21st century Christianity, Part Two: Fire and Salt

Alternate Title: do people still read the Sermon on the Mount?

I come back to this question sometimes – what is the point of Christianity? It obviously has baggage and problems, and plenty of people use it today as a veneer for their own projects. Someone might say the point is believing, and in a way that’s true – but the New Testament doesn’t only call people to believe. It says quite a bit more than that. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks to the crowd and describes them as salt of the earth and a light to the world, saying a city built on a hill can’t be hidden (Matthew 5:13-20). Jesus uses language around light and quite a bit honestly, and the Bible has recurring imagery around fire (the thing lights were made of back then). What’s the point of being a light, or a fire?

Presumably it doesn’t mean this, right? Source.

When I hear about fire, I think of destruction and ruin. I suspect most of us do. Fire is dangerous, volatile, and violent, right? It’s even the bad faction in Avatar! It’s one of the life lessons I learnt as a child – be careful around fire, don’t touch the fireplace, especially the glass. Is that what the fire of God is about? A dangerous thing we have to manage and control? Or are we God’s fire, burning and ravaging an evil world? There are some people who would agree with that, but I don’t. No matter how hard I try, I can’t square that idea of violence and punishment with the God who loved the world, who wants to restore and reconcile and who cares about justice. If God wants us to be fire, it’s not that sort of flame.

But maybe this fire is about purification. Fire can burn away what’s dead and rotten, or destroy impurities, so that what’s left can be stronger, more itself than it was before. The church holds God’s fire, but it’s not to destroy the world but to refine it. There’s a kind of truth here, in that God’s light burns away the parts of ourselves we should leave behind, but I don’t think that’s the fire the church carries – I don’t think our light is to purify. It’s still so centred on punishment, on suffering and owed penalties. I can accept that following God and becoming better might make me uncomfortable sometimes, but I don’t think it would mean purifying the world: that feels a little too much like destruction and ruin dressed up in pretense. No, the fire and light of the church isn’t about destruction or purification, but illumination.

You’d be shocked how bright a light can be, and how much a fire can guide you at night. Source.

Nobody lights a lamp then puts it under a basket. The light of the church and the fire of God is about bringing brightness where once there was darkness. A light exists so we can see, and find, one another. In the darkness we are all alone. God’s fire is a light which lets us see ourselves, see each other. It’s a beacon for where safety and care exist. Christianity isn’t about punishing people, it’s about banishing loneliness, fear, and despair. Bringing freedom to the captive and oppressed, a freedom of soul and body. Where in darkness we are alone, in the light we can see the God who was always present with us. The church exists to be a light to the world, and a city on a hill.

I know some people have interpreted the city as remote, a separate place away from the world. I’m not sure I agree with this reading. The city on the hill is defensible, but also visible for miles around. It becomes an example and a rallying place. The city on the hill is not some temple fortress cut off from outsiders but a refuge for them, a place for the downtrodden, weak, poor, and marginalised to find shelter. It gathers people in and protects them in times of strife. The doors and gates of this city are open to outcasts, sinners, and all who hurt. They close to Power and Empire, because these things seek to dominate and control, not to nurture and support.

Why am I so sure this is what the church should be? Because Jesus also called his followers to be the Salt of the Earth. Salt. A preservative. Something the keeps rot and foulness at bay. Something that improves and preserves the thing its attached to. It’s a calling to be humble, to be generous, gentle, and nurturing. This is, after all, who Jesus was. The church has to be this force in the world, making things better, protecting and preserving. If we aren’t doing that, then we’re salt which has lost its saltiness, and what’s the point of that? If salt loses its taste, it’s just another rock to hurl at people, or to just be tossed away.

There’s been scandal, abuse, failure, a refusal to stand with the forgotten and marginalised; has the the church simply lost its saltiness? What is it without the character of Jesus? Source.

A modern Christianity should be in solidarity with others, wielding not fear or shame but love and kindness. The first outworkings of that should be this: that the church is a fire which illuminates, banishing darkness and allowing us to find each other. And the church must be like Salt, a preserver which keeps things good and stops them getting rotten. A Christianity that doesn’t care for the disenfranchised and forgotten, which aligns itself with the powerful over the weak, is salt that’s lost its taste. It’s a lamp which has huddled under a basket, worried of being spotted. A city that’s hiding behind the hill, not defiantly sitting atop it. It has lost its purpose.

I worry sometimes about how much salt is left in the church. Nothing is impossible for God, but I think Christians need to be reminded of who they are, and what they are supposed to be. People have grown too comfortable with their own privileges and luxuries, too certain in who God and does not love – when of course, the truth is God loves everyone. I think if the Church managed to get back to its purpose, to being fire and salt, we might make some progress against the intersecting crises facing us. Christians could, even should, be allies and supports in the struggle to make the world better and end the power of empire. But there’s a lot of people who’ve forgotten or lost what Jesus called them to be.

– The Teaspoon

Picture taken by author.