibility. It feels a bit overwhelming, me, a light of the world!

How on earth can we be the light of the world – we are not Jesus!  And, perhaps like me, you sometimes just don’t feel very bright and sparky!

Yet, if I light just one candle, my candle can light another and another and those candles can light others and so the light spreads and the light multiplies and intensifies.

Likewise with faith.  If I bring even my little flicker of faith to someone else, I can share my faith and so help others to catch the spark too and like the light from one candle, faith will multiply, increase and act as light for the world to illuminate the way to find and know God.

When you pass on your light to someone else, does your flame get smaller or less bright? No, it stays just as bright.

It’s the same with faith, when I share my faith with someone else, my faith doesn’t get smaller in fact, through the conversation that sharing requires, my faith can grow, become brighter.

Faith is not like a box of sweets that we might share.  When we give sweets to others, what we start with becomes less and less until there is nothing

As it is with light, so it is with faith, the sharing does not reduce them one little bit, on the contrary, they increase.

No matter how little the spark of faith is that we have, we can use it to bring light and faith to others without lessening our share in God’s love at all and with it we can light the way for countless others to meet and know and give glory and thanks to God.

So, we are God’s light-bearers bringing about a contagion of light!

• Thank God that Jesus is the light of the world.
• And thank God also that Jesus’ disciples, ‘now’ just as ‘then’, me and you, are also called to be lights of the world and pray that His light will shine within you and spread from you.

Revd Janine Atkinson