Posts Tagged ‘Matthew 5:13-16’
You Are Salt – Br. James Koester
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Br. James Koester
There are a great many scriptural phrases that have slipped into common parlance. Many use them now, without knowing where they come from, and if pressed, would not really be sure what they mean. Tonight’s brief gospel is a case in point. How often have we heard someone described as a real salt of the earth sort of person? My sense is that when we say that about another, what we are actually saying is that they are good, basic, decent people. But is that what Jesus is saying when he tells his audience you are the salt of the earth?[1] Is he only saying to the crowd assembled, hey you lot, you’re a good, basic, decent, bunch of folks? Or is there something more to this phrase that has been lost over time?
I’d say, a great deal has been lost, because today we only ever see salt in small saltshakers, or in boxes of salt that sit in the cupboard for months and months. Once upon a time, salt was used, not by the pinch, but by the pound. It was used to preserve, pickle, and cook food, and not simply flavour it. It is used to clean things, melt ice, and treat sore throats. It can be used in the kitchen, around the home, and in the garden.
Because salt was so useful it came to acquire a variety of symbolic meanings over time. In Exodus, God tells Moses how to make incense, using salt as one of the ingredients, which is described as pure and holy.[2] In 2 Kings, salt is used to purify water[3] so that it’s drinkable. In Ezekiel we learn that at birth babies were rubbed with salt to cleanse and toughen them.[4] In Colossians we are told to let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt.[5] So salt was used in the ancient world as a symbol of purity, holiness, and cleansing as well as truth, graciousness, understanding, and ultimately wisdom.
Over time salt was used liturgically, notably in the baptismal rites when a pinch of salt was placed in the mouth of the catechumen symbolizing their purification and their search for wisdom. At the time of baptism salt was added to the water as a sign of purification, protection and preservation.
So, Jesus’ description of his followers as the salt of the earth carried much more weight that a descriptor of a bunch of good, basic, decent, folks. In the mouth of Jesus, it is an admonition to be pure, holy, and wise. You are the pure, holy, and wise ones of the earth, Jesus tells us, giving flavour, wisdom, and truth to the world around.
As such, as Christians, our vocation is to be salt. In the seventeenth century, William Laud,[6] one of the great, albeit controversial Archbishops of Canterbury wrote the following prayer:
Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.[7]
In many ways, it could be described as a prayer for salt and for us as the Church to become salt. As we watch the US Marines enter Los Angeles, drones employed as weapons of war in Ukraine and Russia, and children starve in Gaza we may want to remember that our vocation is to be salt, to be people of purity, holiness, truth, and wisdom, and pray Laud’s prayer for ourselves.
Gracious Father, I pray for myself and those I love. Fill us with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where there is corruption, purify us; where we are in error, direct us; where in any thing we are amiss, reform us. Where we are right, strengthen us; where we are in want, provide for us; where we are divided, reunite us; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen
Remember, you are the salt of the earth, and your vocation as a Christian is to be salt, pure, holy, truthful and wise.
You are the salt of the earth.
[1] Matthew 5: 13
[2] Exodus 30: 35
[3] 2 Kings 2: 20
[4] Ezekiel 16: 4
[5] Colossians 4: 6
[6] William Laud, Arcbishop of Canterbury (1573 – 1645) He was successively Bishop of St. David’s, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Bishop of London, and from 1633 until his execution at the hands of the Puritans in 1645, Archbishop of Canterbury.
[7] Episcopal Church, Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 816
You Are the Light of the World – Br. Geoffrey Tristram
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Matthew 5:13-16
Ever since I was a child I have always been fascinated and moved by the Olympic torch – the light which is lit several months before the opening of the Games at the site of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece. The light is then carried by torch-relay across the world to the site of the Games. Traditionally, it has been carried on foot by athletes. But it first traveled on a boat in 1948, across the English Channel, and then by airplane in 1952 to Helsinki. In 1976 the light was transformed to an electronic pulse and laser beam. And in 2000 divers carried it underwater near the Great Barrier Reef.
It’s a very powerful image. I used to imagine the responsibility of carrying this precious light. It must not go out. And every four years there is a new and exciting way of transmitting that light. Read More
Finding God in the Marsh – Br. James Koester
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1 Kings 17: 7-16; Psalm 4; Matthew 5: 13 – 16
If it’s true that in spring, a young man’s fancy turns to love, then in summer, this young man’s fancy turns to … the beach. And not just any beach, a particular beach, Lumsden Beach.
As a boy, I grew up spending every summer at our family cottage at Lumsden Beach on Last Mountain Lake in southern Saskatchewan. The lake itself is long and narrow; stretching about 60 miles from one end to the other, but at its widest point is barely 1.5 miles from one side to the other. Our cottage is near the southern tip of the lake and a couple of miles beyond us the lake literally disappears into muck, and weed and marsh before coming to an end in the open prairie of the Qu’Appelle Valley.
In the last number of years the marsh at the end of the lake has been restored and the area has become home once again to many bird species including piping plovers, whooping cranes and pelicans. As dusk falls at the end of the day, it is not unusual to see flocks of pelicans heading down the lake from their fishing spots, to their nesting ground in the marsh. It’s truly a magnificent sight as these large, unwieldy birds fly gracefully down the lake heading home to the marsh for the night.
Like all marshes, this particular marsh plays an important role in the ecosystem of the lake. It provides a home for rare and unusual birds, as well as the not so rare and not so unusual. It’s a wonderful place to catch frogs or watch birds or maybe even spot a beaver going about its business. The marsh provides a whole other world to explore that is neither lake nor prairie as it acts as a threshold from one to the other and back again. Like so many other similar places, the marsh at the end of the lake is a place of discovery and mystery simply because it is a place of transition. It is a threshold one must cross to get from lake to prairie. It is a liminal place that one must enter in order to pass from one to the other. It may be just a marsh at the end of the lake, but it’s also a place of discovery, a place of mystery, a place of encounter. Read More
You Are the Light of the World
Preached by The Rev. Christine Whittaker
Matthew 5:13-16
The Reverend Christine Whittaker, Rector of St. Michael’s Church, Holliston, and a regular participant in the Muslim-Christian Dialogue sponsored by the Massachusetts Council of Churches and the Islamic Council of New England. She has recently returned from a three-month sabbatical focused on Muslim-Christian relations, which included worshiping at the Islamic Center in Wayland and travel in Ethiopia and Iran Her sermon will reflect on her experience as a professing Christian in a context where Islam and Christianity are often seen in conflict. Read More