Proper 21
Sept. 30, 2018 – Our Savior, Rock Hill
Be salt
Don’t you just hate those health warnings that get in the way of our enjoyment of life? It has kept us from salting things for so long. I developed a habit long ago of not salting things – and Mary Pat is still trying to change that habit. When she read a draft of this homily she asked, “And you still don’t cook with salt?” I do love salt. There are some things about myself I need to work at changing.
There are a few symbols, maybe they’re metaphors – there are a few symbols that have deep meaning throughout many different cultures and throughout the history of humanity. Water is one of them. Salt is another one.
I used to think bread ranked up there with the best of them. I have been a Episcopalian all of my adult life. And closely related to that the Eucharist with the powerful symbols of bread and wine has been a powerful presence for me. I was aware of bread having a powerful evocative symbolic power In a variety of cultures. I was so surprised when I learned that the word for bread in Japan was that very same word that one encountered in all of the romance languages, pan. Then of course I was sorely disappointed when I realized of a sudden one day that the reason that the word was a French word in Japan was that prior to the European encounter with Japan in the 16th century there was no experience of bread whatsoever and so no need of that word for bread and bread that was no great symbol for them.
They did have salt however. They knew salt.
Salt
Humanity has used salt since before there was a history of humanity. It was used for seasoning to enhance flavor. It was used to preserve. I learned this week that the word salary comes from the word salt. It turns out Roman soldiers were paid not with money but with salt. All the way through the middle ages salt was a form of currency. It figured in world trade and in world smuggling.
Salt has symbolized the sacred. One saying I encountered has it that the devil offers his meals without salt. cremo.ch
Richness of the biblical witness
The Bible itself utilizes the image and symbol of salt extensively. note
- making a covenant with salt
- cement a relationship with salt and a meal
- salt a part of the sacrifices offered on the altar of the temple
- Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one”
- “Salt may symbolize something that will give zest to your life. … [think of ] ‘rubbing salt into a wound’, 'salt of the earth’, purging, cleansing) …, salt is symbolic of the greatest stature of life itself. Hence, the salt of the earth, represents the very pinnacle of creation. …” symbolism
- one of the controversies in the church has to do with the creation. I heard long ago that the saltiness of the ocean is related to the saltiness present in the human body, in our very cells. Whether that means that we emerged from the ocean long ago or merely that we are part of the web of life – I don’t know. But I experience the ocean as a sort of long lost home.
- Everyone will be salted with fire Jesus says. Will not be able to run away or hide.
It is important, it seems to me, that we need to figure out what it is that Jesus wants us to be doing. Be salty, he tells us. Whatever it is he wants no half measures. He wants us all in.
Here and in other places in the gospels we can witness Jesus being pretty unconcerned with what party a person is associated with. Are you for the liberals or for the traditionalists? Jesus doesn’t seem particularly concerned with that. He wants us to be salty.
I am tempted to elaborate on a theme that was a hallmark of one of my heroes in the 1980s, Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago. It was he who popularized a principle that had first been articulated in the 1970’s. Cardinal Bernardin called it a consistent ethic of life. It was put forth as a principle that would direct the actions of a Christian in a variety of ethical and moral circumstances. It called for a pervasive and all encompassing posture of supporting life. It cut across party lines. It was first put forth by those arguing that Christianity was not consistent with waging war. Later it would be applied to opposition to the death penalty. It was argued that Christians must honor life from conception through birth, child-rearing, respect for the workers and laborers of the world, aging, and the death we all will face. Honor and respect for life offered through the whole range of human activities. A person wearing such a seamless garment could be recognized as a Christian. We might say a garment made of salt.
Salt as the substance of life. Salt as a sign of what connects us to God himself and also with one another. Salt preserves and gives life.
Salt is a reminder that our great temptation is to divide friend from foe, to split us up between those who are for us and those who are against us. That is a dead end. Such a path is without life, without salt.
Stumbling block
Jesus warns us today against being a stumbling block. A stumbling block to one of the least of those around us. Salt – so humble.
I learned a powerful lesson while I was in Hawaii. Peter J Gomes, the great Harvard chaplain, visited the Diocese and conducted a teaching workshop for the clergy. 1979 time magazine called him “one of the seven most distinguished preachers in America“. This was a man who knew preaching and we were humbled and honored to sit at his feet. There was a tremendous sense of presence about him but I remember one thing most poignantly. We were sitting around a table, sharing stories. He told us that every time he went to preach, he would pray one prayer in particular. It was a small portion of the Hippocratic oath. It was: Lord I pray that I do know harm.
After hearing that I have added it to my own prayer before preaching. The oldest prayer that I have had prior to preaching is a simple one but nowhere near as profound as Peter Gomes’s. My prayer has been: Lord I pray that I may speak in complete sentences. I now add: and do no harm.
Jesus strong words to us
Jesus doesn’t mince words. Last week I said of him that he calls a spade a spade. He is still in that same mood in the words we hear this week. _If any of you would put a stumbling block before one of these who believe in me and trust me, who put all your living faith in me, it would be better for you to be simply thrown into the ocean as refuse. If there is some part of you that is getting in the way of a faithful life, it’s better to throw it away than to hang onto it, no matter how important it may seem to you. If your eye causes you to stumble then tear it out. Have salt in your selves.
And be at peace with one another
Be salty then. Be ready to be honest and forthright in the face of a world that thrives on deception. Be salty and reach out to those who are different and even especially to those who disagree with you. Be a part of the solution not the disruption that leads to chaos, violence, and collapse.
-——
In the end I really need to add a new prayer for myself. Perhaps it’s a daily prayer. Perhaps it’s enough to pray that every time I preach. Again it’s a simple one: be salty.
Perhaps you’ll join me.
Addendum:
lectionary
- Esther and Mordecai. Explain they had hanged Haman, etc.
- James: prayer for the sick
- Mark: Whoever is not against us is for us. … stumbling block? prefer a millstone around your neck
- Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.
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