“Salt”

(Matthew 5:13-20)

Matthew: “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?  It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

“You are the light of the world.  A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.  Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Remember when we used to hear lists made by certain comedians such as Jeff Foxworthy, “You know you’re a redneck when you cut your grass and suddenly you find a car….”    I can do this joke because I’m married to a man from the mountains of North Carolina, and I have discovered that I’m officially a redneck since Trumbull County where I grew up has been declared to be part of Appalachia. 

Another of those lists goes like this: “You know you’re getting old when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart….

            My contribution today to another list is: A preacher knows she’s getting old when every new program that comes up, she’s seen before.”  Or “A preacher knows she’s getting old when she looks back at sermons from 30 years ago and sees that the programs of the day that were supposed make the world better were either abject failures or were forgotten within a few months.”

            I think you’ll see this as the sermon develops.

            First, let’s get this out of the way.  We Protestant Christians are of two minds.  On the one side, we’ve got this work ethic that is really strong.  Hard work is what it’s all about.  If we see someone whom we would describe as lazy, our judgement is swift and harsh.  The world celebrates the folks who work incessantly.  The world, and we, honor the ones who win, the ones who cross the finish line first. 

If we use this competition thing to measure our lives as Christians we’re gonna come up short.  There will be Mother Teresas doing amazingly good things or a Peter and Andrew who will drop everything and follow, or a Dr. Martin Luther King preaching beautiful and transformative sermons and then becoming a martyr for the cause of good.  There are people that we know who do so much for others, serving on committees and boards and making themselves available 24/7 for others.

            If we have any idea that this is how we get to heaven or get in God’s good graces, we will be spinning our wheels our whole lives. 

            But then there’s the other side of our brain that reminds us that we are not saved by works, but, rather by God’s grace because we cannot earn our way into heaven.  It’s almost as if we have two minds about these things. 

            This scripture reading from Matthew is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and there he gives us to understand what our role here on earth is.  We are to be the salt of the earth, the seasoning without which there is no joy or meaning.  We are to be the light of the world.  We are to obey the commandments and have our righteousness exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.  Though I don’t think any of us are going to be able to live up to that, let’s see where it takes us.

            First, we can be sure that God’s grace and forgiveness and unconditional love are enough.  We really are covered.  This text does not call any of that into question.

            What it does offer us is Jesus telling us how the church is to be formed and how we need to conduct ourselves.  But this is not about trying to be perfect so that we don’t get whacked by God.  Rather, Jesus is giving us the gift of this wise teaching. 

            “You are the salt of the earth.”  The Church, that’s us, is the agent of God’s righteousness.  Unless we represent and try to carry out God’s purpose in the world, we, the church, like salt, are of little use.  When we have lost touch with that purpose—being the agent of God’s righteousness in the world—we might find ourselves asking questions like, “Why do we bother with church?  Why show up here in the sanctuary or on Zoom week after week, year after year?  Why contribute our money and talents and time?  Really, why?”

            Well, I think I have the semblance of an answer.  It is that we have been declared by Jesus to be the salt of the earth.  We have a critical role to play in this life.  Another way to think about it is that we are the world’s conscience, and this is an important job.  We need to be the moral compass in these times.  I think you’ll agree that the world could use a conscience, a moral compass in these days. 

            I think we all know that this whole gambling situation in our state has gotten out of hand.  When you watch sports there are constant ads that are quite seductive.  Two of our Guardians pitchers have been benched for allegedly “throwing,” (pun intended) baseball games.  People are betting on what pitch they will throw and when, and these pitchers have seemed to have made big money by complying, as well as participating in the betting themselves. 

You know that this is not going to turn out well.  I’m not even talking about what’s happening in casinos.  I know there are those among us who have fun gambling at the casinos, but my concern is for people who are addicts who have gotten themselves and their families into impossible debt and seem unable to quit.

One wonders where the churches were when we voted for these new gambling rules to be approved.  My excuse is I managed to not know anything about it, but, really, where were our organizations?  Why didn’t we speak up?  The Social Principles in our UM Book of Discipline are pretty clear about where the church stands on gambling.  …If we are going to be the salt of the earth and the world’s conscience, we need to, bravely, take a stand on just these sorts of things, things that are going to hurt people who are already close to the poverty line.

            …And…we are the light of the world.  We are to share the good news of God’s love, to do our part so that God may be glorified.  We do all this, not so that we can look good, not so that we won’t get whacked, not so that our churches will have big numbers…but so that God will be glorified—so that we can share God’s goodness and righteousness.

            And, finally, we are to keep God’s law.  Nothing Jesus did says anything else.  We need laws and measures of righteousness so that we can see where we are with our goal of being decent human beings.  We need folks who act kindly as our role models, so we can see when we need to repent—when we need to turn ourselves around.  We need a measure to know when we’re wrong and when we need to be humbled.  We must be open to God’s turning us around so that our lives can be changed.

            …I know we’re all busy and may have trouble thinking about how we’re going to add more to-do’s to our plates.  Most of us are doing the best we can, but…we all need these moments of being truthful with God and ourselves, asking how we can be salt and light?

            When we reside in the kingdom of heaven, what I like to call the Jesus House, when we have committed our lives to being Jesus’ People, we must also be committed to a life of righteousness.  This does not mean to make ourselves look good, nor does it mean to be careful not to offend anyone, nor does it mean to place ourselves above others.

            It means that when we are part of the Jesus House we will be held to a high standard.  It means we must be honest in relationships; it means we work to fulfill God’s will as we understand it here on earth; it means we stay connected to God in order to discover God’s will in our lives; it means that we work to align our lives and behavior with God’s will –so that it gives God glory.

            It means going the extra mile for a someone even when we are inconvenienced.  A life of righteousness means being kind and courteous even when we don’t feel like it.  It means spending time with someone in need.  It means setting a good example for children and new Christians.  It means living the way we say we live—walking our talk.  It means being the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

            A life of righteousness means being the Church, in case we have forgotten what it does mean to be the Church.  Our motivation to be decent is not to keep from being punished, but, rather, so that we give glory to God.

            So…we aren’t going to be able to do it all, but we can never rest on our laurels—not if Christ is to be properly represented.  Not if the Church is to make a witness to the world in these days of divisiveness and unrest.  We need to be Christ’s Church and we need to live up to his vision for us.

            Okay—so coming full circle.  I must be an old preacher when I see in an old sermon an article from the Akron Beacon Journal on the religion page.  Yes.  There did used to be a religion page!  This article was about a group that was formulated to discern what the church ought to be—they were attempting to offer a way that would be an alternative to the far right Christian Coalition, kind of similar to today’s Christian Nationalists.  This group called themselves the Call to Renewal.  Their goal was to find common ground among all Christians and, then, to move to higher ground.  They were hoping to offer Christians an alternative to declaring that someone has to be right and someone has to be wrong. 

            This group was comprised of a diverse mix of people from conservative to liberal and every point in between.  They proposed 6 criteria for judging what was going on around them in their nation and world.  Back in the day I chose 2 that seemed illustrative of Jesus’ words in today’s scripture.

            One was “We have a faith that invites us to conversion.  We must revive the lapsed virtues of personal responsibility and character, and we must repent for our social sins of racism, sexism and poverty.”

            The other one that I wrote about in my sermon was: “We are compelled to a lifestyle of service and compassion, and are led by our faith into community.  We must rejuvenate the moral values and political will to rebuild our disintegrating family systems, our shattered neighborhoods, and our divided nation.”

            I admit to feeling frustrated when I discovered this because here we are 30 some years later.  We can remember the term Christian Coalition, but I have no memory of the Call to Renewal and no evidence that it made much difference.  So sad….

            So folks, how can we be the salt of the earth and the light of the world right here in this place and time, knowing that every generation tries to come up with a program that will catch fire?

            And how can we as individuals find ways to speak out for righteousness, to be voices for the Church.  We are not alone as members of the Jesus House.  We can join up with others who are looking to do God’s will, whose only agenda is to give God glory—to be the salt and the light.

            So, Church, thanks for all you do.  I applaud you.  You do a lot.  You reach out in love and concern for others.  You offer our building to be used by the community and for worthy causes.  You support mission projects that are giving a hand up to so many.  You write notes of encouragement.  You make mats.  You are about to begin making tied blankets.  You as individuals are volunteering with various organizations.  You raise kids and grandkids who are concerned about others.  You work to make our church continue to function so that we can be a light to the world and salt to season our earth with righteousness.  I hope you are inspired to continue to be people who are willing to tend God’s garden of love and compassion.  Amen.