This sermon was preached at Bridlington Priory Church by Jeanette Oates on 28th September 2008
(Ezekiel 37:15-28; Mark 9:38-50)
(Mark 9 verse 49)
Whilst studying dietetics at Headlands School there was one incident I will never forget! I was studying for my GCE in dietetics and part of the course was to be able to prepare, cook and serve a meal which was to be assessed by an external examiner. We practised for this future event by preparing a meal and serving it to our teachers and on one occasion the Head Master, as he was called in those days, was to be my guest. I was to serve as a pudding apple crumble. A friend of mine seemed to be so helpful she fetched me the canister of sugar, or so I thought, and I sweetened the apple with two heaped tablespoonfuls. All the canisters were stainless steel and so it was easy to play a trick on me! I served the crumble to my head master and the expression on his face said it all. His face grimaced and cringed as he tucked into crumble sweetened with salt! Despite all this I did achieve a GCE in dietetics.
Although this illustration shows the result of too much salt used in the wrong situation, it is a commodity that we need but sometimes forget its value in the twenty first century, and how do we understand its metaphoric meaning for us as Christians in this century. I feel we must travel back in time to understand what Jesus was trying to convey. The command to ‘Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another’ in Mark 9 verse 49 was written for the disciples of that time and as twenty first century Christians we have a lot to learn about salt.Salt in the time of Jesus was a highly prized commodity until about a hundred years ago when modern chemistry and geology revealed its prevalence. In times past it has served as currency, been responsible for trade routes and the establishment of great cities, provoked and financed wars. Taxes on salt have secured empires and inspired revolution. The Roman army for a time was paid in salt the origin of the word salary, and the expression worth his salt and earning his salt came from a Latin word Salsus, meaning salted.
Matthew’s gospel speaks of salt losing its flavour not being too salty as was in my apple crumble; we cannot imagine that salt could ever lose its flavour. I wish it had before it was served up for lunch to my head master!!
When Jesus spoke of salt losing is its flavour it was a reality. He probably was talking about salt found in the region around the Dead Sea; chemists have discovered that the Dead Sea Salt loses its flavour because of the presence of bromines, magnesium and boron in the water. In the time of Jesus it was important where you got your salt from. Pliny the Elder Gaius born AD 23 , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher. He said, ‘Rome does not like to get salt from the Dead Sea as over time it becomes tasteless.’
It is therefore so important what salt tastes like. We are told to be salt in the world, what sort of salt are we? Peace makers or peace breakers?
Let’s look at the qualities of salt and how sometimes we underestimate its influence in our everyday living.
When food is seasoned to our taste then it is palatable and the consuming of a delicious meal can be wonderful. We as Christians need to serve the good news of Christ in a palatable way, not watering down its meaning but as a love offering graciously given with understanding that we all need grace, and as author Philip Yancey states ‘the Christian knows to serve the weak not because they deserve it, but because God extended his love to us when we deserve the opposite. Christ came down from heaven, and whenever his disciples entertained dreams of prestige and power, he reminded them that the greatest is the one who serves. The ladder of power reaches up; the ladder of grace reaches down.’
The apostle Paul in Colossians 4 v 6 writes ‘let your speech always be with grace and seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.’ We need to practice grace within God’s family and our own first.
Prior to 1800 the only way to preserve food for any length of time was to salt it. Adam Clarke (1760 –1832) was a British Methodist theologian and Biblical scholar. He said that salt was the opposite of leaven which decays, salt is a preservative.
Preservation- in the days before freezers we would have gone to the storehouse for salted meat and the cellar for pickled vegetables. Salt has come to stand for durability, permanence as salt is a setting agent for fabric dyes and it’s also incorruptible. Are we good examples in the world of these characteristics?
Fluid balance/hydration- salt helps to maintain the correct fluid balance in our physical bodies, do we help to maintain a right balance as we live in the world but also within God’s kingdom.
Salt also though can be abrasive and we can easily hurt someone if our manner and speech are abrasive and without love.
Pure salt crystals under a microscope are beautiful and they are so white they reflect the light. I challenge all of us to look at the depth of purity in our lives; do we reflect the pure and beautiful nature of Christ?
When salt is used it loses itself. We do not see salt in our food because it makes its contribution to the flavour of the food and it is gone, no more a product of itself. Matt 5v 13 says, ‘We as Christians should be salt in the world and should not hesitate to give of ourselves as we serve humanity.’ On my return to the Priory since ordination I have witnessed so many times selfless giving from many people during this interregnum. We use salt daily, would we ever consider just using it on Sundays and leave food bland for the rest of the week? course not; in the same way we need to be the difference in a world that sometimes is indifferent to matters of faith and injustice.
In the Old Testament in the book of Leviticus it says ‘and every offering of your grain offering you shall season it with salt. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.’ This could be interpreted today as everything we offer to God should be within the true nature of Christ, selfless and for the love of God and others however ordinary the gift may be.
For Christians today salt doesn’t play any part in the Eucharist unlike with the Jews. They still use it today in the Shabbat meal.
Before Christians partake of the bread and wine at the Eucharist, we have already been told to make up our quarrels before we take our gift to the altar. I suggest that the gift we take to the altar is the offering of our lives to God as a living sacrifice. We then offer one another a sign of peace. This commitment to God and each other that we have made, reflects what the Jews did in ‘the covenant of salt’ spoken of in Leviticus.
The disciples were to live lives likened to salt because it made such an important contribution to the life of their community. Their contribution was to bring the truth of the gospel, Jesus being the way the truth and the life, showing the love of God and living peaceably with all. Wouldn’t it be nice to think of God’s eternal covenant with us – his faithfulness to keep his promises every time we use salt?
May Gods love truth and grace be our saltiness in the church and in the world, may we show the peace of God day by day as we live for him and for others.
Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.
Amen