Matthew 5:13-20
“Finger Pointing & Yokes, Salt & Light”
Preached Sunday, February 2, 2023
One of my favorite TV characters of all time is Leslie Knope from Parks & Rec. Leslie is known as an energetic go-getter with a deep passion for her work in the local government parks department. She is also known for her ridiculous, next-level, over-the-top compliments. Here are a couple compliments she gives to her best friend:
“You beautiful tropical fish.”
“You opalescent tree shark.”
“You’re a beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk-ox."
“You poetic, noble land-mermaid.”
“You rainbow-infused space unicorn.”
Some of these compliments are, not just over the top, but kind of weird, right? Like…what does it mean to be an opalescent tree shark? But it’s a TV and so we laugh it off as cute, quirky nonsense.
But when I read today’s Gospel reading, my mind went from Jesus to Leslie Knope. See, Jesus is kind of giving us a weird “What does that even mean???” kind of compliment.
“You are the salt of the earth.”
“Finger Pointing & Yokes, Salt & Light”
Preached Sunday, February 2, 2023
One of my favorite TV characters of all time is Leslie Knope from Parks & Rec. Leslie is known as an energetic go-getter with a deep passion for her work in the local government parks department. She is also known for her ridiculous, next-level, over-the-top compliments. Here are a couple compliments she gives to her best friend:
“You beautiful tropical fish.”
“You opalescent tree shark.”
“You’re a beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk-ox."
“You poetic, noble land-mermaid.”
“You rainbow-infused space unicorn.”
Some of these compliments are, not just over the top, but kind of weird, right? Like…what does it mean to be an opalescent tree shark? But it’s a TV and so we laugh it off as cute, quirky nonsense.
But when I read today’s Gospel reading, my mind went from Jesus to Leslie Knope. See, Jesus is kind of giving us a weird “What does that even mean???” kind of compliment.
“You are the salt of the earth.”
Uhhh…thanks, Jesus? I think?
Now, “You are light” - that makes a little more sense to us. But what are these declarations that Jesus makes to his disciples and, through the ages, to us, that we are salt and light? Let’s look a little bit closer at them.
Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
Let’s think about salt. Salt compliments and brings forth other flavors in food. Salt is also a preserver. It quite literally…cannot lose its saltiness. If it wasn’t salty…it wouldn’t be salt. Now, we know through cooking that salt loses its saltiness, or a dish loses the taste of saltiness if it is overwhelmed with other flavors. If there are enough other things in the dish that cover up the saltiness.
But we’re not talking about cooking and food when Jesus says we are the salt of the world. We are talking about who God created us to be and living into those true authentic selves.
One of the best books I read during my renewal leave was “Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints” by James Martin. Allow me to give you a brief synopsis of some of the insights this book gives.
Thomas Merton, a renowned saint and writer in the Catholic Church, famously said, “For me to be a saint means to be myself…Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and discovering my true self.”
In other words, the more we are our true selves, the more holy we are. As Methodists we talk a lot about sanctification. That we are all on this journey towards Christian perfection - which means every day we strive to love God and neighbor better than we did the day before. And sometimes, we tend to think the more sanctified or holy someone is…the less of a personality they have. But the point of this book is that is not so - that each of us, at our core is, well…the salt of the earth, with our own unique flavor or personality that is not lost in the process of sanctification. Rather the more we love God and neighbor, the more our personalities, our true selves, who God created us to be, shines forth, the more you can…taste your inert saltiness. He uses two saints as an example: one St. Theresa of Liseux who was a contemplative saint and spent all her days in a convent in worship and prayer and cleaning and gardening and what others would claim as menial tasks. And two Dorothy Day - the founder of the Catholic Workers movement and a staunch supporter of social justice and an activist…was one of these women less holy than the other? No! Their own personality, their own salt of the earth saltiness, was seen through their unique ways they were their true selves for God and neighbor.
Which brings us back around to how can salt lose its saltiness…if we are salt of the earth, in our inner core cause it’s our true selves that God created us to be - how can we lose our saltiness? Just as salt in a dish can be overwhelmed by other flavors, we can be overwhelmed by false selves.
We all have false selves. Richard Rohr says, “Our false self is who we think we are. It is our mental self-image and social agreement, which most people spend their whole lives living up to - or down to.” Merton refers to our false self like bandages wrapped around a mummy. We may have many layers of false self that we have to peel back to get to our true self, who God created us to be, salt of the earth. Now, Martin says, when he was writing a book about finding your true self, a friend said to him, “Well, that’s fine, but what happens if your true self is a horrible, lying, mean-spirited person?” A good question to ask! Maybe one you are sitting in the pews thinking.
Martin’s answer was “that this would not be the person God created. In other words, to find his true self, the horrible, lying, mean-spirited person would have to uncover his true self - the good self that God created - from underneath all those layers of sinfulness. And I would suspect that the longer he has been living as a selfish person, the longer it might take for him to uncover his true self.”
Our reading from Isaiah shows us examples of people not being their true selves - how we can get overwhelmed by other things and lose our saltiness. Our passage this morning talked about those who professed with their lips and their rituals a desire to get closer to God, but their actions showed them oppressing their workers and putting heavy burdens on others. They got into fights and quarreled and finger-pointed…nothing like so many in our world today, right If only.
Isaiah goes on to say this: “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”
When we not only don’t put oppressive burdens on others, but we actively work to remove those burdens from others, we are also lifting a burden - a layer of our false selves - from our own shoulders. When we liberate others, we liberate ourselves. This is the mentality of the King of God. You may have heard it as the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”
An example of liberating others that in turn liberates ourselves is doing anti-racism work. Racism is not just a Black or Person of Color problem. It oppresses and marginalizes People of Color and they bear the brunt of its violence and force. There is no denying that. And - as white people, racism also affects us negatively - it affects our souls. It warps them into who we were not meant to be, as all sin does. It obscures our true selves who God created us to be, adding a layer of false self, overpowering our saltiness. To do anti-racism work is to loose the bonds of injustice and undo the thongs of the yoke…for all. For People of Color, to remove the violence and scourge of racism. For white people, to remove the sin that infects our souls.
The same is true for anything that keeps us from being who God created us to be - Salt of the Earth. Isaiah talks about pointing the finger and speaking evil. Any ism, any blame game or power struggle, speaking evil of anything - basically being a jerk - these things obscure our true selves, they overpower our salt.
When you are your true self, who God created you to be - not only are you the salt of the earth - but your light shines before others.
In Matthew, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 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. 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.”
It is an echo of the prophet Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…”
You are the salt of the earth.
You are the light of the world.
Just as Leslie Knope’s ridiculous compliments are meant to lift others up, I mean for this sermon today to be a sermon of encouragement because, here me on this:
You *are* *already* the salt of the earth.
You *are* *already* the light of the world.
God created you this way - this is who you are - your true self - at your core. How you will live that out? That will depend on the unique you that God created - AND, with confidence I can say, at your core, you have everything you need to be salt and to be light.
Every day we can work on removing layers of our false selves. Every day we can work on not letting our true selves get covered up, on not letting our saltiness be overwhelmed, on not hiding our light under a bushel - we do this by loving God and loving neighboring - knowing that when we show God’s love to our neighbors by removing their burdens, we also remove the yoke for our own shoulders. Every day we can work on this by letting our light shine - by living out our faith, through sharing God, through sharing love - in the unique and inert ways that God created us to do so.
Thomas Merton said “For me to be a saint means to be myself.”
For you to be a saint means to be yourself.
Your true self is salt.
Your true self is light.
Let’s let ourselves be salty and shine - by loving God and loving neighbor.
Amen.
Now, “You are light” - that makes a little more sense to us. But what are these declarations that Jesus makes to his disciples and, through the ages, to us, that we are salt and light? Let’s look a little bit closer at them.
Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
Let’s think about salt. Salt compliments and brings forth other flavors in food. Salt is also a preserver. It quite literally…cannot lose its saltiness. If it wasn’t salty…it wouldn’t be salt. Now, we know through cooking that salt loses its saltiness, or a dish loses the taste of saltiness if it is overwhelmed with other flavors. If there are enough other things in the dish that cover up the saltiness.
But we’re not talking about cooking and food when Jesus says we are the salt of the world. We are talking about who God created us to be and living into those true authentic selves.
One of the best books I read during my renewal leave was “Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints” by James Martin. Allow me to give you a brief synopsis of some of the insights this book gives.
Thomas Merton, a renowned saint and writer in the Catholic Church, famously said, “For me to be a saint means to be myself…Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and discovering my true self.”
In other words, the more we are our true selves, the more holy we are. As Methodists we talk a lot about sanctification. That we are all on this journey towards Christian perfection - which means every day we strive to love God and neighbor better than we did the day before. And sometimes, we tend to think the more sanctified or holy someone is…the less of a personality they have. But the point of this book is that is not so - that each of us, at our core is, well…the salt of the earth, with our own unique flavor or personality that is not lost in the process of sanctification. Rather the more we love God and neighbor, the more our personalities, our true selves, who God created us to be, shines forth, the more you can…taste your inert saltiness. He uses two saints as an example: one St. Theresa of Liseux who was a contemplative saint and spent all her days in a convent in worship and prayer and cleaning and gardening and what others would claim as menial tasks. And two Dorothy Day - the founder of the Catholic Workers movement and a staunch supporter of social justice and an activist…was one of these women less holy than the other? No! Their own personality, their own salt of the earth saltiness, was seen through their unique ways they were their true selves for God and neighbor.
Which brings us back around to how can salt lose its saltiness…if we are salt of the earth, in our inner core cause it’s our true selves that God created us to be - how can we lose our saltiness? Just as salt in a dish can be overwhelmed by other flavors, we can be overwhelmed by false selves.
We all have false selves. Richard Rohr says, “Our false self is who we think we are. It is our mental self-image and social agreement, which most people spend their whole lives living up to - or down to.” Merton refers to our false self like bandages wrapped around a mummy. We may have many layers of false self that we have to peel back to get to our true self, who God created us to be, salt of the earth. Now, Martin says, when he was writing a book about finding your true self, a friend said to him, “Well, that’s fine, but what happens if your true self is a horrible, lying, mean-spirited person?” A good question to ask! Maybe one you are sitting in the pews thinking.
Martin’s answer was “that this would not be the person God created. In other words, to find his true self, the horrible, lying, mean-spirited person would have to uncover his true self - the good self that God created - from underneath all those layers of sinfulness. And I would suspect that the longer he has been living as a selfish person, the longer it might take for him to uncover his true self.”
Our reading from Isaiah shows us examples of people not being their true selves - how we can get overwhelmed by other things and lose our saltiness. Our passage this morning talked about those who professed with their lips and their rituals a desire to get closer to God, but their actions showed them oppressing their workers and putting heavy burdens on others. They got into fights and quarreled and finger-pointed…nothing like so many in our world today, right If only.
Isaiah goes on to say this: “If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.”
When we not only don’t put oppressive burdens on others, but we actively work to remove those burdens from others, we are also lifting a burden - a layer of our false selves - from our own shoulders. When we liberate others, we liberate ourselves. This is the mentality of the King of God. You may have heard it as the Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”
An example of liberating others that in turn liberates ourselves is doing anti-racism work. Racism is not just a Black or Person of Color problem. It oppresses and marginalizes People of Color and they bear the brunt of its violence and force. There is no denying that. And - as white people, racism also affects us negatively - it affects our souls. It warps them into who we were not meant to be, as all sin does. It obscures our true selves who God created us to be, adding a layer of false self, overpowering our saltiness. To do anti-racism work is to loose the bonds of injustice and undo the thongs of the yoke…for all. For People of Color, to remove the violence and scourge of racism. For white people, to remove the sin that infects our souls.
The same is true for anything that keeps us from being who God created us to be - Salt of the Earth. Isaiah talks about pointing the finger and speaking evil. Any ism, any blame game or power struggle, speaking evil of anything - basically being a jerk - these things obscure our true selves, they overpower our salt.
When you are your true self, who God created you to be - not only are you the salt of the earth - but your light shines before others.
In Matthew, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 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. 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.”
It is an echo of the prophet Isaiah: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly…”
You are the salt of the earth.
You are the light of the world.
Just as Leslie Knope’s ridiculous compliments are meant to lift others up, I mean for this sermon today to be a sermon of encouragement because, here me on this:
You *are* *already* the salt of the earth.
You *are* *already* the light of the world.
God created you this way - this is who you are - your true self - at your core. How you will live that out? That will depend on the unique you that God created - AND, with confidence I can say, at your core, you have everything you need to be salt and to be light.
Every day we can work on removing layers of our false selves. Every day we can work on not letting our true selves get covered up, on not letting our saltiness be overwhelmed, on not hiding our light under a bushel - we do this by loving God and loving neighboring - knowing that when we show God’s love to our neighbors by removing their burdens, we also remove the yoke for our own shoulders. Every day we can work on this by letting our light shine - by living out our faith, through sharing God, through sharing love - in the unique and inert ways that God created us to do so.
Thomas Merton said “For me to be a saint means to be myself.”
For you to be a saint means to be yourself.
Your true self is salt.
Your true self is light.
Let’s let ourselves be salty and shine - by loving God and loving neighbor.
Amen.
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