Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
February 9, 2020
5 Epiphany A
I firmly believe that chocolate is a sign of God’s great love for us. Growing up in a southern family, food and great meals in general meant love, but chocolate goes beyond that to divine love. I am pretty much a purist, never mixing chocolate and fruit although chocolate and nuts may be allowed depending on the chocolate and the nut. At a family dinner party two nights before our eldest son’s wedding some years ago, we had a flourless chocolate cake for dessert, with a chocolate ganache frosting, and, the description said, a sprinkling of sea salt. Hmmm. I do like my salt, and I love my chocolate, but salting my chocolate cake had not occurred to me. What I found, however, is that the little bit of salt kicked the chocolate up a notch or two, deepening the flavor and adding a richness to the cake I did not anticipate. The salt was there, not to be salty, but to enhance the flavor that was already present.
I am reminded of this cake when I hear Jesus say “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its saltiness, how can it be restored?” Jesus then goes on to tell the disciples that they are the light of the world. Light exists to illuminate something else, whether the city or the house. Then Jesus says “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” In both the case of salt and of light, their purpose is to enhance something else. Salt enhances the flavor of food and light enhances whatever it shines on by making it visible. The point of salt is not to draw attention to itself, but to enhance another flavor. The point of light is not to draw attention to itself but to illuminate something else. In telling us to be salt and light, Jesus is telling us that our work as his followers is to enhance, give flavor, give depth and richness, to the work God is already doing in the world. Then the world will see what the followers of God do and know something of God and be able to give God glory.
Then Jesus says that he has come not to abolish the law and the prophets but to fulfill them. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is portrayed as the new Moses, the one whose parents had to flee to Egypt to hide him from Herod when he was an infant, and the one who went up on the mountain to teach. Today, as part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus encourages the doing and the teaching of the commandments that Moses received on Mt. Sinai. I wonder if we have more salt and light going on here. First, perhaps Jesus is the salt that comes to give new flavor and richness to the law and the prophets, not to abolish or overpower them. But also, perhaps the law and the prophets are themselves salt and light-a gift from God that illuminates the values of God and the identity of God’s people.
There is another side to both salt and light, however. Anyone who has ever gotten salt in a wound knows the burn of salt, and we all know that light illuminates both things that we want to see as well as things we would rather not see. In the reading from Isaiah, we hear these words “Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.” Isaiah is being both salt and light here, using burning language to shine light on the ways the people fail to please God with their fasts. Likewise, Jesus’ work was to fulfill the prophets and do the same, being salt and light to show us where we fail as God’s people.
How, exactly, are we to be salt and light in the world? This morning we will baptize William Bear Abramson and with William, we will reaffirm our baptismal covenant. We will promise to be faithful in worship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. We are promising to do even more than show up. We are promising to be faithful. We will promise to resist evil, which draws us from the love of God, and to proclaim the Good News with our words and our lives. We will promise to seek and serve Christ in all people, to work for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being. We are not just promising to do these things as individuals. We are promising to be a community for William, for all of our children, for each other, and for the world that lives in these ways to reflect the values of God and our identity as followers of Jesus. If we look again at the reading from Isaiah, the description of the fast that God chooses sounds a lot like the baptismal covenant. “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?” Scripture teaches that the way God’s people live says something about their identity as God’s people and reflects the love and values of God to the world.
In the midst of a time of great animosity and strife, when our country is polarized and language has become vitriolic, when uncertainty and fear seem to abound, Jesus calls us to be the salt and light that shows the depth and richness of God’s love for us. That salt is to respect the dignity of every human being, even and especially in the midst of disagreement, to proclaim the Good News with word and action even and especially in the midst of disappointment, discouragement, and fear, to hold tightly to our identity as people of God through worship, prayer and study even and especially when the world pulls us away, and to resist all that calls us away from God’s love. When we live as salt and light, those around us can taste the depth and richness of the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
Amen.
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