Salt and Light

5A Epiphany 2019

Rev. Adam T. Trambley

Isaiah 58:1-12;Psalm 112; 1 Cor 2:1-12; Matt 5:13-20

February 9, 2020, St. John’s Sharon

This morning’s gospel is part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has just given his disciples the Beatitudes, and he follows it with these words about being salt and light.

Being salt and light are ways that disciples of Jesus change the world. When we live as salt and light, we help individuals and all of human society thrive and flourish. At our saltiest and brightest, we increase the capacity of those around us live into the kingdom of God.

I want to talk about salt in terms of flavor and health, and light in terms of illumination and attraction.  Jesus is calling us to be flavor, health, illumination, and attraction.

Salt in Jesus’ time was essential for two tasks. First, it made food taste good. Still does. Second, salt provided essential health benefits. People worked hard, mostly outside, and they sweated out salt. Replacing it was important. On top of that, salt was an essential food preservative, especially before refrigeration. If you didn’t want to die from the meat you saved from what you butchered last week, you needed salt.

We still use salt for flavor and health today. It’s in on our tables and we iodize it. Iodine deficiency is one of the major causes worldwide of intellectual and developmental disabilities. A little iodine in table salt makes a huge difference, especially in areas, like the Great Lakes region of the US, that traditionally had iodine deficiencies.

As salt for the earth, we bring flavor and health. The flavor we bring is being who God made us to be in ways that add joy and color and life.  A churchy way of talking about bring flavor could be using our spiritual gifts. Do we sing, then sing out. Do we bake, then share some cookies. Are we good administrators, then organize something that brings people joy. Send a thank you card or a kind note. Give someone a compliment. Share someone’s excitement or stop and listen to their struggles. Be the people that lift the spirits and make the people around you better, however you can most naturally and joyfully do that.

Besides bringing our natural flavor to the world, we also bring health. Like salt in a good venison jerky keeps it from spoiling, so our presence in the systems and structures of the world keep them healthy and life-giving. What do I mean? Remember how this discussion follows the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says things like “blessed are the meek” and “blessed are the peacemakers” and “blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” and “blessed are the pure in heart”. We are called to bring the beatitudes and the Great Commandment into all those organizations and associations we are part of. When we do, and when enough others do with us, it changes those institutions from potentially destructive to life giving.

A market economy creates incredible wealth, but it only works if there are people caring for the least of our brothers and sisters in our midst. A democracy only works if enough people are hungering for righteousness instead of power. A military, or even a police force, is only safe if those involved would rather be peacemakers and see force and violence used only as a last resort. Health care, from a doctor’s office to a national insurance network, only works if a critical mass of people care more about healing patients than counting costs. Any community only thrives if enough people actually love their neighbors as themselves, and are willing to act and sacrifice accordingly. Being salt means that we live out our Christian values in the places where we are so that those place are good for us and for all those around us.

Sometimes, our salt is not so salty. Jesus tells us that if our salt has lost its saltiness, it is good for nothing. My colleague Steve Pankey had a great reflection this week that compared what Jesus what talking about to Pink Himalaya salt, which has become all the rage lately[1]. Salt is meant for flavor and health, but Pink Himalaya salt both has less flavor than our white table salt AND it is not iodized. So even though it looks pretty, as salt, at least by some measures, it is subpar. A danger for us as Christians is that we become like Pink Himalaya salt. We look like the real thing, and even decorate ourselves well with pious membership cards and churchy bling. Yet the proof is in the pudding, to stay with a culinary metaphor. Either we are bringing flavor and health or we aren’t. Either people’s lives are better because we are in them or they aren’t. Either our organizations and institutions are better because we are a part of them or they aren’t. Either our salt is salty or it isn’t.

In addition to being salt, Jesus calls us to be light. Light is meant for illumination and attraction. Like salt, light emanates out into the muddled human places of this world in ways that help them become places prepared for the life of the Kingdom of God.

Illumination is that quality of light that allows people to see. When people can’t see they stumble, they stub their toes, they fall over, they can’t find what they need, and any number of other even more painful or horrible things can happen. Predators also hide in the dark, ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims. While there are a number of ways that Christian faith and love can help illuminate the dark places in people’s lives, the primary one I want to talk about today is prayer.

Prayer can be described as the act of shining God’s light into the darkness of people’s lives. In many ways, prayer casts out the darknesses which keep people from having the freedom to live good, godly lives. Prayer is the activity by which we make the path clear for ourselves, our family, our loved ones, our churches, and our world, so that people can live their lives without spiritual and other stumbling. We don’t have to live very long, or talk to very many people, to know that a lot of people are pretty desperate just to live peaceful, happy lives. Yet there are so many things that get in our ways, including ourselves. We stumble over all our own fears and insecurities. We bang our knees on difficult financial situations. We stub our toe on the misunderstanding and distrust in relationships that we seem unable to overcome. We search desperately for whatever will ease an infection or a disease. We run after any brief flash in our confusion, even if it leads us into the arms of those waiting to take advantage of us. And sometimes we just give up and fall over, because we don’t know how to go forward.

Prayer is the first step to illuminate the darkness. Prayer is what opens the door to the divine coincidences that allow people to receive what they need while avoiding the pitfalls in life. Prayer is what literally drives away the forces of darkness that would attack and destroy the creatures of God. Prayer is the most powerful force we have to shine the power of God into every crook and cranny of creation so that those there can live into love and joy and peace. Prayer is not the dim candle, but the high intensity halogen that blazes. When we pray, our light shines forth into places we could not go ourselves with an effectiveness beyond our normal capacity. Think of the power of turning a light on in a dark room, and how much everyone in that room is now able to do. When we shine the light of prayer around someone struggling in a dark corner of their life, we can open up the same opportunities.

Beyond illumination, light acts as attraction. When our lives are lived right, people notice. When we do the right thing, even when it is difficult, people notice. When we take care of people when it would be easier to ignore them, people notice. When we are generous because we know that God has given us everything we have and will keep giving us everything we need, people notice. When we refuse to be negative about life and the world, when we abstain from tearing down others to build ourselves up, when we act like beloved children of God who have hope, people notice. When they notice, they will want to know how they can live like we do. Living that kind of life is setting our life on a lampstand for the whole house to see.

The early Christian church grew by leaps and bounds throughout the Roman empire because Christians cared for the sick. When the plagues struck, instead of fleeing to save themselves, Christians risked infection and death to take care of their own, as well as those who were left behind with no one else to care for them. People noticed. And people decided that the Christians had something important and powerful enough that they wanted it, too. Light spread throughout the Roman Empire.

Last week, someone shared an experience with me. They have a neighbor with younger children dealing with all the stresses of having younger children. One evening, when getting out of their car after a church event, their neighbor approached and said, “You are at church all the time, and you always seem so happy when you come home. I need that, too.” Letting our light shine is living a life that people notice, and that people want to be a part of.

Salt and light. Not the trendy pink salt. Not the light hiding under a bushel basket. Flavor and health and illumination and attraction. Sharing gifts and being ethical and offering prayers and living a joyful, hopeful Christian life. Salt and light.

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[1] https://draughtingtheology.wordpress.com/2020/02/04/losing-our-saltiness/