Salt & Light in the community

What difference is the Christian Church making in its communities and the wider world? asks Pam Waugh.

No matter how many spices you have in your kitchen, salt is probably the condiment you use most often. Similarly, in Jesus’ day, salt was also an extremely common and important commodity. At that time, salt was used primarily as a preservative. Nobody had fridges and freezers, nor did they have supplies of ice, so salt was used on meat and fish to keep it safe to eat.

Of course, another important use of salt is that it adds flavour—without it food can be bland and unexciting.

Salt also has healing properties. Some people gargle with salt and water when they feel a sore throat coming on, for instance. But there are other health benefits, too. Salt helps eliminate fatigue, stabilises blood pressure, reduces appetite, helps with muscle cramps, improves bone health, reduces varicose veins, improves skin, hair and nail condition, helps with good sleep, and improves digestion.

What a great mineral! Salt gives us preservative, flavour and healing!

But perhaps light is even more important to our day-to-day existence. Light helps us see the pathway ahead of us. Just think of what happens in a power cut! Unless we are blind and have learnt the skills to move around without sight, we are dependent on light for virtually all our everyday activities.

Bringing healing and life

But just what was Jesus talking about when he said, in Matthew 5:13–16, that Christians are to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and the ‘light of the world’? Jesus was talking about our calling as God’s people—we are to impact the communities in which we live in such a way that we help to bring healing and life, because we bring Jesus with us.

Years ago, the officer of a Salvation Army corps (church) I attended challenged the congregation to think about the goals and mission plans of our corps, and then think about our own personal contribution to these. As I prayed about my part in that corps’ mission—aside from my daily work at the Salvation Army Community Ministry centre where I was appointed—I knew that God was speaking to me about having a greater impact on the other professional groups our centre worked with. These were the people at Work and Income, and Child, Youth and Family.

Getting alongside staff from these government departments, letting them know why we did what we did, but also talking with them about their own day-to-day cares and worries, gave me a great opportunity to share aspects of my faith with them. I was privileged to lead one social worker into a healing relationship that saw her re-join her church and family, as she realised she could not live and flourish without a faith aspect to her life.

When this sort of thing happens on a larger scale—as Christians impact their community—those communities are changed. Hope and joy replace sadness and despair. Goodness and forgiveness replace conflict and chaos.

To truly be salt and light in our community, we need meaningful contact with friends, classmates, work mates and neighbours. It is no use cutting ourselves off from people—we are called to be in their world, not separate (see John 17:14–16). Salt is not much use when sitting in its container in the pantry. Lights are no use turned off when we’re stumbling around in a dark room.

ere’s something to think about: are we sitting in the cupboard like exotic spices, waiting to be used in the occasional recipe, or are we like the salt shaker, always on the table for use at any time? Are we ready to let Jesus shake us out of the container and turn on our lights so we make a difference in the community around us?

Our nation needs Christians who are committed to being salt and light in their communities. Our communities need the good news of the gospel and the healing and transforming power of Jesus.

You can be salt and light

Notice that Jesus didn’t say, ‘You will become salt and light.’ He didn’t say, ‘You might like to be salt and light.’ He said, ‘You are the salt of the earth … you are light of the world.’ Being salt and light is not an optional extra; it is a declaration. So, let me suggest four ways that you and I can be salt and light in our communities …

Firstly, we can all individually make a difference. Think of the crowd to which Jesus was speaking. It wasn’t a gathering of the United Nations, a conference of super powers or Parliament. It was a crowd on a hillside in a tiny spot of Palestine, a group of everyday people with no high ambitions or positions. In fact, Jesus’ listeners were under Roman occupation—they couldn’t even make their own laws or plan their own futures or destinies. Yet Jesus called them the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

In one of his books, Tony Campolo writes about a friend who was walking through the county fair when he met a small girl. She was carrying some candy floss on a stick, and the candy floss seemed as big as her. Tony’s friend asked, ‘How can a little girl like you eat all the candy floss?’ She replied, ‘I’m really much bigger on the inside than I am on the outside.’ That’s essentially what Jesus is saying to us. When he says have the impact of salt and light, Jesus is not saying we have super powers, or positions in government, or that we’re extraordinarily strong, smart and gifted. He’s telling us that simply because we belong to him, on the inside we are as big as the kingdom and the power and glory of God. We can make a difference because God’s power is at work in our lives!

Secondly, we can make a difference together. A single grain of salt may make a slight difference, but it takes the concentration of a cluster to make a real impact. Similarly, one Christian with a sense of purpose may make a statement in their community, but it’s a community of Christians that turn that place upside down.

It’s sometimes hard to appreciate just how important community is. We like to think of ourselves as independent and strong, yet the first thing we hear from someone experiencing problems is often ‘nobody cares—I’m all alone.’ Jesus reminds us that to make a difference, it’s best to work together as a community, supporting and caring for one another as we do so.

We see the impact of this in the social services work of The Salvation Army in New Zealand. Last year, our Community Ministries centres provided almost 55,000 food parcels to over 27,000 families

—including 68,000 children under 17. We carried out 18,000 hours of social work, 16,000 hours of budgeting, almost 4000 hours of counselling, and over 2000 hours of life skills training.

Add to this the work of the many other parts of The Salvation Army: addiction rehabilitation, help for those with gambling problems, supportive and transitional accommodation, specialised youth services, in-home care, friendship programmes for the elderly, support for people appearing in court or returning to the community after serving prison sentences, early childhood education, family tracing, and training and work placement through our Education and Employment service.

Together, we are making a difference in New Zealand. We are living out our mission of caring for people, transforming lives and reforming society.

Thirdly, we can make a difference together in the wider world. It was never Jesus’ intention that his Church be a community by itself, separated from the rest of society. Jesus had a very different idea. When he said, ‘You are the salt of the earth …you are the light of the world,’ Jesus was saying, ‘You are the essence of God’s relationship with the world around you.’

There is a clear biblical mandate in the Old and New Testament that God’s people are to take care of those who are suffering, hurting or in need of healing. This is something we understand in The Salvation Army. We serve in our own backyard, and we come together to serve in other places. The Salvation Army has been at work in Nepal for just a few years, but following that country’s recent terrible earthquakes, the wider Salvation Army sent people and resources to serve those who are suffering and afraid.

We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We don’t hide off in a corner, keeping to ourselves and hoping no one will notice us. We are not here just to protect our interests. We have to speak out and care about the welfare of the poor, needy and oppressed. We are here as Jesus’ representatives, which means we have a response to make to the injustices and inequalities of our world.

Turn people to God

Finally, we can make a difference for God. It’s not enough to be concerned and socially active. Jesus says, ‘Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.’ Our mission as Christians is also to turn people toward God. True healing and freedom is found in Jesus, and that’s the element that has to be there for us to be truly missional in all that we do.

One of the great Christian proclamations is that ‘Jesus is Lord!’ In Jesus’ time, people said, ‘Caesar is Lord’, but Jesus’ resurrection marked the end of Caesar’s way of doing things. It established a new kingdom in which people are loved and cared for, where the marginalised are welcomed and the poor are blessed. And that kingdom is also in the here and now.

So, as salt and light for Jesus in New Zealand, how do you think Jesus would respond to the 200,000 children in our communities that live in poverty—68,000 of them seen by Salvation Army services and dependent on us to meet their basic needs such as food and clothing? How would Jesus respond to welfare reforms that are, in some places and for some people, harsh and unfair?

I think of a lady who walked from Putaruru to Tokoroa to see a government agency because she didn’t have enough money for the bus, but couldn’t risk her benefit being cut off. I think of the mother struggling to keep her three-year-old in a day care the daughter hated, but scared her benefit would be stopped because the government says all sole parents must send their children to day care/pre-school. I think of the mental health client who stood in a queue at WINZ for 15 minutes, making him five minutes late for his appointment, which meant he lost his benefit for a week. How would Jesus respond to these people?

What would Jesus say about the loan sharks and crippling financial deals that keep people trapped in debt? What would Jesus say about the liquor outlets and gaming opportunities that are more prevalent in poorer areas where people can least afford them?

God has placed us here as a symbol of his continuing loving relationship with the world. We are the extension of his personality in our communities. What would your community be like with the Church? What would your city be like without the Church? What would your nation and our world be like without the conscience and the caring service of the people of God? What difference does it make that we are here?

Major Pam Waugh is Community Ministries Secretary for The Salvation Army.

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by Pam Waugh (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 30 May 2015, pp12-13.
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.