You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its
taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
Matthew 5:13a
As on many occasions we wrestle
with Our Lord's imagery in this passage from the Sermon on the Mount. Trained as
a physical chemist I find it hard to imagine that most stable of compounds,
sodium chloride, losing its taste other than when removed from solution by a
high energy desalination plant! However I do
see how Christians can lose their flavour and I know that happens in my
life many a time.
In today’s other readings we’ve
got additional wisdom on how
Christians are called to season the world. The passage from Isaiah, often used in Lent to
highlight the value of fasting, thrills with a passion for justice that’s been
inspiration to many. Share your bread with the
hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house… then…your vindicator
shall go before you, the glory of the Lord
shall be your rearguard. (Isaiah 58:7-8). Many Christians are joining with other folk of
good will to make a practical response to the world’s unprecedented refugee
crisis. As we respond to the needy, again and again we sense God going with us,
not just in the feel good factor but in the ripple effect of any unselfish act
of service. God… our vindicator goes
before us, the glory of the Lord
is our rearguard.
The
mystery of why a hundred of our fifteen hundred villagers worship on Sundays is
tied in with the mystery of the choices of God. We are no better than those who
aren’t called, those some of us have left at home this morning, but in the
loving providence of God we are being put to a special use in his praise and
service. I do not know why God called me
as a Christian and as a priest – I am no better than others - but God has
called me and what an awesome privilege that is, to be called into situations
where God takes me, uses me and is my rearguard, covering my inadequacies and
provoking thought of him in what comes to pass in such engagements.
As
believers and disciples of Christ we many times find ourselves in situations
not of our choosing that have the hand of God upon them. If we are praying,
worshipping and studying God’s word we should expect to impact the world in such a way as to get people
pondering. Like the church spire we point above and beyond ourselves, inasmuch
as God has chosen us to be his pointers. As we do so Paul’s words in the second reading
are very apposite, where he speaks of weakness…
fear and… trembling and yet being given words that are powerful instruments
of God. You know those occasions, when you’re given words that unblock things
for others, including opening their eyes to the reality of the living God.
You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its
taste, how can its saltiness be restored?
Being salt is about
instrumentality, about giving up our own ambitions, the desire to make our mark
on others, in the name of collaborating with God and others to season the
quality of the common life of the world. Last week we celebrated our school and
its right to praise the school governors, not least those from St Giles, for their
voluntary input week by week, month by month, which seasons the life of our
Primary School. Through that partnership of teaching staff and volunteers a
real difference is made to the life of the children of this village and its
surrounds.
What might God be saying to you
this morning as you hear Jesus say 'be salt'?
How is he speaking to where your
life is currently bound up in marriage, family and workplace and how in those
several engagements you can season things? Or how you might be salt through the
organisations within the orbit of St Giles?
The ministries of the Church – First Steps, School, Sunday Club,
serving, church cleaning, flower arranging, village lunch, service booklet
production and so on – serve and savour the life of the Christian community as
it overflows in service to others. One of these ministries might contain the
Lord’s invitation to you at this time, especially as the pastoral vacancy
approaches. Losing a chief pastor for a time doesn’t mean we lose the pastoral
care gifts of our hundred strong worshipping community called to season the
life of Horsted Keynes and its surrounds.
God has called you, and if he
has called you, he will not fail you! God’s work always brings with it God’s
provision.
As the second reading puts it: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has
prepared for those who love him’ - these things God has revealed to us through
the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For
what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is
within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of
God. In other words, to be a Christian is to have insight
into the depths of things - just as our spirit senses our depths the Holy Spirit searches…
the depths of God who is God of our life and that of all that is, capable
of linking our passion for him to his passion for all.
We
only have one life but as folk called by God our limited being finds repeated applications
that help change the world. We have
received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that
we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.
The
so-called spirit of the world is
exemplified in the current pessimism and fruitless pondering over international
politics. When we see the world apart from God we see a great deal of
self-interest and blindness towards what Isaiah calls the homeless poor. The Spirit of God in contrast cares for all that is just because it is, and more
especially those in God’s image who are cast to the margins. Through spiritual
discernment, what Paul calls understanding
the gifts bestowed on us by God we’re empowered to invest our time, talents
and money in making a difference where we are. I believe time spent in intercession for world leaders at this
junction is one gift God is calling many into.
God
who has called us is God of the world.
He is preparing a bride for his Son, the company of the faithful we call the
Church, by purifying Christians to be part of that Bride destined to be
enthroned at the marriage supper of Christ who is the Church’s husband to be.
One part of our purification is a loss of anxiety about the future and laxity
in our prayer for the kingdom to come. Earthly rulers and kingdoms fail – but
what we’re about as Christians seasoning the world can never fail, as expressed
in the great hymn of The Revd Sabine Baring Gould: Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane, but the
church of Jesus constant will remain. Gates of hell can never gainst that
church prevail; we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot fail.
We have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit that is from God. That spirit cannot fail. It is salt that savours the
cosmos. The church’s humanity fails, yes, but its divinity will prevail as sure
as the Spirit of God prevails. In our Christian calling within that of the
Church, Gates of hell can never gainst
that church prevail; we have Christ's own promise, and that cannot
fail.
God has called you, he will not
fail you! God’s work as you discern it will always brings with it God’s
provision to season the life of this ambiguous world.
Seek what the Lord requires of you and cheerfully accept that
requirement, Give and it will be given to
you - for God is no one's debtor!
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