18Pent B; BULC. Sept2015.
©The Rev. Scott K. Davis, STM, DMin, BCC-ret
Wayne ambled into the room full of partiers with his normal swagger
Wayne was a hard-working/self-made/self-employed man
Might look like:
Red-faced, large, and loud.
Wayne always wanted you to know that he was in the house.
He was a large, red-faced, loud, back-slapping, heehawing fellow
Both in his shop and around the town.
On this occasion, Wayne walked up to where a few of us pastors stood
And started talking in the only volume level he had,
So loud that the whole room naturally turned to him.
He bellowed at a pastoral colleague:
You Lutherans don’t believe in the Bible, do you?!
Rather than take the bait, the pastor just looked at him and smiled,
Hoping he would pass on by like a summer thunderstorm.
Wayne was referring to recent decisions by the ELCA on social topics
That were not to his liking.
Wayne pushed onward in his taunt.
I want to go to a church that is Bible-believing.
Do you understand me?
A place where the preacher is not trying to tippy-toe
around the hard lessons of Jesus,
A preacher who will lay it on the line and not try to water down the Gospel.
I want a preacher who will be bold and put it out there,
The full measure of the Bible, not hold back a lick.
I want a preacher who won’t let sinners slide and will call them out by name.
I want the full Gospel.
I don't want a preacher to pussy-foot around the message of Jesus.
I do not know where my colleague’s response came from,
But I heard it issuing forth clearly and forcefully from his lips:
You want the full Gospel, Wayne?
You mean the part about selling all you have
And giving it to the poor?
You mean the part about forgiving 7 times 70?
You mean the part about being salty and at peace with one another?
A pregnant silence fell over the room,
After which Wayne responded,
Well, not those parts!
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The room broke up in laughter.
And Wayne slunk out of the room as quietly as possible.
Everyone was high-fiving our colleague for quieting Wayne.
Until…
Until someone wondered aloud,
[PAUSE….]
What part of the Gospel do we avoid? 1
What parts of the gospel message do we want to avoid??
From the feedback I am receiving through the grapevine this week,
Sermons that address Scripture’s teaching
About how to be and live together
As a community of character
Are now to be avoided.
The message has been heard loud and clear: Enough is enough, Scott.
So this is the second sermon written this week
One that avoids the central preaching themes
About living truthfully in one’s faith community
Which have been given in the appointed lectionary
In the past weeks in this Time of the Church.
[PAUSE]
Stripped of anything offensive and uncomfortable,
The last sayings in the Gospel are left-overs for us to ponder:
Salt is good;
But if the salt has lost its saltiness,
One cannot season with it.
Above the escalator at Saint Louis University Hospital
Was this reminder of the purposeful saltiness in life:
To the glory of God
And the well-being of God’s people.
Those who once opened the Westminster Catechism
Learned the purposeful saltiness in life this way:
One’s chief end is to glorify God
And to enjoy God forever.
And we have learned from Jesus’ teaching recorded in Scripture
That the two guiding commandments for life are:
LOVE GOD with heart/soul/mind/strength, and
LOVE NEIGHBOR as yourself.
1
Story adapted from “Getting Serious,” a sermon by David Galloway, Day 1, 01 October 2006.
3
Ah,
But how many of us have begun to lose that saltiness in life:
That savor for fully living in creation among God’s people,
Loving God above all things,
And loving our neighbor unto peace?
Salt is a metaphor in Scripture for prophetic perspectives in life
▫It is a reminder of our life after the Fall
As we toil in frustration by the salty sweat of our brows
▫It is a reminder of the refining fire
That renders persons and objects holy-purified before God.
▫It is a reminder of the ever-present judgment of righteousness
By which each of us is measured in the gaze of God.
And today’s saying from Jesus causes me to wonder:
Has the provocative prophetic quality of salt
Been lost within the Church and in the World?
I met with a retired biology teacher on Tuesday morning
--The local Gideons International Camp chair-Who shared his passion for spreading God’s Word
And bemoaning the losses of opportunity
To freely distribute Scriptures
In public schools and hospitals.
Is that what Mark’s Jesus means
About losing saltiness of the Gospel in the world?
Theologian John Stott suggests that Christians continue to be salty
When they use God’s Word
To preserve the integrity of the Gospel in the World
Through the forestalling social rot and decay.2
1] One salty influence within our local community is prayer
It is carried out by the clergy of the Warwick Ministerium
As we are invited to pray monthly
At the beginning of Lititz Council meetings.
I think of the prophetic courage of chaplains in the U.S. Senate—
Pastors like Peter Marshall, Lloyd Olgivie, Barry Black—
Focusing our national leaders with the Gospel light.
I think of Pat Kopp asking me Wednesday—as she always does—
Who is sick and hospitalized and in need of her prayers.
2
John R.W. Stott, “Salt and Light: Four Ways Christians Can Influence the World,” Christianity Today
55:10 (October 2011).
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2] A second salty influence is the truth of God’s Word.
We don’t need the Constitution to declare the equality of all:
From the creation narratives to the letters of St Paul,
And the good news enfleshed in Christ Jesus our Lord-Who conversed with Pharisees and ate with sinners
Who promised the criminal paradise
Who asked forgiveness of all, even those crucifying him-We embody the singular truth of God’s love
And the second table of the Commandments:
All lives matter…
White/Black/Latino
Straight/Gay/Bi-/Transgender
Young/old, male/female
Healthy /infirm
All are beloved of God.
3] A third salty influence for the world is being examples,
Of being “in Christ” and “little Christs” in and for our society.
It is offering hospitality the vulnerable and needy
It is recognizing that Jesus was once a refugee,
As was the people Moses led out of Egypt
And the exiles returning from Babylon—
People who welcome the stranger.
It is being God’s holy people who “walk the talk”
By showing with our lives that we are different
Because of God’s love in Christ.
Did you see Pope Francis’ “walking the talk” of JC on Wednesday
When 5-year old bi-lingual Sophie Cruz from L.A.
Broke the security line on the parade route
Trying to reach the Holy Father in the Pope-mobile?
Security officers quickly detained Sophie and restrained her.
But Pope Francis, reminiscent of Jesus’ own action,
Motioned for this courageous daughter
Of undocumented immigrant parents
To come unto him
And he kissed Sophie…and she returned the kiss
He received her letter and heard her plea for help
To keep her working father in this country
He received her gift: a yellow T-shirt
Asking for immigration reform.
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+We have been examples this past week in our prompt generosity
In responding to the call from the Lititz Home of Hope:
By Tuesday morning,
All but two items were spoken for.
WOW!!
+Those that contributed stuff and time to yesterday’s flea market
Exemplified being “little Christs” for society
As our efforts helped those victimized by sex locally.
William Barclay shares this story about the Gospel lesson for today3:
A certain man inherited a ring set with a mystical opal in it.
Anyone who wore it became loving and true in character.
The time came when the man—a father of three sons—
Needed to pass the ring to the next generation.
Because he loved each son equally,
The father had two other opal rings exactly made
To match the quality of the original,
And gave each son one of the opal rings.
When the three sons discovered that each had a ring,
A dispute arose among them as to who had the original
Since they believed that one alone had power.
The boys took their dispute before a judge.
The wise magistrate looked carefully at each ring:
I cannot tell which ring is the original,
But each of you can prove its power.
We? Cried the three boys
Ah, yes, replied the judge.
For if the ring of power brings loving and true character,
Then I and the whole town will know its bearer.
So, go on your way:
Be kind and truthful; be loving and just.
We will know the ring by your living.
That’s what Jesus asks of us when he asks us to be salt
The world will know the Gospel as the world sees us behave
With love and forgiveness
In peace and forbearance
Not avoiding the hard practice
Of God’s will for our lives together.
3
William Barclay, Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Mark. rev ed. (Westminster, 1975), 227-228.
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4] Finally, we have the salty influence of group solidarity,
The power of a dedicated and committed minority.
Marvel about the incredible witness of God this past week
In Havana, in Washington, DC, in New York, in Philadelphia:
As hundreds of thousands of Christians
Gathered to hear and see the Pope!
This was a movement that began with one divine man
Calling together 12 no-bodies to follow him
This was a movement that began in the public square
When the Spirit of God called and gathered people as one.
This was a movement that spread across Asia Minor
When some scrawny peripatetic preacher
With a speech impediment and simple words
Proclaimed the Wisdom of Christ crucified.
And we whine and decry the lack of saltiness in our world today?
God’s Word is still full of power…
Powerful enough in our lives and in our world
To pray for the integrity of the Gospel in the politics and society;
To proclaim the truth that all lives matter within God’s love
To live the example of Christ by taking up our crosses to follow;
To preserve the Good News, even when we seem few in number.
May [God’s] Word once again burn our hearts.
May God give us the salty flavor of the Kingdom
May the cross of Christ again be our great ambition
May God flavor us with good salt
So that we might season the world.4
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Inspired by “Flavor of the Gospel” by Santiago Benavides, ©2012.