A Sprinkle of Salt

Sermon Mark 9:38-50 September 30, 2018 Ordinary Time

A Sprinkle of Salt

A sprinkle of salt on food is a good thing.

Sodium is essential for nerve and muscle function and is involved in the regulation of fluids in the body. ... Chloride ions serve as important electrolytes by regulating blood pH and pressure. It is excessive amounts that lead to poor health.

A sprinkle of salt is also good for healthy faith and practice.

We are on the road with Jesus as he is making sure his disciples understand what it will be like to be his follower after he is gone. And as he is teaching them they are experiencing real life practical ministry dilemmas. They are still trying to wrap their heads around how to live into being a servant that puts the least of these first in life. What does that look like? How does that work, we asked last week. Before these people of Christ have a chance to experiment this new ideal, they witness other people who are not part of their group doing things in the name of Jesus. They don’t know what to make of this.

John is confused; isn’t he the one following Jesus?

Aren’t John, James, Peter, Mary, and the rest of them with Jesus day and night.

Jesus is their teacher and not someone else’s. Who has the rights to the real Jesus anyway?

Perhaps, the most powerful proclamation from Jesus is here. No one has a corner on Jesus. No one has the claim to Jesus.

Anyone who does the simplest, kindest act toward another is proclaiming Christ and therefore is one of Christ’s disciples.

We live in communities scattered with churches of so many names. We have an obligation to one another to seek to understand and to work together for the sake of peace, grace, and love. Those who are faithful to the love of Christ, to his mission, to all he promises will find his peace fulfilling their hearts and lives.

We are people who live in community and need community.

It is what protects and supports us.

It is what shapes us and forms our faith.

In community we learn, we listen, we discover, we grow. In community we discover our identity, our gifts, our strengths. In community we find our safe space to share the things that frighten us and the things that discourage us. Perhaps this is why Jesus is so adamant about protecting the integrity of anyone who chooses to follow him, whether they are powerful, weak, accepted in society or not. And he is letting the disciple John know there needs to be many communities in the world in Jesus’ name.

The new community is taking shape as the new church in his name and his disciples are wrestling with what that really looks like. Today, here and now, in this 21^st century we are still doing the same-wrestling with the shape of the community of faith in Jesus Christ.

And that’s a good thing.

We are still people with some saltiness sprinkled on us to get us in the right balance of healthy faith. We are still people with grace filling us with peace to share. We are still claimed by God as children of God.

And because of this:

We are still wrestling with how we live this faith and what it looks like to others as we share it.

We are still wrestling with who belongs in the community of faith.

We wrestle between including people and excluding them.

We really struggle over many ideas,

we struggle over things like baptism and what is right.

We struggle over communion, and marriage, and ordination, and faith statements, and buildings, and worship.

So many things cause us to wrestle over the community of faith that Jesus is calling us to be.  

We come back to this text and we hear Jesus say, “Give a cup of water in my name, do a good deed in may name.” Return to the simple commands of practical faith. Do good.

Do not do harm.

Jesus is pretty harsh when it comes to how we treat others. When we study him in Scripture we discover he is intolerant of any abuse to anyone of any kind. And so he takes time to give some harsh commands to match his firm foundation of love, mercy and grace.

He uses the word scandalize. We translate scandalize from Greek to the word, stumble in English. Jesus is extremely protective of those who are marginalized and who are young and small or as he calls them, ‘the least of these.’ He would rather anyone in the community of faith be removed if they dare scandalize, create a stumbling block, for any of these people. It really calls us to task even today as to how we really need to be on guard with our actions and our words with one another. May we never do anything to scandalize another person, Jesus warns.

Jesus continues to talk about some rather gruesome things such as cutting off and poking out body parts. Jesus is not joking that the integrity of his community of faith should not threatened. He wants those who are tearing others apart with dishonor or deceit or disregard to remove their offensive nature by whatever radical means they can in order to be filled completely with mercy and love. Remember friends this is metaphorical not literal.

As a community of faith these instructions from Jesus give us opportunity to put ourselves in check on a regular basis.

All this brings us back to salt. Jesus continues to teach and train the disciples in the practical ways of ministry. His lessons for us are still the same. We are some seasoned folk. We have what it takes to dispel the stuff that would dare to scandalize others. We have what it takes to build a strong community of faith. We have been through some tough times and our faith has been tested in many ways.

We have the power of salt within us to face the world with peace.

Let us get out there and sprinkle a little salt. 

Amen.

Reverend Monica Gould

PCUSA