This weekend we are continuing with Jesus in our #minisermonseries on the Sermon on the Mount. In one single passage alone we will see three familiar and essential sayings to Jesus’s ministry.
The first has to do with salt – that we are meant to be the salt of the earth. There to provide flavor and liven things up. To create sustainability for the long-haul. To help clean up the messes. But if we lose our saltiness – our connection to our truest self and purpose – Jesus warns there may be a point where we are beyond help.
The second saying has to do with the obvious: no one lights a light-source and hides it. They let it shine. This will be a key focus for our worship this weekend, so I’m not going to focus much on it here, except to say that just as salt has remarkable strength in this world, light has even more. Something to ponder.
The third and final saying is that Jesus has come not to throw out the old laws but to fulfill them. He says that we will have to be better at keeping the commandments than all the big-to-dos in the religion of his day if we want to get into heaven.
But how are we going to do that? Anyone else feel like we’re being set up to fail?
Well, here comes a little pop quiz: on what did Jesus say to hang all the law and the prophets?
If you can answer that, you will know why we have the power to move mountains. To do greater things than we can imagine. That the third strength Jesus refers to this weekend is the one that beats them all. It’s flashes are flashes of fire. A passion and power stronger than death. But often it gets overlooked for sentimentality.
Remember yet?
See you soon!
Blessings, Pastor Janie