“You Are The Spice of Life” by Rev. Dr. Clark Cowden | February 1, 2026
My oldest son Ryan was born in Pasadena, CA. My youngest son Justin was born in Anderson, IN. They both went to middle school and high school in Visalia, CA, which is in the Central Valley about halfway between Fresno and Bakersfield, near the Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon. They both attended a Christian college in LA called Azusa Pacific University. My older son Ryan was a philosophy major. When he graduated, he got his teacher’s credential and taught middle school social studies for 7 years. He got his master’s degree in education from APU, and then took a break for a few years.
He started a podcast and worked for some social media companies helping organizations with their websites, blogs, and communications. Then, he got accepted into the Ph.D. program in Education at IU in Bloomington. He graduated last May and is now a professor at an evangelical Christian college in the Boston area called Gordon College. For years, he played guitar and sang in the praise band at his church in Bloomington and is now looking for a new church in MA.
My younger son Justin was a music major in college. After college, he became a professional drummer, doing studio work and playing in bands around Hollywood and Southern California. He played drums for a while at the Saddleback Church in Orange County, when Rick Warren was still the pastor there. He got to travel around the country and overseas. But, when he saw the music industry changing, he decided it was time to get out. So, he went back to college at Colorado State and got a statistics degree.
Then, he moved back to LA and got a job as a data analyst for the LA Clippers basketball team. He worked there for 2 years. But, when covid hit, the team lost so much money, they had to lay off a lot of their staff. His position was eliminated, so he moved in with me in Terre Haute for a few months while he was doing his job search. He got hired by a company in Phoenix as a data scientist. His wife Nikki was born in the Philippines and is a medical doctor. They are active in a non-denominational church that is rooted in Reformed theology, and Justin plays drums in their praise band.
When our kids are little, we start off with a very direct parenting style. Children aren’t born knowing the difference between right and wrong, so we have to teach them. We tell them – do this. Don’t do this. Say this. Don’t say this. This is what they need from us because they don’t know what they should and shouldn’t do. But, as our kids get older, we shift to a more indirect parenting style. After being direct for so many years, we want our kids to be able to choose to do the right thing on their own, without us telling them. We still guide them and give them advice. We still answer their questions. But we want them to discover their identity in Christ, and we want them to discover what God’s purpose for their lives is. We want them to know who they are and what God is calling them to do.
Here at Tab, our identity is rooted in glorifying God following Jesus’s commandment in Matthew 22:37, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength, and to Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our mission statement says that we are “called by God, led by faith in Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to demonstrate the Kingdom of God through worship, discipleship and outreach. Honoring our heritage at 34th and Central, we will faithfully serve our community, city, and world in the present and prepare expectantly for the future.”
There are 4 verbs in our mission statement– demonstrate, honor, serve, and prepare. Our mission is to Demonstrate the Kingdom of God, and while Honoring our past, we want to Serve our community and Prepare for the future. This is who we are. This is what we do here.
When we want to discover the purpose for our lives, both as individuals and as a church, one of the scriptures we turn to is Matthew 5:13-16. In this portion of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus tells us some important things about how He wants us live out our witness and our ministry in the world.
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus says, “13You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
I. THE SALT – A) First of all, Jesus does NOT say that you are A salt of the earth, as if you are just one flavor among many seasonings. You are not just one insignificant person among 7 billion people on earth. Jesus here uses the definite article – you are THE salt of the earth. You are the most important flavor in the world. The world needs you. You are not just one seasoning among many. You are The seasoning. You are the spice of life. God has created us to be salty people who give the world the flavor it needs.
If you have asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, you ARE being used by God, and you are GOING TO BE used by God, as a part of His mission on earth. The mission that Jesus gave to the original 12 disciples is now a GLOBAL mission with believers all over the world. Christianity is not a western religion or a white religion. Christianity began as a middle eastern religion, and today there are more African Christians and more Asian Christians than there are American or European Christians. But, when Jesus originally said these words, nobody would have guessed that it would grow to become a global faith.
B) In Matthew 5, Jesus does NOT say that you SHOULD be the salt of the earth, or that you COULD be the salt of the earth if you tried really hard. He is saying you ARE the salt of the earth. The idea of “should be” or “could be” comes more from GREEK thought and CONFUCIAN thought. But the Christian idea is that you already are the salt of the earth, so become what you already have within you. Jesus supports us before He challenges us. He tells the disciples WHO they are before he tells them WHAT to do. He gives them blessings before commands. Jesus is saying you are the MOST SIGNIFICANT people on the face of the earth. You are the spice of life. If you believe in Jesus, you already are the salt of the earth.
C) What does salt do? Salt preserves, it purifies, it flavors, and it kills. Salt seasons food and prevents corruption. Salt does many different things. But, the main thing about salt is that it is DIFFERENT. The power of salt is that it is different from the food it gets applied to. In the same way, Jesus is calling us to be different from the world around us. As salt exists for food, so we exist for the world. We are not to be the same as the world. We are to be different. The more we live out our faith in the world, the more we will preserve, purify, flavor, and convict the culture in which we live.
Salt does not exist for ITSELF. As a Church, we do not exist for ourselves. The main mission of salt is to penetrate food. Our mission as a church is to penetrate our world. Salt that is one inch away from food is useless. We have to be on the food of the world to make a difference. This leads us to the 1st warning Jesus gives us.
D) The FIRST WARNING is this: “If the salt loses its flavor, how will it ever be made salty again? It is absolutely useless except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Salt can either pursue its purpose to enter food, or it can deny its purpose and not enter the food. We are not to avoid the world. We are to get involved in the world. We are to be in the world, but not of the world. We are not challenged to BECOME salty. We are challenged to STAY salty.
Many years ago, BECKY PIPPERT wrote a book called Out of the Saltshaker and Into the World. She was saying that we are the salt and the church is the saltshaker. The purpose of the church is to shake you out of our church building, so that you land on the food in the world, to give it the flavor it needs. Because we are salt, God is shaking us onto the food of the world to give it the flavor it needs. You are the salt of the earth. You are the spice of life.
II.THE LIGHT – The second picture that Jesus gives us in this passage is the Light. Matthew 5:14-16 says, “14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
A) The Greek word that is used here for world is the word “COSMOS”. You are the light of the cosmos. This means that every one of us plays a significant part in the mission of God. ALL of us are important players in what God is up to in our world. We are a luminous people. We are a shining people. God wants us to GLOW IN THE DARK. The Bible calls Jesus the Light of the world, but now Jesus says that all of us who believe in Him and follow Him, are also now the light of the world. Jesus is like the SUN and we are like the MOON. The moon does not create its own light. The moon reflects the light of the sun. In the same way, we are like moons who reflect the light of God’s Son into our dark world.
B) This idea of being a CITY ON A HILL was part of the vision of the PURITANS who left England and came to Plymouth Rock in 1620. One of their leaders was John Winthrop, who was a pastor. He would preach to the people that they were sailing to the new world for the purpose of being a City on a Hill, and that the eyes of the world would be upon them. Not everyone who came to America from England had this same vision. 11 years earlier, when the first English city was founded in Jamestown, VA, in 1609, that was settled for political and economic reasons. Those people came to extend the British Empire and to find natural resources to ship back to England. So, not everyone came to America for religious liberty and a Christian mission. But, a significant number of Puritans who settled in New England certainly did.
C) Again, Jesus is NOT saying you SHOULD be the light of the world. He is NOT saying you COULD be the light of the world if you tried really hard. He is saying you ARE the light of the world. We think “you are what you do.” But, the Bible says, “Do what you are.” We need to understand how God designed us BEFORE we can know what to do. You don’t have to try to be the light. If you have asked Jesus into your life, you already are the light of the world. The challenge is not to try to become the light of the world. The challenge is to stop covering up the light God has given you. Our world desperately needs the light of Christ that God has placed inside you. Don’t hide it. Other people need to see it.
D) What is the purpose of letting our light shine? Jesus says the purpose of letting people see your good works is so that they will give glory to your Father Who is in heaven. The purpose of letting others see our good works is not so that they will praise us, but so that they will praise our Father Who is in heaven, and come to believe in Him. So, if you are here this morning and you have not become a Christian yet, we would love to talk with you about that. We want you to experience the joy we have. The purpose of our lives is to bring glory to God.
Here at Tab, our vision is made up of 3 parts. We are focused on Greater Faith, Deeper Relationships, and Stronger Community. Greater Faith means we are committed to Biblical principles and the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and that there are no errors in what the Bible teaches us about God and faith and life. We want you to know Christ as your Lord and Savior and grow deeper in your faith every day.
Deeper Relationships means we want to be this beacon of light that Jesus talked about in Matthew 5, where we can respectfully disagree and remain in community with each other. So many people today are struggling with loneliness, isolation, and fractured friendships. People are looking for a sense of community and a place to belong. We want to provide that by developing deep relationships within this congregation, within this neighborhood, and within this city. We want to reach further, engage more, risk often, and forge deep, meaningful relationships that will bear the fruit of the Spirit.
And Stronger Community means we are moved with compassion by the suffering in our society, at the same time we remain committed to our core Biblical beliefs. We want to promote God’s shalom for all people, addressing the total well-being of security and health in all aspects of life. We want to work for the common good with common grace that flows from our uncommon Savior.
We live in a time when there are no experts, and we don’t have all the answers. The church is a dynamic, learning organization, constantly changing and adapting to engage the mission field we live in here at 34th and Central. We are grounded in the ancient wisdom of God’s Word which is not confined to the past, but which speaks to the unraveling of our day, just as much as it spoke to the unstable world 2000 years ago.
We are a church that is Christ-centered, Bible-based, Spirit-led, gospel-driven, mission-minded, community-oriented, and shaped by the love and truth of God. We are Biblical, missional, and relational. We want to speak the truth in love. We want to bring clarity in an age of confusion and uncertainty. We want to bring hope and healing to a hurting world. We are anchored to the Rock and geared to the times. We want to share the unchanging gospel with a constantly changing world.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is giving us something to live for. He is telling us who we are, why we are here, and what He wants us to do. You are the Salt of the Earth. You are the Spice of Life. You are the Light of the World. Jesus is talking about the purpose of your life. He is talking about the purpose of our church. God wants us to live for something bigger than just ourselves. God wants our church to be a part of His great mission in our world. Wherever we are, and whatever we do, our purpose has something to do with being the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World. Jesus is calling us to different and to penetrate the world.
So, as we move through 2026, where is God calling us to be the salt of the Mapleton-Fall Creek neighborhood? How can we be the spice of Indianapolis? How can we shine the light of Christ all over central Indiana and around the world? Our challenge is not to become salt, but to not lose the saltiness we already have. Our challenge is not to become the light of the world, but to stop covering up our light, and let it shine all over the place, so that people will see our good works and give glory to our Father in Heaven. You are the spice of life.
Rev. Dr. Clark Cowden
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church
Indianapolis, IN