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Salt and Light puts hands and feet to the demands of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount from the viewpoint of a writer who believes they are not only viable, but inescapable - something for us to live out today.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus puts aside his usual parables and speaks plainly in language anyone can understand. Yet for centuries countless scholars have dissected and analyzed these important words - and dismissed their demanding precepts as unrealistic or symbolic.
Like Francis of Assisi and others, Arnold chose to live Jesus' words. He found new life by embracing the self-sacrificing and nonviolent demands of the Sermon on the Mount. This collection of talks and essays vividly describes a healing, energizing power for those burdened by the concerns of daily life. Arnold calls us to live for the Sermon's ultimate goal: the overturning of the prevailing order of injustice and building in its place a just, peaceable society motivated by love.
Arnold grappled with the Sermon on the Mount his whole adult life. His relentless faithfulness to its demands bore practical fruit in a community movement that is still thriving today. Although Arnold was addressing a Germany in political and social ferment, his words are not bound to time and place. They direct us out of our bankruptcy to a new, revolutionary way.
Arnold shows us that following these commandments consistently is neither an ideal nor an ordeal, but a matter of course in the community of Jesus. In the community of Jesus, life becomes clear, simple, decisive, and unequivocal. Gone are the many doubts and compromises, the many half-truths and the half-heartedness.
"Today people try to live simultaneously on the basis of law and of grace. A life of nonviolence is called absurd even though Jesus lived such a life. People oppose an uncompromising stand, calling it legalism and fanaticism. They say an unqualified yes to materialism, are infatuated with sin, and take pains to show that one can never get rid of it."
Responses
In thinking about the properties and uses of salt, we can note that salt dumped onto any food makes it inedible, a good thing to remember when evangelizing to those not of the Church. I believe a good use of Christian salt is our life as witness to the teachings of Jesus Christ working in the world. "See how they love each other."
Rosa G. Manriquez California
So true and inspiring! Gods love reaches everywhere and to live comfortably in our comfort zones without ever coming into contact with anyone different than our little "circle of friends" is so mundane and almost scary to me. Jesus was a rebel who defied social norms and Hes an awesome example to follow!! To be concerned and want to pray about the injustices, the crime, and the problems in our cities and communities is to have Gods love in us. It is truly supernatural and is nothing I or anyone else is doing...its totally Him shining! How can we live extraordinarily for Jesus today?
Jessica Neal from Missouri
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