“Evangelism with an Edge”

Matthew 5:12-16

“I will sing the wondrous story/of the Christ who died for me/How He left his home in glory/for the cross of Calvary.” Those words from one of my favorite hymns do a pretty good job of describing evangelism: telling all around us about Jesus, who gave up everything for us in order that we might be reconciled with the God from whom we are estranged.

Going back to the words of the hymn, they’re more than just a simple recounting of the Gospel story; when sung the way I first heard this hymn in a little country church, they resound with passion. I will sing about Jesus, not just tell people about him. And my song will be about something wonderful and glorious that didn’t just take place in history. It will be a personal story about what God has done for me.

The Gospel message is wonderful and glorious. It needs to be told and lived. Ours is a culture that is horribly wounded and in need of cleansing and healing. Ours is a culture lost in darkness, desperately seeking light and love, but as the old song says, in all the wrong places. There is no greater need in our world than a light that shines in the darkness, the light of Christ and his love.

Salt cleanses and heals. It also prevents that which is good from going bad. Light chases away the darkness and reveals the lies of the world for what they are. Salt. Light. Those things our Savior has told us we are. Quoting from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase: “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this world… Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors of the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you?”

In essence Jesus is saying to his disciples, go out there and sing the wondrous story of the One who died on a cross, the One who was raised from the dead. Let people hear about and experience the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus. Don’t keep it a secret; tell it out loud. Don’t try keeping it to yourself; share it with everyone. Go out into the world as my witnesses. Go out and make disciples of men, women, and children in every nation on earth. Go. Tell. Be salt. Be light.

And while you’re at it, be salt and light to each other. Christians do sometimes hurt one another. Those hurts must be healed. Christians go astray. They must be shown the light in order for them to get back on track. Sometimes salt stings even as it cleanses and purifies. Sometimes the truth hurts. It still must be told – always in love. Sometimes dark corners of our lives must be brought to light. That can be scary. It still must be done – always in love. We can’t be salt to the world if our saltiness has been diluted by the world. We can’t be light to the world if our light is dimmed by our own sinfulness.

Moving outward, our culture cannot be healed if our saltiness has no edge to it, no sting. Nor can it be brought out of the darkness into the light if the light we shine into the darkness is dimmed or weakened by our timidity or fear of conflict. Even as we sing the wondrous story – the Good News - of Christ’s love we must be aware that the Good News will be heard by some as bad, especially when it forces them to confront their own sinfulness. The healing salt will sting. The bright light will reveal their inner darkness. And that will not make them happy.

Case in point: One of the crusades that young evangelicals are especially drawn to right now is the one against human trafficking. To those who are being delivered from the slavery that such trafficking creates the salt of the Gospel is bringing healing, cleansing, and joy. The light of the Gospel is lifting them out of a cruel and oppressive darkness. At the same time, those who profit from such trafficking are feeling the harsh sting of God’s judgment. When the light of God’s truth shines upon them they are revealed for the cockroaches they are, creatures who prefer darkness and are scattered by the light.

That is a ministry to which God is calling people. If we listen, we may hear him calling us. But it’s only one of many ministries to which God is calling Grace and its members. Most, while not as dramatic, are just as necessary. Wrote Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson in their book The Externally Focused Church: “Are there people in your community who need and extra dose of mercy? Are there any hurting, broken people who long to be noticed and cared for… Are you willing to offer community to those who have no community? Are you willing to be family to those who have no families?”

There are people all around us in need of an extra dose of mercy, in some cases their first dose of mercy in their lives. Many are lost, lonely, and broken and want nothing more or less than the healing touch of Jesus that they can receive from one, or some, or all of us. Grace can be a community to those who feel as if there is nowhere they belong. Grace can be a family to those who are far from their families and especially to those who have been rejected by and cut off from their family of birth. There are people all around us who have never heard the wondrous story, at least never heard it from people who live it. They’ve never experienced the saltiness and light that we are called to be.

Well some of you might say, “We do a lot for the Lord already. We sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, keep the nursery, and come for clean up days. We’re active in the CWF or youth group. Those are ministries, are they not?” Yes they are; and important ones at that. But God has called and is calling us to no longer simply minister to our own – to take the bucket off the light of Christ’s love and let that light shine in the world.

“But pastor,” some of you might be thinking, “we offer meaningful worship, good Bible studies, and loving Sunday school teachers and nursery keepers to everybody who comes to this church. We do that Warm Nights thing once a year as we allow our building to be used as a homeless shelter. We’ve got plenty of salt and light to offer anybody who’ll just come here and get it.”

Friends, God has not called and is not calling us to sit back and wait for people to come to us. Jesus didn’t tell his first disciples to sit and wait for those in need of the Gospel to come to them. He didn’t say that at all. This is what he did say: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… You shall be my witnesses [to the ends of the earth].”

“Okay then,” some of you might be thinking, “We preach and teach the truth here. We worship in ways that give God glory. We faithfully bring our tithes and offerings. We have beautiful stained glass windows that witness to the glory of God. Isn’t that enough?”

Let’s see what God says. Reading from Isaiah 58: “Is not this [the pious acts] that I [the Lord] choose… to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them… Then your light shall break forth like the dawn… if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.” Isaiah was addressing God’s words to people who assumed that God was on their side come what may. All they had to do was maintain the appropriate rituals and engage in pious acts among themselves.

If we desire the light of the Lord to shine on us come that day when the Kingdom is brought into its fullness, then we must be willing to reflect that light to the world now. If we long for the flavorful experience that is God’s Kingdom then we need to go out into the world and spread around the salt of the Gospel. If we want to sing the wondrous story with the saints in glory gathered round the crystal sea, we need to be singing that story in the here and now. Not to ourselves, but to the world.

Ministry, lots of good ministry, takes place here on a regular basis. But that ministry we know as mission and evangelism has to take place out there, because that’s where the lost, the hungry, the broken, the lonely, and the poor are to be found. That’s where the salt and light are so desperately needed. That’s why we take seriously these words of Jesus:

“Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth… You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept.”

So everybody stand and join with me again in singing, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine. Let it shine.”

And let all God’s people say, “Amen!”