Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Gospel Reading Matthew 5:11-16
11“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.
14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
It may be a challenge to let your light shine before others when you spend most of your time at home. What does it mean to shine through Facetime or Zoom? Studies have shown that having most of our social interactions this way is actually exhausting: that we miss the subtleties of non-verbal communication and instead focus on screens with a renewed intensity (which is, itself, exhausting). Of course, what Jesus means here isn’t a technological transfiguration but the witness of a life that reveals something of the kingdom of God even, and especially, in the darkness. We might not always know what it means to let our light shine before others; but we know how to care for others before ourselves. We might not know how to be “salt” either; but maybe we know that kindness and gentleness can season a community just as much as anger and division can. We may not always know the “right” answers; but we know enough to call out an injustice that creates a false choice between life an livelihood (especially when other people’s lives are involved). None of this is too hard, and that should be encouraging since we typically preference any reading of “The Sermon on the Mount” as unattainable idealism. It isn’t. Jesus asks us to shine so that others might reveal the light of God. You can even do it from home.
God, let your light shine in us, that others might see who you are, in the love of Jesus, your Son. Amen.
Art: Bruegel, Jan, 1568-1625. Sermon on the Mount, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of theVanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55346
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