{"id":1952,"date":"2023-02-05T09:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2023-02-08T15:53:22","modified_gmt":"2023-02-08T20:53:22","slug":"salt-and-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/2023\/02\/05\/salt-and-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Salt and Light"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Year A
 Isaiah 58:1-12
 Psalm 112:1-9
 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
 Matthew 5:13-20

May the words of my mouth\u2026   O God\u2026   speak your truth\u2026 

In today’s Gospel\u2026  which is a continuation of the Beatitudes\u2026  Jesus addresses his disciples and says \u2026  you are the salt of the earth\u2026  you are the light of the world\u2026  not become salt\u2026  not strive to be salt\u2026  and not become light\u2026  not strive to be light\u2026   but you are already these things\u2026  they exist within your being\u2026  you already own them\u2026  but how is that\u2026 

Salt is a universal flavor enhancer\u2026  it decreases water activity which can increase the experience of flavor\u2026  at low concentrations\u2026  it reduces bitterness and increases sweet and sour tastes\u2026  which is desirable for sweet recipes\u2026  like adding just a pinch in chocolate chip cookie recipes\u2026  but in higher amounts\u2026  it suppresses sweetness and enhances savory flavors\u2026  though too much salt is not good either\u2026  and so years ago\u2026  when my daughter came to visit Joel and me in Columbus\u2026  we wanted to make something we knew she liked\u2026 and so Joel made pancakes for breakfast\u2026  he made them from scratch\u2026  but instead of measuring out 3\u00bd teaspoons of baking powder\u2026  he measured out 3\u00bd teaspoons of salty baking soda\u2026  and I have to tell you\u2026  no amount of maple syrup could cover up the saltiness of those pancakes\u2026 

Light on the other hand\u2026  allows us to see\u2026  and there is both outer seeing\u2026  like having enough light to read by\u2026  and inward seeing\u2026  as in\u2026  I see\u2026  said the blind man<\/em>\u2026  as in\u2026  let those who have eyes see<\/em>\u2026  and like salt\u2026  there can be so little light that we can’t see what’s right in front of us\u2026  or so much that we are blinded\u2026

But Jesus isn’t talking to us individually\u2026  the YOU in this text in Greek is plural\u2026  he’s talking to his disciples as a group\u2026  and the life of discipleship is conceived of\u2026   as life within the community of faith\u2026  a community charged with a mission to the world\u2026  but in truth\u2026  being the salt of the earth is essentially a spiritual reality\u2026  when we understand that we are potential which may not be actualized\u2026  and when this happens\u2026  people lose their flavor\u2026

Now there\u2019s not much firewood in the Middle East\u2026 but there is a lot of dung\u2026 with a high level of compressed plant matter which can burn as fuel\u2026 but even this needs some help\u2026 so a block of salt is often placed at the base of the oven\u2026 and the salt becomes a catalyst for the fire\u2026 allowing the dung to burn hotter and more completely\u2026 but over time\u2026 that salt lost its ability\u2026 and was often laid out like paver stones\u2026 it literally became good for nothing but being trampled under foot\u2026

The You are then\u2026  is intended to foster an awareness\u2026  it is meant to move the attention from the evaluations which society tries to impose on us\u2026  like you are a sinner\u2026  or you are no good\u2026  and establish in the hearts and minds of those who are addressed\u2026  in our hearts and minds\u2026  the truth of who and what we are\u2026  

There’s a form of poetry called the ode\u2026  a poem which speaks directly to its subject\u2026   and often elevates an inanimate object\u2026  and there’s a Chilean poet named Pablo Neruda\u2026  who wrote\u2026  an Ode to Salt\u2026  and in it\u2026  Neruda writes\u2026  On every table in the world, salt\u2026   we see your piquant powder sprinkling vital light upon our food.<\/em>\u2026  the smallest\u2026  miniature wave from the saltcellar\u2026  reveals to us more than domestic whiteness\u2026  in it\u2026   we taste infinitude\u2026<\/em>

Jesus claims that his followers\u2026  all of them\u2026  all of us\u2026   are tiny grains of salt\u2026  yet infinity shines forth through each of us\u2026  and in commenting on Neruda’s words\u2026  the Rev. Charles Hoffacker writes\u2026  so\u2026  the smallest grain of salt\u2026  one almost invisible to the eye\u2026  brings to us the flavor of the infinite\u2026 which we have received through our baptisms\u2026 

When we read the scriptures at home\u2026 or listen to them here\u2026  we hope that they serve as food which nourishes our spiritual body\u2026 that we really listen to what God is saying to us\u2026 and having listened\u2026  are moved to embody and act on them\u2026  and how we read scripture matters\u2026 we need to consider the historical context in which it was written\u2026 and the timeframe over which it was too\u2026  how what has come down to us is in some ways\u2026 different from the original texts\u2026 how some words are understood differently now than they were then\u2026 and we need to affirm\u2026 that there is good news\u2026 in the Jewish scriptures\u2026 like our reading from Isaiah\u2026  and in the Christian scriptures\u2026 and we affirm that in order for there to be good news\u2026 there is an underlying consistency\u2026 God\u2019s consistency\u2026  of what God wants us to know\u2026 and to do\u2026

But we\u2019re also modern enough\u2026 to understand that scripture must be understood in context\u2026 that some things that applied to scripture\u2019s original writers and audiences\u2026 may not apply to us now\u2026 and we have to remember\u2026 that scripture has been used to support slavery\u2026 the oppression of women\u2026 the burning of witches\u2026 and the persecution of Jews\u2026 

For example\u2026  we don’t pay too much attention to verses like Lev. 11:10\u2026 which says that eating shellfish is detestable\u2026  or Lev. 19:19\u2026 which says we may not wear clothing made up of two or more fibers\u2026 or Lev. 25:44\u2026 which says we are allowed to take male and female slaves from neighboring nations\u2026   but do we pay enough attention to verses like Lev. 19:34\u2026 which says\u2026 the alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you\u2026 you shall love the alien as yourself\u2026 for you were aliens in the land of Egypt\u2026 and I wonder which passages we listen to more\u2026 which are more self-serving\u2026 or line up with what The Rev. Dr. Laurence Keene said\u2026  there\u2019s nothing wrong with a fifth-grade understanding of God \u2013 as long as you\u2019re in the fifth grade<\/em>\u2026 

And today\u2019s passage from Isaiah was written about 800 years before Jesus was born\u2026 it is a hard reading on which to be nourished\u2026 it contains sharp words which can cut\u2026 or give us indigestion\u2026 it shines a light on the sin of Isaiah\u2019s time\u2026 on sins which may have made their way down to our time\u2026  and as we celebrate Black History month\u2026  it is painful to take an honest look\u2026  at where we are\u2026 and where God calls us to be\u2026  the weight of them can make us bristle\u2026  because they can be really hard to do\u2026  like not serving our own interests\u2026  treating all workers the way we’d want to be treated\u2026  letting go of injustice\u2026  letting the oppressed go free\u2026  sharing our bread\u2026  because then\u2026 our light will break out like the dawn\u2026 and our healing shall spring up quickly\u2026 and God will go before us\u2026  and God’s glory will follow us\u2026  and when we call\u2026  God will answer\u2026  and when we cry for help\u2026  God will say\u2026  Here I am\u2026

We are the salt of the earth\u2026 Theologian John Shea writes: our salt identity is for the benefit of the earth\u2026 our lives are a mission to bring zest and meaning to the earth\u2026 what is wasteful is to lose this ultimate purpose and passion\u2026 to forget this calling and take on a lesser identity\u2026 which cannot be savored\u2026 but is trampled underfoot\u2026

We are the light of the world\u2026 we are not meant to hide our light\u2026 our very selves\u2026 under bushel baskets\u2026 we are meant to shine\u2026  so it may be worth asking\u2026  why do we minimize our light\u2026 what keeps us from shining\u2026 and what are our baskets\u2026 of what are they made\u2026  what experiences in our lives wove them\u2026  and why\u2026 and from whom\u2026 do we hide\u2026 certainly not from Jesus\u2026  whose very salt gives our lives flavor\u2026  and whose light it is\u2026  that shines in and through us\u2026

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Year A Isaiah 58:1-12 Psalm 112:1-9 1 Corinthians 2:1-16 Matthew 5:13-20 May the words of my mouth\u2026   O God\u2026   speak your truth\u2026  In today’s Gospel\u2026  which is a continuation of the Beatitudes\u2026  Jesus addresses his disciples and says \u2026  you are the salt of the earth\u2026  you are the light of the world\u2026  not become salt\u2026  not strive to be salt\u2026  and not become light\u2026  not strive to be light\u2026   but you are already these things\u2026  they exist within your being\u2026  you already own them\u2026  but how is that\u2026  Salt is a universal flavor enhancer\u2026  it decreases water activity which can increase the experience of flavor\u2026  at low concentrations\u2026  it reduces bitterness and increases sweet and sour tastes\u2026  which is desirable for sweet recipes\u2026  like adding just a pinch in chocolate chip cookie recipes\u2026  but in higher amounts\u2026  it suppresses sweetness and enhances savory flavors\u2026  though too much salt is not good either\u2026  and so years ago\u2026  when my daughter came to visit Joel and me in Columbus\u2026  we wanted to make something we knew she liked\u2026 and so Joel made pancakes for breakfast\u2026  he made them from scratch\u2026  but instead of measuring out 3\u00bd teaspoons of baking powder\u2026  he measured out 3\u00bd teaspoons of salty baking soda\u2026  and I have to tell you\u2026  no amount of maple syrup could cover up the saltiness of those pancakes\u2026  Light on the other hand\u2026  allows us to see\u2026  and there is both outer seeing\u2026  like having enough light to read by\u2026  and inward seeing\u2026  as in\u2026  I see\u2026  said the blind man\u2026  as in\u2026  let those who have eyes see\u2026  and like salt\u2026  there can be so little light that we can’t see what’s right in front of us\u2026  or so much that we are blinded\u2026 But Jesus isn’t talking to us individually\u2026  the YOU in this text in Greek is plural\u2026  he’s talking to his disciples as a group\u2026  and the life of discipleship is conceived of\u2026   as life within the community of faith\u2026  a community charged with a mission to the world\u2026  but in truth\u2026  being the salt of the earth is essentially a spiritual reality\u2026  when we understand that we are potential which may not be actualized\u2026  and when this happens\u2026  people lose their flavor\u2026 Now there\u2019s not much firewood in the Middle East\u2026 but there is a lot of dung\u2026 with a high level of compressed plant matter which can burn as fuel\u2026 but even this needs some help\u2026 so a block of salt is often placed at the base of the oven\u2026 and the salt becomes a catalyst for the fire\u2026 allowing the dung to burn hotter and more completely\u2026 but over time\u2026 that salt lost its ability\u2026 and was often laid out like paver stones\u2026 it literally became good for nothing but being trampled under foot\u2026 The You are then\u2026  is intended to foster an awareness\u2026  it is meant to move the attention from the evaluations which society tries to impose on us\u2026  like you are a sinner\u2026  or you are no good\u2026  and establish in the hearts and minds of those who are addressed\u2026  in our hearts and minds\u2026  the truth of who and what we are\u2026   There’s a form of poetry called the ode\u2026  a poem which speaks directly to its subject\u2026   and often elevates an inanimate object\u2026  and there’s a Chilean poet named Pablo Neruda\u2026  who wrote\u2026  an Ode to Salt\u2026  and in it\u2026  Neruda writes\u2026  On every table in the world, salt\u2026   we see your piquant powder sprinkling vital light upon our food.\u2026  the smallest\u2026  miniature wave from the saltcellar\u2026  reveals to us more than domestic whiteness\u2026  in it\u2026   we taste infinitude\u2026 Jesus claims that his followers\u2026  all of them\u2026  all of us\u2026   are tiny grains of salt\u2026  yet infinity shines forth through each of us\u2026  and in commenting on Neruda’s words\u2026  the Rev. Charles Hoffacker writes\u2026  so\u2026  the smallest grain of salt\u2026  one almost invisible to the eye\u2026  brings to us the flavor of the infinite\u2026 which we have received through our baptisms\u2026  When we read the scriptures at home\u2026 or listen to them here\u2026  we hope that they serve as food which nourishes our spiritual body\u2026 that we really listen to what God is saying to us\u2026 and having listened\u2026  are moved to embody and act on them\u2026  and how we read scripture matters\u2026 we need to consider the historical context in which it was written\u2026 and the timeframe over which it was too\u2026  how what has come down to us is in some ways\u2026 different from the original texts\u2026 how some words are understood differently now than they were then\u2026 and we need to affirm\u2026 that there is good news\u2026 in the Jewish scriptures\u2026 like our reading from Isaiah\u2026  and in the Christian scriptures\u2026 and we affirm that in order for there to be good news\u2026 there is an underlying consistency\u2026 God\u2019s consistency\u2026  of what God wants us to know\u2026 and to do\u2026 But we\u2019re also modern enough\u2026 to understand that scripture must be understood in context\u2026 that some things that applied to scripture\u2019s original writers and audiences\u2026 may not apply to us now\u2026 and we have to remember\u2026 that scripture has been used to support slavery\u2026 the oppression of women\u2026 the burning of witches\u2026 and the persecution of Jews\u2026  For example\u2026  we don’t pay too much attention to verses like Lev. 11:10\u2026 which says that eating shellfish is detestable\u2026  or Lev. 19:19\u2026 which says we may not wear clothing made up of two or more fibers\u2026 or Lev. 25:44\u2026 which says we are allowed to take male and female slaves from neighboring nations\u2026   but do we pay enough attention to verses like Lev. 19:34\u2026 which says\u2026 the alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you\u2026 you shall love the alien as yourself\u2026 for you were aliens in the land of Egypt\u2026 and I wonder which passages we listen to more\u2026 which are more self-serving\u2026 or line up with what The Rev. Dr. Laurence Keene said\u2026  there\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[229,228,230,227],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-gods-kingdom","tag-light-of-the-world","tag-our-mission","tag-salt-of-the-earth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1953,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions\/1953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twochurches.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}