Reflection

Though Unity will be closed this Sunday,
February 6, 2011
Here is a reflection on Matthew 5:13-16

 by Linda Jo Peters

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
Many of you have been without power this last week. Sitting in darkness and cold wondering when and if the lights will come on. Jesus challenges his followers to be the light in the darkness. To give flavor to life itself. Here in this very familiar passage we hear the call of Jesus to be the best we can be.

Matthew 5:13-16“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

REFLECTION
In spite of terrible, even life threatening weather and news of justifiable unrest in Eygpt, eartquake in Japan, we still claim Chirst is the giver of life and the light in our darkness.  In John’s gospel we read:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.


This is one reason we call Christ the Author of Life. We remember the giver of life, the light of the world, gave up everything to reshape our relationship with the Eternal One and with one another. In a world where what you sow you reap, where for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, Christ’s death gives us the ability to be reconciled to life and become the light of the world; to love enemies into friends; heal the wounded and be a blessing beyond measure.

All through this terrible weather, I have heard stories of neighbors, friends and total stranger helping one another.  It seems the worst of times gives us an opportunity to live up to our very best. 

If we are called to be the salt of the earth, what does that mean for our life? What kind of flavoring do you bring?  Think about how salt permeates the whole of any dish.  Have you ever had a salt free diet?  Things just do not taste the same without salt, although this could be a worthy fast for Lent: a salt free fast.  But I digress, the point is your faith and the way you live your life permeates all those around you.  So flavor your life with goodness.  Be the salt of the eath and the light in the darkness.  You are precious to God and God's son, Jesus the Christ who gave you life, a purpose and eternal oneness with God.  Amen.

resources:
John 1:1-5

"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction," is a common reference to the third of Newton's laws of motion that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces. They have been expressed in several different ways over nearly three centuries,[2] and can be summarized as follows:
1.First law: Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion (constant velocity) unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force. [3][4][5] This means that in the absence of a non-zero net force, the center of mass of a body either remains at rest, or moves at a constant speed in a straight line.
2.Second law: A body of mass m subject to a net force F undergoes an acceleration a that has the same direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass, i.e., F = ma. Alternatively, the total force applied on a body is equal to the time derivative of linear momentum of the body.
3.Third law: The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear. This means that whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force −F on the first body. F and −F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. This law is sometimes referred to as the action-reaction law, with F called the "action" and −F the "reaction". The action and the reaction are simultaneous.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton's_laws_of_motion or Sir Isaac Newton Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, first published on July 5, 1687