Have Salt In Yourselves and Be At Peace

 

Sunday 26 September, Trinity 17, Year of Mark

 

Saying Sorry (Prayers of Penitence)

Father, you make each of us unique,

but we go astray with the crowd.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

 

Christ, you call us all to a unique way,

but we choose set habits and comfort.

Christ, have mercy.

Christ, have mercy.

 

Holy Spirit, your breath brings forgiveness and change,

but we stay stuck with resentments and fears.

Lord, have mercy.

Lord, have mercy.

 

Numbers 11:4-6, 10-16, 24-29

 

James 5:13-20

 

Mark 9:38-50

 

Reflection (Sermon)

 

If you struggled to get one message from today’s Gospel, do not worry. You need not blame yourself at all. It happens quite often that a gospel passage is a combination of things. A mix. A muddle, even.

 

So let us begin with the end. With salt.

 

You know about salt in the Bible, I am guessing.

There is a phrase which is pretty well-known, even these days.

Christ says: “You are the salt of the earth.”

(He says it once,

by which I mean that it’s only recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, Matt 5.15.)

And we think we know what this means.

It means that we as Christians don’t have to try to rule the world.

Rather, simply by getting on with being Christians,

by living Christian lives,

we’ll be making a subtle but powerful difference to the world,

just like a bit of salt can make a meal.

 

This is important, and true.

But it’s fair to say it can feel like it’s a burden.

How Christian we are – how we are Christian – is what saves the world!

That has to be a tall order, doesn’t it?

Sometimes – sometimes – we will - in this or that regard – fail,

and that must be pretty serious.

We may even remember that in Matthew

the promise that we are the salt of the world comes with its own threat:

“but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything

except to be thrown out and trodden under foot…”.

If we hear these words, it would be amazing if we weren’t a little unsettled.

 

But!

 

But today the message is a little different.

Rather, the difference is small in some ways, and total in others.

In Mark, Jesus says something I am not sure

Christian hearers and readers have ever understood:

“For every one will be salted with fire.”

If you know what it means, tell me afterwards.

Then comes the warning about salt losing its saltness.

Then comes a command, a command from Jesus Christ:

 

“Have salt in yourselves,

and be at peace with one another.”

 

Mark 9.49 Πᾶς γὰρ πυρὶ ἁλισθήσεται.

50 καλὸν τὸ ἅλας·

ἐὰν δὲ τὸ ἅλας ἄναλον γένηται, ἐν τίνι αὐτὸ ἀρτύσετε;

ἔχετε ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἅλα

καὶ εἰρηνεύετε ἐν ἀλλήλοις.

 

That’s not a phrase of Jesus that is so well known. So let us pay attention to it now.

 

Jesus says: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

 

What might Jesus mean?

 

Jesus is saying, it seems to me, that there is a quality within us, as Christians.

A quality of character.

A quality within us, and also a quality

in our behaviour, in our living, our acting.

This quality is not all of us.

This quality may not be what we are best known for.

But it flavours our life, our being.

Like salt flavours a meal.

 

This way of thinking about salt isn’t so much a stern commandment

to be Christians without reserve - or else.

This is more a promise that, by sticking to Christ,

Christ will make a difference to who we are.

We don’t have to work ourselves up into making a difference.

 

We simply have to let Christ be Christ in our lives.

(There will still be plenty to do. Don’t worry!

It’s just that those tasks will flow naturally

from the taste of Christ’s love within and between us.)

 

Something else may be said.

In the Gospel Jesus himself gives us a hint as to

what this quality, this salt, this salty quality is.

The salt we have within and between ourselves is linked intimately with…

with peace:

“Have salt in yourselves… be at peace with one another”.

 

Here I am reminded of some other words, words of a saint,

St Seraphim of Sarov (in Russia) [1754-1833].

He said: “Get a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.”

 

I’ve repeated quite a lot in this reflection,

but I will make no apologies for repeating this:

“Get a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.”

 

Brothers, if ever there is a message for this place,

and for all places like this one,

surely it is this.

Surely this is the message, the promise, the truth

that can truly encourage all Christians in this place.

“Get a peaceful spirit, and thousands around you will be saved.”

 

Is it easy to get a peaceful spirit, and hold onto it,

day in, day out, year in, year out?

No.

But the insistence here is that it is possible.

 

Another thing, just as important:

that difference, that saving, that salvation, may not be obvious.

You, the peaceful one, may not know – you may not have the first idea –

about the impact you are having.

That matters not.

That – bluntly – makes no difference.

 

So I say: here is the command which is also a promise.

I offer it to you, now.

For now. For all times.

 

 

Have salt in yourselves.

 

Be at peace with one another

 

Get a peaceful spirit,

 

and thousands around you will be saved.

 

 

Amen.

Prayers for the World and for All Needs (Intercessions)

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

God of peace, give us a peaceful Spirit.

Bless Graham and Jane, our bishops,

and all who bear leadership in our diverse churches.

Give them a clear vision and a warm heart.

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

God of peace, give us a peaceful Spirit.

Bless all who bear leadership in the world.

We renew our prayers for the peace of Jerusalem…

and for peace with freedom with justice with forgiveness

throughout your world.

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

God of peace, give us a peaceful Spirit.

Bless this place,

and all who live or work or visit here.

Give courage and calm and change

to all who are struggling here,

with drugs, or gangs, or ways of living which do not work.

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

God of peace, give us a peaceful Spirit.

Give the peace of wisdom to those who care

for those who are ill. or know dislocation of any kind.

Make yourself known as the Healer you are

to those we now name in our hearts….

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

God of peace, give us a peaceful Spirit.

Give a peaceful death to all who will die today,

especially those who will die

unprepared, in agony, alone, in war, or at their own hand.

Draw further into your light those who have shaped us and have died,

whom we may name now…

 

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

God of peace, give us a peaceful Spirit.

Guide us all, each your unique disciple.

 

May peace come. May it start with me.

 

 

Sermon: You are salt and you are light. You are.

Sermon. St Michael and All Angels, Little Ilford, 9 February 2020.

3^rd Sunday Before Lent (Year A)

·       Matthew 5.13-20

A few hundred years ago, when everything was sepia (colour had not yet come in), I went to university. I read Theology, and, liking languages as I do, signed up for Biblical Hebrew as well as New Testament Greek. More than once I was told: if you ever wanted to do serious research in the Bible, go for the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament.

·       Hebrew is thought to be harder than Greek (it isn’t);

·       the Old Testament is thought to be less important than the New (it isn’t);

·       and the Old Testament is thought to be much, much longer than the new (it is).

The point is: it is not an exaggeration to say that every single word of the New Testament has been studied, analysed, and researched. So it is that much harder to say anything original.

There is a lot of truth in that. Every single word. Certainly, I know at least one person who wrote a whole dissertation (a small book) on the word… salt. To Halas in Greek. A waste of time and energy?

Actually, it’s not ridiculous, when you think about it. “We all know” what it is to be “the salt of the earth”. Someone who is “the salt of the earth” is

·       a kind and well-intentioned person;

·       a good egg;

·       a top banana;

·       perhaps even the bees-knees.

And so on. A good person. But of course we only “know” this meaning because of this Bible text. These meanings are what we have done with – what we have made out of – the Bible text. The meaning is later than the text. So the meaning Matthew intended – or the meaning Jesus intended – has still to be worked out. We do have to dig deeper into the mines of meaning.

Fortunately, this is (for once) not an impossibly difficult task. For all the evidence suggests that the purposes of salt have changed little over the centuries. Salt is used:

·       to give flavour to food;

·       salt is used to preserve food (especially in days before fridges, but to some extent still, by choice);

·       and (more unusual this), salt is used as a fertiliser;

·       [a member of the congregation added: also for medical purposes].

Can we work out which use of salt is to the fore in today’s gospel? That is not easy. Some say because the phrase is “salt of the earth” (to halas tes ges), then the use as fertiliser is the primary meaning. Salt for the earth, in effect. Maybe. And if so, this can work to keep us humble: we are, perhaps, not a million miles away from being like manure to be worked into the mud! But the meaning is as likely to be “salt out of the earth”. So we cannot say.

You are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.

Light is an easier symbol to understand, I’d say (thank goodness). But we just have to be clear that, since this text was written many centuries before electricity, here it means the light of the flame, the light of fire.

So we are salt, and we are flame.

We can say a few things about this.

First, as salt and as flame, too much of us in one place is a bad thing. Oversalted food, oversalted fields, oversalted medication, too much fire in a room – these are not just unpleasant things, they are dangerous things. So I say again, too much of us in one place is a bad thing. Except of course it’s not quite that. What is meant is rather if we are spending too much time in one place, that is a bad thing.

To be clear:

·       we gather (here we are);

·       and we are right to gather;

·       we need to gather;

·       and Gd calls us to gather.

·       It is good that we are here.

But! But we are here in order to be sent out. When at the end of the service we say or hear “Go in the peace of Christ” or “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”, this does not mean: “The service is over; we have run out of things to say, sing, and do”. No. We mean: “We, if we can inhabit and take to ourselves all that we have experienced, now have the forgiveness, compassion and strength we need to go out into the world and truly be salt and light in the wider mess that is the world.”

Second, salt and flame are very different things.

·       Salt works when it is hidden, when it is fully worked into something bigger than itself.

·       Flame works when it is on display, when it openly radiates its light throughout.

This is important. Important for us. It reminds us that we are called to both tasks.

·       Sometimes what we do is rightly and properly utterly hidden. No one notices, and that is okay. We do the right thing. An act of forgiveness here. An act of kindness there.

·       Sometimes what we do is rightly and properly public or “out there”. Taking a stance against racism here. Shutting down some gossip there. Neither the hidden nor the public ministry is more important than the other. The wisdom is knowing when to be hidden and when to be out. Salt here; flame there. We learn this wisdom by prayer, and from each other.

Third, and I don’t want to shock you here, but: salt is salt and flame is flame! I mean: the vocation of salt is to be salt, the saltiest salt it can be. Flame is called to be flame, the brightest and flamiest flame it can be. And we are to take comfort in this.

Our ministry in the world is not to do things that are utterly alien to us, that oppose or harm our true nature. Our ministry is to be our authentic selves, whatever that means. It doesn’t always mean doing what seems to come naturally, as our instincts and drives are not always right (to put it mildly). But it does mean that our vocation will be a coming to know ourselves as we really always were, as we always are. Further, we are right to be curious about our selves, and interested and find enjoyment in discovering our selves.

You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. The Greek sentences do include the verb to be (este). You may (just perhaps) remember that I’ve said that both in Hebrew and Greek you typically do not need the verb to be. It can be implicit. You the salt of the earth. You the light of the word. These would be perfectly good Greek sentences. So it may well be that the addition of the verb to be here is emphatic. You are. Who you are is the salt of the earth. Who you really are is the enlightening flame of the world.

·       So, most of your Christian life is to be lived dispersed in the world, the world in all its pain, mess and doubt.

·       Sometimes what you do will be hidden and unthanked; no matter.

·       Sometimes what you do will be public and so risky; no matter.

·       Don’t worry. In each and every moment, you are being called to do one thing only: to be what you are. To be who you are.

I’ll add: in all the renewal we are engaged in as a parish and as a worshipping community, all the change – the small and the big - is really all about helping us – as persons and as a gathering – to become who we are. Just as we want salt to be salty and the light of the flame to be light.

As this has been a reflection on a New Testament text, and knowing you as I do, I am aware that it is very unlikely I have said anything original. I give no apology. It is said with care and love. I address this to each of you as a disciple of Christ, and, yes, to me as one such too: By the grace of Gd, be who you are.

Amen.