It's All performance Art 84

Here is more from my efforts at memorizing Jesus Sermon on the Mount, Gentle Reader:

"Ustedes son la sal de la tierra.  Pero si la sal se vuelva insípida, ¿cómo recobrará su sabor?  Ya no sirve para nada, sino para que la gente la deseche y pisotee.  Ustedes son la luz del mundo.  Una ciudad en lo alto de una colina no puede esconderse, ni se enciende una lámpara para cubrirla con un cajón.  Por el contrario, se pone en la repisa para que alumbre a todos que están en la casa.  Hagan brillar su luz delante de todos, para que ellos puedan ver las obras buenas de ustedes, y alaben al Padre que está en el cielo."

In English:

You are the salt of the earth  But if the salt becomes insipid, how is it going to regain its flavour?  It is now good for nothing, except for the people to reject it and trample it underfoot.  You are the light of the world.  A city on top of a hill cannot conceal itself, nor is a lamp lit in order to be covered with a box.  Rather, it is placed high in a sconce where it can give light to all who are in the house.  Let your light shine before everyone, that they can see your good works, and give praise to the Father who is in heaven.

Yes, this warning not to lose our zing.  Salt is essential to our lives and wellbeing, but in excess, look out!  For Christians this is a call to keep our edge and basically to stay interesting and engaging to the community, but to not overdo it.  Too much salt is bad for the blood pressure.

As light to the world, we cannot remain hidden.  Our very lives and our words must proclaim the reality of Christ, but it isn't so much in our words as in our acts and our deeds.  When people see the work of God in our lives, they will know that something extraordinary is occurring.  They may not believe, they might never believe, but still if we are faithful, they will see and they will, each in their way glorify the one we are called to serve.

This is a tricky balance.  From time to time I enjoy binge-watching sixties and seventies TV shows on YouTube.  Right now it's the Time Tunnel, rather a cheesy science fiction program from 1966 and 67 about two young American scientists (males, natch, this was the sixties after all!).  This, like so many TV shows of its vintage, takes itself just too seriously, no humour or irony, and so it really becomes its own shameless display of unintentional camp.  So, it's kind of hilarious, if not intentionally so.

Last night I saw the episode about the walls of Jericho as they came a-tumblin' down.  The two scientists land in Joshua's camp and they are dispatched as the two spies that infiltrate the city of Jericho and were taken in by Rahab the harlot.  In the show they really make hay out of Rahab, as much as they were allowed within the strict confines of censorship from that era, and of course the two all-American scientists are also very pious and God-fearing and bible believing. 

Now, I have no opinion one way or the other as to the veracity of the account from the Book of Joshua about the city of Jericho.  It is said that the armies of Israel walked around the city seven times, then the walls came a-tumblin' down and they all went in and slaughtered everyone there except the harlot Rahab and her family.    Hmm...war crimes anyone?  Well, I wasn't there, so don't ask me what happened, or how it really happened.  But posted in the comment section I read all these barmy pronouncements from barmy fundamentalists about how literally true the Bible is and one fellow even mapped out in meticulous detail exactly when the world is going to end in thirty years and Jesus returns.

I did comment in a couple of places.  I asked the future-forecasting fundamentalist if he has been forgetting to take his prn's, darling?  (the letters stand for the Latin pro re nata, or take as needed, and is a reference to the psychiatric medication that can be taken as needed in order to stave off symptoms of psychosis, etc.  I know, I'm mean, what else is new?)  Someone weighed in that it's all fairy tales, and I replied that even so, there might be nuances in those accounts that we shouldn't pass over (no pun intended).  To another fundamentalist, I simply replied how sad it is that Christians are so eager to make complete asses of themselves on public forums.

Which is exactly my point, and what I would like to focus on about being salt and light to the world.  Quite simply, we really need to shut up more, and live in a way that makes Christ real in our lives.  The more we open our mouths to proclaim the Gospel, often the more we bring the very beauty of those words into complete disgrace, especially when our lives in no way measure up to the teachings of the One we presume to follow.