Isaiah 58:7-10/ 1 Cor 2:1-5 / Matthew 5:13-16
Going to the seaside and just looking at the sea can be quite relaxing, and it can also make us do some reflecting.
The sea is like always alive, with the waves coming in and going out, and the sea breeze can help us forget our worries for a while.
And if we stretch our imagination a bit, the sea is like supporting all the ships and the boats and everything that is on it.
The sea gives a sense that it is alive, and indeed it is full of life.
So whenever we talk about the sea, we would think of water and the fishes, the wind and waves.
But there is a particular sea that is rather strange. Even the name sounds like some kind of contradiction. It is called the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is actually a very large lake, bordering Jordan to the east and Israel to the west, which means that it is land-locked.
And if we were to stand on the shores of the Dead Sea, we will notice one thing.
The sea, or the so-called sea, is rather quiet and calm – no waves, no ships, no boats, nothing of what we would expect a sea to have.
The name of the sea tells us why. It is the Dead Sea. There is no life in it – no fish or marine life.
That is because the high salt content (8.5 times higher than the ocean) prevents fish and aquatic plants from living in it.
An interesting point is that the waters of the river Jordan will flow down from the highlands in the north, and flow down to the sea of Galilee, and then down to the Dead Sea, and it stops there.
Yes, the waters flow all the way down until it reaches the Dead Sea where it comes to a dead end, because there are no outlets.
The Dead Sea tells us one thing – when things stop moving, they will die.
Similarly when things are not used for their purposes, they will become useless. An example are batteries. When they are not used after some time, they will become useless.
Similarly with people. When people don’t realize the purpose of their lives, they become meaningless.
And that is what Jesus is saying in the gospel when He used the analogies of salt and light.
Salt that has no taste is like dry desert sand. And why hide the light? Might as well don’t have the light at all.
Salt gives taste and light gives sight. That’s the reason why Jesus used them as analogies.
The purpose of our lives is to realize who we are and to give of what we have. But when we don’t, then our lives become meaningless and lifeless, just like the Dead Sea.
There is a story of a pretty and well-dressed lady who went to see a lawyer to file for divorce.
Her husband used to be a successful businessman, and he was able to support her expensive and lavish life-style.
But when his business failed, his wife couldn't accept it and decided to file for divorce and leave him.
When the lawyer heard her story, he told her that he would like someone to speak to her, and he called in a middle-aged office cleaner.
The lawyer asked the cleaner to tell the lady how she found meaning and direction in her life.
The cleaner’s story went like this – My husband died of cancer in his late 30s, and then barely half a year later, my only son was killed in a road accident.
I had nobody left and nothing to live for. I was in grief and in shock and in a daze. I couldn’t sleep and couldn’t eat.
I couldn’t smile. I was angry with God and resented those people who seemed so happy in life. I even thought of ending my life.
One day when I came back from work, there was a scrawny kitten at the corridor, meowing away, and it followed me to the door.
I felt sorry for the kitten, and I decided to let it in and I gave it some milk. It purred and rubbed against my leg.
For the first time in months, I smiled. Then I stopped to think. If helping and feeding a little kitten can make me smile, then maybe helping somebody in need can make me happy.
So the next day, I cooked some food and brought it to a neighbor who was elderly and sick, and it made her happy.
So every day, I would try to do something nice for someone else and it made me happy to see them happy.
I realized that a person cannot be happy unless he is thinking of how much he can help others, instead of thinking about how much he can get from others.
Now I eat well, and I sleep well, and I am happy.
And then the cleaner said to the lady : I hope that you can be happy too, by helping others to be happy.
Whether the lady went on to file for divorce or not, the story left it to us to think about it.
But the point of the story is that the poor cleaner found happiness by helping others to be happy.
In doing that, she also found her purpose and meaning in life.
We are Christians. A Christian is a person in whose life Christ lives again.
And just as Christ gave His life for us, so too we must give our lives for others, by helping them to be happy.
Otherwise we might just end up like the Dead Sea.
Just as salt gives taste and light gives sight, let us give love. Because we can only be happy when we help others to be happy.