(prayer)
Salt losing its saltiness?
//
It doesn't seem to be a
modern problem.
Even the salt discovered at
the back of a cupboard after decades of hiding will still taste salty. Even if moisture has turned it into a solid
salt block, it will still taste salty when you like it.
Sodium Chloride is a very
stable chemical.
But (you might say) if you
let a glass of salt-water evaporate, a white residue and it doesn't taste very
much like salt.
Has the salt lost its
saltiness?
In reality, the residue is
mostly other chemicals. Most of the NaCl particles were lost in the water vapor.
//
Salt losing saltiness might
not be relatable to our modern experience, other than in a metaphoric - purely theoretical - way But, Jesus' audience would have no problem
imagining the reality of salt losing
its saltiness. It happened all the time.
In Jesus' day, a common way
to get salt was to collect it from the sand of salt water beaches. Or, if you didn't live by salt water, you
might be able to buy salt bundles at a market.
When collecting salt, you
could try and minimize the amount of sand you collect along with the sea salt,
but it was not a practical use of time to try and get pure salt.
After putting some
salt-rich sand in a piece of tied up fabric, you could add the salt-pouch to
cooking water.
Think of it like a tea bag
of salty-sand.
The heat of the water would
leach the salt out of the package, leaving the sand intact inside the bag. After several uses, only the sand would
remain... the salt-pouch had lost its
saltiness. The only thing left to do
was to throw out the used up saltless sand get a fresh pouch of salt-rich sand.
It is no longer good for anything,
but is thrown out
and trampled under foot.
//
In the Babylonian Talmud,
there is an exchange between Rabbi Yehoshua and some Greek sages that includes
the question: When
salt becomes unsavory, wherewith is it
salted?
The Rabbi's response was: With the
afterbirth of a mule.
I guess there is an alternative to having to
tredge back to the sea shore and collect a new salt pouch. Just treat your old pouch with a little mule placenta and go back to preparing
supper.
Yummy.
// // //
Do you believe the rabbi?
Will this work? Re-salt salt with a mule's afterbirth?
// // //
You may know that a mule is the cross-species offspring of a
male donkey and a female horse. [A hinny is the genetically similar child
of a male horse and a female donkey.]
Mules and Hinnies are useful beasts of burden. They are more patient, tougher and longer-lived than horses, and
are more intelligent than donkeys. They
tend to eat less than horses of the same size.
In other words: cheaper for longer, more compliant and harder working.
Biologically, the DNA of a horse has 64
chromosomes; donkey DNA has 62. Mules
end up with 63 less than perfectly paired chromosome. A result of this is that mules are almost always
infertile. Other than very rare
instances, mules cannot have babies.
//
No babies. No placenta.
//
So, when Rabbi Yehoshua said that the only way to
re-salt unsavory salt is to treat it with the afterbirth of a mule,
he was saying that salt CANNOT regain
it's saltiness.
//
//
Jesus' audience predates
the Talmud, but they didn't need it to know that unsavory salt has no purpose
as a seasoning.
The message - for Jesus'
followers (listening to his stories on the mountainside and reading Matthew's gospel decades - or millenia - later) - was don't squander your ability to enhance the
life experience of others.
//
You are salt.
You are light.
Don't lose your saltiness.
Don't cover up
your light.
//
//
The precise context in
Matthew for the salt and light metaphors was (what appears to be) a
misunderstanding of Jesus' broader message.
Some were concluding that Jesus advocated that it was no longer
necessary or valuable to follow the practices and rituals of their traditional
faith.
Matthew makes it clear that
Jesus was NOT an abolishment of the Torah [Hebrew law] nor the teachings of the
prophets. Jesus wanted the disciples to
continue to live lives of obvious faith and devotion. The Torah and the prophets described ways to
do this that tied people to their faith tradition and practice.
Besides being valuable for
one's personal faith development, spiritual
practices and acts of social justice
are visible testamonies to others.
Our public actions (not
just our private devotions) glorify our God.
//
John's gospel puts it this
way, by quoting Jesus as saying: Everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another. (Jn13:35)
In my summer camp days, we would sing:
And they'll know we are Christians
by our love, by our love.
Yes, they'll know we are Christians
by our love.
//
Jesus' salt-light talk is
in the tradition of prophets like the Isaiah of the Exile. This morning, from Isaiah chapter 58, we
heard a prophet expressing frustrations around the hypocrisy of words and
actions not matching up.
During the Babylonian
exile, the remnant of the Judean people were forced to re-imagine how they
could practice their faith after centuries of stable temple-focused worship and
ritual.
One of the ways that the
faith could be kept alive by the Rivers of Babylon, was to encourage people to
practice the spiritual disciplines that were not dependant on a Jerusalem
locale - things like: celebrating
special fast days.
The prophet's concern was
related to more than the practical aspects of the practice of fasting. At best, it sounds like people were going
through the motions of the fast.
Some saw no value in
glorifying a God, who had clearly abandoned them: Why humble ourselves when [God does] not notice?
Those that did fast may
have been challenging their bodies, but that was where it ended. People were not challenging their minds and
spirits as deeply as the fast intended.
They continued to hold on
to anger and a mistreatment of others.
Maybe the hunger made the cranky.
Fasting - the prophet
preaches - is NOT only about feeling a literal hunger, and longing for the
release that the coming feast would bring, but also... (in empathy) to see the
bigger needs around us and long to satisfy them as well.
The prophet says... the
fast that God chooses is not about bowing down and humbling yourself; it is to
loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the
oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.
[It is] to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor
into your house; when you see the naked,
to cover them, and not to hide yourself
from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and
your healing shall spring up quickly. (Is58:6b-8a)
//
In that last sentence, Isaiah uses the
same metaphor that Jesus used centuries later... your light shall break forth like the dawn. Faithfulness is not only to have an internal
focus... it is like igniting a spark within us whose light shines out into the
world.
//
Fasting is not about a lack of food, it
is a way to reorient one's spirit... to use a modern phrase: it is a spiritual
discipline.
Discipline = learning. The fast was supposed to teach them
something, not just make them hungry. It
was a personal experience that was supposed to teach them to be lights in the
world... even by the Rivers of Babylon.
Spiritual Discipline = learning what an
active spirit can do.
//
//
The closest followers of Jesus were
called disciples... as the word implies, the disciples were learners of a way
of faithful living.
//
We are to seek the practicality of that
title for ourselves, too.
//
Faith includes discipleship
- in the context of Jesus' teaching from Matthew today, discipleship means
learning to live
as metaphoric light and salt: to illuminate the compassion and love of God and
let people taste what that feels like.
//
This congregation - for about two
decades - has described it's mission as involving both 'welcoming in' and
'reaching out'. We seek to welcome all to participate in its
nurturing Christian community and to inspire [each other] to serve others as
Christ taught.
Reach out. Welcome in.
We can do both: to feed our own
spirits, to draw closer to our God as part of our own spiritual journey; and
let that impact how we live in the world and how we connect with those beyond
these walls and beyond the boundaries of those who hold similar beliefs and
practices to us.
//
Did you notice that the issue of people
displaced by war and terror has been in the news a lot lately?
I understand that a recently elected
politician south of the border got some press about a week ago for halting
refugee intake and revoking all kinds of valid visas from seven countries...
that - by the way - have never produced a single terrorist who has attacked the
US homeland.
There was spontaneous outrage that
resulted in public demonstrations of support for refugees and immigrants
affected.
The unplanned gatherings at airports
followed two very different well-planned and organized marches in the US: the Women's March on January 21st and the
March for life on January 27th.
Although not on the same page, each of
these gatherings were examples of people shining the light of what they believe
into the world.
While it is possible that some beliefs
were changed because of what had occurred.
Each of these spontaneous and organized events provided an opportunity
for people to express things they already believed
A week ago, it happened again when the
rhetoric of division was made manifest in violence in Quebec City. In the early hours, three very different
belief perspectives brought flavour to the discussion:
·
One
that quickly drew parallels between the known suspect's past online professions
with the US President's executive order from two days earlier, although there
was nothing released to show a direct connection between the events. There are still some who want that connection to support their already
held beliefs that "the ban" actually makes things less safe than safer.
·
On
the other end of the spectrum, others jumped on the possibility that the
shooting might have been an act of muslim-on-muslim violence because the police
initially mis-identified an innocent witness as a suspect. Even when this was not the case, so strong
was the desire for this tragic mosque shooting to justify "the ban"
that (even mainstream) news organizations refused to correct the record until
guilted into it by the Canadian government's Director of Communication;
·
The
third dominant perspective came from those who believed greater respect and
honest welcome is needed among the varied people of the human family. They organized and attended vigils; they
lamented the violence - however motivated.
//
Again, I haven't witnessed a lot of
shifting of beliefs, just reinforced beliefs.
As I watch the politics of the US
Cabinet and Supreme Court confirmation processes, I see two sides that are so
entrenched in what they want if they no longer believe in the possibility of
change that is only possible when one is humble enough to accept they don't
already know everything.
I do lament that the age of compromise
is dying... giving birth to only winners and losers where half the people feel
are perpetually forced in to resistance movements.
I lament this, but I am forced to
accept it as a current reality, now-a-days: sad, but true... the #newnormal.
//
I know that beliefs can and do change,
but they usually need more than a twitter post or Facebook meme to bring about
that transformation.
Evolving beliefs are born out of
discipleship... a willingness to learn something new.
The close-minded and hard-hearted (by
definition) cannot be disciples because... they are not humble enough to accept that God has created and is creating.
What is the point of letting light
shine, if we aren't open to what is being illuminated?
When light shines, we may be surprised
by what becomes visible.
What is the point of there being
flavour in the world if we aren't will to risk tasting it?
We will never experience new flavour
profiles unless we are willing to stick our tongue out.
Yes, let us be light and salt for what
we have come to believe in our discipleship so far, but if we are not able to
see and taste what else is out there, we cease to become learners.
//
//
If Isaiah of Babylon and Jesus had
collaborated on a sermon, they may have said... "a ritual fast that only
focuses on our own hunger is like closing your eyes in the midst of morning's
new light or like bypassing the taste buds when trying a new food."
//
//
Yes, we are light.
Yes, we are salt.
But we are also called to see what else
the light is exposing and to savour the unknown flavours on our plate.
//
I think... having enough faith in one's
beliefs to have them challenged is what makes us disciples in the truest sense
of the word.
//
So shine, but look and learn too.
//
//
Let us pray:
Light of the world,
be our light today.
Shine through us.
Amen.
***offering***
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