Being the Salt Preached on February 9th, 2020 at Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Matthew 5:13-20 This past week I’ve been thinking a lot about salt. It’s not a topic I generally pay much attention to. But I’ve been thinking about how our attitude toward salt has changed in recent history. We have been told that salt is something to avoid. We all know there we should not have too much salt, sodium chloride, in our diets. And yet salt has a vital role in our lives and in our world. Salt is necessary for human and animal life. It is also available in very small quantities in the natural world, and so we are adapted to crave salt. Salt is vital to any chef’s kitchen. Just a small sprinkling can transform a bland dish into something flavorful. In our gospel reading this morning, we heard an excerpt from the Jesus’ sermon on the mount as recorded by Matthew. This sermon is central to Jesus’ teaching. Last week we heard from the introductory section of the sermon, what is known as the Beatitudes. This week we hear from the section where Jesus relates to Jewish law or Torah. Jesus makes it clear that he has not come to change the law. Not even the tiniest letter, or the smallest accent on a letter. Rather he had come to fulfill, or clarify, the law. Jesus has already proclaimed the good news that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Now he makes a powerful connection between God’s covenant with Israel, the Torah, and the disciple community. The covenant and the Torah, were and still remain most precious in Judaism. Salt was seen as a symbol of the covenant and Torah. Both salt and Torah are precious and necessary for life. Jesus proclaims to the crowds who are following him “You are the salt of the earth …” In this teaching, Jesus speaks about the scribes and the Pharisees. He tells the followers that they are to exceed them in righteousness. These are groups that would be familiar to Matthew’s readers. Matthew writes at a time when the Jewish followers of Jesus were in conflict with other Jewish groups. Matthew’s gospel first appeared during the last days of the city of Jerusalem, as Jesus’ generation knew it. The temple has been destroyed by the Romans. The Jews are determined to remain faithful to the one-God of the covenant. This conflicts with the Rome’s insistence on loyalty to the empire. The Romans are bearing down on them and the Jews are becoming more desperate and fearful. There is rivalry between different groups, including the Pharisees and the followers of Jesus. Matthew’s gospel illustrates this factionalism by caricaturing the other groups. The group known as the Sadducees maintained the temple in Jerusalem before its destruction. They were known as temple elites. They collaborated with the Romans during the occupation, attempting to maintain peace. The poor Jewish people who suffered under the Roman rule must have felt contempt for the Sadducees. They were lining their own pockets and taking care of their own families by pleasing the Romans. Their goal was to preserve the temple, but what were they for the downtrodden Jews? The Pharisees, on the other hand were split on the issue of the Roman occupiers. Some were zealots, who were determined to take up their swords and fight their Roman enemies. They were a small group, but they were going to fight to the end. Other Pharisees realized that little Israel was no match for the Roman Empire. And so they led their communities in the direction of preserving their cultural and religious identity. They reminded the people they were set apart by God, who called them to covenantal righteousness by avoiding sin. They hunkered down in their section of the city, the ghetto, practicing private Torah study and prayer. They were trying to preserve their own traditions and way of life until the coming of God’s reign. As the walls of the city and temple tumbled around them they expected the end times to arrive very soon. And so, Jesus preaches in the midst of this tension. At the beginning of the sermon he has proclaimed the good news, that the kingdom of heaven is already in their midst. The people have no need to hunker down and wait, it is here. And yet, Jesus does not encourage his followers to take up the sword, like the zealots. He does not even encourage them to hate or resist the Romans. In this sermon, which is central to the whole gospel, Jesus tells the crowds that they are to love even their enemies, and pray for the ones who persecute them. Jesus proposes and sort of middle way. He begins with this proclamation for the community, “You are the salt of the earth….” In light of the kingdom of heaven among them already, this is how they function. This is their role. We live in a very different world from that of the early Christians. There has been 2,000 years of cultural and church history since those times. And yet we are also living in a time where we are trying to figure out our place in the world, as followers of Christ. We are asking “how are we to be the salt of the earth?” The time when the culture and the Church were one and the same is over, at least here in Quincy Massachusetts. Mainline churches and denominations like ours are getting smaller. We have lost power and influence. In many ways we are becoming more distinct from the mainline culture. We get blank looks when we mention church and Sunday morning worship to our neighbors and coworkers. The members of groups who use our building see this place primarily as school, yoga or dance studio, Alcoholics Anonymous, or club meeting place. And perhaps all of this is not a bad thing. Christians and churches who are indistinct from the culture have lost their saltiness. When we are blended in, we do not add any zest or flavor. And still, as in Jesus’ time with the different Jewish groups, there are factions and there is infighting in the Church. There are Christian groups who collaborate with the dominant culture. The language they use is that of citizenship, service, and country. The signs and symbols of the church do not look much different from civic symbols. This is not bad. It’s just no longer the church of Jesus Christ because it has become the church of the culture. Other Christian groups perceive the culture as an external enemy. They believe there is a war on Christianity. They have their own understanding of sin and purity. They have created spiritual ghettos where they focus on private Bible study and prayer. Some are mega-churches, others occupy church buildings vacated by mainline denominations. They anxiously recruit others by dealing in fear. They warn those outside their group that the end times are coming and they’d better get in. Then there are other groups who are zealous for the faith. They use fighting language. They see enemies in those who hold different ethical views from themselves over issues like abortion or the environment. They see enemies in those who are in same-sex unions, or do not believe the same things they believe. They are ready to fight for Christ, forgetting that Jesus clearly instructed them not to fight their enemies but to love them. And then there are those who have hunkered down and clung to their traditions even when they are not working. They hope to draw others into their group, but this is not a true evangelical effort. It is more of a last attempt at survival. We may look at groups like the Amish and the Mennonites, who eschew modern technology and new styles of clothing. What about ourselves? Are we clinging to a tradition, without really grappling with what it means to be the salt of the earth? We know that Christian groups in the United States have factionalized along partisan political lines. The groups who perceive a war on Christianity have aligned with the right. And, groups like the United Church of Christ, who proclaim a welcome for LGBTQIA+ people, and who lift up Jesus’ teaching on caring for the poor and the outcast, have aligned with the left. And yet our tumultuous political times are upsetting all that. In the wake of the Presidential Impeachment I believe Christian groups are being called to unify under Jesus Christ. We are being reminded that makes us distinct from partisan affiliation. We are to become more like salt in the mix. This past week, the officers of United Church of Christ issued a statement on the impeachment trial. They began by asking the question: “What kind of America will we be?” This is a question for the culture. The letter says that “It is not the call of the church to alienate those who have become increasingly entrenched in public discourse designed to divide us into warring camps of left and right, red and blue, or black and white.” And it goes on to deal with matters of the truth, and how the truth will ultimately rise. I’ll leave you to read it for yourself. The concluding paragraph speaks of what the church is to be, in these times. The officers say “The church must summon the moral courage to anchor ourselves in the unifying call of scripture that reminds us, although we have many differing parts, we are one body whose strength does not lie to the right of us or to the left of us, but rather in the midst of us. “In the midst of us is strength. In the midst of us is hope. In the midst of us is memory …” [1] I would add, “in the midst of us is Jesus Christ.” This is how we are salt, not only in the United Church of Christ, or in the United States, but the Church in the world. Because in the midst of us is Jesus Christ. Let’s remind ourselves that a little salt transforms the whole dish. And so we are left with the question: how are will we be salt this coming week and in the weeks to come? Will we sprinkle a little salt of kindness in the midst of our coworkers, our team, or our class? Will we sprinkle salt of listening into the political discourse, by engaging in that forum and allowing our faith to inform our opinions? Will we sprinkle salt hope in our communities, counseling patience and love, when our neighbors get anxious about the enemies they perceive? And in the coming months, Wollaston Congregational Church, we will grapple with how we, this local church, will be salt in these times. Distinct, rather than blended in … engaged, not separated from … neither collaborators with, nor enemies of … the culture. Zesty and flavorful in worship and in service. Many all God’s people say Amen [1] https://www.ucc.org/news_commentary_ucc_officers_what_kind_of_america_will_we_be_02052020
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