Do you have that problem at your place? Oh? Haven't I told you what it is? Its name is untidiness. Perhaps we should give it a scientific name - fungus untidiensis. Does that make it sound better?
Of course, for school use someone invented these single desks with a plastic drawer underneath called a "tidy box". A number of teachers privately believe they should be called "untidy boxes". This is because they are really meant to keep all the untidiness out of sight. But, alas, when you hide fungus untidiensis it grows! Every teacher - every classroom! - has witnessed the sight of some hapless schoolchild having difficulty returning their untidy box to its runners - and all its contents being spilt over the classroom floor!
Of course, responsible adults should have known that would happen - because it always happens to us. This fungus untidiensis always multiplies when hidden in dark places. For example, the visitors are coming soon, so we clear a space into boxes which we tuck away into some dark corner. Then, when we are treasure hunting some six or twelve months later, it is just amazing how many things turn up.
Some children believe they have an answer to the problem. Close the curtains, shut the door, turn off the light. Now, you've never noticed fungus untidiensis while you've been sleeping, have you? It's the old principle of "out of sight, out of mind". Alas! It doesn't really work! Untreated, the fungus will just multiply anyway!
My father had the cure for it. A simple little saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place." You've heard it too? Then why is it so difficult? I believe we have two major problems. One is the increasing demands and complexity of our life. The other is the invention of the photocopier. Don't get me wrong! Used sensibly, as our office photocopier always is, it can be a real boon. But it has the capacity to produce endless sheets of paper which find their way into our homes. We should at least read them, but - what to do with them next? When can we dare to call them rubbish? Soon fungus untidiensis has absorbed them and they have become part of this growing, demanding problem!
They used to say, "Mother's work is never done!" But truly, the attack against this deadly fungus is everybody's work - and it is never done!
Most people would agree that there is something seriously wrong with the world we live in - something far more deadly than fungus untidiensis. Of course, our lives span a period of great changes in Australia. Those with a longer life-span have, of course, witnessed a greater number of changes.
The developments of technology have been amazing, unbelievable! I recall the boyish fascination of seeing a Tiger Moth flying over our house in Stanthorpe. The jet aeroplane is now the major mover of people and goods worldwide. I remember standing with a crowd of others on the Queen Street footpath in Brisbane watching the black-and-white television news in a shop window. Colour television is now commonplace. The computer to be used an amazing mystery accessed by engineers and others by means of punch cards. It required a special university course to be able to use it. Now much more powerful computers will fit onto a desk and are found in many homes. They are used extensively in all levels of education and have an important role in almost every workplace. Do you remember looking up into the sky at night to watch for the orbit of the first Sputnik? or the moment on TV when Neil Armstrong made his "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" on the moon? Space exploration seems to have slowed at present, but it has all taken place in our lifetime. There's not so much talk about it anymore, but satellites in stationary orbits are an important key to our modern communication network.
But then there have been changes in human values and moral standards - pernicious changes! We claim to be a more just society, yet unemployment - especially youth unemployment - continues at disastrously high levels. Sex is a casual recreation, with no clear relation to the strong commitment of marriage. Forty percent of marriages end in divorce. Domestic violence is on the increase, so are the numbers of homeless youth. We want to affirm homosexuals in their private sexual acts, even though those acts have been the major means by which AIDS has been spread. We press for the right to dispose of the unborn and the elderly - through abortion and euthanasia - when they are not convenient to us. In our persuasive speech about the quality of life, we no longer say anything about the value of human life. Little wonder that crimes of violence are on the increase. Our political figures set us an example of deceptive speech so that, throughout society, it is increasingly difficult to know what people mean from what they say.
Something is seriously wrong! But what is it? Some have earnestly believed that education is the key. If only people can be given all the facts, they will be unselfish, loving and kind. They will be co-operative and compliant. There will be no more disputes, no more violence, no more wars.
That idea was widely held and promoted at the beginning of this century. Within the church, it was being taught through what is called liberal theology. This tended to focus on Jesus as our great example and hero - rather than as Son of God and Saviour. It was actually believed that the golden age was just around the corner. That optimism has been shattered by two World Wars and a series of other major conflicts this century.
The old ideas of original sin and total depravity were ridiculed - we have come of age, we know better than that! Or do we? What did those old ideas really mean?
"Original sin" was saying that every man, woman and child born into the world - with the sole exception of Jesus - has inherited a tendency towards doing the wrong thing, a bias towards sin. We confirm this original sinfulness by choosing to do the wrong thing and so becoming sinners in practice. The old term "total depravity" comes over very harshly in our modern idiom and, while we might think of people like Adolf Hitler or Idi Amin as being "totally depraved", we raise the strong objection that most people in fact do many good things. What the term was originally affirming, however, was that there is no part of our human nature unaffected by the Fall and therefore prone to sin.
And that is the reality of our own lives and of the life of the world we live in. We don't have any real difficulty identifying with the Apostle Paul when he writes, "I don't do the good I want to do; instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do" (Rom.7.19). We have no difficulty concurring with his conclusion, "everyone has sinned and is far away from God's saving presence" (Rom.3.23).
In today's Bible reading, Jesus calls his followers salt and light for the world. And that is saying something, not just about us, but about what's wrong as well.
In these days we are a bit wary about the use of salt as a food additive. Too much is not good for us. As a result, all Vegemite eaters are probably aware that the amount of salt in that product has been progressively reduced. But, before the days of refrigeration, one of the major uses of salt was as a preservative, to arrest decay, to act as an antiseptic. One writer has said, "The disciples, accordingly, are called to be a moral disinfectant in a world where moral standards are low, constantly changing, or non-existent."
But it is only possible to be the salt of the earth if we remain "salty". We have to be prepared to be different, distinctive - truly the Lord's people. We can't be salt if we uncritically absorb the flavour of our decaying age!
We are also to be the light of the world. Jesus is, of course, the Light of the world in the absolute sense. Our light is to come from him and we have to allow the influence of the Lord within our lives to shine into the world's dark places.
Just by itself, of course, we think of light as a revealer. It can reveal what is wrong, what is hidden. It can guide us in the way to go.
But it is not just information about the truth, or education in how to live. The light of Jesus in us and through us has a transforming quality about it. The light is Jesus' presence and his redeeming grace. The light is the truth that has the power to change us radically, to set us free to be what we were always meant to be. And our light shining out into the world is to make a positive difference. Jesus made it clear that there would be those who will reject our words and our lives and even reject us as people. But we are not to hide our light because of that. Only as the light shines out will there be other people whose lives are changed and who "praise your Father in heaven."
To be sure that we don't miss what he is saying, Jesus brings the salt and the light together. The world needs more than an educational programme - it needs light. And it needs salt - cleansing and renewing from within. Human sin is far more serious and sinister than fungus untidiensis. Overcoming it cost Jesus his life!
The problems of the world won't be solved by switching off the light and closing the door, though some people continue to think so - as they did when they nailed him to the cross!
Jesus calls us to be salt and light. We can only be that as we continually expose ourselves to him and allow his Spirit to work on us from within. Spread throughout the community, our lives are to touch and transform those about us because his power and his truth are at work within us.
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