Transcript
The Rev. Matthew Kozlowski
Salt and Light
Jesus said, You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.
I have a friend who used to work in a restaurant. He told me that in the kitchen there was note on the bulletin board for staff. It said, “Reminder: Remember to re-fill the salt shakers every day; and remember to turn on the lights in the dining room.”
I guess everyone likes salt and light – especially when they’re eating.
Jesus says, right here in the middle the sermon on the mount: You are the salt of the earth.You are the light of the world.
What does it mean? I’ll start with salt.
Salt, in Jesus’ day, had a least three purposes.
- To add flavor to food: You sprinkle salt on food, it makes it taste better.
- To preserve food: You rub salt on meat or fish, it keeps it from spoiling.
- To treat wounds: A solution of salt and water will disinfect a cut on the skin and promote healing.
I thought about this some years back, asking myself “What’s the common thread?What’s the uniting factor in this metaphor?” Salt for flavor; salt for preservation; salt for healing.
Well it turns out that in all three cases, for the salt to work, it needs to make contact with the object in question.Contact, that’s the common thread. Example: If you have a bowl of plain popcorn (yuck), and you want to add salt, you have to get the salt to stick—to make contact—with the popcorn. Melted butter is a great option. You can ask my daughters Maria and Grace—their dad is really good at making homemade popcorn with melted butter and salt; just the right amount.
Now it’s the same for using salt to preserve meat or fish—you have to press the salt into the meat. Or with a wound—you can’t just wave salt over the skin—you need to make a saline solution to get it into the cut—to make contact. Salt, if it’s going to be useful, needs to touch, and connect to the thing its working on.
And Jesus says: YOU are the salt of the earth. What does he want us to do as his followers?
Add flavor to the world? Maybe.
Preserve the world from decay? Yes.
Bring healing to the world? Sure.
But overall Jesus is saying that you and I need to be in contact; to touch; to get close to people in the world. People who need help. People who are hurting. People who need healing. People who need a tangible expression of God’s love. In other words: everybody.
Jesus says: Here’s you; you’re my follower. Here’s the world; it’s full of people. Be in contact. Go. Be salt.
Well you say, “Fr. Matthew I’m an introvert. Or, I don’t know that many people. Or, I live alone. Or, I’ve tried to connect with people in the past, and I’ve gotten burned.”
We’ve said it before in this service, Jesus doesn’t care so much about the resources that you don’t have. He care’s much more about the resources that you do have. We learn that from the loaves and the fishes. What do you have?
Are you on the lookout for ways that you can be the love of God to other people. By going toward. That’s what it means to be salt.
In the year 1840 child was born into a family in a village in Belgium, the youngest of 7 children. His name was Jozef De Veuster. As he grew and went to school he was training to take over the family merchant business, but decided instead to pursue a religious vocation. He joined the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, taking the name Damien. After being ordained a priest, he became interested in foreign missionary work—like his older brother. As it turns out, this older brother was preparing to travel to Hawaii as a missionary—but he fell ill. Young Damien was asked to take his place.
Fr Damien, as he would come to be called, arrived in Hawaii in 1865. He served several churches and then began asking questions about a particular island Molokai. Molokai was used as a colony for people with leprosy, a terrible skin disease. These lepers were quarantined to prevent the spread of the illness. Fr Damien went to the bishop of Honolulu and volunteered to go to Molokoi, to minister to the lepers. He arrived in 1873, and worked with the inhabitants to build a church. It is reported that he also dressed wounds, constructed a reservoir, built homes and furniture, made coffins, and dug graves. He was known for how he lived with, prayed with, and ate with the people in the Molokoi colony. After working there 11 years, Fr Damien himself contracted leprosy. In his remaining years he completed as many projects as possible, including an orphanage. He died on April 15, 1889 and was buried under his favorite tree in Molokoi. And though his body was later moved to his native Belgium; after his canonization in 1995, the right hand of Saint Damien of Molokoi was returned and laid to rest in his original grave in Hawaii. You can go and see that grave today.
You are the salt of the earth. Go, says Jesus. Be in contact with people who need the love of God. Be salt. Add flavor to this world. Be an agent of preservation, not disintegration. Heal. Be a healer. Be salt.
Now I’ll say a word about light. Because Jesus also says you are the light of the world. What’s that about? Guess what: it’s essentially the same metaphor as salt. Make contact. Light—and I’m out way over my skis here—light works by making contact with an object, bouncing off it, and then reflecting into our eyes. That’s how it is that you can see something. You look at that altar… light is coming from the lightbulbs and from the windows, going toward the altar, contacting it, and then reflecting off into our eyes. Our brains put the picture together and we can see. That’s our optics lesson for the day, please don’t ask me for any clarification—that’s all I know! What’s the point? Here’s the point; light goes toward.
Jesus says, you are the light of the world. Go toward the world. Don’t be co-opted by the world. But go toward people. Everyone is in need of God’s love. And if you have God’s love, you have to share it.
The Rt Rev Steven Charleston is an Episcopal Bishop, a writer on the spiritual life, and a member of the Choctaw nation. He writes this:
"Let us treat one another with a gentle touch, a hand of grace and comfort, for none of us knows what tomorrow may bring, and none of us is immune from what we least expect. All we know for certain is that our time to love is far too brief. The least we can do is provide a safe space for one another along the road of life, a place of understanding and support. We have that gift to offer, that quiet blessing to share, giving to others what we may need one day ourselves, a shelter from the storm."
Be salt. Be light. Go toward. Reach out. Touch. Be in contact.
Last thing. I’ll close with this.
When you lack the power, look to Jesus.
Look at Jesus: he was always going toward people. He calls the disciples—he goes toward them. The woman at the well in Samaria—Jesus goes out of his way to go to her at her well. Jesus sees Zacheus in the tree, stops, looks up, calls him and says, “I’m having dinner tonight—at your house.”
And Jesus went toward the cross. Luke 9. 51 “Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem.” Jesus Christ, he himself without sin, and went toward sin. He went toward death.
He went toward sin to forgive sin. He went toward death to defeat death.
So that you could be saved. Salved. Healed.
Go and do Likewise.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
