SALT OF THE EARTH BETHANY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Matthew 5:1-17 LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
August 4, 1974 JOHN M. BUCHANAN

One of the best parts of vacation is that I can do reading that time

otherwise doesn't allow. This summer one of the books I read wes The Celtic

Churches A History, A.D 200 to 1,200 by John T. McNeil. It was a very

scholarly book: and reading through the interminable dates and names and
places reminded me of that old saw about a little girl who received a book
about Penquins as a birthday gift from her grandmother. She read the book
and wrote the following note: "Dear Grandma: Thank you very much for the
book. It totd me more about Penquins than I really wanted to know." Well,
TI read more about the history of the Celtic Chureh than I really wanted to
Know: and yet it was a unique and inspiring story: and I'm glad I took the
timc, Let me tell you just a little bit about it.

It is a story of literally thousands of men captivated by the Gospel
of Jesus Christ in Ireland in the third and fotlowing centuries. In great
numbers they founded monasteries and took absolutely literally Jesus! model
of poverty and sacrifice. Those monasteries were remarkable places,
Education flourished: the Bible was studied: music was composed - and in the
process the best of Celtic culture was preserved. The piety of the Celtic
monks was so regal that in some monasteries the Psalms were chanted by the
brothers, singing in shifts, around the clock for decades. Farming flourish-
ed ~ and herding. Metal and stone work, along with very intricate printing
were cultivated and taught and passed on. To a barbarian and brutal culture
the monasteries brought the idea of peace and compassion. They were easy
prey for marauding bands of Vikings, and many monstertes were destroyed
and the monks killed several time over.

The realiy remarkable thing. about these early Christians however, was
their missionary activities. Tray sting alone, or in small bands, they
Sailed to the islands off Scotland, then to England and finally to the contin-
ent, bringing with them the Gospel, the teachings of Jesus, and their gentile

and kind way of life. In terms of the nistory of ideas probably no venture

SALT OF THE EARTH -2- AUGUST 4, 1974

ever succeeded sc well. One by one the barbartan tribes and the emerg-
ing kingdoms of Europe became Christianized - as a result of the singular
devotion and courage of these celtic monks, It ¢s impossible, from an
historian’s point of view even te contemplate western civilization apart
from the role they played in its founding.

In the epilogue to the back McNeil observes: "The austere and unrelaxed
devotion of the Celtic saints is 89 alten to the modern spirit as to be now
almost Tncomprehensible. We are not familiar with men who chase ta subsist
on one meat a day, who sleep on hard floors with pillows made of stone, who
spend many hours of the day and night singing psalms and nymns, and yet with
unfailing energy exercise Creative leadership, changing the society in which
“acy move and schooling barboroys peoptes.... It is wholesome to reflect on
the debt of the modern world to these dedicated islanders." (P.223-4)

The author identifies their zest and abandon as the two characteristics
that enabled them to be so influential.

Now you know mare about Celtic monasteries than you probably wanted ta
know: yet I shared that information because, naving pondered it, I have
concluded that the early Celtic monks probably came as close ag anyone in
history to Fulfilling Jesus' mast familtar description of his followers: The
salt of the Earth ~ The Light of the World. As wo think about those two
images I trust that you will be inclined to agree,

The images of Salt and Light are important today for severd reasons:
‘chief among them the fact that the church as too frequently abandoned them.
If the early Celts can be called Salt and Light then the modern church might
be likened to chocolate Syrup ~ a sticky additive to the culture that helps
to disquise the flavor of what is underneath: or perhaps a tranquilizer - a
tablet, the ffect of which is tc dull the mpact of reality and allow the
patient to live in a dreamy worid where all is pleasant and good,

The images are important today because the role and the very existence

of the institutional Church is up for grabs. I da not Say that lightly. I

SALT OF THE FARTH ~3- AUGUST 4, 1974
Say it with impatience at the vast amounts of time we have alrcady spent
attempting to define the church and its role in society. And yet our time:
this year: is different. I don't know how carefully you read the magazine
A.D. when it comes into your home. But even a cursury perusal of the most
recent issue wouldhave told you that the UPCUSA is in serious trouble. Ten
years ago the Presbyterian Church was as solid as the rock of Gibraltar.
Our mission agencies were expanding their work on every continent and we
had money in the bank. Today, we have virtually dismantled the mission of
the Church: we have mature debts of 8.3 million dollars and our reserves
which totalled 40 million not long aga have been reduced ta 7.6 million.
Indiv idual congregations such as this one are healthy - but as a national
church our immediate future is not at dal rosy. The question of what the
Presbyterian Church will be - and what role it will play is very much up
for grabs.

Locally this congregation faces a period of uncertainty: a time during
which the Session will have to spell out as precisely as possible, what
Bethany Prosbyterian Church is and what it intends to do in the community.
It ts a time for individual church mombers to examine thoir commitment and
to determine what it is they want to be in the name of Jesus Christ. And $o
Salt - Light - two very old images become rather important.

Let's look for a moment at the text. Jesus has taken the twelve up
onto the mountain to teach them. His words on that occasion are called the
Sermon on the Mount. He begins with the Beatitude - Blessed are the poor -
the weak - Commenting on the nassage Dietrick Bonhosffer says: ".... the
disciples up to this point must have thought that the blessed ones were too.
good to live in the world, fit only to live in heav wm... B ut new Jesus calls

them salt - the most indispesahle neeessity of life." (P.140 The Cost d

Discipleship.)

"You are the Salt of the Earth” - salt was extremely precious in the

first century. In that climate its preservative and purifying properties

SALT OF THE EARTH ~4- AUGUST 4, 1974
were absolutely essentila to life. It was valued then because it brought
zest and flavour to food - but because of its scarcity it was used in this
manner only rarely. Finally, good sait was virtually indestructable. So it
was used liturgically in many of the Tempie rites - and is still used in
Roman Catholic Bantism.

But when salt went bad: when it lost its power to preserve, purify
and flavour, it was absolutely useless.

"Yau are the light of the world". - a much used image in ancient litera-
ture, Light reveals the truth: light shows the truth about a thing - a
person. As is tha case with salt, Tight is valuable only when it touches
something.

Conciusion: Jesus was telling the cisciptes incividualty and corporately
that to follow him ~ to be Christians if you will - was toa preserve, purify,
Flavour and reveal in a way that is vistble. Notice that he did not urge
them to try to be like salt. He sid/eay "Pleasa attempt to shine some light
around Judea." He said simply, "You are the Salt of the Earth “you are the
light of the world...." That is how I define my followers. When you don't
act like salt and light you are net Following me. When you do, you will be
visible."

That, I would submit, its our Lord’s own measuring rod for his church and
for his peopte individually. Not, how much do you believe? Not, can you
give assent to these doctrines? Not, can you recite the books of the @1d
Testament - backwards? But have you been salty? Have you been like light
inthe world? And have you done it ina way so unmistakably clear that other
people know who you were and why you were doing it?

Now, no one who knows a thing about the New Testament is going to take
issue with any of that. But when wo get down to particulars the going will
get rough. I had a conversation with a man in the locker room of the YMCA
Tast week who wished me well in my now position, and allowed as how he used

to be a Presbyterian until the Prosbyterans got mixed up in politics: civil

SALT GF THE FARTH “5A AUGUST 4, 1974
rights - the Yietnam War - poverty - then he got out and found a church that
was interested in doing bod's work.

[ have heard that so much I can recite it chapter and verse. I no
longer get angry - but every time I hear it, It sounds more incredible than
the time before. Is it possible to believe that the God who created and
loves all men, doesn't care when some of his children are oppressed because
of the color of their skin? Is it possible to fathom a God who is detathed
from tropical villages nanalmed? Is it possible to know about peante who
are hungry in this land of afflucnce - about Senicr Citizens dying of lontli-
ness - and somehow to think that these problems don't matter te God? Or
even more incredibly, that God has al? thse millions of people in his church,
but that he wants them to devote their energies solely to getting more
millions inside, while the world.goes to hell in a hand basket,

1 yather believe in a God whe does care: and who wants nothing so much
as for his people to start acting Tike the Salt of the Earth and the Light
of the World. I believe he cares about your problems - your hurts - and
c™xXiaties - and that he wants his peoole to minister to you. And I think he
cares about big hurts - Tike wars and hunger and tnjustice - and that he
wants his people to do something about them too.

I don't think it is possible to define some problems as secular and
others as religious. William Muehl, professor at Yale Divinity School tells
about taiking one time with a Ph.D candidate in Urban Planning. Wishing to
be a good conversationalist he asked: "Based on your study, what do you regard
as the greatest unsolved prohlem in urban development?" The reply came
quickiy: "It is a religious problem." "...You see, what we are trying to
do in redevelopment is build good cities. But what is a good city?
Obviously it is one in which men and women can lead good lives. Now, what
is the good life? That's a religicus question, isn't it?" Muehl had to
admit that the young man was right.

Jesus Christ has appointed us - as a church and as individuals to be the

SALT OF THE EARTH -§- AUGUST 4, 1974
Salt of the Earth and the light of the wortd. Now, I'm not going to fill
in the obvious gaps at tnis point by telling you what precisely you should
do about this problem or that. That, in Jimmy Dean's old story, is when
the preacher “stops peachin and starts meddlin". Besides, I am more convin-
ced thanever that if we really decided that we are te be Christians in the
world - that if we began to act like the Salt of thea Earth, God's will for us
would become clearer than we ever imagined.

I would hazard the suggestion howavar, that the good works that will so
shine that neople will glorify God - begin right here: in the fellowship
of the church. I would hazard the suegestion that there is nothingso conspi-
cuous nor contagious as a fove that is expressed openly within a church. "See
now they tove each other" is what they said in the First Century. And that's
what really got to the Greeks - that was the good they saw shining from the
Christian community like a beacon of purelight - forgiving, acceptine love.
Twoild hazard the suggestion that we are the Salt of the Earth when we love.
Let me tell you a story to illustrate. A very dear friend of mine is ina
Nursing Home. Last week sha teld mo abcut ono of her room mates who has no
relatives, no friends, no cne to come see her, no one to care. The lady was
having some difficulty with ner: food tray and my friend volunteered to help.
She did, and the lady said "rid like te kiss you for that." My friend qve
her a hug - and told me that “Her eyes lighted up and she really seemed to
like that." You dan't have to be on a picket line te be the Salt of the
Earth, aithcugh some people need to be. You don't hae to run for office.
Atl you need to do is change things, in the name of Jesus Christ, that need
to be changed - wnerever and whatever they are. That's salty - and conspi-
cucus and contagious. { left my friend and made another call even though it
was late in. the day and I reaily didn't want to.

Altow me, in conclusion, tote autcbiographical in a way that is
appropriate only as a man is about ta leave. Intelliectuaty I am totally

committed to what i have said this morning about the Church and the Christian

SALT OF THE EARTH -7- AUGUST 4, 1974
Life in the World. Emotionally - pastorially I experience somathing else.
I look out from this pulpit on faces I know and love. On any given Sunday
a minister sces what no one else secs: a couple whcse marriage is in trouble,
a widow whose husband was buried last week and whose very presence is an
act of great courage, a student who can't believe in God, a man who is losing
his job. Nothing in my experience is quite as painful as knowing what I
know - and preaching a sermon on human rights, or ecology, or stewardship.
The pastor wants to say"God loves you - God cares about you - God is with
you and will be with you." I will never forget William Laws answer to a
question from the floor at General Assembly in 1970. He was a candidate for
Moderator and the Assembly was grillins each of the candidates. A young
man got up and asked Bill Taves what he thought about draft resisters and
amnesty - and there was no more controversial issue than that one at the
time. He said "That's the pastoral question and I go to bed hurting in
my gut over it every night. " He said that he had in his congregation
parents who had lost sons in Vietnam and parents whose sons were in Canada
because their conscience would not allow them to fight. He said that God
loved both of them: and that he - the pastor loved both of them: and the he
hoped they knew that as he said and did what he believed God wanted him to
say and do. |

That's the dilemna of the preacher - and the church as it tries to be
faithful in the world. And yet - the miracle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
is that in giving we do receive - in sacrafice we do find joy - in sharing

we are given peace - in following our Lord wherever he leads - we are saved.
AMEN

FATHER: We pray for honesty and courage. Help us to stand for what we

believe. Grant us the grace to be the Sait of the Earth - and the Light
of the World. Through desis Christ our Lord. AMEN