After his teaching on the ‘Beatitudes’ – which describes the kind of people God wants us to become as His children and as citizens of His kingdom – Jesus said to his disciples, “You are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Using a metaphor that was very familiar to his audience, Jesus was telling his disciples then and now that in a world of moral and spiritual decay, we have a vital purpose of being an influence for good, of enriching the people in our lives, through kingdom attitudes and actions. When we blend in and live no differently than the world, our faith has no impact or in Jesus’ words, we lose our ‘saltiness’.
Building on Jesus’ metaphor, Pippert whose book our next sermon series is based on, makes the point that when Christians spend nearly all their time within church circles and have little meaningful interaction with people outside their faith community, they are like salt in the saltshaker. Left inside, the salt, while intact chemically, it is useless functionally when it comes to preserving and seasoning food.
Jesus has called us to move beyond our insular church communities to engage intentionally and meaningfully with people on our frontlines who are not followers of Christ through our presence and witness, not just in deed but in word (evangelism). Both are necessary. The good news of Jesus must be spoken.
When we withdraw and detach ourselves from our frontlines, we are like rabbits. Doug Priest explains, “The rabbit stays in its burrow to avoid danger. It pops its head out, sees that the coast is clear, and then hurriedly runs to get some food before quickly returning to its safe haven”.
But equally problematic is the ‘chameleon’ mindset. “A chameleon is able to adapt its skin color according to the situation, hence is able to hide. This approach …is not prophetic, but simply desires to fit in with the local surroundings” (Doug Priest). When we conceal our faith, we are acting like chameleons because we don’t want to be identified as a religious fanatic or a ‘Bible-basher’. Consequently, we remain silent when the topic of God comes up. How people see us matters more than how God sees us.
Let us not use the fear of offending people or questionable methodologies as an excuse to not share our faith. Pippert writes, “It’s easy to agree about how evangelism is done poorly. But how pleased is God going to be when he asks us what we have done with our lives and we reel off everything that we didn’t do?”
Instead, may our discomfort and disdain with the abuses of evangelism drive us back to the examples and teachings of Jesus. He makes this promise to us, “Come, follow me…and I will send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19).
Learning how to fish,
Mark
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