Pentecost 18B

18th Sunday after Pentecost

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Brothers and sisters in Christ: grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our readings for today are filled with lots of rich theological ideas and a variety of lessons for all of us, but I’d like to focus on just one part of the Gospel reading today - where Jesus mentions salt. This is another one of those passages that we’ve all heard many times, but I fear that because of a variety of differences besides mere language, the meaning of what Jesus is talking about in these verses risks being lost, so I want us to dig into it more deeply.

When we talk of salt in our daily lives, I imagine most of us think first of a salt shaker at our dinner table. The little white crystals that we use to add a little savory taste to our meal. You know, that shaker that some of us grab all too quickly - before we’ve had a chance to taste the dish that’s been put in front of us. We just grab it and start shaking out of habit without even waiting to see if we actually need it. And oh yeah, it’s that same shaker that the doctor said you need to be using less. Yes, that shaker full of white crystals. And since we’re in the South, it’s also the shaker that someone has probably added some grains of rice to, in order to soak up the moisture. Without the rice, the salt would all stick together and would be impossible to get out of the shaker.

While my younger son would be quick to tell us that salt is an essential ingredient in making homemade ice cream… we should remember that salt has uses outside of the kitchen and the dining room as well. Since salt lowers the freezing point of water, it’s useful to put on your sidewalk and driveway when we get ice. Up North, they use it so much that many drivers get paint and body damage from all the salt on their cars over the colder months. It is a corrosive compound in the right quantity and with enough exposure.

In ancient times, humans used salt not only to season their dishes but also to preserve food…and the Egyptians used salt as part of the process of mummification. It was a rather valuable and trade-able commodity - at one point in the 6th century AD having an equivalent value to gold, ounce-for-ounce. Salt was used in Europe, Africa, China, and along the trade routes in between them, throughout the various empires of history. It was even pressed into slabs and used as currency in some areas.

Some other interesting facts I learned about salt: A chemical compound composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl) used to preserve, purify, and season food. Salt is one of the most common substances on the earth and cannot be destroyed by fire or time. … Salt has also served as a significant figurative symbol. Sharing salt was a symbol of friendship and hospitality, and ancient conflicts concluded with a meal consisting of bread and salt as a symbol of friendship… One who violated the eating of salt was a traitor … Salt was also viewed as a divine gift.

In the Bible, salt has other uses for God’s people. In the Old Testament, it is an essential part of certain offerings to the Lord. In Leviticus 2, the people are instructed: “13 You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering; with all your offerings you shall offer salt.” [Leviticus 2:13, ESV]

As we said before, salt cannot be destroyed by time or by fire. Because of that, in Biblical times, “Salt stands for permanence and incorruption. Thus when salt is used in a ‘covenant of salt,’ it always signifies an everlasting covenant, with the salt being an emblem or symbol of perpetuity. The use of salt in an offering, would therefore signify the everlasting relation between God and His people—they everlastingly belong to Him, and He everlastingly belongs to them. For this reason, salt and permanence were always associated in a covenant; 2 Chronicles 13:5 states: ‘Don’t you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt?’” [James M. Freeman and Harold J. Chadwick, Manners & Customs of the Bible (North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers, 1998), 143.]

Now with this in mind, let’s look again at what Jesus is saying in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus has just been talking about the things that get in the way of the sharing of the Gospel. [One of the things that we heard this weekend from Bishop Dan is that our primary purpose as Christians is the sharing of the Gospel. Everything else we do should flow from that. Keep that in mind - we’ll be talking about that again in the weeks ahead.] So Jesus cautions against anyone who might cause a person to sin, and he instructs his followers to cut off or pluck out any part of their body that might lead them to sin. These things must not get in the way of their relationship to God…which is what sin is. And then we get to verse 49: “ For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” [Mark 9:49–50, ESV.]

Personally, I’ve never tasted salt that wasn’t salty, so when I read this in my younger years, I struggled with Jesus’ metaphor here. But much of what he’s saying has to do more with the ancient uses of salt. Remember: salt can’t be destroyed by time or fire. And for the Jewish people, salt was a symbol of covenant - everlasting covenant. It represented permanent-ness.

One of my favorite scholars adds this explanation, which I find quite helpful: “In Matt. 5:13 the disciples themselves are called salt, the salt that is to counteract the corruption of the world. What makes them the salt of the earth is the divine Word which they believe and receive, the saving and the sanctifying power of Christ in and through this Word. In [this] passage the metaphor is not so strong, the disciples are not themselves called salt, but salt is to be applied to them, they are to be salted, to have salt in themselves, namely, the salt of the Word and teaching of Jesus in all its saving and sanctifying strength.” [R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Mark’s Gospel (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 410.]

He also adds: “The unquenchable fire in hell [mentioned in the earlier verses] does not salt, it torments; the fire that acts as salt must be a different fire. It is in reality salt, but salt in its burning property when it destroys the germs of corruption. It is the Word of Christ in its power to burn out of our hearts the evil desire to entrap others (v. 42) and the evil desires that would allow our own bodily members to entrap us ourselves.” [Ibid., 411.]

So just as salt is used to purify foods, Jesus wants his followers to salt their lives and their faith with the purifying Word of Christ. That is meant for his followers who listened at his feet, and for those of us who are reading the same words 20 centuries later.

We have been given the incredible news that the Creator of the Universe has done such a wonderful thing for us. He sent His Only Son to become one of us, to walk among us and teach us, and ultimately to die for us - in our stead - a most painful and shameful death. All done out of divine and perfect and undeserved love for us…to ensure our eternal life away from the unquenchable fire. We hear about this extraordinary gift on a routine basis, reminding ourselves of it monthly, weekly, sometimes daily. We confess it in our creed, and we read about it when we pick up our Bible…and yet I think we say and hear it so often that it’s become routine…mundane. It’s not as flavorful as it ought to be. It’s lost its saltiness.

So how can we make it salty again? What does that take? Look again at Jesus’ prescription - 2 commands: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” First, how do we get the salt so that we may “have” it in ourselves? By seeking out and hearing and reading the Word of Christ. Letting the Gospel do its work on us. By getting into the Word daily and opening the door to our hearts to be molded and shaped into the form of Christ…being made more like Him each day. THAT is how we have salt in ourselves.

And then the second command hits us: “be at peace with one another.” Simple command, huh? Not hard to understand, is it? Well, it may be simple, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Do we get along? I guess that depends on who I mean by “we”. Let’s keep it just in this congregation. Are we at peace with one another? Any grudges in this room? Any long-held hard feelings? Or how about this: why aren’t the doors of our church painted a red color, like many other churches in the Lutheran tradition? Any hard feelings about that? Or lets go back a little further: why are there 3 Lutheran churches on this corner in Hickory? Why isn’t it one big church with a common history? Couldn’t we have been at peace with one another? Why did we have to split?

Look around our society right now. How hard is it to “be at peace with one another”? Anyone having arguments among your family about politics? I’d be shocked if you weren’t. Have you lost any friends over masks or vaccinations? Have you stopped talking to anyone because of the last election cycle, or have they stopped talking to you? It’s hard to be at peace with one another right now…no question about it. And if you think the Wicked Foe isn’t pleased by all the conflict happening right now…then I’d encourage you to look again at what’s important to God and what the devil actually does to work against God.

To be at peace with one another doesn’t mean that we have to agree on everything. But it does mean that we have to treat one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. It means that we need to follow Jesus’ own example of how he treated those who disagreed with him and how he taught them and pointed them to God’s Word and to seek a proper understanding of what God wants for all of us. Jesus was remarkably consistent in his example to us. Not an easy example to follow, but a good one to strive for.

So as we think about what the salt in our lives of faith tastes like, as we look to keep it salty, let’s use God’s Word to keep us flavorful in our lives of faith, and pure, and unspoiled. And as we let Christ purify and preserve us in Him, let’s see if we can’t start to make peace among ourselves where there hasn’t been for a while. It won’t necessarily be easy to build, but it’s likely to be easier to maintain than it will be to obtain. And once we have that peace among ourselves, we can get back to the Kingdom work that God is calling all of us to - the sharing of the Gospel. How will you work for peace this week? How will you re-salt your saltiness? Let these questions guide your devotions and your prayers, and let us all pray for pure and long-lasting preservation in Jesus, who is the source of our salt and light.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.