Epiphany 5A + Salt and Light + 2.9.14
M. Campbell-Langdell+
All Santos, Oxnard
(Is. 58:1-9a [9b-12];
Ps. 112: 1-9 [10]; 2 Cor. 2:1-12 [13-16]; Mat. 5:13-20)
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth.” (Matthew 5:
13a)
On a fateful day in March 1930, in the Indian city of Dandi,
Mohandas K. Gandhi and a group began what became the Salt March, a twenty-four
day, 240 mile march down the coast of India. The idea of the march was to
protest the fact that the British government levied a tax on salt production
and therefore on salt, an element basic to human life. Gandhi and his followers
nonviolently protested the tax they saw as unjust, not just to better the lives
of a small group of people, but because this was crippling the poor of India.
This march drew international attention not only to the cause of Indian
independence but also set the bar high for future nonviolent actions against
perceived injustices. Gandhi would be a mentor for many, including our own Martin
Luther King, Jr.[1]
Zoom back in time now to Isaiah’s time, and to Israel, a
people who were at that time held captive by the Babylonians. They feel they
have gotten a bum deal. They have fasted, or at least been perceived to do all
the right religious things. Why has God forsaken them? Why is their temple
destroyed? What’s this, God? They say. And God tells Isaiah to tell them to, as
Eric Clapton would say “before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.”[2]
What do I see, says God, but people who are hungry and injustice happening left
and right. If you aren’t seeking the good of the poor, you aren’t right with
God. You can’t seek God without justice to the oppressed and the poor.[3]
Justice brings light to all.
Jesus says that the only thing that can cover your light,
which is to illumine the world, is a big ole bushel, or a basket or vessel big
enough to block out, to completely cover the light.[4]
What can cover the light that God puts in us to share with others, but our own
self-concern? Look at Israel, having its (albeit understandable) pity party.
Contrast that with Gandhi’s approach to access salt not only for himself, an
educated man of a high-ish caste, but to access not only salt but justice for
the poor.
Now an interesting thing I learned about this gospel passage
is that Jesus may have been commenting a little bit on the Essene Community at
Qumran. This was a community of somewhat mystical and separatist Jews that
lived apart in the desert. And they produced salt. So on the one hand, Jesus is
giving them a nod, saying that they are tapped into the right ideas—they are
flavoring the world around them with some good religious thinking. But on the
other hand, Jesus says, they are a little lost, because they are stuck out in a
corner of the desert, the scary wilderness, purposely separate from the
community, and in a sense they are hiding that good light that God gave them
under a bushel.[5]
And what is this light that God has given us? In Isaiah we
hear that it is what shines upon us when we do justice and righteousness. In
other parts of Isaiah, we hear that light in Isaiah is a symbol for salvation: “The
people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a
land of deep darkness -- on them light has shined” (Isaiah 9:2).”[6]
In the same way, Jesus is saying that we can share our light with others and in
so doing we can point them to God’s salvation. How is this done? It is done by
feeding a person at Bread of Life or walking in the CROP walk, or even in
supporting a struggling artisan trying to make a better life in Africa through
African Team Ministries. It is done by personally sharing whatever gifts God
has given you and it is done by asking Congress to do a better job of living
out righteousness. What is the effect? The effect is to shine a light of
salvation on others. Those who receive not only a meal but a “God Bless You” or
an invitation to church learn that God loves them. That there is salvation, no
matter how dark the hour.
A last example. I have been reading an excellent book called The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle
Tzemach Lemmon, which tells the real-life story of a young woman who, when the
Taliban forced her sisters and her inside and left the women of Kabul,
Afghanistan no usual way of earning a living, developed not only a dressmaking
workshop that benefited their family, but also found a way of educating the
local girls in tailoring and employing many local women, providing them not
only with a much-needed income, but also with a sense of self-respect in the
middle of the Taliban’s choke-hold on the women of Kabul. Kamila Sidiqi, the
dressmaker, entered a time of darkness in which she might have gladly protected
just her family, but her Muslim faith actually compelled her to help others. We
of the Abrahamic faiths have something in common. A light shines when the
righteous act on behalf of the poor.
But the challenge for us is to keep doing the things we do to
reach out. When we are not under siege, we can sometimes become comfortable and
forget. One of the things I love about All Santos is that for a parish of
modest size, we do a lot. But we must keep building on that. We must not turn
inward and put our light under a bushel. Because when we turn outward, when we
share our bread with the poor, when we are generous, our hearts will not
shrink. Because an interesting thing
happens when we pursue righteousness.
In doing so, we find we pursue God. And we remember that in
God’s economy there is always enough to go around. The darkness no longer seems
as dark when it is shared, when we sprinkle the salt of life and faith around,
and when we let our light shine. And they will call us “repairers of the
breach, the restorers of streets to live in (Isaiah 58:12).”
What can you do this week to sprinkle some salt, to shine a
light? Make a plan, however small, to go and do it. May God Bless your salting
and shining, and may God make your heart more firm as you place your trust in
the one who loved us from the start.
Amen.
[2]
Eric Macdonald (Lyrics), “Before you accuse me.”
[3] Bo
Lim, “Isaiah 58:1-9a [9b-12] Commentary,” Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1946
(Accessed 8 February, 2014).
[4]
Amy Oden, “Matthew 5:13-20 Commentary,” Working Preacher, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1901
(Accessed 8 February, 2014).
[5]
Anne Howard, “Be Salt and Light,” from A Word in Time, http://www.beatitudessociety.org/blog
(Accessed 8 February 2014).
[6]
Pointed out by Lim, article above.
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