September 30, 2018 - Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost - Salted with Fire

Today Pastor Ray, through his assembled Ministry Support team, proposed a new program where two families would meet with Pastor Ray for dinner on some evening throughout the year. Hopefully this would be a chance for two families who don't know each other well to get acquainted while learning more about Pastor Ray at the same time.

The rest of the announcements demonstrated how church activities were ramping up again. Creator just finished a September blood drive. The volunteers for the Clackamas Community Center are going strong and there were a number of individual members who announced activities the congregation could support.

The Gospel reading for today ended with Mark 9: 49-50 "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."

Pastor Ray talked about today's entire Gospel being rich in directions to take a sermon. He focused on the last two verses and described how historically, salt was obtained from salt marshes. If this crude salt were exposed to damp, essentially the other "swampy" tastes would be revealed and the salt could, in effect, lose its saltiness.

This direction, in a way, could have been more in keeping with Jesus when he said in Matthew 5:13: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.".

This Gospel is specifies being "salted with fire", This is not a random reference. Fire is also mentioned in verse 43 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 in verse 48 " ... where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched".

In this Gospel reading "salted with fire" stands in contrast or opposition to the corruption of hell and unquenchable fire of verses 43 and 48. The purifying, or preserving quality of salt (and a different kind of fire) from this corruption of hell seems to be key more than the flavor of the salt. Salted with Fire feels more like the fire at Pentecost or the fire John the Baptist talks about in Matthew 3:11, "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

I recently read Leviticus 2:13 "You shall not omit from your grain offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt". Now, as I reflect on this verse, I feel this offer of salt represents the purifying grace and presence of God that must be added and acknowledged with any offering to God.

This Gospel was also both uncomfortable and comforting to read. However veiled, the description of worms and corruption with the burial of my mother that happened this week was difficult. My mind easily conjured up images I did not want to dwell on. Yet it was also comforting that the 'salted with fire' counters these images of worldly death.

I also appreciated how Jesus described the purifying, or preserving process as something that comes from within oneself and is not centered on the other. Our human tendency is to focus on purifying or preserving the world from some evil or corrupting influence. Instead Jesus describes our own body parts, which we think of as our identity and so crucial we would never be able to sacrifice them.He centers us on the larger purpose of this purification or preservation that we go through throughout our lives.
What is the most important thing here, and is easy to forget, is how inclusive this Gospel message becomes. Jesus includes everyone. Everyone is salted with fire. You don't need to follow a particular group, you don't have to be baptized, you don'r need to belong to a particular church or religion, or have a particular belief in God.

God's promise to humankind is that everyone will be salted with fire which ties back to the beginning of this Gospel.where Jesus says about the man exorcising demons in Jesus' name, "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."