View the Sermon here on Vimeo and see below for transcript:
I googled “how can salt lose its saltiness” to help prepare for this sermon. It turns out, as any chemist will tell you, sodium chloride is the most stable compound you will find. The chemical properties of salt do not change, so salt cannot lose its saltiness. Does that mean Jesus is wrong?
To answer that, we need to look back to the first century. Salt was an important commodity, both to flavor food and to preserve it for later consumption. Salting fish was a way to store it so that it could be traded and protected. But, remember that there was no Costco in Jerusalem. The salt they had was usually what we would think of as sea salt. The Dead Sea is
saltwater, and salt residue would wash up along the shoreline. It was gathered and used as salt. But it was far from pure. It contained a great deal of sand, dirt and other minerals, with sometimes just trace amount of salt. When the small amount of salt in this mixture had been diluted, all that was left was the other stuff, which had no more flavor and was essentially worthless.
It is of this goop that Jesus speaks when he talks of salt losing its taste. Now it begins to make a bit more sense to us in the 21 st century. But as experienced Christians, you know that this passage is not really about salt at all. The salt is merely a metaphor; a device Jesus employs to illustrate a larger point.
When Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth, we take on those two properties of salt. We add flavor to life, and we act as a way of preserving life for others. Salt adds zest, but it just enhances the flavor or protects the food. In calling us salt we are reminded that we are not the main dish, but merely the seasoning. We are, in other words, servants. Being salt does
not mean that we are special, that we are above those we serve. Moreover, we are reminded that salt, that does not serve as salt, is worthless and is only fit to be thrown on the ground and trampled.
Christians who no longer act as Christians are salt that has lost its saltiness. How can that happen? When we pervert the teachings of Jesus to our own gains, we lose our flavor. When Christians put themselves above others, when they decide that their Christianity gives them the right to judge others, they cease to serve Christ and begin to serve only themselves. And
in so doing, they become the salt that has lost its flavor.
I want you to stop right now and think for a moment about what you would do if you knew that today was the last day of your life. What would you do? Spend time with loved ones, eat a bunch of bad food, spend your last dollar? Jesus did in fact know that what we call Maundy Thursday was his last day of life. And what did he do? He chose to wash the feet of the disciples.
That is service. That is putting the needs of others before your own. That is love.
When asked which was the greatest of God’s commandments, Jesus replied “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ Love. That is what Jesus did; that is what Jesus was.
Love is the heart of the message. It is who and what we are. Our presiding bishop puts it this way, “If it isn’t about love, it isn’t about God.” Lest you think that he is making this stuff up, it comes from the gospel of John. “let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person
who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love.”
But how can you love someone if you appoint yourself judge over them? Sadly, some Christians have done exactly that. They use the scriptures as a litmus test to judge if someone is “right with God”, according to their standard. I saw a Facebook meme, (yes, I am quoting a Facebook meme in my sermon!) that illustrates my point. It is a picture of Jesus talking to a
group of pharisees and telling them “The difference between me and you is, you use scripture to determine what love means, and I use love to determine what scripture means.” We are not called to be self-righteous or exclusionary. We are not the palace guard whose job is to protect the faith from outsiders. We are not given “special and exclusive knowledge of God”
that only we can know. Our job as Christians is not to judge, but to love.
Christianity in today’s world has gotten a bad reputation because people perceive us to be judgmental and exclusionary. And make no mistake, there are branches of the Christian tree who have become precisely that. In fact, there are some Christians who feel that Episcopalians like us are not even Christian because we don’t believe exactly the same things that they believe. That is sad. Rather than focus on the love that unites us, they use their judgement to separate us. They have become salt that has lost its savor.
So, if they don’t feel that we are Christians, what does that make them to us? Our brothers and sisters in Christ. For if we use their differences with us to judge them, then we become like them, and we lose our saltiness as well. No, we are called to look at them as sisters and brothers and love them, for that is what God commands of us. We are not called to judge them, any more than they are called to judge us. Remember, it is about love.
The Reverend Doctor King put it best when he said; “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Be that light. Be that love. Be that salt of the earth that gives flavor to life.
And always remember that the secret ingredient in Grandma’s cooking was love.