The Bungee Cord. 2-9-26

Hello,

This week's Bungee Cord is the sermon I preached on Sunday. It seemed Bungee-worthy. If you want to see it live and in person, you can go to Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Stahlstown, Pa's facebook page....and you can see it there. Have a great week.

God's grace and Peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

Matthew 5:13-20

Feb. 2026

And Jesus says to you and me who have gathered around him this morning, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world.” This morning, Jesus is talking to you.

You…You…

• Not the influential and powerful people out there

• Not the rich and agenda driving people out there

• Not the rulers of nations and governmental officials out there

• Not the brilliant and technological wizards out there

• Not the famous and celebrated people out there

• Not the loud and blaring people out there

• Not the Super Bowl players and the Super T.V. Commercial makers out there

No….you….you who have gathered yourselves around Jesus this morning

You ARE

• Not you could be

• Not should be

• Not with a little time you will be

• Not if you want to be

• Not if you work hard enough to be

• Not if no one else wants to be

No….you ARE

Jesus says to you and me this morning who have gathered around him, “YOU ARE the salt of the earth….YOU ARE the light of the world.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of wallowing around day to day in the foot-deep mud that I encounter every day. From the moment that I step out of bed to the moment that I close my eyes at night in sleep, I feel like each step I take is through one of those swampy fields where when I step down my feet get swallowed up in the mud and when I try and lift my feet up it is almost as if they have been suctioned cupped to the wall, pulling my boots right off of me. For months now, the news that I hear and the events that have engulfed me, have been like heavy downpours, drenching the already saturated pathway of my life to the point that every step saps me of my strength and will to move forward.

And this morning, as you and I have trudged here through this seemingly unending thunderstorm pouring down cruelty, inhumanity, brutality, chaos, bitterness, callousness, and arrogance like cats and dogs creating a mud-path of loneliness, fearfulness, anger, despair, and hopelessness swallowing people up….Jesus says to you and to me, “YOU Are the salt of the earth…YOU ARE the light of the world.

Salt in Jesus day wasn’t so much used for seasoning as it was used for preserving. I don’t know how it is done, but up until refrigeration, people used salt to keep meat from rotting. So when Jesus says that you and are the salt of the earth, Jesus is telling you and me that we are preservers of life. As Jesus said in John 10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” In Baptism, Jesus has saturated your life with grace upon grace,

• and so when you go to your neighbor – maybe even a neighbor who you have not gotten along with very well, but who is suffocating in grief and say, “I’m here for you. If there is anything you need, give me a call, and I hope you don’t mind if I call you every once in a while to see how you’re doing….you are being salt.

• Or once, I found myself in 2009 when the ELCA sexuality study came out, when someone asked me, “What do you think about this gay thing?”, and I responded, “Well, I think they are people, too.” …. that was being salt.

And remember in Jesus’ day, when lights didn’t pollute the night sky, night was very dark.

• Some years ago, I was in the bush country of Africa where electricity had not reached that town. After an evening of dancing with the town around a fire, it was time to return to the hut in which I was staying, but it was so dark, I couldn’t see my hand at my side, let alone the path on which to walk. But as I stood there, frozen in the dark, I felt a hand take hold of mine…a hand that belonged to someone who had walked that pitch dark path all of his life, and he, like a light, let me home.

• When you reach out with your hand to someone in the pit of deepest darkness…someone who has been put down their whole life because of their failures, someone who has never been able to fit in and is lost in loneliness, someone who has sinned … maybe 70 x 7 times and you …and has made a mess of their life and you keep your hear open to them …not in an enabling way, but in a loving way, getting them the help that they need…you are being the light of the world.

Jesus says to you today, “You Are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world,” because it is you that – not the powerful, not the famous, not the high and mighty….it is you that will come face to face with the people who walk and who live in the world around you. It will be your hand that they will feel. It will be your voice that they will hear. It will be your arms that will hold them up. Hands and voice and arms that in Baptism have been saturated with Christ’s love and mercy.

You…yes you…are…yes are…the salt of the earth and the light of the world. “So let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and give glory to your father in heaven!”

This little light of mine. I’m gonna let it shine……..

Amen