Salted with Fire

By The Rev. Bernard W. Poppe, Rector

For those of you who scratched you head at the Gospel phrase "salted with fire..." you are not alone. No one knows what that means, not even the commentaries. There are plenty of suggested meanings, but none that are definitive. And I like that.

It means we have to wrestle with it and not be biased or intimidated by experts. It also means that a definition we come up with today may be subject to change over time and that’s OK too. For faith to be lively, it needs to be wrestled with and not put in a pigeon hole and locked up tight.

Regarding the Gospel lesson, it seems that Mark had some "salt" sayings in his catalogue of Jesus quotes, and decided to lump them together, apparently without any real connective tissue. One of the traps we fall into is in hearing something read that makes no sense to us, but it’s read with such feeling that we nod appreciatively assuming that the reader, at least, knows what he or she is talking about. And if they do, then we should, and the best way to mask our confusion is to nod in agreement.

Don’t fall into that trap. If something regarding faith doesn’t make sense to you, don’t pretend it does. Ask a question. And a tip I"ll give you is this: Don’t ask someone what a Bible verse or topic means. Ask someone, what it means -- to them. No one, has the definitive answers in matters of faith. That’s what makes it faith. That’s the good part, and the tough part. Our faith requires work and the conviction to take it on. Spiritual matters are important and they are personal. Yet they most often get lived out in some form of community. Since there is generally no one "right" answer, there’s room for many approaches, and we don’t have to compete or fight to prove the legitimacy of our own. They already are legitimate and of value.

It’s important to note that during Baptisms. We’re welcoming four new persons into a community of faith that wrestles with questions and cares about the responses. What do you think of the Bible, its passages and interpretations? What do you think is the impact of scripture on contemporary issues and your own behavior? How is your spirituality formed and informed daily or weekly, or over the years? I have opinions and experiences that I share and mean a lot to me, but in no way will I claim to have the ultimate answers on any given topic. No one here would let me get away with it even if I said I did.! And that’s precisely one of the things I love about this community.

We discuss, question, listen, clarify and eat. Faith is living in the grey area of uncertainty, but with a passionate desire to learn more and grow. One of the favorite sayings of a seminary professor was, "May your reach always exceed your grasp." Never stop seeking, always go for what is just beyond you as a way of moving you forward.

The best of what we can offer these four babies is guidance and inspiration as they begin their journey into relationship with God. To motivate and model the faithful life of a Christian who has found in Jesus the way, the truth and the life. Even when we can’t grasp the Gospel fully, we can grasp the love of God which takes hold of us through its pages. We are followers of Jesus’ teaching, we participate in the sacraments he established and share in the legacy of his followers that have continued ever since. We believe in the Spirit of God that is active in the world today and remain open to its continued revelation. And this relationship we have with God inspires us to be active in helping other people.

The images in the phrase "salted with fire" bring to my mind the work of preservation that salt does and the cleaning out that fire can do or the burning zeal of inquiry and commitment. A better editor might have connected those themes better. But on the other hand it’s a phrase that rolls off the tongue and has gotten more attention than a better phrase might have done. When I was in College a music professor from Germany quoted an English colloquialism and told us, "I don’t know what it means, but I like it." I feel the same way about being salted with fire. I don’t know what it means but I like it. And it does mean something to me about passion for the Gospel and being strengthened and preserved in living it out.

The lessons this morning talk about helping others. Queen Esther petitions the king to help her people in the face of persecution. James talks about helping people through healing prayer. And Jesus talks about taking care of the little ones, the most vulnerable in our lives. As Deacon Chris pointed out last week, children in Jesus’ time were not valued much until they were useful in battle or at work in the fields or some other way. For him to single out children and forcefully defend their dignity is striking. To attach teachings on avoiding sin in this context is also striking to the reader. The danger of sin, the danger of losing our way and hurting people instead of helping them is serious. Serious enough to talk in the strongest language. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; your foot, cut it off; your eye, pluck it out.

All this points to making significant changes in how we live in order to avoid the destruction we can otherwise find. When I talk to youth in the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center I visit monthly one of the topics of conversations revolves around the phrase "People, places and things." This refers to changes they’ll need to make in their lives if they’re to have any hope to stay sober. There are people that will be dangerous for them to continue associating with -- maybe even family members or people they thought of as their best friends. Too many of them get back into drugs at the suggestion or prompting of a family member or friend. Until they’re strong enough, they need to separate themselves from these people as painful as it might be. Like the Gospel lesson of cutting a hand off or losing an eye.

For these youth, the same is true about places they used to go, or things they used to value. Old habits are hard to break and it’s often like cutting off a limb to change them. But in order to have a better shot at life, such changes are necessary.

Jesus spoke in extreme ways to get the message across and so am I in this case. These youth are in extreme situation where extreme solutions are called for. Not all of us are in these extreme situations, but the lessons of what may need to be sacrificed in order to grow is still important. Taking care of ourselves and other people calls for careful and intentional examination of the places in our lives that need attention and perhaps change. This extends to matters of faith too.

Some faiths teach the unworthiness of people and dwell on it. The Gospel message is that God has made us worthy of grace and we can embrace that. Yet letting go of older notions of unworthiness are hard to do. Messages given to women in most societies and faiths are that they are unworthy. The same is true of gay men and lesbians who get an even stronger message in these same places of even worse than unworthy. In some cases it’s so bad that when the message of God’s unconditional love is given, people who have been hurt don’t trust that message and hold onto the negative feelings because they’re old and were received as children. It’s not surprising that Jesus defended children so strongly since the wounds they receive to their souls go so deep and can last a life time. He said, "If any of you place 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 It’s your neck and you were throw into the sea."

It’s so important to minimize the damage we do to the spirits of a child. Who doesn’t make mistakes with children? But the biggest mistake is make them believe that love of family or God is based on compliance to rules rather than free and unconditional. Discipline does not have to be connected with the withdrawal of love or threatened.

When we are baptized, it’s a reminder that we are loved by God without condition. We are brought into a community to live into that love and embrace it for our own growth and offered to others by sharing the good news we’ve received. Some will hear it, some won’t. But we have to keep telling it anyway. That’s the second part of Baptism. The first is hearing the Good News for ourselves. The second is sharing it with others.

Later Jesus would tell his disciples to go out into the world to proclaim this message of God’s love. In order to do that, it really has to be seen as important enough to do it. As small as they are, we’ll tell these babies of their value and begin preparing them to share this news with as many people as they can. And just as we do it with babies, we do this with youth and adults. We send them out.

Today we not only baptize these babies, we send forth Deacon Chris to her next assignment. Her gifts are unique. The church where she is going, St. Luke’s in Montclair, has heard the Gospel. They really have, and for a long time.

Chris is not bringing them the Gospel as much as she’s bringing it to them through her eyes and through her voice, and that, they have not experienced. They will benefit from and be enriched by her living of the Gospel, her preaching and her prayers just as we have. Her vision of God and her relationship with Jesus will have the same gentle yet strong impact on them as it has had on us. There are changes in all of our lives. There’s not one of us who hasn’t moved from one place to another and each of us will move again and again, before all is said and done. Even our thoughts and ideas, our values and understanding has changed.

But as we move, we are still within the love of God and the embrace of the Spirit. Take that message of love, breathe it in deep and allow it to salt you with fire. In the same breath we don’t know what it means and we know exactly what it means. Wherever we go, we go with God who loves us and values us no matter what and regardless of what anyone else might think. That’s worth talking about. Amen.

©2009 St. George's Episcopal Church, Maplewood, NJ