Matthew 5:13-20 —- I love to make homemade guacamole. It only takes four main ingredients: avocado, garlic, lime juice and salt. Once we had guests over for dinner and we had guacamole on the table. I was proud to serve my fresh recipe to our friends until I tasted it. I had forgotten the salt! Oh my, what a difference! The flavors were non-existent. It was just mushy green stuff to add color to our tortilla chips. The lack of salt means lack of flavor, un-appetizing, un-appealing. It is the salt that brings the avocado to life.
Naturally occurring salt attracts animals, for all creatures need a certain level of salt and other minerals in our systems. Animal tracks leading to salt licks served as the framework for early human paths and then for roads and even highways in this country. Continue reading “Lessons for Life”
God as Change Agent
Psalm 40 (preached at Cherry Hill Community Presbyterian Church during a PULPIT SWAP)
Martin Luther King, Jr. was clearly a man who followed God. Many of us see him as a prophet who spoke a word calling for change, renewal and a re-ordering of values. His commitment to non-violence, his teaching, his actions, his willingness to even give up his life, all provide us with an echo of the life of another who spoke and lived peace, who gave up his life, the one we call Jesus, the Son of God. Martin Luther King, Jr. echoes the life of Jesus.
Both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jesus himself stand squarely in the traditions of our Jewish forefathers and foremothers who wrote and lived the Old Testament. The psalms have served for centuries as the prayer and song book of the Bible, Continue reading “God as Change Agent”
