Intro
Before
launching into the message this morning, I want to first thank all of those who
helped with the congregational meeting last week. The weather was still a bit yucky so I know
things weren’t easy, yet we had enough folks to gather, share about last year
and look forward to this one. Those of
you who were here may remember that we asked ‘how’d it go?’ To answer that question, we had to articulate
where we were going, what was and is our mission, which of course is ‘to glorify God by being a community of
Jesus so rich, deep and faithful that it is worth sharing.’ That is our mission. If you want to know how this went in 2011,
then I invite you to grab one of the annual reports and read through it. Very briefly, one of the things we were able
celebrate was the way this community’s ability to rally around a common
struggle and overcome it. We have done
this over the last four years with our budget.
It is far from the $35,000 in debt that looked like would be the case in
2008. On the flip side, one of the
challenges we now have regards worship participation. The number of people in worship has been climbing
for the last several years until last year when it dropped to an average of 46
people. When asked if we were satisfied
with this people unanimously responded with a no and even said that we would
like to attempt to raise that average to 60 per Sunday this year. But, one of you said, here’s the catch, we
need to know how. Show us how to help
have more people in worship. To that
end, or more appropriately to the end of helping us fulfill our mission to be
community worth sharing I have three words for the next few Sundays; salt,
serve, share. And so this morning we
begin with salt, listen now to the word of the Lord.
Matthew 5:13
You 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 by men.
The way in…
Our verse
this morning comes five chapters into the gospel of Matthew. In the preceding chapter Jesus officially
began his ministry which was to share the good news of the kingdom of God. As we talked about last week, this is a
pretty big deal. Jesus was claiming that
a whole new rule, a whole new country, a whole new world was near to everyone. Think of it like as a liberation from a
prison. Imagine you’d been imprisoned
for 20 years when one day a man shows up among you and tells you that he was
going to open the cell doors, tear down the fences and remove the gates. He was going to abolish everyone’s crimes and
set them free to return to their homes and families. All you have to do, this man says, is leave
your cell and follow me, learn from me, learn to be like me. In so doing, you will begin to experience
this freedom, this kingdom. Imagine
such a thing. To Jesus, the world was
imprisoned and he came to set it free.
This is a huge task. How in the
world does one go about doing this?
He began by
calling some help. Peter, Andrew, James
and John, ‘follow me and I will make you fishers of men.’ Fishermen?
Not exactly the liberators one might have had in mind, but okay. Next, he began to demonstrate this new
kingdom by healing people. Okay,
healings are impressive, now we’re getting somewhere. In fact, this did begin to get folks
attention. Large crowds began to follow
him. So Jesus moves up on a hillside,
turns to his disciples and begins to teach them. And what does he teach them? Does he teach them how to hold a sword and
shield? Does he teach them marketing
techniques? Does he teach them how to
start businesses to earn enough money to influence the world? Does he offer training on how to get
elected? No, no, no and no. Instead, Jesus begins by saying who is
blessed in this new kingdom; the poor, the meek, the mourning as well as those
who hunger and thirst. Not only that but
the ones who are pure in heart, merciful, peacemakers and those who are
persecuted are the ones most honored in this new kingdom of freedom. The disciples, who had signed up to liberate
the world, were likely scratching their heads at this point, but okay. Let’s hear him out.
Having giving
the introduction, Jesus begins to move into the heart of the lecture. After describing who is blessed he looks at
the disciples and says, “You…you are the….”
The what? Now were I attempting
to liberate the world, there are a few metaphors I imagine I could come up
with. How bout, “You are the kings of
the earth, go forth and rule in justice.”
Or how bout, “You are the lions of the earth, tear apart what is evil
and protect your cubs.” Or I might have
at least said, “You are the swans of the earth, may your beauty reflect that of
God’s.” Those aren’t bad, huh? Kings and lions and swans, they are creatures
powerful in one way or another. That’s
what I would have said if I were wanting to teach my disciples how to liberate
the world. But what does Jesus say?
“You are the
salt of the earth…” Salt? Really?
That’s the best you could do?
Salt? The stuff we use to
preserve our foods? The stuff we use to
add a little flavor? This is what we
are? Salt. Yes, Jesus says, you are the salt of the
earth. But, how, what, how is salt going
to liberate the world? It’s so
small. It’s so common. Are you sure we aren’t kings or lions or
swans? No, Jesus says, you are
salt. So, why salt?
You Are the Salt (Common
but Valuable)
[place a bowl
of rock salt on the table]
Today salt is so common as to be
free. In fact, when I went to buy this
rock salt at Lakewood Hardware, after ringing up everything else, he just gave
it to me for free. Can you imagine a
restaurant that would charge you for the salt?
But this wasn’t always the case.
In his book entitled Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky describes how
salt used to be a commodity so valuable that it was traded for gold, the tax of
it filled the government coffers and wars were even fought over it. Take the word salary for example. The word that denotes our income from work
and what much of our life is organized around comes from the word ‘salarius’
which means ‘pertaining to salt.’ In the
Old French it was a word that denoted ‘a soldiers allowance for the purchase of
salt.’ Were Jesus making his comparison
today, he might instead say, “You are oil…”
Oil is common, but it is valuable.
It is traded for gold, its taxes fund the government and wars are fought
over it.
So when Jesus says “You are the
salt…” he is not saying, “You are worthless…”
Just the opposite. He is saying
you are valuable, you matter. And notice
that this is where Jesus starts. He does
not say, “you will be salt,” or ‘if you work at it you will become salt.’ No, he starts them off with this in the same
way I start my kids off with the last name Sikes. You are Jane Sikes, Will Sikes, Benjamin
Sikes. You may be common, but you are valuable.
If you don’t hear anything else
this morning I want you to hear this part.
I want you to imagine and hear Jesus saying to you as he did to his
disciples. You are salt. You are valuable. You matter.
You may be one in 7 billion, but that doesn’t make you any less
valuable. In God’s household, you are
cherished. But Jesus doesn’t stop there.
Of the Earth (Useful
and Essential Life)
[Sprinkle salt onto flour]
“You are the salt of the earth…” Jesus
takes his analogy one step further.
After naming the disciples as salt he sends them out of the shaker and
into the earth. The reason salt was
valuable was because it was useful. In
Jesus day it was primarily used for food preservation and flavor. The fish that was broken when the 5000 were
fed was likely salted fish. Olives are
made edible through a process of pickling.
Over the years we’ve come to discover a multitude of uses for salt. Salt can keep colors bright on boiled eggs,
make ice cream freeze, get more heat out of boiled water, remove rust, clean
bamboo furniture, remove spots on cloth, put out grease firs, keep cut flowers
fresh and treat sore throats. The modern
salt industry lists over 14,000 uses for salt.
But salt is not only useful, it is essential for life. Chloride is essential for digestion and
respiration while sodium is essential to transport oxygen and nutrients. Without it, we will die. The average adult body contains about 250g of
salt which is about the same amount as 3-4 salt shakers. This is what you have in you right now, which
is not necessarily that much. Problem
is, you lose it through bodily functions and so it needs to be replaced. The human body needs about 6grams a day which
comes to about 5 lbs of salt in a year.
And so, when Jesus tells the
disciples “You are the salt of the earth…’, he is telling them that they are
useful and even essential for life on earth.
The earth needs you. The earth
needs for you to be removed from your jar, your safe place and be scattered
into flour, into food, and even upon wounds.
Salt works best in things and the great thing is, it doesn’t take much. Salt like yeast, only takes a little to
change the flavor. In fact, if you get
too much salt, it ruins things. As Jesus
said these words, it was possible the crowds could have looked over at the
Jordan River and been reminded that it flowed down into the Salt Sea or what is
otherwise known as the Dead Sea. It is
called the dead sea because nothing can live there and the reason for this is
that it has too much salt. It is a sea so full of salt that humans won’t sink
in it. What does this mean for us?
In calling them to be salt of the
earth, Jesus is preparing them to ‘go into the world and make disciples…’ In calling them to be salt of the earth,
Jesus is preparing them to get involved in the lives of their neighbors, their
synagogues and their cities. Had Jesus
wanted them to remove his disciples from the world, he would have called the
‘the salt of the shaker.’ But he doesn’t
do that. The earth, like our human
bodies, needs salt. There are lives that
need flavor. There are families that are
wilting without love. There are seniors
who are fading out of loneliness and without hope. There are kids who are trying to make it in
school and life with so little sense that they matter to anyone let alone
God. The salt is leaking from their
bodies, and needs to be replaced. “You,”
Jesus says, “We are that salt for one another, for our neighbors, for Manitou,
for Gray Middle School, for Manor Care assisted living, for Manitou Elementary,
for the earth.” You are the salt of the
earth, but Jesus doesn’t stop there, he offers a warning.
But if salt loses its
saltiness (Diluted to the point of insignificance)
“You are the salt of the earth, but if 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 by men.”
If salt loses its saltiness, it is worthless. So, how does salt loses its saltiness. This, as it turns out, is not an easy
question to answer. You see, salt (NaCl)
is one of the most stable compounds that exists. Sodium and Chloride really like being
together and are difficult to separate, sort of like two teenagers at a
homecoming dance. You can separate them,
but they attract right back to one another.
Technically, salt can’t really lose its saltiness any more than water
can lose its wateriness. No salt won’t
disappear, but it can be diluted.
A little salt
can go a long way and it doesn’t take much to change things. But, if you have enough water, the effects of
salt can be reduced to negligible. Salt
in a 5 gallon bucket or salt in a swimming pool not only makes no difference in
the water, it causes the salt to disappear.
If that is the case, then what does Jesus mean about stuff being cast
out into the streets? First, what we
think of as salt is not likely what was used in the 1st
century. They likely didn’t have
anything as pure. Their salt was more
like what we call rock salt, like this.
And if you scattered rock salt on your ice in this last snow, you may
remember what is left when the snow has melted, yep, just some rocks and what
good are they now? None at all. What may have been the case in the first
century is that their salt supply got wet, the salt evaporated and what was left
were the rocks. When that occurred it
was just tossed into the streets.
In this
scenario, water is the culprit. Water
has the potential to dilute or saltiness to the point of being irrelevant. And so I ask, do you feel diluted? What in our lives is melting away our
saltiness? What is stripping away our
flavor? Television? Worries about work? Food?
Are there certain relationships that strip you of your salt? Certain
habits or even addictions? What is
diluting your potency and stealing your flavor?
And what about us as a congregation?
Are their things diluting our potency and stealing our flavor?
Reformed as salty
Though Jesus paints a stark picture
of what happens to unsalty salt, in preparation for this message I discovered
that the dilution of salt is not a quick thing.
It took several minutes under a hot faucet to melt the salt from the
rock. And when I just placed the salt in
water, it took far longer. And the other
thing is this, salt can be reformed.
When salt is diluted in water, all one needs to do is boil the water and
if one leaves the lid on, guess what will be left? Salt.
How can we boil the water away?
How can we reform our saltiness?
I like to think of what we do here
each Sunday as a boiling away, as a reformation of our flavor and potency. I like to think of what you do each morning
or evening in your prayers as resalting.
I like to think of what happens when you gather to serve at the food
bank as re-salting. And are there more
ways for us to re-salt? Would forming a small group help your saltiness? Would regular prayer and scripture reading do
the same? Would fasting do the
same? How about a retreat? You are the salt of the earth, don’t lose
your saltiness.
The way out…
James Davison
Hunter wrote a book entitled To Change the World in which he explores the
various ways religious groups have attempted to change the world. His conclusions are a bit disheartening and
challenging. On one side are the folks
who try to change the world by being against it, they are what you might call
conservative. Though they exert great
effort to conform society in their image, it has never really worked. On the other side are the folks who try to
change the world by being in it, they are what you might call liberals. Though they exert great effort they end up
being conformed by society in its image.
Do you see the parallels? One
group tries to change the world by remaining in the salt shaker, but is
irrelevant. The other group tries to
change the world by jumping into the swimming pool, but is diluted. So, what is the answer? There are two
The first is
to give up. If you really want to change
the world then you really need to graduate from an Ivy League college, run a
corporation or write for the New York Times.
By in large it is the elites who shape the world. It is the 1%.
But there is a second option. It is one that I think echoes Jesus and
Hunter calls it ‘faithful presence.’
Faithful means we stay salty, presence means we are in the earth. And what is salt of the earth if it isn’t
faithful presence? And what was Jesus if
he was not God’s faithful presence among us?
You, brothers and sisters, are the
salt of Manitou. May we go from here to
provide flavor to our homes, our families, our neighbors, our friends and even
our enemies and as we get diluted, may we return to feed one another the faith
that flavors or saltiness.
