Sermon, 2/5/17: Salt & Light
Eva Englert-Jessen
February 5, 2017
Sermon
Matthew 5:13-20
What does it mean to be salt & light?
Jesus uses these ordinary elements- ordinary, everyday images, to tell stories about what it means to live, to embody the radically loving- upside-down turning way of being in the world.
Today, salt is often critiqued for its connection to high sodium foods and diets, but during the time of Jesus, the functions of salt were of great importance.
Multiple functions of salt:
-Preserving: especially before refrigeration
-Cleansing: I think of the cleansing quality of salty air, like by an ocean; great for opening up sinuses or clearing the lungs of congestion
-Seasoning: food
-Healing: Mom’s trip to Eastern Europe entering a salt mine
Light- pretty universally understood metaphor, is it not? This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!
But until I re-read this passage and had some conversations about it (thanks to my husband, Chris), I had not understood that light in many ways has to be understood in relationship to darkness.
We must know and understand the darkness to know where to place it-- to know where the lampstand is, that we are told to put our light upon?
And If our experience of darkness does not take into account how others might experience darkness, then we might not be able to be as effective a light as we think!
We heard Pastor Sara’s sermon on the Beatitudes last week; those words spoken as the crowds, hungry to hear this man called Jesus’ teachings, followed him in what was probably hot, dry weather, their sandals kicking the dust at their feet. I can imagine them, huddled in masses, children on parents’ shoulders, heads poking behind shoulders in an effort to hear what was being said.
Directly after the Beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel comes this passage, about salt & light and Jesus’ call for righteousness. This is all part of the Sermon on the Mount, the section of the Gospel where Jesus especially tells his followers what it means to live in and build the kingdom of God. This kingdom declares blessed the meek, the poor, those who thirst for righteousness, and basically all who could be considered “rejects” or “unwanted” under the Roman empire, and even according to the purity laws that were part of the general religious and cultural context of the time.
This kingdom, Jesus says, is the fulfillment of the law & the prophets. And because we as Christians claim to follow Jesus, we are part of this fulfillment. God does the completing, but we are God’s hands and feet in the world, and together we work, guided by the Spirit, to be salt & light; to be righteous, to be just.
Brian Mass wrote for the Christian Century magazine that it seems like this passage is indicating that it’s already done: the text reads, “You are the light of the world,” and “You are the salt of the earth,” not “you should be light” or “you should be salt.”
But not so fast, he says. “The fullness of grace is in the details.” It’s easy as Christians, and perhaps especially as Methodists who craft an identity as “people of grace,” to say that because we’re justified by grace, God will take care of all of it. Are we indeed created good by God? Of course! Does God’s grace come before all that we can know and understand about our own lives and the world around us. Yes! But part of what it means to be justified by grace, Jesus tell us in this passage, is to respond by loving our neighbor fully, with word and deed. It is hard to be with our whole selves, salt and light. For the many of us who claim both American and Christian identities, we have to acknowledge the ways in which our nation’s history has often only offered metaphorical healing, seasoning, and flavor for the privileged few.
Even the phrase “city on a hill,” which we find in this passage in Matthew was co-opted by some of the political leaders we celebrate most in Boston (like John Winthrop) to mean something different that's its intended use. It has been used not as a way of describing how we should model a kind of religious life for others, but as a way of making Christians- namely, White Christians--sound superior to others. This kind of superior, boundary-drawing thinking, while couched in language about unity, legitimized the colonization of Native Americans and the support of white domination over Black lives in the support or tolerance of slavery.. We see it today, in a concept that excludes, and targets in the name of making our country “great again.”
I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he talked about salt losing its flavor. This language may be held by a particular political party, by Jesus is clearer throughout his ministry to point out that we are all capable of losing our saltiness.
But Friends, we have lots of good to offer the world, and indeed, God’s ever-present love and grace through the incarnated Jesus calls us to offer our gifts, our commitments, our flavors to the complex recipes and dishes of life all around us. We are part of what it means to be Christ’s hands & feet, eyes, ears, hearts, minds, fingers, toes in the work of fulfilling the kingdom of justice, love, peace, and truth.
I’ll ask again…
What does it mean to be salt & light?
What does it mean for you, in all of your uniqueness, your experiences, your gifts, your flavors…
To be salt and light for someone who is afraid?
to someone facing deportation, or who has been separated from their family because of policies of injustice? To offer sanctuary?
To the Earth, that groans for repair and protection?
To one who is sick?
To our LGBTQ+ siblings?
In this country and society that, for all of its good intentions, forgets its flavor and its ability to navigate the darkness?
May God be with us and guide us as we learn and act what it means to build the kingdom, the kin-dom, the reign of love for all, with Jesus, our incarnate guide and teacher.
Amen.
February 5, 2017
Sermon
Matthew 5:13-20
What does it mean to be salt & light?
Jesus uses these ordinary elements- ordinary, everyday images, to tell stories about what it means to live, to embody the radically loving- upside-down turning way of being in the world.
Today, salt is often critiqued for its connection to high sodium foods and diets, but during the time of Jesus, the functions of salt were of great importance.
Multiple functions of salt:
-Preserving: especially before refrigeration
-Cleansing: I think of the cleansing quality of salty air, like by an ocean; great for opening up sinuses or clearing the lungs of congestion
-Seasoning: food
-Healing: Mom’s trip to Eastern Europe entering a salt mine
Light- pretty universally understood metaphor, is it not? This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!
But until I re-read this passage and had some conversations about it (thanks to my husband, Chris), I had not understood that light in many ways has to be understood in relationship to darkness.
We must know and understand the darkness to know where to place it-- to know where the lampstand is, that we are told to put our light upon?
And If our experience of darkness does not take into account how others might experience darkness, then we might not be able to be as effective a light as we think!
We heard Pastor Sara’s sermon on the Beatitudes last week; those words spoken as the crowds, hungry to hear this man called Jesus’ teachings, followed him in what was probably hot, dry weather, their sandals kicking the dust at their feet. I can imagine them, huddled in masses, children on parents’ shoulders, heads poking behind shoulders in an effort to hear what was being said.
Directly after the Beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel comes this passage, about salt & light and Jesus’ call for righteousness. This is all part of the Sermon on the Mount, the section of the Gospel where Jesus especially tells his followers what it means to live in and build the kingdom of God. This kingdom declares blessed the meek, the poor, those who thirst for righteousness, and basically all who could be considered “rejects” or “unwanted” under the Roman empire, and even according to the purity laws that were part of the general religious and cultural context of the time.
This kingdom, Jesus says, is the fulfillment of the law & the prophets. And because we as Christians claim to follow Jesus, we are part of this fulfillment. God does the completing, but we are God’s hands and feet in the world, and together we work, guided by the Spirit, to be salt & light; to be righteous, to be just.
Brian Mass wrote for the Christian Century magazine that it seems like this passage is indicating that it’s already done: the text reads, “You are the light of the world,” and “You are the salt of the earth,” not “you should be light” or “you should be salt.”
But not so fast, he says. “The fullness of grace is in the details.” It’s easy as Christians, and perhaps especially as Methodists who craft an identity as “people of grace,” to say that because we’re justified by grace, God will take care of all of it. Are we indeed created good by God? Of course! Does God’s grace come before all that we can know and understand about our own lives and the world around us. Yes! But part of what it means to be justified by grace, Jesus tell us in this passage, is to respond by loving our neighbor fully, with word and deed. It is hard to be with our whole selves, salt and light. For the many of us who claim both American and Christian identities, we have to acknowledge the ways in which our nation’s history has often only offered metaphorical healing, seasoning, and flavor for the privileged few.
Even the phrase “city on a hill,” which we find in this passage in Matthew was co-opted by some of the political leaders we celebrate most in Boston (like John Winthrop) to mean something different that's its intended use. It has been used not as a way of describing how we should model a kind of religious life for others, but as a way of making Christians- namely, White Christians--sound superior to others. This kind of superior, boundary-drawing thinking, while couched in language about unity, legitimized the colonization of Native Americans and the support of white domination over Black lives in the support or tolerance of slavery.. We see it today, in a concept that excludes, and targets in the name of making our country “great again.”
I think this is part of what Jesus meant when he talked about salt losing its flavor. This language may be held by a particular political party, by Jesus is clearer throughout his ministry to point out that we are all capable of losing our saltiness.
But Friends, we have lots of good to offer the world, and indeed, God’s ever-present love and grace through the incarnated Jesus calls us to offer our gifts, our commitments, our flavors to the complex recipes and dishes of life all around us. We are part of what it means to be Christ’s hands & feet, eyes, ears, hearts, minds, fingers, toes in the work of fulfilling the kingdom of justice, love, peace, and truth.
I’ll ask again…
What does it mean to be salt & light?
What does it mean for you, in all of your uniqueness, your experiences, your gifts, your flavors…
To be salt and light for someone who is afraid?
to someone facing deportation, or who has been separated from their family because of policies of injustice? To offer sanctuary?
To the Earth, that groans for repair and protection?
To one who is sick?
To our LGBTQ+ siblings?
In this country and society that, for all of its good intentions, forgets its flavor and its ability to navigate the darkness?
May God be with us and guide us as we learn and act what it means to build the kingdom, the kin-dom, the reign of love for all, with Jesus, our incarnate guide and teacher.
Amen.
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