TO BECOME THE WHOLE WORLD'S SEASONING

February 8, 1987, 11:00 a.m. Worship Service
John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
Isaiah 58:6--9a
Matthew 5:13-16

“You are the salt of the earth." -~Matthew 5:13a. (RSV}

One of the great puzzles in the human story is how the movement begun
by Jesus of Nazareth in the year 30 A.D. became the official religion of —
most of the known world in less than three centuries. There is a new book
by a British Jesuit, Michael Walsh, which sets out. to. solve the puzzle.
The title of the bock is The Triumph of the Meek: Why Early Christianity
Succeeded. Here is the way the author describes the issue:

"On the face of it, Christianity had tittle to commend it.

It sprang from an insignificant corner of the empire, far
distant from the capital city. Its roots lay.in the despised
Judaism, and its founder had been executed by that most
demeaning of deaths, crucifixion. it had, at least at first,
attracted the least influential members of society, and it

had been attacked in polemical tracts and held up to ridicule gh
by some of the empires' best writers. Christianity presents wr
the historian with something of a paradox..."(p. 11) on cs

The puzzle is more than academic significance.. We live ina vind when oon
———the future of the church seems to 5bé’ in doubt, and in a culture which seems
increasingly indifferent. How did they do it? What can we learn froin
them?

Why did early Christianity succeed? Well, a lot of them didn't. A
lot of them died being faithful,.some very dramatically, some quietly,
invisibly... There are, of course, many theories to. explain Christianity's
unlikely success - about the time being’ripe for a world religion-to
emerge, and the empire needing a.spiritual adhesive to hold. itself ;
together. But the historians who look at the movement itself consistently
hone in on the quality of life,. corporately and individually, lived by. the —
early Christians in public. People saw and then listened and then, because
they had seen something special, believed its truth. It wasn't the
theology, nor was it great preaching. Someone has noted that "the
Christianity that conquered the Roman ‘Empire was not an affair of brilliant
preachers addressing packed congregations. We have nothing much in the. way
of brilliant preachers for the first 300 years of the church's life. [It
was done by servants, workers, shopkeepers, teaching Christ through their
work." (fT. W. Manson, in “Hans Reudi- Weber, Salty Christians)

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The scholars know that the most effective missionary work has, from
the very beginning, been ordinary people trying to live like Christians in
a pagan world. Michael. Walsh says it was a new and admirable morality.

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The early Christians exhibited a new way of living.

Echoes of that are found on back in history, in the prophetic
tradition of Judaism. The first lesson this morning defined a unique style
of being faithful to God -

-to loose the bonds of wickedness
-to share bread with the hungry
-to bring homeless poor into your
house

-to cover. the naked.

"Then," the prophet suggested, “your light shall break like the dawn -
your healing shall spring up speedily ~ your righteousness shall go before
you." (Isaiah 58:6-9)

You know, the world knows, and so do I, that the only religion worth
anything at all, is rooted in and expressed in and celebrated in human
life. We know that authentic religion is connected, at a profound level,
with life and that it. somehow enhances life.

What_is it about Christianity that has compelled your faith in the
past?. If your pilgrimage through [fife has ied-you fo The church - not as a
believer, but as a seeker, a questioner, inquirer, what is it about this
enterprise that continues to haunt you? if..your quest has been
successful: if you have accomplished what you have set out to accomplish:
if you have accumulated a fair measure of this world's goods, what is there
about this business that keeps nagging, submitting a vocal minority reports
in the back of your mind? My hunch is that you and I are intrigued by -
captivated by — the notion that in Jesus Christ - there Is something to be
learned and. experienced about real human life. There is something very
interesting here: “a promise of human life made more vivid, more intense,

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more full of flavor, zest, liveliness. ——

People who exhibit that quality of life have a way, not only of
compelling my faith, but of changing the world around them; seasoning the
life around them with God's gracious love. Sometimes to live that way is
costly: sometimes shortened by its own saltiness: like those four
military chaplains in Worid War II who gave away their life jackets that
four others might live and who died together. Or Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
gentle, pacifist, scholar, drawn into a plot to assassinate Hitler. Or
Martin Luther King,. whose academic credentials, we are inclined to forget,
were real and who easily could have been a distinguished professor in a
major university ~- but whose sense of the Gospel led him to live radically
and to confront the established injustices of our culture. Or Desmond Tutu
and Alan Boesak, electing to live, on a very dangerous edge in South AS
Africa, or Terry Waite...

The Christianity which,J_ have found compelling comes through lives of
radical mbiguous involvement in the world. Sometimes it ends in

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martyrdom. But not always. Sometimes it takes the form of a consistent,

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uncompromising love for the world, a deep embracing and affirming of life. -
which has been made holy by Jesus Christ. '

Some of us cannot point to one magnificent conversion experience, but
instead have a wonderful series of experiences - a series which is still in
process, by the way. Let me tell you. about one of mine. Somewhere from my
early exposure to Christianity and the church I had gotten the idea that...
Christians were not comfortable with the rigors of academic life; were
threatened it seemed to me, by open scientific inquiry; nor did it seem
that Christians cared much. about the common joys.of..life --like baseball,
and all in-all took a dim view of what might be called delicately the
“pleasures of the flesh." And so it was a conversion.experience to
discover that for some people. the opposite. was the truth, that Christianity
actually enhanced and enlarged human life instead of. reducing and
diminishing its dimensions. The person who bore witness. to that was a
college professor ~ who taught religion in a class everyone had to take,
but then took the trouble to visit in the dormitory. and talk about the.
religious views in life and who.conveyed to us that there was something
essentially good about the philosophic insights of. Soren Kierkegaard, ‘a.
well turned double play, and.a fine cigar. It had. never occurred to me.
that God's love in Jesus Christ -was addressed to that. breadth of human
life. I thought it only had to.do with prayer meetings.

Another. teacher and another small conversion-happened when. I-met
Joseph Sittler, University of Chicago, now professor emeritus, who taught
theclogy but: with equal intensity loved the language, poetry and literature
and music and played the French horn. Sittler caught. me because. I had
concluded that in order to be religious, one. had: to be glum, boring... But
the Gospel of Christ seemed to make him more human, more salty, more an.
unabashed ‘lover of life...dne of my favorite Sittler essays, not because of
its theological insights - but because of its spirit, is entitled "Polish
Sausage, St. Augustine and The Moral Life." In it. he recalls the vending
truck that parked each noon outside the Administration Building at the
University. The specialty was sausage which he describes as "Rich, juicy,
odorous, garlic-laden, hot and smelling with all the:herb-subtlety of a
thousand years of Polish sausage culture." The effect, he recalls,. was to
“bring tears to the eyes, a clutch at the throat and.clarity to the mind."
Astrophysicists, construction workers, art historians, and secretaries
lined up for the experience. One day Sittler saw a friend. “I was
astonished. Dr. Platz, what are you doing here? You are a pathologist;.: you
know very well you ought not to eat one of those violent things! I am_ only
a theologian and 1 don't know any better. But you are a doctor - and you
have professionally examined the catastrophic effect upon the stomach of
these explosive, eroding sausages." Charles Platz fixed me with a caol
gaze. "Yes" he said, “You are quite right. But these things are very
good, aren't they?" (Grace Notes and Other Fragments, p. 74-75}

Christian faith is. winsome when it can be witnessed in lives. made more
human because of it; lives that are more alive, more intense, more
intentional. That, I have a growing conviction,. was part of Jesus' —
personal mystique and magnetism. . He was alive and lively. He was not grim
and boring like the traditional teachers of religion. His teaching was
about life lived fully. He generated excitement wherever he went,

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controversy, heated discussions. People got “steamed-up" about what he was
saying. It was interesting to be around him. -And one time he said to his
followers, “You are the salt of the earth."

As far as I know, “Salt of the earth" was not a common idiom. It has
become one. It means “good, solid, stable, hard-working, dependable." But
I don't think the disciples had heard it before and-I don't think that is
what Jesus meant when he used it.

The setting is the Sermon on the Mount. The Beatitudes precede this
saying. "Blessed" - or more accurately, “happy” - are the poor, the meek,
the hungry, the peacemakers, the persecuted." I've always thought that
the only honest initial reaction to the Beatitudes had to have been,
"You've got to be kidding.".- Poor people aren't happy. That's the most
cynical of stereotypes. There's nothing blessed about being hungry. The
meek lose a lot. As a friend said to me once in the bleachers after we had
watched our team lose by one point in over-time, “People who learn to lose
graciously, usually do." Nice guys finish last, then and now. You have to
imagine the disciples hearing those statements for the first time. I
imagine them thinking things like this ~ “He doesn't mean that literally.
He doesn't mean that we are really supposed to live like that...or perhaps,
if he does, he obviously means for us to remove ourselves from society, to
retire to a desert monastery where we can be poor, meek and hungry to our
hearts' content." There were, in fact, desert communities of ascetic
religious zealots living in monasteries. I think that when the disciples
heard the Beatitudes they would have concluded automatically that he meant
for them to withdraw from the world. And so he was saying something very
important when he added to the Beatitudes..."Oh, and by the way — you are
the salt of the earth.”

They knew what he meant. It may have been a new metaphor but it was
vivid and recognizable. Salt was valuable. It was necessary as a
preservative and purifier. -It was used liturgically in Temple sacrifices.
It was an attractive trade commodity. But the interesting and in a sense
most valuable quality of salt - what made it a luxury - was its ability to
season food. Sait makes bland food tasty. The internists may cringe
because we eat far too much of it. But it enhances and draws out flavor.
It adds vitality.

The first and basic ‘meaning of this remarkable metaphor is that
Christianity must be applied to the world or it is worthless. Following
Jesus is connected to the rest of life or it is not authentic. . That is not
a.moot. point, by the way. In fact, there is no more important issue, nor
controversial either, than the relationship of faith to life.

Somewhere along the line many of us learned that religious faith
removes us from life, is unconnected with life, may be believed, observed
and celebrated in a vacuum, a Sunday morning vacuum with no contact with
Monday morning ambiguity. The ancient monastic idea still has its appeal.
When we say “religion‘and politics don't mix," very often what we mean is
that religion and life don't mix. The people who built and operated
Auschwitz frequently said "religion and politics don't mix."

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Our tradition - the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition, part of what-is
known as "Mainline Religion” has tried to shape society as well as be
shaped by it. It has never retreated from it. -Theologically, Mainline
Religion is the heir of the Puritan movement. We. may not agree with the
Puritan's conclusion about public morality but. it never occurred to them
not to try to express their sense of the good in the world, which is to say
the arena.of politics and economics and social policy. We have never been
universally popular. In trying to shape the world around us we have been
salty - which sometimes means controversial, irritating. That way of being
religious - our way - is not popular at the moment... Mainline Religion is
in a period of decline. If the Religion Section page of Time Magazine is
a barometer of where our. culture is religiously, one. thing. is clear and it
is that we are not in the mainstream. The mainstream thinks God is. a:
celestial blackmailer whose. capricious will may, on occasion, be pressed
inte service to raise a few. million dollars to pay an evangelists’ bills.
The culture prefers the bizarre, the marginal, and - always —-the
withdrawn, the safe, the ultimately bland.

May I suggest that the text this morning has. particular meaning. for
those of us who hear it and who are members of this much-worried-about
Presbyterian/Reformed tradition. May I suggest that we hear it addressed Calue
to us. “You are the salt of the earth.” Our values are important... The
values of Mainline Religion and .the Reformed/Presbyterian traditions have
been like seasoning in this culture that has developed over the centuries.
Some of those values are:

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pluralism -. diversity - inclusiveness - yu
tolerance —-equal. justice Qt
free inquiry v
freedom of expression
freedom. of choice Ugh
compassion : =.

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Those values are under assault. Powerful forces: would restrict.
freedom of choice, freedom of expression, what you can. read and see and
would make Christianity the normative religion of the nation in spite o
the founders careful convictions. and choices of individual citizens.

A lot of people are concerned about what will-become of us in- this /
environment. . Someone has calculated that at the current rate of decline, |

the last Presbyterian wil] die sometime in the middle of the next century.

1 doubt that... But more to the point, we have a wonderful tradition of

being salt. of the earth, salt.of this particular -earth:- My-reading of the
word this morning is that we ought to get on with it,.do-what.we are called

to do, be what we are calied to be. and trust God with our future as.an
institution.

We are salt of the earth, together, as part of-our. particular :
tradition and as part of this congregation. We are also salt of the earth
as individuals. Salt acts on its environment. -Sait: changes what it
touches. Salt flavors, preserves, purifies, and-enlivens. It doesn't.:take
much salt to make a big difference. enna

— —___—_—. “or re ae

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Notice, please, that Jesus' statement is not in the imperative mood.
He didn't order them - or :-plead with ‘them to become salt. He used the
declarative "You’are ... you are already the seasoning of the world..."

As I think about the ones who heard that first, I begin to hear it
differently. They were a modest bunch, uneducated, illiterate, poor, not
influential...I don't think they would have considered themselves to be

salt of the earth — or anything remotely like it.

So it was a compliment, a graceful statement, in our jargon.:.positive
reinforcement. "You are salt." -And, of course, that is what they became.

So I hear it differentliy...and f invite you to hear it in its
declarative mood. - You are aiready, here and now, sait of the earth.

You are doing difficult jobs with grace and kindness.
You are making hard decisions with justice and fairness.
You are now seasoning your office, courtroom, kitchen, operating room,

laboratory, bedroom, with love, integrity. You are sait - and it doesn't
take’ much.

Jesus wanted people to foliow him in the context of their own lives:
not’ just by walking with him in Galilee, not just in secret rituals and not
by withdrawing into isolated religious communities. Jesus wanted Christian
fisherman,. tax collectors, homemakers, traders and soldiers. He intended,
I believe, that this dispersal of his people in and through the common life
would not only change the common life, as salt dees, but that it would do

-.so-by bringing a liveliness, a zest for life, a profound love for life to
its sense of purpose.

He calls us salt of the earth. God loves the earth. God doesn't call
people away from the world in order to be faithful. “The world is God's
first..love, God's first. fiancee" is the way one New Testament scholar puts
it. (Reudi-Weber, op. cit., p. 10)

To be faithful is to turn to the world in love, to live life fully,
deeply, intentionally and gratefully. It is to understand that at the
heart of it ali, to be a Christian is to be fuily human.

In-a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Bonhoeffer wrote: "The

' disciples must not think only of heaven: they have an earthly task as
well." Part of our fascination with Dietrich Bonhoeffer is that in a very
real: way he made a decision. to be-in the world. As Worid War II was
looming, he was in this country, at Union Seminary, New York City,~
teaching. Friends begged him to stay, teach, and return to Germany after
the war. He decided instead to return - and after he returned cast his lot
with the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler.

aA
\N His prison letters are precious. In one he wrote, "I have come to

appreciate the worldliness of Christianity as never before...] don't mean
the shallow this-worldliness of the comfortable. It's something much more
profound than that; something in which the knowledge of death and

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resurrection is ever present. I am still discovering that it is only by
living completely in this world that ‘one learns to believe. I am giad I
have been able to learn it, and know I could only have done so along the
road I have traveled. Goodbye. Take care of yourself and don't lose
hope...We shall all meet again soon." (Letters and Papers from Prison,
p. 225, 227}

God's purpose is that faithful people are to become seasoning for the
whole world. The promise is fullness of life. Jesus said to his
disciples, his friends, to you and me, here in this time and place — "You
are the light of the world. You are the salt of the earth.".

Amen.

God our creator, our savior and our sustainer;

we pray for strength to love and live. Sometimes,
0 Lord, we become tired of the world. Sometimes
we are weary of trying to love it and would rather
escape. God, our sustainer, give us heart and
courage to love and to season our world with your
love in Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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