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series: Red Letter City

title: Salt & Light

teacher: Jacob Bender

date: April 17, 2016

scriptures: Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 18:19-20, 1 John 1:5, John 8:12, Matthew 25:14-30

Detroit is the darkest city in America.

We have less working street lights than anyone. And maybe that statistic has changed by now, because I know that the mayor and our city officials have been working really really hard to put up new lights around the city and really make it feel safer for people when they are walking to their cars or walking down the street at night. But most of you who live here have probably experienced what it feels like to walk down a street at night, with no lights.

Its a horrible feeling.

All sense of confidence is gone. Its just gone. You walk on eggshells. You wonder what is around you. Because its really really dark. You can’t see whats right in front of you. and there is something about experiencing a lack of light in a context like that one that makes you realize how valuable the light truly is.

It shows us what is right in front of us. It shows us what is a few feet down the road. It shows us where we parked, and who is walking toward us in that moment.

It brings certainty to a moment.

But how many of you know, we live a world that is filled with uncertainty. It is filled with doubts. It is filled with people walking through their days not knowing what is on the other side of it, not knowing if people are on their side, or are out to get them… not knowing if tomorrow is even going to come.

and in this dark city that still lacks lights to even guide our steps as we walk on the streets… in this dark city that is Detroit but in so many ways can represent life… Jesus tells us that in this city… we are supposed to be another city… a city on a hill.

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