Matthew 5:13-20
Six years ago yesterday I sat in the front pew of Saint James Cathedral a very scared and jumpy fellow. It was noticeable by Bishop Persell as he noted in his Sermon that he hoped I made it through the service. One may wonder why I was nervous. I had completed a 3 year journey of every other Saturday of all day classes and written over 20 12 page papers and read over 140 books on preaching, theology, old and new testament, pastoral care, ethics, and church history to name a few of the many topics. I wanted to be ordained but new it was not over until the Bishop laid his hands on my head. This was a great expectation and I was in the midst of feeling the Holy Spirit as I had never felt it before. That moment brought me back to my childhood when I substituted to teach my mothers Sunday class because she was ill only to return from church at age 16 to find out she had died. It also brought to mind my dad and best friend who died 1 month after I started deacon school. I knew at that moment and today and always Ms. Jimmy Ellen and Cornelius are proud of me I wish they could have been there but actually they were. God does this to you. I have learned a lot in my 6 years of being ordained a deacon most of all to take it slow during the proclaiming of the gospel and when preaching. This I owe to our Rector Rev. Raymond Webster. It actually took 5 years for him not to say take it slow. Deacons have a great voice to preach but some of us preach less frequently than others. My brother in Christ and fellow class mate deacon Steve Lowe at Saint Marks Geneva preaches at about the same frequency as I do and he always tells me remember we must hit a home run. I want to thank all of my friends for your continued support of my outside ministries at Youth Guidance, Umoja, and supporting the Bishops Challenge. This year our bishop is asking us to build wells in 3rd world countries as we join Episcopal Relief and Development in this mission. It cost $5000.00 to build a well. I am asking that if all of our people can write a check for at least $15.00 we can get close to building a well. I have gift cards that you can send to a love one that you made a donation in their name. This is what diaconal ministry is about helping those in need.
In Today’s Gospel the Lord Jesus tells us that true Christians are to be in the world like "salt." "Ye are the salt of the earth." Now salt has a peculiar taste of its own, utterly unlike anything else. When mingled with other substances it preserves them from corruption; it imparts a portion of its taste to everything it is mixed with. It is useful so long as it preserves its taste, but no longer.
Does your life reflect the light of Christ to others?
As a deacon I have reflected the light of Christ through my youth ministry both in and outside the walls of Saint Chrysostom’s. I have worked with over 50 young people here and more than 400 outside these walls. I guess it goes back to my Childhood in Canton, Georgia And Zion Baptist as a Sunday School teacher and vacation bible school instructor. These are all wonderful ministries and it provides the salt to help preserve the innocence of our youth by giving the great adult guidance.
Then let us see here our office and our duties!
The Lord Jesus tells us that Christians are to be in the world like light. "Ye are the light of the world." Now it is the property of light to be utterly distinct from darkness. The least spark in a dark room can be seen at once. Of all things created, light is the most useful: it fertilizes; it guides; it cheers. It was the first thing called into being. ( Genesis 1:3.) Without it the world would be a gloomy blank. Are we Christians? Then behold again our position and its responsibility!
Surely, if words mean anything, we are meant to learn from these two figures that there must be something marked, distinct, and peculiar about our character, if we are Christians. It will never do to idle through life, thinking and living like others, if we mean to be owned by Christ as His people. Have we grace? Then it must be seen.--Have we the Spirit? Then there must be fruit.--Have we any saving religion? Then there must be a difference of habits, tastes, and turn of mind, between us and those who think only of the world.--It is perfectly clear that Christianity is something more then being baptized and going to church. "Salt" and "light" evidently imply peculiarity both of heart and life, of faith and practice. We must dare to be singular and unlike the world, if we mean to be saved.
These verses teach us, in the second place, the relation between Christ's teaching and that of the Old Testament.
This is a point of great importance, and one about which great errors prevail. Our Lord clears up the point in one striking sentence: He says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." These are remarkable words. They were deeply important when spoken, as satisfying the natural anxiety of the Jews on the point; they will be deeply important as long as the world stands, as a testimony that the religion of the Old and New Testaments is one harmonious whole.
The Lord Jesus came to fulfill the predictions of the prophets, who had long foretold that a savior would one day appear.--He came to fulfill the ceremonial law, by becoming the great Sacrifice for sin, to which all the Mosaic offerings had ever pointed: He came to fulfill the moral law, by yielding to it a perfect obedience, which we could never have yielded,--and by paying the penalty for our breach of it with His atoning blood, which we could never have paid. In all these ways He exalted the law of God, and made its importance more evident even than it had been before. In a word, "He magnified the law and made it honorable." ( Isaiah 42:21.)
There are deep lessons of wisdom to be learned from these words of our Lord about "the law and the prophets." Let us consider them well, and lay them up in our hearts.
For one thing, let us beware of despising the Old testament, under any pretence whatever. Let us never listen to those who bid us throw it aside as an obsolete, antiquated, useless book. The religion of the Old Testament is the germ of Christianity. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower.--The Old Testament is the Gospel in the blade; the New Testament is the Gospel in full ear.--The saints in the Old Testament saw many things through a glass darkly; but they all looked by faith to the same Savior, and were lead by the same Spirit as ourselves. These are no light matters. Much infidelity begins with an ignorant contempt of the Old Testament.
For another thing, let us beware of despising the law of the Ten Commandments. Let us not suppose for a moment that it is set aside by the Gospel, or that Christians have nothing to do with it. The coming of Christ did not alter the position of the Ten Commandments . If anything, it exalted and raised their authority. ( Romans 3:31.) The law of the Ten Commandments is God's eternal measure of right and wrong. By it is the knowledge of sin; by it the Spirit shows men their need of Christ, and drives them to Him: to it Christ refers His people as their rule and guide for holy living. In its right place it is just as important as "the glorious Gospel."--It cannot save us: we cannot be justified by it; but never, never let us despise it. It is a symptom of an ignorant ministry, and an unhealthy state of religion, when the law is lightly esteemed. The Christian "delights in the law of God." ( Romans 7:22.)
In the last place, let us beware of supposing that the Gospel has lowered the standard of personal holiness, and that the Christian is not intended to be as strict and particular about his daily life as the Jew. This is an immense mistake, but one that is unhappily very common. So far from this being the case, the sanctification of the New Testament saint ought to exceed that of him who has nothing but the Old Testament for his guide. The more light we have, the more we ought to love God: the more clearly we see our own complete and full forgiveness in Christ, the more heartily ought we to work for His glory. We know what it cost to redeem us far better then the Old Testament saints did. We have read what happened in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and they only saw it dimly and indistinctly as a thing yet to come. May we never forget our obligations! The Christian who is content with a low standard of personal holiness has got much to learn.
The Lord Jesus tells us that Christians are to be in the world like light. "Ye are the light of the world." Now it is the property of light to be utterly distinct from darkness. The least spark in a dark room can be seen at once. Of all things created, light is the most useful: it fertilizes; it guides; it cheers. It was the first thing called into being. ( Genesis 1:3.) Without it the world would be a gloomy blank. Are we Christians? Then behold again our position and its responsibility!
Surely, if words mean anything, we are meant to learn from these two figures that there must be something marked, distinct, and peculiar about our character, if we are Christians. It will never do to idle through life, thinking and living like others, if we mean to be owned by Christ as His people. Have we grace? Then it must be seen.--Have we the Spirit? Then there must be fruit.--Have we any saving religion? Then there must be a difference of habits, tastes, and turn of mind, between us and those who think only of the world.--It is perfectly clear that Christianity is something more then being baptized and going to church. "Salt" and "light" evidently imply peculiarity both of heart and life, of faith and practice. We must dare to be singular and unlike the world, if we mean to be saved.
These verses teach us, in the second place, the relation between Christ's teaching and that of the Old Testament.
This is a point of great importance, and one about which great errors prevail. Our Lord clears up the point in one striking sentence: He says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." These are remarkable words. They were deeply important when spoken, as satisfying the natural anxiety of the Jews on the point; they will be deeply important as long as the world stands, as a testimony that the religion of the Old and New Testaments is one harmonious whole.
The Lord Jesus came to fulfill the predictions of the prophets, who had long foretold that a savior would one day appear.--He came to fulfill the ceremonial law, by becoming the great Sacrifice for sin, to which all the Mosaic offerings had ever pointed: He came to fulfill the moral law, by yielding to it a perfect obedience, which we could never have yielded,--and by paying the penalty for our breach of it with His atoning blood, which we could never have paid. In all these ways He exalted the law of God, and made its importance more evident even than it had been before. In a word, "He magnified the law and made it honorable." ( Isaiah 42:21.)
There are deep lessons of wisdom to be learned from these words of our Lord about "the law and the prophets." Let us consider them well, and lay them up in our hearts.
For one thing, let us beware of despising the Old testament, under any pretence whatever. Let us never listen to those who bid us throw it aside as an obsolete, antiquated, useless book. The religion of the Old Testament is the germ of Christianity. The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower.--The Old Testament is the Gospel in the blade; the New Testament is the Gospel in full ear.--The saints in the Old Testament saw many things through a glass darkly; but they all looked by faith to the same Savior, and were lead by the same Spirit as ourselves. These are no light matters. Much infidelity begins with an ignorant contempt of the Old Testament.
For another thing, let us beware of despising the law of the Ten Commandments. Let us not suppose for a moment that it is set aside by the Gospel, or that Christians have nothing to do with it. The coming of Christ did not alter the position of the Ten Commandments . If anything, it exalted and raised their authority. ( Romans 3:31.) The law of the Ten Commandments is God's eternal measure of right and wrong. By it is the knowledge of sin; by it the Spirit shows men their need of Christ, and drives them to Him: to it Christ refers His people as their rule and guide for holy living. In its right place it is just as important as "the glorious Gospel."--It cannot save us: we cannot be justified by it; but never, never let us despise it. It is a symptom of an ignorant ministry, and an unhealthy state of religion, when the law is lightly esteemed. The Christian "delights in the law of God." ( Romans 7:22.)
In the last place, let us beware of supposing that the Gospel has lowered the standard of personal holiness, and that the Christian is not intended to be as strict and particular about his daily life as the Jew. This is an immense mistake, but one that is unhappily very common. So far from this being the case, the sanctification of the New Testament saint ought to exceed that of him who has nothing but the Old Testament for his guide. The more light we have, the more we ought to love God: the more clearly we see our own complete and full forgiveness in Christ, the more heartily ought we to work for His glory. We know what it cost to redeem us far better then the Old Testament saints did. We have read what happened in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and they only saw it dimly and indistinctly as a thing yet to come. May we never forget our obligations! The Christian who is content with a low standard of personal holiness has got much to learn.
I would like to end as we do at the 9am service by reciting the first verse of the hymn that we use at the end of the service and this Hymn I want to walk as A Child of the light was also sung at my ordination 6 years ago. “I want to walk as A Child of the light, I want to follow Jesus, God set the Stars to Give Light to the world, The Star of my Life Is Jesus, in him there is no darkness at all The Night and the Day are both a like. The lamb is the light of the City of God.
Shine in my Heart Lord Jesus.
Sermon preached by the Rev. Deacon Larry Green at St. Chrysostom's Episcopal Church in Chicago, IL on on the sixth anniversary of his ordination to the diaconate, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2011 at 8:00am and 11:00am.
