Stay Salty My Friends

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.

Today’s Gospel text was the last text Pastor Martin Niemöller preached on before being sent to a concentration camp. The Nazis had been insisting that genuinely patriotic churches and religious leaders would support them without question. Niemöller said the Church’s salt was in danger of “being thrown into the same pot as the world.” Niemöller had been a prominent and influential pastor until he began to resist the “pot” the Nazi’s were cooking up. The Nazis told him, “When you start to suit your message to the world around you, then you will again be influential and powerful.” But for Niemöller, the church’s call was NOT to “suit the world” around them but to stay SALTY regardless of the cost! “If the salt remains salt” he said, “we may trust God will use it in such a way that it becomes a blessing.” The world around him was cooking up a stew that openly rejected the teachings of Jesus and was pressuring the church to throw its salt into that horrible stew.

Niemöller reminded his congregation that the Church’s “saltiness” is meant to be used to ENHANCE the love of God, LIFT UP the Way Jesus taught us to live in the world, and BRING OUT the worth and dignity of all people. In food, that’s what salt does. It enhances, lifts up, and brings out flavors. The Church’s saltiness therefore, is there to LIFT UP justice, to ENHANCE the lives of the poor, and to BRING OUT the truth, particularly when the world is working hard to hide it. Pastor Niemöller told his church to save their salt. NOT to keep it safe for better times, but so that when they saw others, even in the midst of all the horror around them, cooking up a dish that lifts the lowly, welcomes the stranger and gives bread to the hungry, they could then add their salt to THAT pot and enhance THOSE flavors!

When Niemöller turned to preach about the light, he told his congregation they also needed to resist the temptation to hide their light away from the gale-force evils of the world blowing around them, EVEN if their intention in hiding it away was to protect it. Our calling, he told them, is to put the light of Christ on a candle stand, NOT hide it under a bushel! He told them to let God worry about the winds of the world, but for us he says, “Away with the bushel!” He was absolutely right! Because what is the bushel? THE BUSHEL IS FEAR. It is 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 shy away from standing up to the powerful. It is fear that leads us to horde what we have and not share with our neighbor. It’s fear that plows the soil for racism, anti-Semitism, increasingly violent oppression, and evil to grow. We must not let fear lead us to mistakenly believe the lie that sharing God’s light in times such as these could somehow make it grow dim or even blow it out. With fear, the Nazi’s convinced many religious leaders to throw their salt all-in to the horrible stew of denial and anger, hatred and genocide. Then they convinced nearly all of the rest to hide their light away and not speak out about the horrors happening all around them.

The world around us today is once again brewing a horrible cauldron of cowardice and hate, exclusion and scarcity, violence and horror... all fueled once more by the flame of fear. Many religious leaders and people of faith have once again thrown their salt into this latest boiling stew of fear and hatred or they have bowed to the pressure to hide God’s light under a bushel, not wanting to make waves in their congregations or denominations by talking about politics.

But like Isaiah, Jesus, and Pastor Niemöller told the people of God in the past, I’m going to tell you now... WE MUST STAY SALTY! We must care for one another and help each other stay out of the world’s simmering caldron of fear. But NOT to simply hide from the fray. We stay out of THAT cauldron to be ready to add our saltiness to the small, little pots that, if we look closely, are even now cooking up savory little dishes of justice and loving kindness all around us.

In that same way must also not hide our light under a bushel, fearful of it being blown out by the blow-hard winds of our times. Instead we must hold it high and light the paths which promote the dignity of all people, lift up the poor, the refugee and the stranger and in doing that, bring life into our world. YOU ARE SALT! In your Baptism you were given more salt than can be found in all the oceans of the world! You are light! In Baptism you were given the light of Christ! A light that shines in the darkness! A light NO darkness can overcome! So be ready with your salt and away with the bushel! May you resist the temptation to throw your salt into the horrible stew brewing in our world and instead throw it into those pots that are even now, cooking up the radical message of Jesus. May you be part of enhancing the flavors of unconditional LOVE and LIFE in our world and may you let your light so shine before others so that they may see your good works and glorify God in heaven! Amen.