and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will go forth in the darkness, and your night will be like noonday.and if you pour out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light will rise in darkness, and your obscurity will be as the noonday;And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul: then shall thy light rise in darkness, and thine obscurity be as the noonday;
3 sermons cite this verse
is definitely high on the list. Two Sundays ago, an ice storm blew through my corner of northeast Georgia, taking down thousands of trees, snapping more than 100 utility poles, and dropping over 10 miles of live wire on the ground. The power at my house was off for two and a half days, giving me plenty of time to meditate on what Jesus said about light. in this morning's excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount, except I didn't want to be the light two weekends ago. I just wanted it to come back on. And last Sunday, we got six inches of snow. There was no power outage this time, but the county manager said everyone should stay off the roads because we were almost out of salt, and there were already a lot of cars in ditches. He explained the shortage wasn't due to poor planning. It was just that the county had used most of its salt the week before and was sharing what was left with neighboring counties in worse shape than we were. …
In place of my usual holy greeting, let me just say, go devils, go. And for any of you watching from somewhere else, that was an athletic reference and not a metaphysical one. There are big sermons being preached in small places all over the world today, but you're about to hear a small sermon in a big place. So small that it only cares about two verses in the gospel you just heard and only two words out of those. Salt and light. It's not like those tiny lockets of meaning have somehow suffered from too little attention over time. If anything, they've suffered from too much. They've lost their tang from overhandling. They've lost their shine from overbranding. so I'm here to shrink them down to size if I can. Here they are in Jesus' own syntax, at least in translation. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. It's the you that makes them interesting, especially the second one, since in another gospel, Jesus says, I am the light of the world, but not here. …
6. And with fasting let us always join fervent prayer, pouring out our whole souls before God, confessing our sins with all their aggravations, humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, laying open before him all our wants, all our guiltiness and helplessness. This is a season for enlarging our prayers, both in behalf of ourselves and of our brethren. Let us now bewail the sins of our people; and cry aloud for the city of our God, that the Lord may build up Zion, and cause his face to shine on her desolations. Thus, we may observe, the men of God, in ancient times always joined prayer and fasting together; thus the Apostles, in all the instances cited above; and thus our Lord joins them in the discourse before us. 7. It remains only, in order to our observing such a fast as is acceptable to the Lord, that we add alms thereto; works of mercy, after our power, both to the bodies and souls of men: “With such sacrifices” also “God is well pleased.” Thus the angel declares to Cornelius, fasting and praying in his house, “Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.” (Acts 10:4.) And this God himself expressly and largely declares: “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thy own flesh? Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer: Thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. — If, “when thou fastest, “thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noon-day. And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: And thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” (Isa. 58:6.)