Homily
By The Rev. Marcia McRae
St.
John’s Episcopal Church, Bainbridge, GA
27
Sept. 2015
Proper
21 Year
B:
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22; Psalm 124; James 5:13-20; Mark 9:38-50
The
disciples see someone casting out demons in Jesus' name, try to stop
him & complain about this person who is not in their group. Jesus
says:
“Have
salt in yourselves & be at peace with one another”.
You,
my good & wise Brothers & Sisters, know
how to have
salt in yourselves & be at peace with one another.
You know when someone is “worth
their salt”,
a phrase we get because people have been paid in salt [it
was part of a Roman soldier’s pay].1
You
know good things about salt: it enhances food, tweaks the sweetness
of desserts, helps bread dough rise, & helps preserve food. Salt
on icy roads makes them less slippery.
Salt
does more than change food & road conditions. It
helps fix dye in fabrics: without salt, bright colors wash out
quickly. [I
use salt, lemon juice & sunshine to get out stains.]
Salt is used in making leather,
plastic toys & other every day items.2
As
the salt of the earth, you have a much greater effect on God's world
than you may know. Remember: salt can be used for good or ill.
I
learned the value of salt to our diets when I cut it out because my
high-pressured work holding down 2 jobs had raised my blood pressure.
Without salt, my heart did funny things that were not funny; the
doctor said I needed salt back in my diet. It's a matter of
balance.
Salt
can do good or harm, sustain life or prevent it...3
Jesus says “You
are
the salt of the earth.”
But
salting the earth is destructive & was warfare's “scorched
earth”
tactic before we invented Agent Orange. We
see this tactic used in Judges 9:45 when the king puts down a revolt
& salts all the fields so that no one forgets he's boss.4
You
can take something with a grain of salt to make it “easier
to swallow” or rub salt into a wound to
increase pain, which may be what the disciples do in the first part
of our Gospel today. How quickly they have forgotten what just
happened 20 verses earlier: they couldn't cast out a
demon. The father of the afflicted boy comes & asks Jesus for
help & asks Jesus to help his unbelief. Jesus rebukes the demon &
heals the afflicted child, whose daddy loves him so much.
May
this healed child remind us that
God
the Father loves us so much.
I
wonder if what we hear from the disciples in today's Gospel is from
their limited perspective of God's fatherly love. I wonder if they
are jealous that someone not in their group can do what they failed
to do. Jesus
gives us the broader perspective of who works with or against Jesus,
with or against God's will for health, wholeness & love in the
human family.
In
the human family we face the same enemy: despair.
When
we cast out the demon of despair we make room for gifts of joy &
gladness. When we cast out the demon of despair, it's like adding
salt to a recipe. A pinch
of salt is
enough.
We do not have to be big & strong & have large resources to
make a positive difference, to be at peace, to be peacemakers.
We
hear lack of peace in our news & in our scriptures. We hear about
suffering & sins in our lesson from James, who tells us how
Christians are to handle the lack of peace life's experiences bring
us so that we change from sorrow to gladness.
Notice
this: James says when
we turn our mourning into a holiday & celebrate & feast with
each other we are to give presents to the poor. We
are to celebrate AND tend to the needs of others. This
is one way we are “salt
of the earth.”
Mahatma
Ghandi used the powerful symbol of salt to topple British colonial
rule of India,
as one preacher says.
The British had a monopoly on the salt trade & levied tax on
salt. In 1930 Ghandi decided to walk to the ocean, an
almost 250-mile, 23-day journey.
The procession of people following him stretched 200 miles long.
Reaching the water, Gandhi raised a lump of mud & salt &
declared:
“With
this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire.”
He
boiled it in seawater to make salt, which no Indian could legally
produce.
Historians see this as a turning point in the movement for India's
independence that came 17 years later.5
Achieving
the balance of salt & peace in our lives is a life-long journey.
We do not journey alone, although at times we feel
alone. Our journey calls us to focus on the phrase in our
Baptismal Covenant: “I
will WITH GOD'S HELP.”
With
God's help in this Body of Christ we find strength to persevere,
grace to hear & heed warnings to avoid pitfalls, & to live
into God's peace that passes all understanding. Beloved
Brothers & Sisters, in this Happening Community where we live
God's love, we use our God-given gift of brains; we worship the
Triune God who transforms, guides & empowers us to acknowledge:
God loves you. No exceptions. All are welcome.
In
this Body of Christ, we discover the strength, wisdom, &
inspiration to use the gifts God has given us to transform
for the good ourselves & the world beyond our red doors.
We
know hatred & bitterness are in our world. When you & I share
Jesus' love that willingly dies on the cross
for us, we are salt of the earth that Jesus calls us
to be. Just a pinch of salt does so much to reduce bitterness &
to bring peace.
Jesus
says: ask & it shall be given you,
seek
& you will find.
Ask
God to help you to be that "pinch
of salt"
that flavors the world with peace.
Savor
God's love.
Bibliography
Bates,
The Rev. Dr. Barrie. “Careful Seasoning”. Proper 21(B). Accessed:
22 Sept. 2015.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/09/07/careful-seasoning-proper-21b/
Harper’s
Bible Commentary.
General Ed.: James. L. Mays. San Francisco: Harper & Row
Publishers, 1988.
Holy
Bible with the Apocrypha.
New Revised Standard Version. New York: Oxford University Press.
1989.
Jewish
Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society TANAKH Translation.
New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.
http://www.sermons4kids.com/
“Pass the Salt, Please”. Accessed: 22 July 2015.
1
Bates,
The Rev. Dr. Barrie. “Careful Seasoning”. Proper 21(B).
Accessed:
22 Sept. 2015.
http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/stw/2015/09/07/careful-seasoning-proper-21b/
5
Ibid.
No comments:
Post a Comment