MATTHEW 5:13-16

“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.

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 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. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Salt and Light

While I was in seminary I began cooking more since I was home before Karen most nights. I would watch some of the cooking shows and try to copy their recipes. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it was disaster. My favorite cooking show is Iron Chef America.

I have watched several episodes of Iron chef and at the end of the show the judges sample the food and give their remarks. The comments are all directed at the judge, whether the flavors and ingredients used bring compliments or criticism.

Jesus told the crowd, let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and praise your father in heaven. In other words, we are just the ingredients in the world. When we respond to the preparation of the great chef (God), He should get the credit. We are only doing what we are supposed to. Salt is supposed to taste salty. Light is supposed to pierce the darkness.

So why not let the chef worry about the final presentation of the meal and how it tastes in the mouths of others and instead simply be good ingredients that respond to the chef’s preparation. The world will surely get a taste of something great.

God your recipe sometimes calls me to be an ingredient I would rather not be. Give me the grace and love to be the ingredient of your choosing in the recipe of your choosing. - Dan Jones

Pass the salt please.

I love salt I lots of food. I know, I know, my heart and arteries don’t share my delight. This summer I’ve especially enjoyed western New York tomatoes – with salt on them. Salt is all about flavor for me. When Jesus spoke these words salt also played a key role as a preservative.

Following Jesus results in a life that helps preserve the world around me and flavor it so that others not only have a better world to live in because of me, but a more delightful world. How do I do this?

I think the clue comes when Jesus shifts the metaphor to light. I accomplish my salty mission by shining the light of my good deeds on the world. Truly caring about people and doing those things that will increase their experience of justice and mercy, these kinds of actions cause others to think about things beyond themselves.

We sang a 1970’s song in church yesterday. “They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” The words guided all of us into the commitment to “guard each man’s (person’s) dignity and save each man’s (person’s) pride.” I think this is salt and light stuff. And I suspect this involves both actions directed at individuals and on behalf of individuals.

Salt and Light mean working for justice and mercy through helping social systems becoming more just as much, perhaps more, than it means acting mercifully and justly in my own interaction with others.

Lord, grant that the way I vote this fall contribute to greater justice and mercy in our culture. And show me ways you want me to maximize my saltiness through my own good deeds. - Mike Leamon

MATTHEW 5:1-12

One day as he saw the crowds gathering, Jesus went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples gathered around him, and he began to teach them.

“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied.
God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God.
God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

“God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

Say what!?

Jesus is crazy! I’m not. How my culture has taught me to think is the right way. It’s the logical way. How could anyone think differently?

Poverty is for losers, in fact most people are poor because they made (make) bad choices! Only those with large egos claw to the top of the heap. They take hold of the power the US presidency brings, the chair of powerful congressional committees, the CEO of multinational corporations with power greater than many nations. The pure (read “good”) die young, and then after a dull life. And those peaceniks are wimps, the kind of people who weaken our country’s position in the world.

But I’m a Christian, a follower of Jesus. So I need to reinterpret Jesus’ sermon because he surely couldn’t mean what he seems to say. So, surely he talks about spiritual poverty without any connection to material poverty. Humility only speaks to my teachability (and only by those I choose to listen too!). A pure heart just means I have faith in Jesus. After all mere mortals cannot really have a totally pure heart. Can they? And peacemaking means I need to work at getting along with my spouse and kids, maybe you too.

I’m much more comfortable with this paragraph. So now I can do my Bible study in relative comfort. Thank God for my logical mind.

So why do I have this nagging sense that Jesus had something far more radical than I want to deal with; ideas that would totally upset the carefully crafted justification for my lifestyle, politics, and culture bound assumptions?

Lord God, grant me the kind of faith that fully follows your Son, even and especially into ideas that would unravel my world and reconstruct something discordant with the way things are. - Mike Leamon

Good people Bad things

The very first words of this classic sermon are disturbing. Jesus starts off by affirming bad things will happen to good people. God in fact blesses us when bad things happen to us and we respond the right way. I have been trying to help people who have had some really bad things happen to them lately and honestly, it is hard to see God’s blessing.

How do we reconcile the blessing of God and bad things that happen to us? Trust. When life does not make sense, there is only one thing we can do, trust God. Hard times in life either make or break us. Depending on how we respond we will either move forward in faith or struggle with doubt and despair. The difference in the two directions lies in our ability to trust God’s sovereign power.

Trusting God to bless despite bad circumstances is not natural. But then, God never asked us to continue on in normalcy after our salvation encounter with God. God wants to transform us by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12). Renewed minds trust no matter what. Knowing what is coming in this classic sermon, much of it will not jive with my natural tendencies, but I praise God for calling me out of the normal into the supernatural.

Father, I do not understand how blessing comes from persecution or danger or hardship but I trust you to do as you have promised in your word. Help me to trust you in the pit of despair as well as on the mountain. I praise you for the hope of blessing despite bad circumstances. - Dan Jones

COLOSSIANS 4:7-18

Tychicus will give you a full report about how I am getting along. He is a beloved brother and faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord’s work. I have sent him to you for this very purpose—to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you. I am also sending Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, one of your own people. He and Tychicus will tell you everything that’s happening here.

Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin. As you were instructed before, make Mark welcome if he comes your way. Jesus (the one we call Justus) also sends his greetings. These are the only Jewish believers among my co-workers; they are working with me here for the Kingdom of God. And what a comfort they have been!

Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God. I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and Hierapolis.

Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas. 15 Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house.

After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them.

And say to Archippus, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.”

Here is my greeting in my own handwriting—Paul.

Remember my chains.

May God’s grace be with you.

Greetings,

Some of the most important words we hear all day flow in one ear and out the other. We are greeted multiple times a day by our family, co-workers, friends, people we meet on the street, drivers in traffic and even the people on the radio and TV reading the news. We dismiss greetings because they have become a simple formality acknowledging a person’s presence giving us permission to move into the “important conversation.”

I confess, when I come to the end of one of Paul’s letters, I want to skip the section with all the names. Say hello to so and so and remind so and so to do this and that. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda! But in the midst of these greetings there stands an important principle. These people mattered to Paul and to God.

By taking the time to name individuals in the church, Paul gives credibility to the value of each person before God. Many of the people named are lay-people working alongside the pastors and evangelist. They are the behind the scenes people. They are important people.

Instead of blowing off a good morning greeting, let it remind you of the important place you fill in that person’s life. Think about the value of each person in your life and next time you say “hello” remember to thank God for the gift of other people in your life.

God of the universe who knows each person on the face of the earth, I thank you for being a personal God. Thank you for calling me by name. Help me to value each person who crosses my path today and thank you for the blessing of community. - Dan Jones

Why, Paul?

Onesimus?! It’s good to hear Mark’s name. Seems he and Paul have reconciled after the blow out before Paul’s second missionary trip. But Onesimus. Paul doesn’t mention here that he’s sending an escaped slave (owned by a member of the Colosse church!) back to his Master; back into a dehumanizing situation at best and death at worst. There’s another letter that Tychicus and company carry; this one addressed to Philemon, Onesimus’ owner.

As the 19^th century United States tumbled into Civil War this is one of those biblical precedents that southern slave owners quoted against their northern counterparts when they refused to return escaped slaves to their plantations in Dixie. How do you argue against such a clear biblical example?!

Thanks Paul for not attacking the institution of slavery from the get go of Christianity. Neither did he attack the subservient status of women. In fact, no household relational role either of parents, spouses, or slaves found itself under assault and subsequent redefinition from Paul’s pen. Well, this is almost true. Paul never mounted a frontal assault on culturally defined hierarchical household roles where men were the absolute authority over (and owner of) everyone.

I think that Colossians, and the rest of the New Testament, is a backdoor assault.

Declaring that traditional distinctions between slave and free, or male and female have no bearing in Christ (Col. 3:11 and Gal. 3:28) or, in these final instructions, calling Onesimus a “faithful and beloved brother” both undermine all hierarchical roles in the household, including slavery.

I think Paul knew that to launch a frontal assault on such socially ingrained assumptions would detract from the spread of the Gospel which, alone, would provide the ultimate undermining force. Too bad, after nearly 2000 years, slave owners in a so-called Christian nation didn’t get it. Too bad that, while it seems that the 21^st century western cultures have gotten the biblical implications (and then some), many Christians today are still locked into hierarchical models of male and female roles. Pitty our dullness indeed.

Father, I’m ready to go on the attack against some of the culturally ingrained assumptions that even many Christians hold, but are profoundly inconsistent with your Word. However, I suspect that a frontal assault only detracts from the power of the Gospel. Grant me wisdom, the wisdom of Paul, to know how to keep the Good News front and center. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 4:2-6

Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart. Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ. That is why I am here in chains. Pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should.

Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.

Dehydrated
I have been lifting weights for one month now and am beginning to feel stronger. Yesterday was lifting day and we were working on shoulders and triceps. Most days I am increasing the amount of weight I lift from the last time, but yesterday I struggled to lift as much as I did the time before. So much for feeling strong.

My lifting partner asked if I was feeling well and then he asked me how much water I drank. I replied I had one glass at breakfast and one glass at lunch. “No wonder you feel weak,” he said, “your muscles are mostly water and if you are dehydrated you cannot lift as much.” I had no idea water would help me lift.

It is the same way with prayer. We pray at meals and perhaps a few minutes after a devotional if we squeeze one in today, but that is not nearly enough to keep us spiritually hydrated. Paul recommended being devoted to prayer 24/7. Pray without ceasing. Drink up the Spirit of God by being drenched in payer all day. Constantly communicating with God makes it possible to live wisely among people who see life differently than we do. It also keeps us strong when the enemy comes against us with doubt, fear, anger or any other weapon.

Spirit of God, flood me with the water of life today as I open myself to your voice all day. I want to listen to your Word and share my thoughts of thanksgiving, praise, and concern with you today. Thank you for helping me to be strong in the LORD today. - Dan Jones

I’m all talk
I’m a talker. While I like to get off by myself and sink into silence on occasion, I need conversation. My personality feeds on social interaction. But I think the need to talk is common to everyone, whether or not we are avid conversationalists. We’re wired to talk to somebody at least sometimes. And thus the power of the waging tongue. (And the proliferation of cell phones!)

These verses encourage talking, the best kind. Talking to God is an ongoing conversation. If people can browse down a grocery story isle chattering to an invisible other through an appendage growing out the ear – or for that matter, in the next bathroom stall – then speaking to an invisible God in those same places isn’t so strange.

The Bible warns us about gossip, talking to people about other people in harmful ways. Let’s be honest. The drive to talk leads most of us to say things about others that really should be left unsaid. I think, talking to God about anyone and anything (gossiping to God?) can help satisfy the need to talk about the people in our lives. Such conversation offers the opportunity to ask God to provide for them.

Paul encourages healthy conversation with those outside the faith. Perhaps if we take care of the need to talk about people in conversation with God, our conversation with those who do not believe will be more attractive. Ordinary and healthy talk can open opportunity to share about our faith. So talk on.

Eternal God, thanks for sending the Word into my world to talk words like the Sermon on the Mount. Thanks for the gift of speech. Help me to reflect Jesus’ use of speech this week. - Mike Leamon

COLOSSIANS 3:18-4:1

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly.

Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ. But if you do what is wrong, you will be paid back for the wrong you have done. For God has no favorites.

Masters, be just and fair to your slaves. Remember that you also have a Master—in heaven.

Puzzled, again!

I’m puzzled in a new way by this set of instructions relating to household relationships. That’s good because a furrowed brow can be the beginning of deeper understanding. But it also means that what I thought I had down pat, isn’t so settled.

I have always read these instructions out of my own non-slave owning cultural context. This meant that I took the words to wives, husbands, and children just as they are presented but ripped the words to slaves and masters out of the household context and made them speak about labor and management. I’ve treated one part of what is clearly a unit –household relationships – differently from the other parts. I’ve made the mistake of jumping to application of this text before searching out the original meaning for writer (Paul) and readers (Colosse Christians). Ooops.

Nineteenth century southern slaveholders got at least the original meaning right when they argued for slavery from texts like this. Paul, more accurately God through Paul, never commanded the abolishment of slavery! Slavery is assumed throughout the Bible as it is here and the sister passage in Ephesians 5 and 6. Not only is it assumed, but God gives instructions about how to relate as slave and master, just as he does with husband and wife and parent and child.

I, with most everyone else over the past 150 years, am convinced that the instructions given for master-slave relationships, along with other biblical declarations (not the least of which rests just a few verses earlier! – 3:11) undermine both the practice of people owning people and the absolute authority of one person over another. God intended for radical social change as more and more people faithfully followed Christ.

How can I be consistent and treat one teaching about household relationships this way while treating the other parts as if nothing nearly as radical was happening?! Men not only owned slaves, they owned their wives and children as property. As such, they held absolute authority.

So many in the church today argue that God intends for men to be forever in authority over their wives and children; that God intends households to continue on a hierarchical model – just without slaves. Is it possible that undermining ownership includes pulling the props out from underneath the very notions of hierarchy and authority in every household relationship? Is it possible that God intends that every aspect of household relationships undergo radical reorientation?

Helper and Teacher, Spirit of God, grant that my household relationships reflect more and more of you and less and less of sinful human culture. - Mike Leamon

Favorites

Favoritism in families is destructive. It creates resentment, envy, jealousy and anger. Those who are favored often become spoiled and are engrained with a life-view that they are better than others. Those who belittled often struggle with inferiority complexes and low self-esteem.

Think of the dysfunction that took place in Jacob’s family because he favored Rachel and then Joseph. Brothers were pitted against brothers in a classic struggle.

Praise God there are no favorites in God’s family. He looks at us all with the same love and passion. Paul’s instructions for living together in family are clear: Treat each other as God treats you. Wives, husbands, children, slaves, masters; all are on the same plane from God’s perspective. We all fill different roles in the family but we are all part of the same family and need to demonstrate a unity that transcends role divisions.

I wonder how our testimony as a church would improve if we lived out God’s love for each other. I am not even talking about loving those still undecided for God. I am referring to loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Family squabbles are the most destructive. The Bible calls us to love each other. The example of God’s love for the world should first become visible in the way we love each other in the church.

Father of all believers, I confess I do not always love my brothers and sisters the way I should. Help me today to love your people the way you do so that the world may see you in me. - Dan Jones