Sermon for the 3rd Sunday before Lent – 13th February 2022: Jer 17, 5-10; 1 Cor 15, 12-20; Luke 6, 17-26)

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

Salt is a precious and essential commodity. In 1882 the British Government in London passed a Salt Tax in colonial India which prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, giving the British a monopoly on the manufacture and sale of salt, which it taxed heavily when selling on to the Indian population. In March to April 1930 Ghandi (who now has a lovely public memorial here in Athens outside the Indian Embassy) led thousands of Indians across 240 miles from where he lived to the Arabian Sea coastline, where there were great salt marshes.

There was brutal retaliation by the British forces in response to the protest and 60,000 people, including Ghandi, were arrested. It was a clever and simple way for the Indians to protest British rule in a non-violent way, though violence was used against them. Salt is a precious and essential commodity.

There is some disputed evidence that to the Romans salt was so precious that sometime Roman soldiers were paid not in cash, but with allocations of salt. The Latin word for salt is ‘sal’ and whether it is true that legionaries received salt in place of money, it is certainly true that the word ‘salarium’ has translated into English as the word ‘salary’, payment for work done. Salt is a precious and essential commodity.

It is used for seasoning but also, crucially for preserving food. However, it also can be used for more destructive purposes. There is some evidence in Roman history that when the armies conquered lands they would spread salt all over the ground so that the soil was ruined and not able to sustain the growth of crops and vegetables, thus impoverishing conquered peoples.

Jesus says, ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another’. (Mark 9, 49).

Salt was once used in Christian baptism. In some of the overseas Anglican formularies for baptism we find these words for blessing water:  Almighty and everlasting God, you have created salt for the use of man, we ask you to bless this salt and grant that wherever it is sprinkled and whatever is touched by it may be set free from all impurity and the attacks of Satan; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In the Roman tradition candidates for baptism would have a pinch of salt placed in their mouths so that the candidate may know the savour of Christ, and be kept safe from the works of Satan, so part of an exorcism prayer. This sacramental symbolism makes the point.

Jesus says, ‘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 under foot.’ (Matthew 5, 13).

For further enlightenment and flavouring let’s jump back to the words of the prophet Jeremiah, words in the OT reading this morning. The prophet is at pains to draw the distinction between those being faithful to God, and those who put their trust only in the mortal sphere. He uses the image of a tree. For the faithless, the prophet says, it is like being planted in a parched place in the wilderness, or in an uninhabited salt land. There is no chance of health, growth, flourishing, and fruitfulness. The contrast, for those who trust in the Lord, is like the tree that is planted by water, sending roots into the stream. In the heat the leaves don’t dry up and wither, but remain green and healthy; even in a year of drought it produces fruit. The contrast is stark and it offers us choices in our lives here and now.

We can cut ourselves off from God – by our stubbornness, our hardness of heart, our determination not to live by his grace – and even by denial of his very existence  – or we can live by grace and by faith. These of course are poles of the spectrum, and there are shades in between, but it is enough to lead us to say that in Christ we have both the Word of God made flesh, and we have his blessed words to nourish us and feed us. We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Father.

Imagine then our gospel scene this morning. Christ is in the middle of a large crowd who had gathered to be fed by his words. St. Luke offers us his version of the rather better known version of St. Matthew and we refer to these words as the Sermon on the Mount, or the Beatitudes.

In whichever version, Matthew’s or Luke’s, we have the manifesto, the manifestation, or revelation, of the nature of the kingdom of God. The poor, the hungry, those who weep, the excluded, the reviled – all these will be blessed in the kingdom of God, and will receive the kingdom, will be fulfilled, will have laughter, and joy.

In St. Matthew’s version it is interesting that immediately after the sermon on the Mount Jesus says, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ so there is a direct link between those who inherit the kingdom and the call to be salt for the seasoning of the world. This is the Christian vocation, above all else.

St. Luke’s version goes further. He contrasts all those who are blessed with a series of warnings – ‘Woe to you’ – which warn us against the dangers of wealth, of self-satisfaction, of turning life into a superficial laugh, and the pitfalls of flattery and self-importance.

These ‘parallels’ in St. Luke’s version really build on the image of the tree used by the prophet Jeremiah – the tree planted in a salt marsh where the saltiness is destructive and overpowering, rather than in bringing flavour, and the tree planted beside the stream where the fresh waters bring life and fruitfulness.

St. Paul brings alive the life-giving message of the risen Jesus Christ. ‘Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who died.’

(1 Cor 15, 20). Paul was a Jew and trained in the ways of the Pharisees, so Paul already believed that the resurrection of the dead is a possibility. We have to note how he phrases it ‘For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.’ (1 Cor 15, 16). For Paul it is entirely possible that there is resurrection, and it is at the heart of his conviction that in the mystery of the cross Jesus fulfils entirely the expectations of Judaism, namely that God raises the dead to life. This lies at the very heart of Paul’s message – this is our message of hope and fulfilment in Christ Jesus. From the tree of life, the tree of shame, as Paul calls it, or the cross, new and resurrected life becomes possible in the one who is the way, the truth and the life.

This message is the salt of the gospel – the message that seasons, restores, and flavours our own lives with the risen Jesus. You are the salt of the earth – we are the salt of the earth. Salt is a precious and essential commodity.