Lectionary 26.09                                                               Christ Church, York

 Now why did this have to happen on the last Sunday I preach here before leaving on vacation? Why couldn’t it have happened on the next three Sundays when others will stand in this place and proclaim the Word? Why did I get the short straw and end up with the Gospel lesson this morning in which Jesus speaks about difficult things that are not so nice including stories about some disciples who are harping and complaining about unauthorized preachers; or Jesus talking about mutilating our bodies; and finally this seemingly off the wall discussion about salt. Not exactly the most promising of materials presented here today, not even good material so that I can leave you with warm positive thoughts before I begin my trip. And above all such material leaves me wondering “where is the Kingdom of God in all this!”

But then, my sisters and brothers, if the Scriptures were only about those things we thought we needed to hear, then they would not be the Gospel. If the Scriptures were only about those things which confirmed our own beliefs, reinforced our own world view, made us feel good about our lives as Christians, then they would not be the Gospel. Presented with a text such as this, it isn’t always easy, at first glance, to understand what Jesus is trying to tell us, much less accept what He says. But this is still the Gospel, still the loving word of our God, still the essence of salvation.

Take this business of the disciples jumping all over the head of some poor healer who, after all, seems only to be trying to do a little good. At first glance it makes sense to say that we simply can’t have just anyone running around saying that they represent Christ. There needs to be some assurance that those who come to preach the word are indeed properly approved and appropriately certified. We need to be sure that the Word they proclaim will indeed be the truth, that it is not heresy of some sort or another, that it is adhering to the Word and the will of the Lord, especially in this day and age when what we hear from too many a pulpit is bad theology and even worse bad Lutheran theology. Martin Luther understood this and so he states that “no one shall teach or preach in our congregations without a regular call.” Determining who is in and who is out then does seem to be appropriate and maybe these disciples were on the right track when they complained to Jesus that this man was preaching without authorization.

But in the face of all that seems sensible and appropriate, Jesus once again confounds the disciples as He broadens the circle of those the disciple’s judge to be the “right kind.” Christianity is not a clique, says Jesus, in which we include only those who agree with us. Instead He says that all those who do the work of God in His name, even those who come from different faith traditions, belong to Him. Sadly too many Christians have failed to grasp this message. In a recent issue of Christian Century it was reported that a group of charismatic Christians had picketed a conference which included representatives from the Roman Catholic tradition because, the Charismatics claimed, the Catholics were not really Christians. This may sound extreme in our day and age but such attitudes toward those of different faith traditions in the one Christian faith remains strong even today. The modern evangelical churches speak disdainfully of those of us in the “old line traditions” while we disparage their lightweight services and forms of expression. We breed our isolationism so that we come to believe that only we have the truth and that whoever is not with us is against us.

But Jesus challenges us in such beliefs, telling us that he who is not against us is for us. Boundaries are crucial for any community. We have to know who is in and who is out. We have to know where we stand and that often means defining ourselves as over and against others. But separating those others into generalized categories, judging and sometimes even condemning them, is not what Christ Jesus wills for us and not what He speaks of here today. Only those who threaten the community are to be excluded. But if we cannot see that threat, then they are to be included. We may not understand them, we may not see how they fit into the Body of Christ. But Jesus does and He calls for their inclusion not exclusion.

Having looked at the community, Jesus then turns His attention to His individual disciples and begins to speak of scandal and mutilation. Now if the earlier words were hard, these are even harder. Taken literally there would be a whole lot of us eating our meals with metal hooks strapped to the stubs of our arms, while hobbling from room to room on crutches, all the while groping our way with sightless eyes. But if we are not take this literally, Jesus does call for us to take these hard words seriously. If anything gets in the way of your entering the kingdom of heaven, says Jesus, it is to be cut out of your life. We can all agree that evil should be cut out but Jesus goes further and says that we are also to cut out those things which, while they may not be evil in themselves, do impede our journey toward the kingdom. Whether it be the quest for financial security, the constraints of the job, the desire to achieve fame or prestige, the pleasures of the flesh, if any of these hold us back then, for the sake of the kingdom, they are to be cut out.

And finally there is the issue of salt. Salt is difficult to deal with in our modern society first because the health professionals tell us to watch our salt intake these days and second because salt doesn’t play such a critical role in our daily lives as it did in the time of Jesus. Then salt preserved food, salt made things taste good, salt was essential for life. But Jesus is not concerned just with the use of salt for the body but rather the need for salt in our souls. We can cut salt out of our diets but we cut it out of our spiritual lives at our own peril for then our faith stands in danger of becoming insipid, something with no taste to it, something which cannot be preserved. And what is the most useless of items? Salt without its saltiness!

When we loose our saltiness, when we loose the good news of the Gospel in our lives, then we are of no use in the necessary work of the Kingdom. And what we end up with then is insipid Christianity. When Christians loose their Christian flavor, they cannot serve as the preserving agent in the world. When Christians loose the proclamation of God’s love for the world and instead give their blessing to carnage and violence, as the Dutch church did in South Africa when it upheld apartheid or the German church did in Nazi Germany, then they have lost their saltiness. When Christians are more interested in power for themselves or even for their congregations or faith traditions, instead of understanding their call to service, then they have lost their saltiness. When Christians fail to confront the world with the injustices that exist, they have lost their saltiness. As Christians we stand to loose our saltiness when humility gives way to self assertion; when there is no sign of the cross in our lives; when we see only sweetness and light in the Gospel and not its hard sayings; it is then that we have lost our saltiness and have become useless to the world. These are not easy words for us to hear and even harder for us to understand. But today’s Gospel lesson is nothing less than a radical call to discipleship, a call from Jesus to shake us out of our complacency and make us realize that we are engaged in a serious business here, that of being a disciple.

We are called to take these uncomfortable words from Jesus and make of them part of our daily living as true disciples of the Lord. We are called to take these words and through them grow in our understanding that we are different from the world but not separated from our other brothers and sisters in Christ. And we are called to be careful about causing others to stumble or to be scandalized. And when we fail in that regard we are to cut out that which impedes our entry into the kingdom. And above all we are called to retain the saltiness in our lives of faith, not for our sakes but for the sake of the world.

Today at sundown our Jewish brothers and sisters, our ancestors in the faith, will begin their holiest day with the celebration of Yom Kippur. This holiest of days is for atonement, for the deepest of reflection on oneself and ones life of faith. Perhaps it is fitting therefore that Jesus today calls for us to step back and take a look at ourselves to see how, if we are separated from another in the Body of Christ, we might find reconciliation. And if we have stumbled and caused scandal for another, perhaps we can seek to right that wrong and call upon God’s strength for the amendment of our lives. And if we have become something of an insipid Christian, perhaps we can find ways to put a little more salt back into our lives of faith so that our enlivened faith may serve the world. So let us not be separated. Let us not be a scandal. But let us, oh do let us be ever so wonderfully salty. Amen