and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way YOU want us to go. Amen.By Tuesday of this past week
word had spread like wildfire
through the student population of St. Patrick’s
So Grade 6 religion class that day began in this way.
I asked, “Tell me, what have you heard?”
Exciting, urban legends abounded.
One student piped up, “You are moving to Nevada.”
“Wrong,” said another, “She’s going to Oklahoma.”
A third said, “Not Oklahoma.
Someplace with lots of snow. Wisconsin, I think.”
A fourth replied, “I heard you’re moving to Milwaukee.
Or some other city with an M.”
Finally, the voice of reason raised his hand.
“Mrs. G-S, since you are leaving, is there
any chance we could hire Henry McQueen?
He is a great teacher. Besides, I miss seeing his bow ties.”
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Why students believed the Stagnaro clan
would be moving west rather
than north to Manchester, not Milwaukee,
New Hampshire I will never know.
But I do know why Hayes Cusick, and others,
wish Mr. McQueen could skip his final year of seminary.
After having Henry as a gifted colleague
and associate chaplain during his January term
I know his teaching style mirrors
the words of this Chinese proverb:
Tell me and I’ll forget;
show me and I may remember;
involve me and I’ll understand.
On his first day flying solo as a religion teacher
Henry immediately involved students.
Writing the word “church” on the chalkboard,
he asked, “When you hear or see this word,
what other words come to mind?
Say whatever you think. Don’t hold back.”
Collectively Grade 6 offered
over a hundred synonyms for “church.”
Some were pretty standard:
God, prayer, hymns, faith, donuts.
Others were overtly honest:
Church is nonsense, long, boring,
“lulls you to sleep”, and requires wearing
either “nice clothes” or “hot cassocks.”
(Hot as in too warm to wear,
not “good looking” or “on fire.”)
From the start students became teachers,
dialoguing together as to just what
church is at its best and worst.
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Last Sunday in church we began
listening to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount.”
Not so much a sermon, as we use the word,
but more of a lecture, a tutorial
about how to become Kingdom people.
Here we see Jesus in full, blown out teaching mode.
Instructing the multitudes, the disciples,
even us, as to just what following Jesus,
being church means.
What words did Jesus use?
Word #1: Salt. We are to become salt.
Now, wait a minute.
Does this mean we are to be sprinkled on popcorn,
rubbed into country hams, flung over icy roads,
or avoided completely by people
with high blood pressure?
No, of course, not.
As Grade 6 students just learned,
we Episcopalians aren’t literalists
when it comes to reading the Bible.
What we must do is nest the word,
not in the context of salt today
but its context back then.
Today, salt is a seasoning,
something we try to restrict in our diets.
Today, salt isn’t something critical.
It’s something we take for granted.
And salt is cheap.
A huge container at Safeway
goes for roughly $1.25.
But none of this was so in Jesus’ day.
Salt wasn’t a throw away condiment.
In the first-century world,
salt was a precious commodity.
At times even used for wages instead of coinage.
Roman soldiers received a salt ration,
in Latin, salarium, to purchase salt.
Thus, salarium became the root of
an all too familiar word, “salary.”
Salt was crucial to cultural and communal
survival on any number of levels.
Remember, in biblical times,
there were no refrigerators.
So salt was the only means to preserve food.
Salt was a basic ingredient
in medicines and exorcisms
Salt was fertilizer, scattered and worked into the soil.
Salt was strewn over sacrifices,
both cereal (Lev 2:13) and burnt offerings
(Ezek 43:24) in temple worship.
Salt wasn’t used in certain contexts.
It was used in every context of life.
So too should our relationship with God.
Our faith shouldn’t be sprinkled
into only certain areas of our existence.
It must infuse everything.
Thus John A. Huffman writes:
Each sanctuary can be a salt shaker.
We can come to church once a week,
have a lot of fellowship with all the other salt,
and think our job is accomplished.
Instead, God wants to pick up this sanctuary
and shake us out all over the world.
God has brought us together
as His salt only to scatter us.
God wants us to be an influence for Jesus.”
May we heal, urge, preserve, flavor, cure, restore,
in all places, spaces, and people.
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Word # 2: Light.
At the age of three I experienced my very first teacher.
Mrs. Frazier, part Native American,
wore thick, rimmed glasses and long, black hair
plaited in two braids down her back.
Infusing her pre-school class
with a love of God’s world,
she constantly took us on nature walks.
One day I presented Mrs. Frazier
with a product of her teaching:
eleven snails found in the woods.
Unfortunately, before leaving school that day
the lid of the snail container was left open.
The snails escaped into a nearby radiator
where they quickly became escargot.
Still, news of their escape never reached our class.
It was only years later my parents explained
how, on the night of the great snail escape,
Mrs. Frazier spent hours and hours
hunting down new snails in the dark woods near her house with a small flashlight.
Edward F. Markquart writes:
“Today’s gospel lesson focuses on light and salt.
In today’s passage,
it describes how we as Christians are
to live our lives out in the world.
Not the way we are gathered here
in this moment as a worshiping community.
Not the way we gather together in the living room
or the family room or around the kitchen table.
In the text for today, we are invited
to live our discipleship out in the world.
In our schools. In our places of employment.
In our neighborhoods. In our circle of friends.
Out there in the world which is often dark.
Out there in the world which is often not so godly.
In the world, Christians are to be the light of Christ.
What does a light do?
When you see a light in the sky,
it is a symbol of hope and
renewable guidance in the world.
Our lives are to be an inspiration
to the lives of others around us.
Our lives are to be like a beacon that shows people the way.
Our lives are to be like a lighthouse,
guiding other people’s lives through nasty storms.
We are to be a guide for people’s lives.
YOU, YOU, YOU, YOU, YOU,
you are to be the light of Christ in the world. “
For all places, spaces, and people.
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Word # 3: YOU.
There are teaching moments in Matthew
when Jesus commands,
tells us just what to do.
Judge not. Enter by the narrow gate.
Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find.
Today’s scripture is not one of those moments.
In today’s gospel Jesus simply states the facts.
YOU are the salt of the earth.
YOU are the light of the world.
YOU who follow the commandments
and teach them will be called great.
True, incarnating ourselves as salt, light, church
is not easy within an increasingly secular world.
As a child I remember
the local liquor store being closed on Sundays,
the mall opening at noon after church was over,
my brother’s sports games only
happening during the week,
never on weekends.
But that reality is no longer.
It appears not one of you was injured
by massive stampedes leaving your neighborhoods
this morning attempting to come church.
Today the vast majority of people slept in,
preparing for the Almighty Super Bowl.
We ARE the minority.
True, we might feel insignificant:
a few grains of salt within a vastly, secular world
a small flashlight in the dark woods.
But that is OK.
It has to be for someone who has been called
to serve in New Hampshire, the state where,
as my mother reminded me, has the lowest
church attendance in the nation.
Because perhaps, just perhaps, we Christians
are not called to dominate the culture
in which we find ourselves.
Perhaps our job is simply to be salt, light, church.
To spread ourselves abroad
as secret service Christians, so to speak.
Think about it. When YOU arrive at work,
you don’t show up in a red Ferrari
with the word “CHRISTIAN”
emblazoned on the side.
You slip in quietly. You do your job.
You may not look that different from anyone else.
But you are different. YOU act different.
You speak different. Stand up for injustice.
Give every task your best effort. Evoke a listening ear.
With Christ at your center, you live in a way
that results in others believe God exists.
Let us pray:
God of light and truth, Adapted from E. Paul Conine, The Church Prays for Peace
we call ourselves Your people;
help us to be worthy of our calling.
Jesus Christ has called us
the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
May we joyfully undertake these tasks,
becoming Church in word and deed.
May we think, wonder, embody
“What would Jesus do at this moment?”
in all places, spaces, and people.
For we, Lord, are your Church incarnate.
In your name we pray. AMEN.
The Reverend Dr. Marjorie Ann Gerbracht-Stagnaro
Saint Patrick’s Episcopal Church
February 6, 2011; Epiphany 5; Gospel: Matthew 5:13-20
Becoming Church – Salt, Light, and YOU
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