Charlotte
Collins Reed
Christ
Episcopal Church
February
5, 2017
5
Epiphany A
For a good number of summers, I had
the privilege of serving as the chaplain at 4th and 5th
grade camp in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.
One summer, we did a project with the children to help them understand
the importance of things that are small.
We divided the children into two groups and gave each group the recipe
for chocolate chips cookies, along with the ingredients, measuring spoons, and
all the other things they needed to bake the cookies. The recipes were identical except that one
recipe called for ½ teaspoon of salt and the other called for no salt. The salt was the smallest of all the
ingredients, so the children could easily think that omitting the salt would
not make a difference.
The children diligently followed the
recipe, measuring and mixing the ingredients, scooping the dough onto the
cookie sheet, and baking the cookies.
When the cookies came out of the oven, both batches looked pretty much
the same. The difference was in the
taste. The cookies without salt tasted
flat, less sweet, and basically like something was off. They were not terrible, but the cookies made
with the salt were full of flavor and tasted the way chocolate chip cookies
should taste. The very small amount of
salt made a big difference in the taste of the cookies, which is why we eat
them, after all!
This morning, Jesus says “You are the salt of the
earth.” In the ancient world, salt was a
luxury item used primarily for two things: the preservation of food, since
there was no refrigeration, and to give taste and flavor to food. In the Hebrew scriptures, which were, of
course, Jesus’ scriptures, salt was a symbol of permanence and
purification. The covenant between God
and the Israelites is referred to as a “covenant of salt” in the book of
Numbers as the people travel through the wilderness. The salt symbolized the permanence of God’s
covenant with the Hebrew people, a covenant that God will keep even when the
people do not.
Interestingly, Jesus does not say to his disciples
“You will be the salt of the earth,” or “You should be the salt of the
earth.” Jesus is not making a
request. Jesus is stating a fact: “You
are the salt of the earth.” I wonder if
Jesus is telling his disciples and us two things about our role as his followers. First, Jesus is saying that the lives of his
disciples demonstrate the flavor and taste of following Jesus. That does not mean that Jesus’ followers have
to be nice all the time. Jesus certainly
wasn’t. But, as followers of Jesus, our
actions give the world the flavor of what we believe Jesus values. Secondly, when Jesus tells the disciples that
they are the salt of the earth, Jesus tells them that they are how the world
knows what the covenant between God and God’s people looks like. Whether we like it or not, and on good days
as well as bad days, our actions as people who claim to follow Jesus tell the
world about the permanence of God’s love for humankind. On the one hand, our lives are not to make it
look like God is happy with everything we humans do. Because God is not happy
with everything we do. But on the other
hand, if all the world sees in our words and actions are judgement and
condemnation without hope, respect, and love, the salt of the earth is not
being faithful to God’s steadfast love. And
just when we think we might rather play it safe and just be a hidden symbol of
God’s love, Jesus tells us that we are also the light of the world. We are to let our light shine before others
so they may see our good works and glorify God.
We can run, but we cannot hide.
If we struggle with how to be faithful salt, we
are in good company. God’s chosen people
are wrestling with a similar question in the reading from Isaiah this morning. The Hebrew people are trying to be faithful and
uphold their covenant with God by observing all of God’s laws about diet and
worship. Those laws were given to the
people as a way of making all of life holy and pleasing to God. But God is not happy with the people, because
something is missing. The people may
have been worshipping faithfully and following the dietary laws, but those
faithful behaviors were not being translated into everyday life and the way
they treated other people. Listen to the
words of Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of
injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to
break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the
homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not
to hide yourself from your own kin?”
We
heard something similar last Sunday when the prophet Micah said “He has told
you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do
justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Jesus tells us this morning that he has come
not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. Over and over again, the law and the prophets
tell us that the actions of our lives matter to God. Our worship, our study of scripture, our
spiritual practices and the fellowship we share with one another are all
vitally important because they form the actions of our lives. And the actions of our lives are what engage
us with the world around us. And our
engagement with the world is what makes us the salt of the earth. When we think that what we do as one single,
small Christian doesn’t matter, remember both the power of a small amount of
salt and the words of the Dalai Lama “If you think you are too small to make a
difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
Amen.
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