The 5th Sunday of Epiphany, Year A
Scriptures: Psalm 112:1-10; Matthew 5:13-20
Key Verse: “Light shines in the darkness for the upright; the righteous are merciful and full of compassion.” (Psalm 112:4)
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Hello, This is Jade.
Welcome to Yi.kigai
A space for all to explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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Over the last few weeks, my husband and I have been watching a Chinese drama called ‘Meet Yourself.’ What I like about this drama is how they tell the stories of each character without sugar coating their lives or over dramatizing them. As I was reading the scripture from Matthew 5 about being the light and the salt of the world, I thought of a story in this drama.
A young man was about to be released from prison. Two of his childhood friends decided to pick him up together. Before he was released, his mom was stressed out wondering how she could make her son’s transition into a new life easier. Her solution was to send him off to a different village right away to avoid negative gossip or questions and doubts from their relatives and friends.
One of these two friends said to the mom, “You son has paid the price for his wrongdoing. Therefore, we should all feel happy for him. Instead of avoiding the upcoming challenges, we should celebrate his coming home. Let’s invite all your relatives and friends over to a feast. And let’s not make decisions for his future. He shall be the one to figure out his new life.” So, they did. Doesn’t this story sound familiar to you, the well-known parable of the Prodigal Son Jesus Christ teaches in Luke 15:11–32?
This story from the drama and the parable from Jesus remind me of two lessons in terms of how we can be the light and the salt of the world. The first lesson is the posture of our ways of protecting others or providing healing spaces. Don’t we have a living, loving, and mighty God who is actively strengthening our lives together? Then, we shouldn’t position ourselves as being defeated and running away from challenges.
The second lesson is the faith that we profess to believe in. Do we put our faith in what can strike and destroy us rather than in God who provides the ultimate protection and healing? We often either give too much credit to negative impacts or let them take over our energy and lives. We all know that the body of Christ can’t be built through the fight or flight response and that evil will always exist. How did Jesus respond to it? He proclaimed God’s love and forgiveness to those who haven’t heard and experienced.
Jesus teaches us not to hide the light or lose the seasoning salt. I can’t imagine being the young man living in hiding, being away from my family and close friends, and fighting and trying to survive without anyone next to me to comfort me. I also can’t imagine being the mom of that young man and not being able to shine his path or warm his heart by staying with him or not being able to season our lives together.
We might naively presume that we have the power to create an unharmful environment or believe that we can provide our loved ones with protection and healing forever in a world that we can’t even deal with ourselves most of the time. When we choose hiding and avoiding as the solution, we are not living as the light and the salt of the world to provide protection and healing for each other.
When we choose to have the full communion with the Holy Spirit that offers wisdom for our thoughts and guides our choices for the sake of God’s salvation, the Light of Christ fills us. Then new meaning to our ministries and services, our work, our relationships, even our retirements will start germinating and blooming. Let us be the light and the seasoning salt of the world.
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May your coming week be blessed by God’s grace
As together we explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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