Matthew 5:13-20

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.

14 “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

I promise that my sermons are not going to become television reviews- I know I mentioned a couple of shows last week but there’s one more I’ve been watching that I wanted to share.

It’s Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Each episode, they take two or three guests, guests who are well known for one reason or another, and share all that they can find about the person’s history, genealogy, and ancestors.[1]

They found Lewis Black’s immigrant ancestors that he had been unable to locate- where they came from in Russia and how they lived in Palestine for a while before moving to the United States. They found that Claire Danes and Jeff Daniels have ancestors who were a part of the Salem Witch Trials – on different sides. And in some of the more difficult episodes to watch, they track, best they can, the genealogy of people whose ancestors were enslaved. Like musician Quest Love. They were able to uncover the name of the ship on which his family was brought over notable because at the time the trading of enslaved people was no longer legal in the United States. But this ship captain made a bet that he could defy the law and get away with it. A bet.

It's amazing to watch people learn more about who they are, to make the connections between who they are and where their families have been, and to see the pieces fall into place, both the joyful and the hard parts of that knowledge.

It strikes me that this is what we do here every week. We go to the Bible to find out not so much what it says but what it tells us about who we are. Who we are created to be. To be more complete. This text is where we find our roots- where we have been and how that changes where we go.

The roots that keep us in the ground and the leaves that are still growing. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations, as we read in Revelation.  Or from John 15, “I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”

Today’s text is a marvelous example of this. It comes to us just after the Beatitudes, Jesus’s prime and central sermon. Jesus has told them who is blessed- and what the Kingdom of God looks like, and then he shares what we heard today, a little bit more about why the people are the ones to get this message. You are salt, he tells them. You are light, Jesus says.

And these are not little things.

But what do they mean? 

First, there is salt. Salt which gives flavor. Salt which preserves. Salt which our bodies need- they cannot live without salt. Salt which at times has been the most precious commodity is a currency.

But is that the kind of salt that is being described here?  Because true salt, NaCL does not lose its flavor, does not decompose, and does not diminish.

When you look at how this passage is written in the other synoptic gospels you find that the salt being described here is an agricultural salt mixture. Which helps the part of “you are the salt of the earth” make more sense.   A salt for the land, a salt for the earth that is used as a fertilizer. Because, as it says in Luke if it is no longer good, it is good for neither the soil nor the dunghill. Or, more modernly, good for neither the dirt nor the manure pile.

In an article written in 1962 by Eugene P. Deatrick, former head of the soils department at West Virginia University on this topic, Deatrick brings his expertise of soil to his upbringing as a preacher’s kid to this passage, and a sermon his father preached about it when he was a child, and concludes:[2]

Considerable basis has been found to support the exegesis of the preacher of 1897, who believed that Jesus alluded to the growth-stimulation effect of salt since he was not interested merely in the preservation of his way of life but much more in its continued stimulation toward ever greater growth, which comes about only if Christians do not lose their saving influence on others. "You are (like) the salt for the soil, a stimulant for growth. If you become like the savorless salt, no longer good for anything, how will the gospel of the Kingdom be preached throughout the whole world?”

That’s the salt, and then there is the light. The light that, of course, you put on a bushel stand. Not only because you don’t want to hide it, but an open flame beneath a basket is rarely a good idea- you’re likely to burn it to the ground.

And this part of the passage is one of the reasons this is the lectionary reading for today because this past week was the church festival of Candlemas.

As Diana Butler Bass reminds us:[3]

February 2 is one of the most ancient Christian holy days — the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus — also called Candlemas. It commemorates the events of Luke 2 when Joseph and Mary brought their newborn son to the Temple in Jerusalem. This event marks the final festival in the cycle of light. Weeks ago, Advent began with lighting candles in anticipation of the Jesus’ birth. The Nativity is accompanied by angelic beams on the family in a manger. Epiphany celebrates the star directing seekers to his birthplace. And, as the season following Epiphany unfolds, the light expands, inviting the first disciples to “come and see.” The final movement in the arc of light is Candlemas, where the entire world is set ablaze with God’s manifestation of love….The long weeks of winter candle festivals… end with us bearing light into the world. In a way, it all began so passively. Waiting for God to act, to birth peace and justice in the world. God did something for us, gave us a gift of life and light.

And the cycle concludes with a remarkable admonition…. You are the light of the world.

You are salt. You are light.

It’s pretty remarkable. This is what Jesus wants us to know. 

And there are some things to note in these passages. 

First, that salt and light are not useful unto themselves- they are helpful only in relationship to something else. We don’t season salt. We don’t preserve salt. We use salt to season. To preserve. To fertilize. 

And like salt, light is important because it allows us to see. It is helpful as it is in relationship to something else. The primary function of light is not to be seen, but to let other things be seen.[4] 

 And this is what we are. Not what we can be. Not what we will be. Not what we might be. This is what we are.  And I use “we” here intentionally. The “you” in this section is not singular, it is plural. If this passage were translated here you would read it as “Y’all are the salt of the earth.” “Y’all are the light of the world.”

And I do not believe it is accidental that Jesus phrases it in this way. Because people then were like, I believe, people of today. We are much more likely to remember the bad stuff than hold onto the positive.

In writing on this passage, Theologian David Lose reminds us:[5]

Do you recall the statistics about children's self-esteem in relation to the messages they hear? …Children…become what they are named. Call a child bad long enough, and he or she will believe you and act bad. Call a child (or teen or adult for that matter) worthless or unlovable or shameful, and eventually he or she -- all of us! -- will live into the name we've been assigned. In the same way, call us good or useful, dependable, helpful, or worthwhile, and we will grow into that identity and behavior as well.

I do not believe adults are any different. Isn’t it so much easier to hold onto the critique, the nasty comment, than the compliment?

 So Jesus is here to say “You ARE salt. You ARE light.” And that is an amazing thing. Not only are you enough, you are what makes things grow. You are what makes things happen. Your willingness to allow God to work through you makes all the difference. 

Right now. As you are.

And while we have Boy and Girls Scouts helping with worship, I cannot help but think that the Boy Scout Motto might have taken a note from Jesus when they decided it should say “A Scout IS trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent."

Not can be, might be, shall be, will be, but is.

And a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.

 Diana Butler Bass again:

“Yes, God created the light. Jesus is light in the darkness. And yet we — fragile and flawed human beings — are the light of the world. Jesus says…. We’ve journeyed from waiting to receiving to following to joining the great procession of love and justice in and through the world. We are the light.”

It reminds me of a news story from about 10 years ago now,[6] of a tourist who was reported missing from her group tour at Eldgja canyon – a volcano on the island of Iceland. The driver of the bus reported her missing to the authorities and they began searching - they searched for three hours, obviously concerned because of the dangerous terrain, it’s not a place where people wander off.

But after three hours of searching, they realized something, the woman they had been looking for was with the group and had been the whole time. She’d changed clothes at the last stop and the driver hadn’t recognized her.

But she had been there the whole time. The whole time.

Never missing. Never lost. 

But always found.

And so are you, You

Y’all who are salt.

Y’all who are light.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

[1] https://www.pbs.org/weta/finding-your-roots/

[2] “Salt, Soil, Savior.” Eugene P. Deatrick. The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 25, No. 2 (May 1962), pp. 41-48.

Published By: The University of Chicago Press https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_296549

https://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-heart-of-law-and-light-of-world.html

[3] https://dianabutlerbass.substack.com/p/candlelit-faith?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

[4] While this is pointed out in multiple commentaries, I found it by way of the Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner’s paper to the lectionary preaching group “The Well” in 2014.

[5] https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/salt-light

[6] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/missing-woman-finds-herself-after-intense-search/#:~:text=(CBS)%20A%20woman%20who%20went,the%20country's%20southern%20volcanic%20region.