DATE: June 2, 2013 — Confirmation Sunday and Senior Recognition
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 5:13-16
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
It was 90-something degrees and muggy in Biloxi, MS that week back in 2009. I had on my rattiest jeans and a tank top, and both were soaked with sweat. We were stripping a house down to its studs. The house had been condemned, flood damaged and otherwise sorely rundown and its residents were about to lose their home, but Back Bay Mission stepped in and offered to rehab it. Back Bay is a ministry of our United Church of Christ, an organization that serves the economically poor around Biloxi – and has been deeply involved in rebuilding homes since Hurricane Katrina swept through and devastated that community in 2005.
So, there we were: adult members of five different UCC churches on a mission trip, working together in the sweltering heat: wielding sledge-hammers, ripping off walls and tearing down ceilings: stirring up plaster and decades of grime. My clothes stuck to my body and dirt (probably mixed with mouse droppings) stuck to my skin. Salty sweat dripped down my face and into my mouth. I was about as filthy as I’ve ever been. Filthy and thirsty and it felt fantastic!
We were there in Biloxi to lend a hand, to respond to God’s call to love our neighbors, in a concrete way, to pour our hearts into something meaningful. But all that sweat and dirt and heavy labor also had a way of connecting us to each other, like some sacred bond we shared – We were the Society of the really gross t-shirts… Which gets me thinking about that line in the gospel of Matthew, “You are the salt of the earth.”
It turns out that in Jewish tradition, salt is a symbol for covenant, or promise. The ancient Israelites threw salt on the sacrifices they prepared for God, to flavor the meal, to make it taste good and also to remind them that God’s promises last forever – because salt seasons, but it also preserves, makes something last. So also, salt at the table reminds us that we are in covenant with each other, at least while we break bread. We are bound together, connected by our hunger, our need for food and for fellowship. As in: “Will you pass the salt? And have I ever told you about the week I spent in Biloxi?….”
Arabs have a saying, “There is salt between us.”1 In the ancient Middle East, salt was highly valued. To share a meal, and your salt, was an expression of friendship. And if you sat at a table with your enemy, and there was salt between you, it meant that you intended to become friends.2 You were making a commitment to each other: “There is salt between us.”
So now I’m thinking that maybe being salt and being salty are related. Maybe, loving neighbors and sharing the Good News – telling our stories – is like sharing the salt, you can’t help but get salty along the way. Like passing around a bag of potato chips: you take a fistful, lick your fingers and then pass the bag to a friend. Or you labor side by side in the noonday sun, ‘til the sweat runs down your face and into your mouth. Maybe the salt between us is a reminder of the ways we work together, side by side, to build a house or a friendship, to prepare a meal or place at the table. Maybe it’s a reminder of the promise we’ve made to love and care for each other when life gets hard. The salt between us says, “I will be there when you break out in a cold sweat…”
Today, as we confirm Caroline and bless Emily and Charlie on their way, we remember the promises we make to each other in Christian community; we recite the Saugatuck Church covenant on the bulletin cover, and we recall our covenant to the wider United Church of Christ. We remember that we are a people bound together by God’s love and by our own promises to love, serve and grow together.
So sisters and brothers in Christ: Let’s be salt. And let’s be salty. Let’s roll up our sleeves and build communities of covenant; be faithful to each other and to God who is so devoted to us. Let’s work side by side. Serve and heal and bless. Together, we will BE Christ’s body; together we will work up a little holy sweat. At the end of the day, we will gather at Christ’s table to remember God’s promises, and be refreshed by God’s overflowing love. For that we can give thanks: Break the bread… Pass the salt.
Thanks be to God. Amen!
Scripture Texts
Matthew 5:13–16
“You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise your Father who is in heaven.