From Recipient to Ingredient - Sermon for the Fifth Sunday After Epiphany (February 8, 2026)

Scripture Readings: Isaiah 58:1–12 | Psalm 112 | 1 Corinthians 2:1–16 | ​Matthew 5:13–20

“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.” (Matthew 5:13).
 
Does anyone here like spicy food? I really do.
 
For most of my childhood I had a pretty… timid sense of taste when it comes to spices. Anything hotter than a mild salsa, and I’d be reaching for a glass of milk pretty quick. But when I began to explore a more fiery diet… first off with simple hot sauces, but then later on adding dishes from places like Mexico, Thailand, and India… everything changed. It’s like my whole approach to eating went through this huge shift, and I learned to appreciate a way more intense and flavourful variety of food than I ever imagined.
 
Now we don’t have to be into spicy food to appreciate the impact of good seasoning on a meal… of finding just the right combination of sweetness and savouriness and heat and salt that transforms and elevates what we eat from being ‘just alright’ to something amazing. The challenge is to know exactly what needs to be added to bring out the best flavours. Not that I’m any kind of expert at cooking.

But this quest for just the ‘right seasoning’ goes way beyond the kitchen, doesn’t it? I mean, there’s lots of ways we might be searching for that missing piece… that special ingredient we think we need to lift up and transform our lives. In our careers and creative pursuits… our families and relationships… in our searches for meaning and peace… so many in our world are hungering for something essential that still needs to be added… even if they’re not sure yet where to find it.
 
And in this search, many of us have come to see Christianity as that missing something… that special ingredient that ends up transforming our lives for the better… offering us a real taste of heaven… a taste of freedom, and forgiveness, and grace that we had never dreamed of… along with the sweet experience of being welcomed into God’s great family. In fact, it can be tempting at times to conceive of our faith… of our whole relationship with the Living God basically in terms of how they add to and improve our lives: as in, we have some sort of a problem, but just add a dash of God… and everything’s better. As if God was just one special ingredient among many on our shelves to choose from.

Now I certainly believe that our lives are much better off with God in them… and I know first-hand how much of a difference the Christian faith can make, in all sorts of ways. But there is so much more going on with the Good News of Jesus Christ than just how He can spice up and add something good to our lives. It’s about how Christ takes our lives and uses them to add something good to our world!
 
In our Gospel passage today from Matthew Chapter 5, near the start of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this to His followers: “You are the salt of the earth…” and “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13-14). Salt and light. Two common, everyday things that elevate and transform all that they touch.
 
Salt was a treasured commodity in the ancient world… an additive that served both to preserve foods, and also to intensify their flavours. Salt kept things from spoiling… from going bad… and salt helped bring out the best of the other ingredients… turning a meal that might otherwise be bland and boring into something worth celebrating.
 
And light is even more essential. Light helps us see what’s really going on… revealing the truth of the matter that we’d otherwise miss, or stumble over in the dark. Light helps us find our way, and helps guide those who are already off track to finally find a safe haven.
 
Both salt and light make a big impact on their surroundings. Just a sprinkle can change a whole meal’s taste. Just one candle at night can be seen for kilometers.
 
But notice that Jesus didn’t say to His disciples: ‘Here, I have some salt and light for you. Enjoy.’ He says to them: ‘You are the salt. You are the light. You are that something special that I will add to the world around you.’
 
Of course, Christ’s not giving us a flattering pep-talk, or speaking about our own innate goodness, or natural potential. He knows full well the limits and ordinary humanness of His audience. Rather, He’s laying out the recipe for God’s Kingdom… the game-plan for His own mission: to share the new life of the Living God with the world through the impact of His people, who are themselves being transformed by His own holy love and saving grace.

On our own, we just taste bland and boring. And without His light, we’re just stumbling around blind. But Jesus invites us all into the life of His Kingdom… to cleanse us from our sins, and to guide us into His holy ways… and it is His new life at work in us that transforms us into the salt and the light that our world really needs… as those who have already tasted and seen that the Lord is good, and who have learned to trust in Him… and who can now take part in helping all those around them to do the same. 
 
And this special calling to be salt and light is not just for the so-called ‘experts’… for those seen as particularly wise, or knowledgeable, or charismatic, or powerful. This calling is for every single Christian. Everyone who looks to Christ in faith. Sure, wisdom and knowledge and charisma, and power and everything else we associate with greatness might all have their place in God’s purposes and plans for His people, but those are all secondary… extra add-ons to what is essential about the Christian life. And in fact, they can all at times distract us from the beautiful simplicity of God’s holy ways, and His Holy Spirit powerfully at work in and through some of the most unlikely people.   
 
In our second reading today from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, we heard how St. Paul described the less than spectacular impression he made among them, and how St. Paul saw all this as a good thing: impressing upon them that it’s not us human messengers that are to be the point of focus… it’s all about the power of God’s Spirit working to share the Good News of Christ even through those that might seem unlikely spokespersons.
1 Corinthians 2:1-5,
 
“When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.”
 
For St. Paul, what mattered was that people came to experience God’s own power at work… not that they were impressed by fancy words, or convincing arguments alone. And one of the most common ways for God’s power to be made known is through getting to know up close the people whose lives have been transformed and set free by His holy love. We don’t need to be preachers to tell someone else how God’s love has made a difference in our lives. And we don’t need to be religious experts to show those around us the blessings that come from walking in God’s holy ways. All of us who have answered Christ’s gracious call, and who follow our Saviour in faith are salt and light in our own unique ways… sharing the life of God’s Kingdom simply by living out the Good News every day.
 
And this leads us to our first reading today from the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 58, where the Living God has some hard words for His people who at the time had not been faithfully following His holy ways, and were in need of some correction.
 
In this chapter, God calls out His covenant people Israel, for while they were certainly going through the motions of devotion… practicing fasting, and offering sacrifices all in accordance with the commandments in the Torah, God could see that their hearts were still far away from His own, and so He calls them to turn back to Him… to put God’s holy ways into practice, which we heard last week from the Prophet Micah are inseparable from doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with the Living God. Isaiah words this calling in his own way, but the message from God strikes the same chord. Isaiah 58:6-10,
 
“Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
 
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
 
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.
 
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
 
What does God tell Isaiah and His people will happen when they pursue justice, and actively practice kindness? “your light shall break forth like the dawn… your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.” And “you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.”
 
All of the Law and the Prophets call on us to turn to the Living God in faith… to love Him and our neighbours as ourselves… to act with justice, and love kindness, and walk with God in His holy ways. And when God’s people do this… that is when we are the salt and the light that our world desperately needs… and is longing to taste and see, even if they have not all yet recognized their hunger… or imagined the goodness God has in store for them. 

Like salt and light, even a tiny bit of this new life stands out, and can make a huge difference. Just think: if everyone we encounter day by day experiences just a taste and a glimpse of God’s good Kingdom at work in our lives… if they come to see ordinary folks like you and me can be salted by the life of Jesus Christ, and that we are somehow reflecting the glory of God’s holy love… how might that start to impact those we know here in Gondola Point and beyond?
 
But then again, there’s another question that should give us pause as well: What happens if we’re not being salt and light? What happens… not only to us as Christ’s people… what happens to the communities God has placed us in? To those hungering for a taste of heaven… and longing for any sign of hope?
 
When this weight sinks in, we need to remember that Jesus calls us in faith to be what His grace and love alone can make us. We cannot transform ourselves into the salt and light that our world needs… what we can do is receive the gift of Christ’s new life, and cling to Him as we follow His lead, and with God’s help, put His holy ways into practice.
In complete devotion to the supreme justice of God, Jesus took on our flesh and suffered in our place. In inexpressible mercy, and kindness, Christ freely gave up His life at the cross to save sinners like us, and to set us free once and for all. And in the world-changing power of God, Jesus rose again from the dead… He is seated at the Father’s right hand in glory… and through His Holy Spirit our Saviour is with us still… humbly walking with us always.
 
And so, with the help of His Holy Spirit, we can be salt of the earth because of the difference His righteousness and mercy have already made. And we can be the light of the world because in Him we have already seen the saving light of God, calling us out from the shadows, and into the presence of His new life even now.

And we can continue to be Christ’s salt and light… and avoid losing our saltiness, or hiding our radiance by pressing on in faith… by walking humbly with our Lord, and drawing near to Him day by day. Walking with Jesus in the comfort and strength of His saving love, walking in the good ways He has taught us, and walking with Him into a world that’s hungry and longing for what God has for them. Amen.