Salt

Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost                                 
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota
September 26^th, anno + Domini 2021

Salt

     We’ve never been dog park people before.  But Shelee and I have discovered that the dog park is a great place to meet people and have interesting conversations.  Like the woman we met a few nights ago.  We’ll call her Anne.  Or maybe her dog was Annie.  Whatever, she was very pleasant, and when I told her I was a Lutheran pastor, we had a wide-ranging conversation about the Church, the world, and the age in which we live.  At one point she asked me: “So, are you going to the Will Graham event?”  I confessed I did not know who or what that was, and so she explained that Will Graham, Billy Graham’s grandson, was holding an event in Rapid City, at which he would be encouraging folks to return to the churches of their youth that so many have abandoned.  A revival event with a local congregation support twist.  And I thought to myself, I do that.  The last part at least.  If I encounter someone who once was an active Christian but has lapsed in their participation, I often encourage them to return to their church.  Now, I may believe that they would ultimately be better off investigating the teaching and practice of our church.  But if they have a connection to another Christian church, it is not my calling to steal them away.  And while correct teaching is vitally important, returning to active faith in the place they started is often the best chance for them to come back to Christ.  So I encourage it.  If the Holy Spirit wants them to come our way instead, He’ll take care of that.   

     Now, I didn’t go to the Will Graham event, and I suspect that if I got to know how Will Graham preaches and teaches, I would have some serious concerns.  Many Lutherans have observed that Billy Graham could really preach Christ; he just needed to stop sooner.  After eloquently proclaiming who Jesus is and what He did for the salvation of the world, Billy would normally conclude his sermons with a call to a decision, an altar call, a “give your heart to Jesus” plea.  Which, aside from being unbiblical concerning how salvation works, also puts the burden back on the sinner to complete his or her own salvation.  Urging people to “make a decision” for Jesus puts them back under a law, and a false law at that.  Christ has come to set us free from the burden of the Law and its condemnation.  But instead of concluding his sermons by extolling the means of grace, calling folks to the gifts of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and driving home the “It is finished” promises of Jesus, Billy Graham would take all the air out of the Christ filled Gospel proclamation he started with.  Decision theology leaves the individual to wonder, sooner or later, “Did I really give my heart to Jesus?”  And when doubts creep in, as they do, Satan is right there to accuse these poor souls and try to rob them from Jesus.   

    I wish Billy Graham didn’t preach decision theology.  And I suspect Will does the same.  But, I didn’t drive to Rapid City and picket Will Graham’s event.  In fact, I pray that the Gospel was preached there and that it does great things, that the Spirit would overcome the errors spoken by men, and create true faith in the hearts of sinners.  This is my prayer for every Christian preacher, every Sunday, whether I believe they have serious errors in their teaching or not. 

    Which I hope is somewhat in the Spirit of our Gospel reading today.  And also of our Old Testament reading, with the 70 elders chosen to assist Moses, including the two who never made the revival meeting.  Joshua, Moses’ right-hand man, is concerned that these two, unsanctioned men, Eldad and Medad, were prophesying outside of the regular order.  He was jealous for the sake of his master, Moses.  Joshua didn’t stop to consider that the prophesy they made in the camp appeared to have come from the LORD. 

      The disciple John, son of thunder, as Jesus calls him elsewhere, is concerned that there is this freelance preacher casting out demons, in Jesus Name, but who wasn’t following along with Jesus and the Twelve.  John sees this man setting poor souls free from demon possession, and giving credit to Jesus.  Wow, how great is that? But John was only concerned for good order.  In both cases, the boss man corrected their faithful but misguided assistants.  Moses would have every Israelite prophesy, and Jesus tells John plainly: "Do not stop him, for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not against us is for us.  

    I need to tell you; today’s readings have proved pretty challenging for me.  Stories filled with unexpected twists and turns, enigmatic statements, quite difficult to understand on their own, and even more difficult to link together in search of an overall theme, something preachable, and useful for you to hear.  Moses complains bitterly to the LORD over the task to which he has been called.  James commands the anointing with oil of the sick, and declares the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.  Even more, James commands us to confess our sins to one another and pray for one another, that we may be healed.  After telling John to leave the freelance exorcist alone, Jesus gives us a series of very hard sayings:  "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.  And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

     And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'    Yikes! 

    Finally, Jesus saves the hardest to understand words for last:  For everyone will be salted with fire.  Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."  Salt?  Where did that come from?  And what does Jesus mean by it?

    Well, I’ve had the blessing of time to discuss all this with some wise brother pastors, and even was able to find a podcast recorded by Dr. James Voelz, leading Greek scholar of our Synod and author of the Concordia Commentary Series on Mark.  And so, by God’s grace, I think I have it.  I think I know what Jesus means by salt and being seasoned.  But I better tell you quick, before I lose it.   

    Jesus’ mysterious salt declaration concludes a section that starts with the beginning of last Sunday’s Gospel, at Mark 9:30, when Jesus made His second prediction of the Cross.  Do you remember how the 12 disciples responded?  Ignorance, fear and silence.  They didn’t understand Jesus’, and they were afraid to ask.  Instead, on their subsequent walk to Capernaum, they argue amongst themselves about who was the greatest.  Ignore the Cross in fear, but proudly argue about human, earthly prestige.  Way to go, guys.  Jesus is trying to tell them about the most important event in human history, in salvation history, the climax of God’s mission to save sinners.  But these future leaders of Christ’s Church disregard the Cross, preferring to bicker and boast over petty, earthly concerns.

    You’ll remember how Jesus places a little child in their midst and explains that greatness comes in humble service, most especially in receiving little children like the toddler He was hugging.  Jesus is working hard to teach them that service, suffering and humility are the chief virtues of God’s way, most dramatically revealed in His own crucifixion.  But right away, John demonstrates the disciples’ continuing denseness when, at the start of our Gospel reading for today, he returns to the concern for maintaining order and status.  “Jesus, that guy is casting out demons in Your Name, but he isn’t following us...”

    Leave him be, says Jesus.  Notice, Jesus doesn’t give a full-throated endorsement to this freelance exorcist.  He doesn’t call him to follow Him, to become the 13^th disciple, or invite him to the Last Supper.  Jesus does order His Church in a certain way, and that’s important.  Jesus builds and orders His Church in order to help ensure that the main thing remains the main thing.  But Jesus doesn’t want the 12 to think that keeping everybody in line and enforcing a bunch of rules, keeping the Law, is the main thing.  Keeping the rules will always be important, this side of heaven.  But the main thing is to be forgiven and saved, set free from sin and death, Satan and hell, by faith in Jesus. 

    To drive home His point about this main thing, Jesus goes on to use some of the sharpest language and imagery in all of Scripture.  The Lord hates it when one Christian causes another believer in Jesus to stumble, to fall into sin.  Jesus hates sin.  If your hand or foot cause you to sin, cut them off.  Better to be saved, but lame, than to be cast out from God.  If your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  To be one-eyed with God is better than having two perfect eyes to see your disastrous new home in Hell.  The main thing is setting people free from sin, which cuts us off from God, from life, and would condemn us to suffering forever.  

    That is to say, the reality and message of the Cross is the main thing.  The Cross, which Jesus predicted and the 12 ignored, the Cross, where Jesus suffered for the sins of the whole world, robbing Satan of his power to accuse by paying the entire debt of human sin, this Cross is the main thing.  The reality and message of the Cross is what we all need, to enter and to stay in the kingdom, that is, to stay under God’s gracious rule and reign, today, and forever and ever.  Jesus telling the 12 to have salt in them is a lot like St. Paul declaring “We preach Christ crucified, foolishness to Greeks, and an offense to Jews, but to those who believe, both Jew and Gentile, Christ the wisdom of God and the power of God.”  Salt is the message of the Atonement, of Jesus completing the one thing that could overcome human sin. 

    You see, Jesus says we should cut off limbs and gouge out eyes, if they cause us to sin.  But they don’t.  If you cut your hand off, you will still be a sinner.  Maiming yourself is useless in the quest to free yourself from sin, because sin isn’t something merely on you.  Sin isn’t something that only infects this limb or that organ in your body.  Sin ruins all of you, physically, and spiritually.  So all of you would need to be cut off and cast out, to separate you from sin.  But that would destroy you.  You and I need more than to have sin cut out of us.  We need to be cleansed, through and through.  Totally restored.  Recreated.  We need to be seasoned with the sacrifice of the sinless Son of God, the One who has washed away all your sins, and mine, and the those of the whole world. 

    Everyone will be salted with fire.  That is to say, all sin will be rectified, paid for, sooner or later, because God is just.   That is scary.  So hear this Good News: by God’s grace, in our Baptisms, we were granted the fruit of the baptism by fire that Jesus underwent in our place.  Because of Jesus, salt is good, that is, the Cross is good, the highest good.  The bloody, salty message of the Cross is the main thing.  But, as Jesus teaches the future teachers of His Church, the message of the cross must remain salty.  It must remain direct, sin focused, faithful and true. 

    If we lose focus on the truth of the Cross, if we begin to imagine that the main thing is something other than God’s Son dying to forgive the world and drive out Satan and all his demons, well that would be unsalting the message.  And we don’t have the power to overcome that.  So, Jesus tells the 12, and by extension the whole church, keep my forgiveness-winning suffering and death in you.  Make it the center of all you do, of who you are.  That’s the main thing.  That’s the only way. 

    And there’s more.  Have salt in yourselves, and maybe, finally, with your eyes firmly fixed on the Cross, you will be able to find peace amongst yourselves.  When you know and cherish the main thing, you receive peace with God.  Why would you argue and fight over earthly prestige and glory and stuff, when you have Jesus, crucified and resurrected, for you?  How could we bicker and fight with brothers and sisters in Christ, when Jesus presents us in the Spirit to His Father as beloved children?   

    Salt is good.  The death and resurrection of Jesus is our highest good.  Cherish it.  Take it in every chance you get, use it to interpret and understand your daily life.  Thus you will find peace with each other, because you will have the Peace of God, which passes all understanding, and which keeps your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto life everlasting.  That’s the main thing, the salty, bloody, peaceful Cross of Jesus, which saves you.  Amen.