We must never abandon our calling as salt and light

Faith in Christ brings responsibilities, not just blessings 

It was good to see the outgoing archbishop of Canterbury focusing on transformation this Christmas. It has always been my contention that the church should see itself as “A centre for alternative humanity”.

As Dr Williams so aptly said, “The challenge of the Gospel message is not about religious defensiveness but about the possibilities of transformation."

Reflecting on the incarnation he continued, "He does not come to give us a set of techniques for keeping God happy, and he certainly doesn’t come to create a harmlessly eccentric hobby for speculative minds. He comes to make humanity itself new, to create fresh possibilities.”

It’s for this reason we must never neglect our God-given calling to act as salt and light. Unfortunately it is all too easy to do so and to throw up our hands in defeat or even worse in some sort of pious horror when “we see things going down the tube”. If Jesus is right we would do better “to put our hands together” and ask our Heavenly Father to show us why we are not proving as influential as we should be.

As the late John Stott said so perceptively on one occasion, “One can hardly blame unsalted meat for going bad. It cannot do anything else. The real question to ask is: where is the salt?” Read more