This week's sermon

 

          You are the salt of the earth, Jesus told his followers and he tells us as well.

          You are the light of the world, he also told his followers and tells us as well.

          We are salt and light.

          You and me.

          Salt and light.

          I talked with my first cousin, Mejol, last week about salt and light.

          Mejol was my companion all during my childhood. She went on vacation with my parents and me until I was quite old.

          Her email says Mejol6 and I asked her why. She said she couldn’t be the only person with that name.

          I asked a friend of mine who is a geneolgist and he told me she was the only person named Mejol in the country!

          Here are some of the things we came up with for SALT.

          Salt flavors things.

          Don’t tell my doctor, but I put salt on almost everything.

          I put salt on watermelon and cantaloupe and lots of things I shouldn’t—even raw apples!

          Besides flavoring things, salt preserves things—like salted meat and fish.

          Salt water will cure fever blisters and insect stings.

          You always find your skin in better shape after being at and ocean beach and going into the ocean water for a few days.

          Salt is amazing.

          Light drives away darkness and let’s us see.

          It is also used in signals.

          And how valuable to sailor’s are light houses.

          Light and salt are valuable to us in many ways.

          And we are SALT and LIGHT, Jesus tells us.

          We must flavor and preserve and cure.

          And we must let us see in the darkness and warn us of danger and guide others as they come.

          But we must also be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees.

          That means we must ascribe to religious and moral laws.

          Jesus does not abolish the law—he retains it and it must guide us to “righteousness”.

          So, we have a lot to do.

          How do we do it?

          That is the question.

          We begin by doing all salt does and all light does.

          And we must do that while being ‘righteous’.

          Not an easy task.

          But we begin today, as always, by taking Jesus’ body and blood into our beings.

          Then we must go out into the world and do the work Jesus would have us do.

          Feed the hungry.

          Clothe the naked.

          Offer comfort to those who suffer.

          Heal the wounds of the wounded.

          Preserve what is needed to do good.

          Guide those who are lost to come home.

          Offer hospitality to those who feel outcast.

          Bring light to the darkness of this ‘oh, so dark’ world.

          A lot to do.

          More than we may believe we can do.

          But we are salt and we are light.

          Ponder that for a while in silence.

          How can we be salt.

          How can we be light.

          Ponder, my friends, ponder how we can be the people Jesus calls us to be.

          (silence for two minutes)

          You are salt.

          You are light.

          Let us be who Jesus calls us to be.

          Amen and amen.