Away with the Bushel!

The Holy Gospel According to St. Matthew, the 5th Chapter

“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 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.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The image this week was a gift from Rev. Brett Ballenger, with thanks as well to Leslie and Liz for your contributions as well!  

Pastor Martin Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany.  He was a U-boat captain in the First World War and then went to seminary and became a pastor.  He was not perfect.  He was often slow to catch on and he often learned to do the right thing, only after doing the wrong thing first.  I can relate.  But he was never shy to confess his wrongs and vigorously work for what was right.  He is probably best remembered for something that illustrates that perfectly.  He said with perfect hindsight, “First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.  Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up."  

You’ve probably heard that, but you might not have known that today’s Gospel text was the text he had for what would be his last sermon before being arrested and sent, first to prison and then to a concentration camp for the remainder of the war.  In the first part of his sermon on this text he talked about the need for the church to remain salty.  

The problem he was facing was that the rising Nazi government was looking for all of the churches to come together and fall in line with them, forming one Reich’s Church.  Niemöller said the Church was in danger of “being thrown into the same pot as the world.”  But for Niemöller, he understood that the Church needed to remain distinct from the world with it’s unique “saltiness.”  The government would say to him, “When you start to suit your message to the world around you, then you will again be influential and powerful.”  But Niemöller didn’t think that was the Church’s calling.  He thought the church was called to be salty.  He didn’t think losing it’s saltiness was faithful.  “But,” he said, “if the salt remains salt, we may trust God with it and God will use it in such a way that it becomes a blessing.”

We in the Church have a distinct and counter cultural message… a distinct “saltiness”… a certain flavor which is often different from the flavors of the world.  Our saltiness says that the poor and the meek and the reviled have God’s blessing, as Jesus told us last week.  That’s often not a popular in our world, where wealth and power and success are more fashionable flavors.  Our saltiness says every human being has worth and dignity.  Our saltiness, Isaiah reminds us this week, is to loose the bonds of injustice and bring the homeless poor into our homes.  And if all of that makes us nervous, our saltiness also reminds us that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  We don't have any reason to fear because NOTHING can separate us from God’s love.  So even as some of this generation’s most skilled merchants of fear, cook up conspiracies and brew lies and the world around us simmers and boils in a perpetual stew of fear, we in the Church are called to something of a distinctly different, more salty flavor.

WE are called to stay salty, even while high profile TV preachers hurl themselves into the same stew that feeds fears, excludes, demonizes and persecutes, WE are called to stay out of that stew and stay salty.  But that’s not to just stay salty for salt’s sake.  We’re called to stay out of that stew of fear and hatred so that when we DO see someone preparing a dish in our neighborhood that DOES lift the lowly, welcomes the stranger or gives bread to the hungry, we can throw in our saltiness there and enhance that dish.  That’s what salt does, it enhances flavors and you and I are called to be salt.  We’re called to lift up, bring out and enhance the bits of the world that bring life out of death.

  

In another part of Niemöllers’ sermon he said,  “You are the light of the world.”  We hear those words and we immediately start worrying about our light going out.  What are we worrying about?  We look around and see the winds and the storm that is blowing through the world right now and we think it’s all so enormous that it’s bound to blow out the Gospel candle.  So we think we must protect it!  Take the Gospel message out of the storm and put it safely in a little nook.  

Niemöller goes on to say, It is only in these days that I have realized… that I have understood what the Lord Jesus Christ means when he says, “Do not take up the bushel!  I have not lit the candle for you to put it under the bushel in order to protect it from the wind.  Away with the bushel!  The light should be placed on a candlestick!  It is not your business to worry about whether the light is extinguished or not by the wind!  That is God’s concern!  We are only to see that the light is not hidden away… not even hidden away with the nobel purpose of protecting it so we can bring it out again in calmer times.  No!  Let your light shine!"  

Away with the bushel!  That needs to be a t-shirt!  AND a bumper sticker!  Away with the bushel!  THAT is EXACTLY the message we need for today!  That was Isaiah’s message to the people of Israel.  That was Jesus’ message to the people gathered for the Sermon on the Mount.  That was Pastor Niemöller’s message to the people of Germany.  And that is the same message you and I and the people of our country need to hear once again.  Away with the bushel!  

Because what is the bushel?  THE BUSHEL IS FEAR.  It’s fear that temps us to cover the light which God has given us to shine into the world.  It’s fear that causes us to horde what we have and not share with our neighbor.  It’s fear that causes us to lash out at people who are different in even the most illogical ways.  It’s fear of losing the light that God has given us in Baptism, that causes us to hide that light from the world.  It’s that irrational fear, that sharing your light will dim it, even though every Christmas we see that the flame of one candle can be shared with everyone and the light only grows when it's shared... It never dims.

Many of the people around us have thrown themselves into this cultural stew of fear and as a nation we’ve taken our light and hid it away… it’s as if, as a nation, we’ve taken the torch of the Statue of Liberty and covered it with a bushel basket.  For what?  For fear… an irrational, destructive, fear which leads only to death...not life.  No-one has been killed by a refugee in this country.  No-one.  Not last year, not for more than forty years.*  More people die of lightning or falling out of bed or lawnmowers.  How have we become so filled with fear?

The world around us is brewing this horrible stew of cowardice and hate, exclusion and scarcity that has no touchpoint in reality.  They want us in the Church to throw our saltiness into their stew, where our saltiness will get stirred in and lost in demonizing the other, turning our backs on the stranger and dismissing the cries of those in desperate need.  But like Isaiah, Jesus and Pastor Niemöller told the people of God in the past, I’m going to tell you now... WE MUST REMAIN SALTY!  We must stay out of this simmering and boiling stew of fear that is cooking around us, but also ALWAYS be ready to add our salt to the places we find that are doing justice, loving kindness and walking humbly... to the people who promote the dignity of all people and bring life into the world.  You are salt!  You have the light!  It was given to you in the waters of Baptism.  It is the light that shines in the darkness!  It is the light no darkness can overcome!  So, away with the bushel!  Let your light shine!  Amen.  

* You may wonder about this statistic, particularly in light of events such as the Boston Marathon Bombing, San Bernardino and the Pulse Night Club.  It is true that since 9/11, 123 people have been killed in the United States by people who claim to have been acting out of their Muslim faith (every one of my Muslim friends would say their action was a betrayal of the authentic faith). However, none of these people came through the rigorous vetting process as a refugee.  You may say that is a technicality and 123 deaths are tragic and both would be absolutely correct. But it is an important technicality because it is important in creating public policy to address the actual, statistical issue rather than creating policy on statistically unfounded feelings.  None of the new policies put in place would have stopped any of those 123 deaths, but those new policies have already led to additional deaths.