Salty and Sweet

After working our way this month through the book of James, we turn now to a reading from Mark’s gospel. This is not an easy text. It seems to be a compilation of a number of different ideas that Mark has brought together. We have first section on exorcism, a second section on sin and temptation and a third on salt. For our time here together I will be concentrating on the last part, on salt. But I think it is good to have read the whole text, to get a flavor of the disparate thinking of the evangelist who has rounded up these teachings into one section. 

And I also think it is good to read things that are difficult to understand, not for the shock effect but to see that even such strong statements as “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off” are part of the whole story of Jesus. When we try to sanitize him, something is missing.  He was not always a subtle speaker. He comes on strong and tells a certain kind of truth, which sometimes leaves us wondering:  how does one follow a person like that? 

It seems clear that no one takes these phrases literally, for even the most hardened fundamentalist would not follow the instruction given. So we must ask, what could Jesus have meant? Clearly, the hyperbole was meant to shock people into an awareness of something, but what? 

The best explanation I ever heard of these phrases was from Thomas Ogletree, ethicist at Yale. He said that these words show us that there is a cost to following Christ. This business of being a disciple is not for the faint of heart. The costs are different and quite personal for each individual, perhaps giving up an ego driven life, or letting go of attachments to certain types of material things or behaviors. Letting God be the one leading, rather than the opinion of peers and colleagues. It may be a quite specific sacrifice of service or facing into a loss.  Every person in this room, I wager, has had to decide at one point or another, to follow Christ or not, and not without cost. And the changes that we have to make may in fact feel like cutting off an arm or a foot or an eye. 

To take the road less traveled, to accept that life is hard and that we have to leave behind childish things, all of these are part of the call of discipleship. 

So although this sermon will not be concentrated on these statements, it is important to hear them read and to take them in, even if we might prefer to gloss over them. As the great 20^th century German theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, there is a cost of discipleship, as well as a joy.  

Will you pray with me: God of salt, God of fire, God of anger, God of laughter, God of parables and riddles,

God of story and proclamation, God of comfort, God of the afflicted, God of salt, God of fire, Come now, be now, here now with us and through these words spoken, and heard. Amen. 

Salt is a basic element of life. Without salt we cannot survive, nor can animals. It is a given of the natural world. Mark Kurlansky, the author of Salt, a World History states that there are approximately 14,000 uses for salt in biology, pharmaceuticals, and many aspects of daily life. He continues “ Because salt is inexpensive for us, we do not realize how important it was to past generations who relied on it for preserving food. Where people ate a diet consisting largely of grains and vegetables, supplemented by the meat of slaughtered domestic farm animals, procuring salt became a necessity of life, giving it great economic and symbolic value. Salt became one of the first international commodities of trade; its production was one of the first industries and inevitably the first state monopoly.” 

The symbolic aspects of salt were well established in the ancient world and in Jewish thought. Kurlansky again: "Salt was to the ancient Hebrews and still to modern Jews, the symbol of the eternal nature of God’s covenant with Israel. In the book of Numbers it is written, “It is a covenant of salt forever, before the Lord” On Friday nights, the Jews dip the Sabbath bread in salt. Bread is a symbol of God’s gifts, and dipping the salt preserves the gift of covenant between God and God’s people.” 

So when we arrive at this statement of Jesus about salt, we see that it is already weighted heavily in meaning. It is found in all three synoptic gospels and the thrust of the statements are that salt is good, but to lose saltiness is a problem.

The disciples are to be salt or salty, not lose their flavor, at risk of losing an essential quality. Still, the exact meaning of these phrases remains a mystery. With over 14, 000 uses for salt in everyday life there may be just as many explanations of what Jesus meant. But don’t worry, I will only try one or two of those here.

Salt is so necessary to life.  Perhaps its necessity is the place to begin to help us understand what Jesus might have been aiming at.

Salt is elemental. It is of the earth, down to earth. It is basic and fundamental to life. It is material, a part of matter that really matters, not inert or secondary. 

If we are to have salt in us, we need to be concentrated on what really counts, what brings life and helps to balance life. Ask anyone whose sodium is out of whack, what that does to the human body. Everything goes haywire and soon one is fainting and feeling ill. So salt is primary, and salt is life giving. Salt is natural and one might say that salt is like water and air and fire, a given of creation that makes the created world work as well as it does. 

When we say that someone is the salt of the earth, we mean that they are down to earth, basic, not fancy or putting on airs, but earthy, humble. Realistic. This is how we are called to be, as disciples. Uncomplicated. Simple. Not proud and holding on to our own interpretations or stories of how life should be, but willing to be open to life as it is presented to us. Real people. 

Not so easy in a world that always is ready to offer us more, more sophisticated and more complicated notions about what it means to be human, and offering standards we can never live up to.  If we are salt, have salt, stay salty and are the salt of the earth, we will be less tempted by the superficial and the cosmetic.   We will accept more easily the cost of discipleship, the difficulties that we must face and have the ability to turn away from useless temptations. 

Perhaps in extending this metaphor, we might say that this phrase that “we should have salt in us” is to remind us that we are human, that we are of God, created of God and that we are not like the angels or above it all, trying to imitate God or be like God. We are to be earthly human beings.  

And going even further, this means to be embodied, material, and limited. To live in and inhabit our bodies, to care for them, not to ignore them or try to pretend that they are not aging, or time bound, or limited. We are to be as we are created to be, children of God.  And not try to imitate God, which was what got our friends Adam and Eve into their predicament in the first place.  

 Their attempt in the garden, to be like God was futile and ended up to be a sad story. That is true. And each time we do the same in our own lives, when we try to be like God, we too find ourselves in the same situation.  Cut off from God and also cut off from our truest selves, trying to be what we are not.  

But that isn’t the whole story. In the book of Genesis we also read that we are made in the image of God. So as much as we are earthly elemental salt, we are also spirit and light. 

As always when we focus on only one metaphor, we realize that it can’t capture in entirety, the vastness and mystery of being human and our relationship with God. 

Which brings us to “sweet.” 

I’m not sure that there is anything in this text that we can honestly say points to the sweetness of the gospel way. Yet in our experience of the Christian life, there is much that is sweet. There is the coming to know God, the experience of being loved just for who we are and not for what we do. There is the ongoing support and fellowship of community. And there is the comfort of knowing that through Christ, we know Emmanuel:  God is with us. God has come to dwell with humanity, and this is good news. And the holy spirit of Christ moves among us as we live and breath.  Where the human meets the divine, this is a sweet spot of blessing and rest. 

We find that sweet spot in prayer, in service with each other, in the good feeling that comes from making a difference in the life of this community and in the world around us. I see it in the faces of folks who serve this church in any capacity and on any committee. It is a great sweet thing to be part of a community that loves and cares, especially in a world, which can sometimes seem so superficial or mean. 

I heard a testimony this week about another aspect of this sweet spot. Yvette Flunder, UCC pastor and professor at the Pacific School of Religion, spoke at General Association this past Monday.  She talked about her own spiritual journey and how at one point in her life she realized that her occupation a social worker was not the full expression of her faith. Something was missing for her and she had to find her way to church ministry to be fully who God was calling her to be. So she took her social work skills into the church and has created a network of 10 social service agencies helping people in great need, like drug addicts and persons suffering from HIV/Aids. 

The writer and theologian Frederick Beuchner has described one’s true calling as the place where one’s own deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. It seems that Yvette Flunder found this sweet spot.     And it goes without saying that this is not just about a call to ministry but a call to any profession or role that allows us to express our fullest selves and meet the important needs of the world around us.

When we find this place, when we are true to ourselves as God had created us, and true to the mission that God has given us, we find a sweet spot in life.

These past few weeks as we studied the book of James, we heard the expression that “faith without works is dead.” It is a perennial challenge of our lives, to act in accordance with the good ideals that we hold. To put our money where our mouths are, to walk the talk.   And when we do this, when we express our faith by living it out in concrete acts of service, this too is a sweet spot.  That place where the love of God is lived in the service of God’s children. Where we are the hands and feet of God on earth. And where the idea of there being a split between the two makes no sense. 

Our text today had led us to contemplate how we are to be salt and flavorful and not lose our earthiness and basic humility, to the idea that there is sweetness in our life as Christians.  Rather than think of these words as opposites or contradictions, we might view them as complements to each other. 

Salt and sweet complete each other and allow us to taste the different flavors of discipleship. One gives depth to the other, drawing out the fullness of the experience. Make tomato sauce put in some sugar; it will taste better, richer.  And put some salt on watermelon and see how it brings out the sweet.  Too much salt is high blood pressure and kidney problems. Too much sweet is cloying and high triglycerides.  And yet both together with some balance give a fuller range of flavor, of taste, of experience.

The great adventure of the Christian life requires both. 

The sweet spot of finding our faith in action and the salty tastes of reality of being human. As the psalmist says,  “Taste the sweetness of the Lord”. And as Mark reminds us, “may we have salt in ourselves, and be at peace with one another.” Amen.