Does Our Church Produce People of Salt?
Good Morning Friends,
Behind today’s question is an even harder question and that concerns whether God will really send people to hell? And the answer is yes, but we do not have to go. Confused, well let me put it a little differently as explained in the book of Jude. You see God had trusted angels with the most precious possession of creation. Their job was to protect the world, and when some made it clear they would rather claim creation than protect it, God sent them to hell or hades depending on how you read the text. Now I do not know what hell or hades are really like and I do not really want to find out given the description in today’s text. But what strikes me as interesting is that our roll as the Ecclesia is similar to the angels. We too are to preserve God’s greatest possession. This then brings us to today’s question. Does Our Church Produce People of Salt?
Scripture: And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgement of the great day.
Jude 1:6 (NRSV)
John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. ‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched. ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’
Mark 9:38-50 (NRSV)
Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling.
I John 2:10 (NRSV)
Message: What kind of people does your community of believers produce? That may sound like a strange question but in all reality that is the question which our scripture asks. So, do we give a drink of cold water to someone who is thirsty in Jesus’ name? Do we lead others to sins? Do we as the church produce salt? Are we pure and willing to preserve the goals and ideals of Jesus? Do we practice what we hear preached? Friends, today’s message asks if we are a church that produces people who are willing to put their faith into action in their own lives as well as the lives of others. All through today’s scripture Jesus is making the point that our lifestyles, our conduct, our attitude, our very way of life does make a difference. Jesus understands that we cannot be perfect, we will sin, but it is that attitude concerning sin which he is speaking about here. We are to be willing to repent, willing to change, willing to say we are sorry, then try to live better. Jesus says this in some very harsh language when he says, “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut if off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off, it is better for you to enter life lame that with two feet to be thrown into hell.” and he goes on and on. This is tough love! No we are not to be all lame and maimed, but we are to know the seriousness of our sins and to ask for forgiveness for being so broken. Helping to set up a culture of forgiveness is the purpose to which we have been called, and this is serious business. Worshipping as a bunch of severed body parts does not do justice to the body of Christ. To ignore our calling is failing to acknowledge the very thing that saves us. You see our behavior affects other Christians more than we can imagine. We are to abide in the love of Jesus, enabled by the Holy Spirit to love. Disciples are to be salt not stumbling blocks. We are not leave our posts.
Pray we be as salt to the world. Pray we not become as fallen angels. Pray we be a preserving influence for the Kingdom. Pray we know we are to share the salt. Pray we influence the world as disciples and agents of the kingdom of God permeating like salt into non-Christian cultures. Pray we take the bitterness out of the experience of life. Pray we work as the called out assembly to help produce a culture that does not cause little ones to stumble. Pray we recognize the reality of sin in our lives. Pray we see the need to confess, to repent, to receive forgiveness and the strength and courage to live in God’s everlasting grace. Pray we not cause a little one who believes to stumble.
Blessings,
John Lawson
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