Formed: E7 Formed for the Commission

Jacob Creighton: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Formed Podcast, episode seven. This is our last episode in the Formed series talking about being formed for the commission coming from Matthew 5, 13 through 16. Chris, how we doing today?

Chris: Oh well, I mean it's kind of crazy day. We're recording on a day where there's some pretty interesting weather going on outside. Which, when is there not interesting weather in Pittsburgh?

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I got a notification that said basically your house is gonna be blown away by a tornado. Go to the basement. I went downstairs two seconds later, turned on the news and the guy on the news was like, yeah, there's a tornado coming. And then he was like, wait, actually, just kidding. No, you're all right. I was like, this is crazy. So.

Chris: I'm telling you man, being a weather person in Pittsburgh would be a great job. You can be wrong 75 % of the time and people still love you.

Jacob Creighton: Yep, you're right. As long as you say it's not gonna snow. So, yeah. ⁓ Yeah, being for the commission. Matthew five. Chris, why don't you go ahead and read it for us so we can get started.

Chris: That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, so Matthew five, Matthew is of course, first book in the New Testament. This is in Jesus's famous sermon on the Mount just after the Beatitudes, which shameless plug is like our next major ⁓ sermon series after what we're doing right now, which is Hosanna to hated. But Matthew five verses 13 to 16, it says, are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It's no longer good for anything except to just be thrown out and trampled underfoot. you're the light of the world. A town on a hill, cannot be hidden. And neither do people light a lamp and put it under the bowl. Instead, they put it up on a stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. And so in the same way, let your lights shine before others that they may see your good works, but glorify your father who is an.

Jacob Creighton: And I love that. Love that ⁓ Jesus spends a lot of time just talking in illustrations and word pictures. It does my ⁓ creative heart good. And so, but at the same time, it's important to know kind of what these illustrations mean. And so the big ones, obviously from these verses, salt of the earth, light of the world. You did some kind of digging on both of those, but I want to hear what's it mean to be the salt of the earth.

Chris: Yeah, so it's fascinating, because I'm with you. I love that Jesus takes things. We say in a communication aspect, putting the cookies on the bottom shelf where everyone can access it. And Jesus was such a master at that in his teaching. He knew his audience. It kind of shows as he's talking to different groups of people just how he's able to connect to them in different ways. And so of course, this is like a wide group of people. ⁓ and they have some agrarian background here. And so he uses ⁓ first salt of the earth. You are the salt of the earth. And I was doing some reading and some researching and it was really cool to kind of see how and why he uses salt and then why he uses earth. And the salt aspect, I think we think of salt as typically like table salt. It can add flavor to things or flavor. to things, can preserve things, especially in the older days before refrigeration, you needed salt. That's why a country ham is so good and so salty, that preservation aspect. But one thing that I wasn't accounting for and even had really studied a lot on is that this salt, based on his audience, if he's connected to this agrarian society and these people that were coming from all over and knew how to work the land, this salt could as well have been fertilizer. And it could have been a mix, just like I put fertilizer in my yard, because I like, I'm bougie when it comes to my yard, I want a nice yard. ⁓ But here Jesus could be saying like, hey, you are the fertilizer of the earth. You are the fertilizer of this place, this like definitive place where you are. You can be an enriching agent to this place. And you know, just kind of humbled by that and thinking like, yeah, And I think you can apply just as much the preservation piece and just as much the flavoring piece to this analogy, but it's really fascinating to look at it from the eyes of enrichment for a place, ⁓ an inhabited place, Earth, ⁓ is really neat. It's kinda set me back in some ways, not set me back, but kinda got me swirling and just thinking, how can I do that?

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah, that's good. So you are the salt of the earth. You're an enriching agent kind of right where you're spread or cast or at. ⁓ Who's he talking to here?

Chris: Yeah, mean, he's, so this is, know, ministry is just beginning. I mean, you if you kind of look at Matthew and look at the parallels of Matthew to the Old Testament, you see these patterns kind of mimic the children of Israel and you see Jesus kind of become the greater Moses that goes up on the mountain to get the law. And here Jesus goes up on the mountain and he is God, so he speaks. And he's speaking to people that have just gathered, people that have. had have come together, they brought their sick, they brought their lame, they brought their children, they brought their families. They've kind of heard about this guy who's kind of been out in the outskirts of places. And so it's this really like melting pot group of people that aren't religious elite. And he's sharing these things and he's looking at this people who aren't trained, aren't educated, aren't maybe even religious. They're wounded, they may be poor, they don't check any tangible box and he looks at them and says, you are the salt of the year.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Pretty crazy. Pretty crazy. Yeah, it's, mean, such an important thing to grab hold of that he wasn't talking to like, yeah, like you said, the religious elite or this specific group of people or, you know, like an organization. He's pretty, talking pretty plainly.

Chris: It's just, I can't imagine. I just can't imagine.

Jacob Creighton: to the people they're hearing that you are the salt of the earth. ⁓ Yeah. Next one, you're the light of the world. Maybe unpack that a little bit for us.

Chris: Yeah, I so I think light here is a pretty like static illustration, just kind of in your mind, you think of light, what is light all for us? It's heat, it's visibility, it's warmth, it's ⁓ knownness. I think there's a, know, what we know of light now, could turn the light off, I'll disappear on the screen, I turn the light back on, ⁓ here I am. ⁓ Some of our watchers might say it'd be better if you turned the light off, you have a space.

Jacob Creighton: Right. my light is making me look orange right now. So. I know, I know, I know, I know.

Chris: Yeah. ⁓ We ⁓ want to get you like on those spotlights or something, you know, that Dirks has. ⁓ So he's saying you are the light. Well, one thing that, you know, Jesus has made clear, there's the passage in John where Jesus is teaching in the temple and it's in the midst of the festival of light. And he's most likely there in the treasury where these ⁓ massive candle lobbers are that project light into all of the city of Jerusalem. And they just had this beautiful light show the night before and he like says, hey, I am the light of the world. I am the light. And then here he says, you are the light of the world. And I think it's, here we are to be this.

Jacob Creighton: Hmm.

Chris: this aspect just like him. Remember we're being formed, we're being formed in the image of Christ, being formed into who we already are in the eyes of Christ is what we keep saying. Well, if he is the light, then guess what that means? We are, we are the light. We are visibility, we are warmth, are, what does light bring to plants? You know, if we're talking about the enrichment piece, what does a plant need to grow? But they need light to grow and produce food, crops, fruit.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Chris: and whatnot, and then you're the light of the world. And I take world here as meaning like a cultural aspect here where earth is like inhabited place, where your feet are planted, your area. I think world incorporates kind of more of a broader sense of like the interconnectedness of culture, the different dynamics that there are, ⁓ language and backgrounds and history and.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: ⁓ desires and wants and just kind of all those things that mix together into the pot of making culture. Here, I think Jesus is saying, are the light, you bring visibility to this, you bring warmth to this, you bring an opportunity for growth into all this, ⁓ into that culture in the moment that you are.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. it gotta be crazy for the original hearers to first of all, hear Jesus be like, I'm the light of the world. Like they're like, wait a second, you're saying that you're a God. And then also for him to say, and you are the light of the world. It's like, you know, if they were coming into this, just wanting to hear somebody.

Chris: Yeah.

Jacob Creighton: just give some thoughts. Their mind is blown and then it's even blown further of like, what is happening? So.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, I'll even tell you, like, I've been doing some studying for the Beatitudes sermon that's coming up. And if what I'm kind of tracking with the Beatitudes is true, for him to like lay out the Beatitudes the way that he did is like happy is the person who, and then like list these things out, which is basically leveling the playing field.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: and he levels the playing field and then looks at these people and says, you're salt, you're light, go. I mean, if that is the case, man, these people were baffled. This was not how the system was set up. Like they didn't use words like equity or equality or, know, they didn't have these kind of like at least attempted systems in place. I mean, it was haves or it was have nots. It was an

Jacob Creighton: yeah ⁓ yeah Yeah.

Chris: And the religious elite basically ran a lot within this area. And if you were not one of them, if you didn't check those boxes, you were out and you were most likely poor. And if you were poor, you were cursed by God. And then here, this figure that's claiming to be the light of the world is looking at you saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're salt, you're light. I mean, it's like, boom.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: And that's why I think we brought it up in this formed series is that this is the work that he's doing inside of us. He is declaring us like we have an identity now. I am salt. I am light.

Jacob Creighton: yeah Yeah, and to, you know, the average person then, crazy. I imagine if this was given to us, it should also feel kind of crazy in light of our culture and context, too. You know, I think about our own leanings maybe as like Christian culture or, ⁓ yeah, more traditional culture here, but Jesus to say, are the light of the world. He's not just talking to, you know, this is not just a pastor's job, not the priest's job. This is like every person that's an earshot there. This is what is being formed in them. ⁓ To that point, maybe to take that jump from their culture to our culture today, how do you see the church, be Steel City Church, could be the church kind of at large in Pittsburgh currently, being

Chris: Oh, yeah. Oh, I you're gonna be fired up. I think first we have to take into consideration kind of what Jesus says in the second parts of these verses where, know, if salt loses its saltiness, like if you're not being an enriching agent, it's kind of like then what are you even making this confession for? What are you even claiming Jesus to be your savior for?

Jacob Creighton: salt and light.

Chris: And so he's not making people out to be worthless. That's not what he's intending here. He's basically saying like, if you're not actually leveraging the formation that I'm doing inside of you, what are you doing? It's just like the person who lights a lamp and covers it up. Well, they're not just covering it up to hold the light in for themselves. They're covering it up to put it out. It's just like the old elementary. ⁓ science fair trick or whatnot. You light the candle and put the jar over top of it. Well, it burns for a second until it runs out of fuel or out of oxygen and then it extinguishes. That's his principle there is he's like, why are you covering this thing up? Why are you allowing yourself to be unenriching or unflavorful or unpreserving? Like that's not the point here. It's to go out. And so our whole mission here, identity is to be enriching within

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: an inhabited place. Our goal is to be light within culture. We must go do that. And your question is, how do you go do that? Or what are some ways you could go do that? And the cool thing is, it's endless. Like there's no one right answer. Like I can envision, I could sit here for forever maybe, but for hours and tell you.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: Well, this could happen and this can happen and this can happen. mean, so if you want me to, I mean, give some examples like how can our church, how can our church be enriching to our inhabited place? ⁓ Once, and I'll be real with you, just like the formation in us is not our work, it's the Holy Spirit's work within us. We make ourselves open for that. I think our church's place is that too, in our enrichment. You know, I've been fascinated by reading ⁓ in Genesis with Jacob.

Jacob Creighton: Go ahead.

Chris: or I'm sorry, not Jacob, you're Jacob, but Joseph. And Joseph's in Egypt, Joseph's in Egypt, and what does it say? And the Lord blessed Egypt. Why did God bless Egypt? Because Joseph was there. And Egypt was filthy rich and got filthy richer because Joseph was there. And... Obviously that expired and we had that ended, but there's still the fact that Egypt experienced long benefits from just simply Joseph's presence being there. What if that was the case for Steel City Church? What if our neighbors were simply blessed just because we're in their inhabited place? Their lives are enriched because of that. I think that would be incredible. I think that's kind of a general thing, but.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: You know, what is it where if we invest in the neighborhood and serve in a way that is like leading out in compassion ministry, what if we understood the story of our inhabited place, which in Greenfield, one of the stories that in our neighborhood is Greenfield, it's a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, if you're listening from out of town or something, but. Our neighborhood tells a story of addiction when the steel industry collapsed, what came in, but opioids and hard drugs. man, our neighborhood tells a very, very hard story of that. What if we step into that and we enrich the neighborhood by caring for families that have dealt with that and people that are dealing with addiction. We enrich them just simply by being present and opening our doors for them. ⁓ How can we be light? mean, what is it to be to support various things within our neighborhood, the baseball field that's down the street, that where we're able to maybe just make gentle, like spoken words into culture to shift the dynamic from maybe ⁓ family legacy destruction into salvation that then leads to hope and joy and peace and righteousness in families.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: for generations to come.

Jacob Creighton: if we look at maybe Steel City Church and what, if we're to say salt and light, kind of how are we doing? It feels like we're kind of just scratching the surface of what's possible from ⁓ the work of the Holy Spirit, just from our church. There's several other churches Pittsburgh that you could give countless examples of doing this. ⁓ I think sometimes when ⁓ we're on the topic of being salt and light. We want to see like, you know, this amount of, you know, this big statistic and numbers and whatever. But ⁓ I think for our church, like, and where I say we're kind of just scratching the surface is what this looks like is like a neighbor that was not cared for previously that is cared for because somebody who is filled with the spirit lives beside them.

Chris: ⁓ yeah.

Jacob Creighton: I genuinely cares for them. Maybe they're involved in our church now, maybe they're several years removed from that. ⁓ I think of even college students, we have what, 12 to 15 college students at our church. so it's something that David just kind of started from zero and... The fact that there are college students plugged in in our church is part of just his faithfulness in saying, hey, we're going to keep putting the gas or putting the pedal down and being here and being involved. so, ⁓ I just think of those individuals that are now connected that weren't connected, not because like, there's like a program happening but because there's like a person that has like connected with them that's where they're at. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, the relational, I just think, mean, we're in an, we're the most connected, connected culture of all time when you look at just access to each other, but yet the isolation numbers are just through the roof and what is the differentiation there? We are connected, but we're not connected at a relational way. And I mean, and how can we be

Jacob Creighton: Yeah.

Chris: How can we really, like what does salt do when it enriches the earth? When you throw fertilizer out, listen, I throw fertilizer in my yard and I don't think about it again. Like it doesn't work on the top, it works underneath, it works invisibly. And I think about our people, like if we wanna saturate Pittsburgh with disciples, we're saturating Pittsburgh with an enriching agent all over Pittsburgh and they like settle into their neighborhood.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah, right.

Chris: And they just, care for the neighbor to the left and they care for the neighbor to the right. And they care for the neighbor across the street and they add value and they add, they maybe speak value into their neighbors because I love you. Not because of anything you're done. You don't cut my grass. You don't paint my house. You're my neighbor and I love you. And we enrich them that way. And then maybe we can have opportunities to shine light, you know, something

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Chris: something horrific comes, ⁓ man, we can actually care for this neighbor and speak truth to this neighbor and pick them up when they're down and walk through life with them, salt, light, same with coworkers, the same with classmates, the same, my favorite is to say is the barista at the coffee shop because my favorite barista that was in Pittsburgh now comes to our church. And it's just such a cool story, you know?

Jacob Creighton: Mm-hmm. video. Yeah, yeah, that's good. ⁓ Any closing kind of thoughts with this?

Chris: Well, I think the key here though, mean, being in the formed series, I mean, this is like an ever increasing like formational process within us. I mean, we just think like Christ, the presence of Christ was incredible. And in like, as we're formed to become like Christ, to become who we already are in Christ or in the eyes of Christ, our presence becomes... Enriching our presence becomes enlightening and vibrant. ⁓ And it's not because, and I love what it says, we do this, we shine our light before others. So people see the good works, they see them, they're undeniable. it was this, now it's this because this person did that. But the difference is in our culture, it says, get the glory.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Chris: But what does Jesus say here? So people will glorify your Father in heaven. It's like they look right through you and they see the source of where this is coming from. And so it invites us into a deeper relationship with Christ. The more we look like him, the more our presence increases. It grows more humility and love and grace and mercy and peace.

Jacob Creighton: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think about our church building when I think of like being the light of the world or, you know, a city on a hill kind of thought, you know, our church is on a hill in Greenfield as it looks out. But, you know, the, the, I feel like attraction, hopefully of our church is, you know, that the fact that our

Chris: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's.

Jacob Creighton: people are filled with the spirit being formed by the spirit and their tangible presence right where they're at. so ⁓ that's what's cool to me is, ⁓ yeah, when I think city on a hill, light of the world type of language, ⁓ yeah, it's, we have like a picture of that in our building, but that's not what I think of when I think of our people is the building. So it's cool. Yeah.

Chris: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, I dream that, and I've seen this happen, that people walk in and they're known. They're known because there's a relational cache that we have with people because we have enriched them, because we have cared for them and brought light to them.

Jacob Creighton: good. ⁓ This kind of wraps up our formal seven week series on ⁓ being formed by the Spirit and so we're going to continue. We'll have some more content coming down the road, ⁓ maybe a wrap up from this series and some other interview type things and we'll keep going probably into the Be Add Toods series so stay with us here on the Formed Podcast. We're glad to have you and as always leave a comment for us. We want to hear from you and we want to engage with those and bring them up even in the podcast with questions that you guys have so please do that drop us a comment leave us a like share us and ⁓ yeah give us give us a rating give us a five-star review for this uber drive yeah yeah no i'm not yeah whatever yeah but thanks for joining us we'll see you next time on the formed podcast

Chris: Put a rating. Can we get ratings? that, can you ask for that? I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to do the cool ask for the ratings. See ya.