[Sermon] Be the Salt, Let the Light Shine

Pastor Hector Garfias-Toledo

February 8, 2026 + Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49xbjm_yjYQ

Drawing from Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, Pastor Hector invites us to reconsider why we are here—not just in worship, but in the world. Salt and light are not passive identities; they are lived vocations that require presence, courage, and love. Salt must dissolve to season and heal, just as disciples must risk themselves for the sake of others. In a world marked by despair and division, being who we are in Christ becomes a form of holy resistance. Anchored in Jesus, our light shines not to draw attention to ourselves, but to reveal God’s goodness, truth, and grace.

Sermon Transcript

From YouTube's automatic captions, lightly edited by AI for readability.

Grace to you and peace from God—Abba, father, mother, creator, parent—and the Lord Jesus Christ, our savior and lord. And we said, amen.

I don't know how you deal with the Holy Spirit, but sometimes the Holy Spirit just messes up my life. I thought what I wanted to say, and I prepared for a week what I wanted to say, and then, through David this morning, he mentioned this—the Spirit mentioned something to me—and now I don't know what to say when he shared with us about salt in the earth. Now my whole message is like, “What do I do with this Spirit?” But I think this is the beauty—this is the beauty of our faith.

As we were reading with St. Paul, he is saying we go to school, we want to try to make this so intelligent and academic and philosophical. We are missing the point, because it's as simple as who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us and for the entire creation. I was going to talk about salt, and I was going to talk about other things, but now I don't know what to talk about. But then I think that, as I am looking at the passages, I kind of start with Shakespeare.

You didn't expect that, right? To be or not to be. That's as much as I know of Shakespeare. Okay, don't ask me anything else, because I—I cannot say more. But to be or not to be, that is the question. Well, in the passage that we read, Jesus says, “Let me tell you why you are here. You are here to be salt seasoning.” Thank you, Jesus, for the answer. Now I know what we are going to be.

In the passage that we read in Matthew, chapter 5, 13–20, we see—we can hear—the story that, I believe, through the many years you have been hearing in different shapes and forms, different interpretations. But most of the time, this story focuses on the images—on salt and light—and what salt means in our lives, what light means in our lives.

As I was talking with our young worshippers, which I think is important, I always believe, again, that the Spirit speaks to us in different ways at different times, under the circumstances in which we are living. In other words, we hear the living Word of God.

Last Sunday, we heard—from the message that our brother Jeff Tobin brought to us—about the blessedness and the idea that we are “unblessable” sometimes, and yet that the blessedness is a gift that has been given to us, not as an option but as a gift of who we are, part of our identity. And the passages that we are reading today are in the context of the season of Epiphany, in this time when we talk about the revelation of Christ’s identity—of Jesus’ identity—that is noticed by the magi, by John the Baptist, or the baptizer.

And as we were listening to the story, we can see that this story of the identity of Jesus starts shifting a little bit toward the identity of the disciples, who are the light, and Jesus, who is the source of that light. These passages that we read today—especially the gospel—are placed between the Beatitudes that we heard last Sunday and the Sermon on the Mount that we’ll hear soon. It is, I believe, Jesus making a statement of our vocation as disciples. What does it mean to be part of the light of the Lord Jesus, of the light that the Lord Jesus brings to this world?

There is a switch in this revelation, in this manifestation of God’s reign, and the calling of the community to embody that vocation, to embody that message. We are given an identity, a means through which God’s reign unfolds and becomes palpable in a world of hopelessness and despair. When we were singing the first hymn today, you could hear, “Christ, be our light.” And through the hymn, we are asking God to help us to be that palpable presence of the new order that God brings to this world.

The passage helps us to move from who Jesus is to who we are now that we know what it means for the world and what it means for us to know who Jesus is and who we are. So the question, maybe, for us is: why are we here today?

I mean, there’s a big game going on. Why are you here today?

And it’s not only in the sense of being here in the building, in your pew, in the service. I think the question is broader than that. Why are we here today? It’s a question of purpose, of meaning in life. It’s a question of not just being here and trying to adopt philosophies or ideas and feel good about it, but we are talking about the ultimate purpose of us as human beings and part of the entire creation.

And Jesus responds and says, “You are to be salt seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”

I think that I shared with you some time ago—and it came to my mind again, because I recently had to do it myself—but I told you that one day, when I had just met my wife, Jade, and I bit my lip—my inner lip—and I was bleeding, and I was like, “Oh my goodness, what do I do?” She said, “Oh, let me help you.” And then she goes to the kitchen, or one of the cabinets, and says, “Well, just show me where you bit yourself.” And then I didn’t know what she was doing. And then she takes a little—I now know it was like a shaker—and then she takes salt and just puts it there. She said, “It’s going to hurt, but just put it there. It will heal.”

And she just puts, like, a mini spoon of salt on the bite. And I was like—well, I don’t want to describe what I was doing and what I said when I felt it. But I started thinking of the properties of salt—the paradox of pain and healing, life and death. When I experienced that salt in my inner lip, and I say—I say—the other day I had to do it again, and this passage came to my mind, because it was like two weeks ago when I had to do it. “Well, I’m going to do what my wife did last time, be brave,” and I put it. I said, “Now I remember what it feels like to put salt when you bite yourself.”

Also, I was thinking that another property of salt is that salt by itself does not work. Salt in a shaker—salt as a stone—can be there and doesn’t do anything. What do we need to do with salt for salt to work?

How?

Add it.

But what happens? I mean, I’m a chemist, so I need to go to this. So what happens to the salt? What do you need? I mean, you put the salt, you add it to the food. Does the salt stay in this nature? It dissolves. Thank you—I said that colleague chemist—thank you very much, right? So it dissolves. The salt works—it needs to dissolve.

And I started thinking: is that what Jesus is telling us? Is he inviting us to think of the importance of salt, and how salt works and makes a difference? Salt must dissolve to season. Salt needs to contact a wound to heal, even though it stings. Salt needs to be scattered to prevent decay.

This speaks directly to the disciples’ calling—our calling. Our identity is not for self-preservation but for participation. We are given an identity to be spent on the healing and the preservation of the world. This involves a kind of death to self-autonomy. We need to be the scattered church. It’s great to see this block of salt in this building, but it’s more beautiful to see this salt in this building be scattered in the world, bringing healing—sometimes with pain—but helping the reign of God to continue to evolve and unfold in a world that is yearning for healing and transformation.

We are here today to be reminded. We are here at the table, as I was telling the young worshippers, to be reminded of our identity and who we are and why we are here. This building is not a shaker where we stay and stay nicely. We are called, by the waters of our baptism, to be dissolved into the world, to bring and to be the healing power of the Lord in the community.

So the question came up last Wednesday in our Bible study—that was a wonderful discussion—so what does it mean to be salt in the world at a time like this?

Do we need to be the pain in the neck?

Does our saltiness need to cause pain in order to bring healing to what is going on in our community?

To bring flavor to the conversation, or to bring growth and change? And you say, “To bring flavor,” right? That’s what I think I heard—yes—to the conversation, even in difficult times. I mean, seasoning in difficult times.

One of the main questions that came last Wednesday was: does salt seasoning, or letting our light shine, imply protest—calling out acts that go against God’s intent for every and any person in this society?

What does it mean to be the salt of the earth at a time like this?

My answer was: I think that we are called to protest, that we are called to call out actions that are destroying societies, families, individuals. But we need to be careful not to lose the focus and the source of that property—that the source of all of this is Jesus, who teaches us also to be and to love those who are causing that pain in our society. It is a fine line and a very difficult task.

Being who we are, my siblings in Christ, is holy resistance already. As I was telling the young worshippers, sometimes it doesn’t take an act of violence to show the power of the saltiness that has been given to us. Sometimes the kind touch, the listening, and the way of reacting in a very different way is already resistance to everything that breaks and tears down communities and societies.

Being who we are is holy resistance and protest. Salt does not draw attention to itself; it simply draws out the best in what it touches. Light does not argue with darkness; it simply shines to reveal what cannot be seen. Through our testimony—being who we are—the world will taste the goodness of the Lord: transformation, healing, and wholeness.

Taking this call seriously means that we live in a world that hungers for flavor and longs for clarity. The world’s need is for people—people who can call out goodness as salt and generously and courageously reveal truth as light. And the promise that you and I have, the promise that has been given to us in these passages, is that the capacity to live this calling does not originate in our own strength. And that is a blessing.

I know that our community and our society tell us that we just need to work harder and we are going to solve things. Well, sometimes we cannot rely on our own brokenness and our own limitations. We need to rely on the source of life, love, and grace.

This passage, this call, this promise is inviting us to live with purpose, trusting that every act of mercy, every moment of compassion, and every step toward justice shines more brightly than we know. As I said, even if we feel that what we are doing and saying may be tiny—like that little light that we saw going away—we are still able, and the world will be able to see it. And we need to trust that by being who God calls us to be, we reveal and uncover the truth. We become the way God guides God’s people, and we testify to the truth that has been given to us.

Be the salt, and let your light shine.

Amen.