Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it?
In order to not lose the saltiness of my sermon, let me begin with some really bad dad puns about salt:
Take life with a grain of salt, but also with some tequila and a lime.
The pony had to gargle salt water this morning because he’s feeling a little horse.
Why do whales only swim in salt water? Pepper water makes them sneeze.
The doctor told me to rub my entire body with salt to fix my condition. Now I’m cured.
And yes, I know these bad dad jokes are not punny.
In our gospel lesson this morning we find the disciples on the verge of losing their saltiness. Why might they lose their saltiness? Rewind to last Sunday where we left the disciples arguing with one another about who is the greatest among them. Do you remember?
Let me refresh your memory with a funny story. Last weekend I went camping with my son and his Cub Scout pack and I witnessed an experience that was almost identical to the disciples argument in last Sunday’s gospel lesson. The boys were playing a game where they were ranking themselves from the greatest to the least. Who’s the strongest? Who’s the second strongest, etc. The greatest or strongest scout they called the commander, and then it went second in command, third, fourth, etc.
They had discovered this porch off in the woods that had a raised stage in the middle where they had organized a kind of Cub Scouts fight club. They wrestled each other, best out of three matches, and the winner would take on the role of the new commander. The older boys went first; all very organized even with a referee. The current commander won two matches in a row penning down both the second and the third in command.
Then he gave an open challenge to any of the younger boys to wrestle him for his title, and of course, my son was the first to accept the offer. He lost the first match. The second match was a draw, and in the third, my boy penned down the commander in a real dog fight. I think me and the other dads were beginning to feel a bit guilty allowing our Scouts fight club to go on this long, but everyone now was invested and wanted to see if my boy was going to pull off the upset of a lifetime in the third match.
It was intense with both boys rolling each other just in time to escape being penned, but in the end, my boy was bested, and the commander remained in command. Afterwards the commander told my son that the only reason he won that third match against him was simply because he refused to let go of the power of commander. It was then that it dawned on me that what I had just witnessed was identical to the disciples arguing about who was the greatest in Jesus’ army. It’s deeply ingrained in our human nature and in our culture to want to be better than others at whatever we do. This was the very issue Jesus was bringing to the surface.
And now this morning we encounter another issue that Jesus needs to bring into the light. It seems that the disciples had come upon someone who was casting out demons in the name of Jesus but was not one of the chosen disciples. They seem to actually be bragging about how they tried to stop him from completing his exorcism. And the irony here is that the very one they were attempting to reject was performing works in the name of Jesus that these very disciples were incapable of performing just a few verses back!
It’s deeply ingrained in our human nature and in our culture to keep people who are not like us on the outside so we can feel safe. The disciples have fallen into the trap of the us versus them mentality, and just like last week’s lesson, the boys have again missed the mark. Or to put it like Jesus, they are losing their saltiness.
Salt, of course, cannot lose its saltiness, but the purity of salt varies. Salt harvested from the Dead Sea, in particular, grows increasingly stale because of those impurities. If the salt is mixed with too many other minerals, the taste will become so diluted it will be useless. The disciples risk this when they allow the values of the world, like love of authority and power and position, to suppress the purified saltiness that God desires.
The salt in those days was not refined like the Morton Salt we have today, but instead was a poor quality of rock salt. Salt in Israel came from the rock salt found by the Dead Sea. Because it was crudely gathered, earth and other impurities were collected with it into a bag. If the salt got wet and dissolved, the insoluble bits of rock would remain. It did not take much moisture to dissolve the salt and leave behind a bag of useless tiny stones.
Salt was also once scarce and precious and even related to money and legal matters. Cesar’s soldiers received part of their earnings as a salt allowance. The Latin word salarium, from which the word salary was derived, originally was salt money and indicated the sum paid to soldiers for salt.
Thomas Keller, arguably one of America’s greatest chef, runs two of the finest restaurants in America: Per Se and the French Laundry, located in New York City and California. Keller was once asked about the chef’s most important skill. He said, “Knowing how to season. Actually, knowing how to salt.”
The purpose of salt is not to make things taste salty. The purpose of salt is to make food taste more like itself; steak more beefy, green beans more green-beany, that is to say, more like themselves. The purpose of Christianity is to make man more himself, that is, to reconcile himself and others to God and to become what we were when we were made in his image and likeness. A human that has missed the seasoning of Christ is quite frankly not themselves. They have lost their connection to their essential humanity, their image and likeness to God-self.
So, let’s talk about some salty Christians. Do we have any salty Christians?
I ask you to bring the flavor!
Salt has the ability to enhance flavor. This translates to the human race, that when the world has nothing to offer and the bitterness of sin has taken its toll, we can bring something flavorful to the plate.
Salty Christians preserve…
Salt has an ability to preserve. It stops the growth of harmful bacteria and mold. It is used for preserving food, and if you had a nasty wound, salt could prevent infection from taking place. We are called to preserve and stop the growth of sin and worldliness. We are called to flip the world’s messed up system upside-down where the greatest becomes the least and the first shall become last and the servant of all.
And we cannot escape talking about this Gospel passage without mentioning the dark and twisted teaching of Jesus instructing us to practice human mutilation in order to regain our saltiness. As an English graduate, I absolutely relish in Jesus’ use of hyperbole here to really engage his listeners ears.
Here is that passage again from The Message paraphrase Bible that I think, combined with a little holy imagination, helps understand the true meaning of this difficult teaching.
Listen to Mark 9:43-48, “If your hand or your foot gets in God’s way, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owner of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell.
The user of hyperbole humorously brings home the weight of Jesus’ teaching. Ultimately, he is saying to us, my kingdom is not made of this world, of this power and position, of this flesh and blood, but born again by the Spirit, reordered into the mold of true servant leadership. Where you see servant leadership, there you see the Kingdom of God, and where you see the Kingdom of God, there you see LOVE.
At our vestry meeting last week, Father Jim asked me to lead a meditative bible study from our Gospel lesson this morning. In this meditation, I read the passage from Mark three different times from three different translations. After the first reading, I asked the vestry to just give me a word or phrase that stuck out to them. After the second reading, I asked them to expand their word into an image or a sentence. Finally, after the third reading, I asked them to sum up the meaning of the passage into a single sentence.
It was a great exercise to help me prepare deeper for this sermon, and I would like to share a few of their responses so that you can see how deeply involved your vestry is here in practicing servant leadership. I will however not be naming any names in the reading of their responses!
When it comes to denominations and rules, we get so caught up in the particulars that we often lose sight of Jesus.
We cannot control who receives the Spirt…ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Everybody gets God but the biggest sin is keeping others on the outside.
If you are doing the work of God, it is the right thing, regardless of your title or credentials.
Examine your hearts and cut off the parts of your life that hinder the message of Jesus.
Be at peace with each other.
The disciples have lost their saltiness.
Since I began with the story of scout fight club as the manifestation of the human disease to control and over power others who are weaker, let me redeem pack 121 by sharing the Scout Law, a list of characteristics that I believe any salty Christian would be wise to live by.
The Scout Law has twelve points. Each is a goal for every Scout. A Scout tries to live up to the Law every day. It is not always easy to do, but a Scout always tries.
The Scout motto is to do your best.
A Scout does his or her best when salted with these characteristics:
TRUSTWORTHY. Tell the truth and keep promises. People can depend on you.
I will with God’s salt.
LOYAL. Show that you care about your family, friends, Scout leaders, school, and country.
I will with God’s salt.
HELPFUL. Volunteer to help others without expecting a reward.
I will with God’s help.
FRIENDLY. Be a friend to everyone, even people who are very different from you.
I will with God’s help.
COURTEOUS. Be polite to everyone and always use good manners.
I will with God’s help.
KIND. Treat others as you want to be treated. Never harm or kill any living thing without good reason.
I will with God’s help.
OBEDIENT. Follow the rules of your family, school, and pack. Obey the laws of your community and country.
I will with God’s help.
CHEERFUL. Look for the bright side of life. Cheerfully do tasks that come your way. Try to help others be happy.
I will with God’s help.
THRIFTY. Work to pay your own way. Try not to be wasteful. Use time, food, supplies, and natural resources wisely.
I will with God’s help.
BRAVE. Face difficult situations even when you feel afraid. Do what you think is right despite what others might be doing or saying.
I will with God’s help.
CLEAN. Keep your body and mind fit. Help keep your home and community clean.
I will with God’s help.
REVERENT. Be reverent toward God. Be faithful in your religious duties. Respect the beliefs of others.
I will with God’s help.
References
1. Cub Scout’s Field Guide.
3. Peterson, Eugene. The Message Paraphrase Bible.