Salt and Life- Part 2

I did promise to post this yesterday as a conclusion to my 2-part series on "Salt and Light", but with all that has taken place since my first post I decided to wait and spend the time in prayer for our nation. As I prayed I realize that more so we need to remember that we are called to be light in this world, the light in dark places.

 

Today is a moment of darkness in our country and there are people looking for the light to lead them to a safe place as they stumble around, as you read this piece I pray that you will remove your "bushel" and blow your cover, so others will see your light and find hope.

      light is not simply to allow others to see whatever they wish but it is for others to witness the acts of justice that Jesus' followers perform.  Beyond that, it allows the audience to recognize the cause of these actions, the God of heaven. 

Neither salt nor light exists for themselves. They only fulfill their purpose when used, poured out.

The “bushel” Jesus mentions here is not a unit of measurement, rather, Jesus refers to a vessel big enough to cover a lamp. He describes a light not snuffed out but covered up. The light is not extinguished. It is rendered ineffective.

 This morning let’s think about the bushels that cover your ministry’s light. What are they? Maybe the bushel is an inferiority complex, a lack of confidence that comes from comparing ourselves to others ministry. Or perhaps the bushel is self-absorption, all about three people- me myself and I- that is a bushel that prevents our light from shining.

Perhaps the bushel is a fantasy in our head. Jesus gives the central insight that lights don’t magically end up underneath bushels. The only way for our light to be covered is if we put a bushel over it. “No one after lighting a lamp puts it under a bushel” (verse 15). We are not victims inevitably doomed to being distracted and drained by the bushels of inferiority or self-absorption or fantasy. Bushels can only block out the light when we put them there.

Unfortunately, for some of us and for some of our churches our bushels become our very identity. Not only do we put the bushels over our light, we cling to them for dear life, unwilling to let them go. This light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:4-5). So “let your light shine before others” (verse 16).

 In His Service,

Vilma