The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost ---- 30 September 2018

Mark 9:38-50

   John said to [Jesus], "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us." But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

    "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

    "For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

·         I really wish I knew what this saying means. How Jesus uses “salt” and “fire” can be puzzling. Then to link salt and peace…

·         We all know that salt is both good and bad. It preserves and seasons food. It melts ice and it can cleanse wounds, though it hurts like the dickens when it’s used that way. On the other hand, it can raise a person’s blood pressure since it causes the retention of water. That water retention is a necessity in hot places and people are even given salt pills to help with that. In the ancient world, salt was a valuable commodity; for example, Roman soldiers were paid in salt, hence the English word “salary.”

·         We all know that fire is good and bad. Fire warms and cooks; we couldn’t get through the winter without it. It boils water to run huge steam turbines. Fire cleanses, yet fire destroys. The vision of hell given in the reading used the example of a constantly burning garbage dump just outside of Jerusalem, a place called Gehenna, which became a term for the hell of eternal punishment where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

·         Jesus also calls his disciple “The salt of the earth.” In the Act of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descends on the assembled disciples as tongues of fire. It seems that the symbols of salt and fire are quite often found. They are also very common human symbols as we talked about a few minutes ago.

·         If we are to be the “salt of the earth”, we are to preserve what is good and what is holy. If we are to be the fire loosed upon the world, kindled by the Spirit of God, the fire is within us already. This is not necessarily for great, epic, and heroic deeds, but often the small, indispensable works that flow from our faith to build up the Kingdom of God… For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

·         If we are to be salted with fire, that “salt” is added to us for seasoning, healing, and preserving. That ‘seasoning’ allows us to be more than we might expect to be. The healing might be painful like salt in a wound or perspiration in our eyes, but it will be sure. Being salted with fire will preserve what is important and vital within us as disciples.

·         If we have salt in ourselves as Jesus tells us, we might be looking for something that preserves the fire of the Spirit in us. The worries and concerns of everyday life can often distract us from our mission as disciples of Jesus. One of the reasons we gather for worship as we do is to remind us once again of what our lives are about. We come and sing, pray and confess, and leave – not just to have lunch, but to be the hands and feet and voice of Jesus Christ in the world.

·         The part of today’s Gospel reading that I haven’t touched on – the discussion of removing body parts that lead to scandal. (Believe it or not, the Biblical Greek word for ‘stumbling block’ is scandalon, which come to us as ‘scandal.’) If we take it as a command to remove a hand or a foot or an eye, it could be very messy. If we take it as figurative language, it still promotes the ultimate value of discipleship and the ways of the Kingdom. Nothing else is of equal value, not even the rest of our physical bodies. Now, I don’t know of anyone who actually advocates that we dismember ourselves or blind ourselves as a remedy for sin, but the seriousness of the words drive home the necessity of continuing to uphold and protect the values of the Kingdom of God.

·        The importance of the Kingdom has a second point: our importance to the Kingdom. Our discipleship includes both humility and vital mission. That mission has not changed since the descent of the Spirit upon the first disciples and apostles.

·        One expression of this is attributed to the Spanish Carmelite abbess, Teresa of Avila. The authorship is disputed but the truth of it cannot be.

·        Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
   compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands,

     with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
   compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

W