Pass the Salt, Please! - A Sermon
Sermon written and delivered by Hannah Shultz for Clairmont Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia on Sept. 29, 2024.
Mark 9:38-50 (New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition)
38 John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.” 39 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. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. 41 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.
42 “If any of you cause one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to sin, 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. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. 47 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 to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.
49 “For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 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.”
In 2018, Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg made a splash across headlines when she hosted her first “School Strike for Climate” outside the Swedish parliament. In the weeks leading up to the Swedish election, she sat outside parliament every Friday, demanding urgent action on the climate crisis. She was soon joined by her peers in Sweden and by young people from all over the world. In 2019, she took a year off of school to focus on her climate activism and became famous for her impassioned speeches to world leaders. Perhaps most famously, during that year, she sailed by yacht across the Atlantic to address a UN climate action summit in New York. She told delegates, “I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words.”
Greta Thunberg has been praised by some for her impact on policymaking and influence as a young leader in the environmental movement. However, others see her as too extreme and radical. I can’t help but think that she might have a little something in common with this unnamed disciple in our passage this morning who was casting out demons.
I imagine that casting out demons is a little bit like sailing in a yacht across the ocean. It’s a radical act and people might think you’re kind of crazy for doing it. The disciples see this person casting out demons and they are upset, to say the least. Not only are they doing something radical, but this person is a stranger. John and the other disciples see this as an unauthorized act and they tell Jesus that they tried to stop him because “he was not following us.” They have an idea about what disciples should be doing. How disciples should be acting. And who the body of disciples is. Not only is this person going outside of these preconceived notions about what ministry looks like, but it is also someone who is outside of their inner circle. It’s someone who maybe is a little bit different. Jesus however, dismisses John’s concerns. He tells him, “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.”
Jesus challenges the disciples to expand their understanding of what ministry looks like and who is included in this work. Jesus suggests that there is no such thing as a “true” disciple or “true” ministry. Any task that is serving God and the world should be done. It doesn’t matter who is doing it or what their qualifications are.
Just a few chapters later we get a pretty clear understanding of what it is that we are being called to do as disciples. When asked what the greatest commandment is, Jesus tells us that it is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is to love your neighbor as yourself.”
This is the shared task that is set before us as a body of believers. What binds us together as Christians is our devotion to God and shared sense of responsibility to serve a world in need. This commandment is both very simple and extremely open-ended. Jesus is not telling us exactly what to do to love God and neighbor. The scripture that we read this morning actually reminds us that even though we share the same call, we may each act on these commandments in different ways. People can be faithful even if we do not understand the particularities of the ministries that they are doing. Each of us, with our own backgrounds, gifts, skills, and passions will have a different way of serving God and the world. Sometimes, actually I would argue, many times, the actions that are the most radical, are the ones that Jesus is calling us to do.
Jesus shows us what it looks like to be radical truthtellers and bold peacemakers. He teaches us that this sometimes requires actions that flip the script—that put the first last and uproot social conventions. Jesus casts out demons, heals lepers, shares meals with tax collectors, and blesses the poor and meek. He shows us how to radically transform the world into a more loving and just place and calls us to do the same.
At Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, we believe that caring for God’s creation is an important part of loving God and neighbor and serving the world. Throughout scripture, we learn that God loves the earth that God creates and calls humanity to share in this task. Indeed, caring for Creation is our very first call.
God’s first act is to create the heavens and the earth—God sweeps over the void and brings about light and life, declaring it very good. Out of the chaos, God forms order and beauty. Then, God creates first light, then sky, sea and dry ground, and vegetation in all forms. God creates the sun and the moon, the stars, sea life and birds, large and small animals. And after everything God says it is good.
God actually blesses the goodness of the earth six times before he even creates humans. God spends the longest time with the rest of Creation. This is a God who takes joy and delights in what he has created.
God loves the earth deeply. One way that we can show our love for God is by loving and protecting the earth.
God calls us to join him as co-laborers in the work of caring for creation. The first words that God speaks to us are not about our relationship with each other or our relationship with God. They are actually about our relationship with Creation. God says, “Let us make humans in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
Now, unfortunately, this passage has been used over time to create an idea that humans are exceptional and sit at the top of the created order. This has been used to justify environmental degradation as we use and abuse the world’s resources for our own gain. However, recently, scholars have offered alternative interpretations of this passage. They note that we are made in the image and likeness of God and suggest that we are God’s representatives here on earth. As such, we are to treat the earth as God would with reverence, joy, and respect. And, actually, in the second creation account, we are told that we are made from the dust and dirt of the earth itself. Filled with god’s breath of life we were placed in the garden and told to care for it. Helping the earth flourish was our first and only responsibility and it continues to be our responsibility today.
The earth is our shared home and the call to care for it is one of our shared tasks as the body of Christ.
This passage encourages us to recognize the many different ways that we might care for the earth. It challenges us to start seeing all of our earth care actions– even the ones that some might see as radical – as a ministry to address a task that was divinely given to us. It challenges us to uplift and even celebrate the work of individuals and congregations across the world, even if this work looks very different from our own.
Every church has different resources to offer, different interests and abilities of congregational members, and different communities that they serve. Some churches have solar and are exploring battery storage so that they can serve as resilience hubs during natural disasters, like Hurricane Helene. Some churches have started composting programs to reduce food waste on-site and allow church members to bring their compost to a central location. This church participated in World River Day two weeks ago, serving alongside members from congregations across the metro Atlanta area to clean up the Peachtree Creek Greenway and help restore a local habitat.
The work that each church is called to looks different. However, the goal of caring for God’s creation is the same. Our challenge is to work together, recognizing that we are on the same team, called to the same task. We need our combined efforts and various strategies to best care for God’s creation.
In the second part of this passage, Jesus continues to call the disciples out, as Jesus does best. He says that they are spending too much time worrying about what other people are doing and not spending enough time making sure that their own actions are aligned with God’s vision.
He tells the disciples “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.”
Throughout the rest of the passage, he continues to warn the disciples about the potential stumbling blocks that might cause them, or others, to be separated from God and the task at hand. As we are called to join in God’s transforming work in the world, we need to consider whether our actions are causing separation from God or bringing us, and those around us, closer to him and his vision for a justice-filled, loving world.
It's not hard to look at the world around us and see how our priorities and behaviors have caused harm to the earth and our neighbors
We have cut deep into the earth, extracting oil, coal, and natural gas to power our lives. We have left deep scars in coral reefs at the depths of the sea, caused by increased ocean temperatures, rising levels of carbon dioxide, and pollution. We see the marks of overproduction, consumption, and expansion in the trash that piles in our landfills, in the empty spaces where trees once stood, and in the smog-filled sky. We rely on the natural resources that have been gifted to us and know that we have not always been the best stewards of these resources. Over the last century, we have fallen into a deep reliance on fossil fuels, commercial agriculture, and single-use products. We so quickly traded in our hedge clippers and garden trowels for bulldozers and machines until God’s Creation has become unrecognizable.
Our planet bleeds from the systems and structures that prioritize money, production, and convenience over sustainability. The impacts of our actions have reverberated around the world as, globally, we face the risks associated with changing weather patterns (as we saw this past week) and sea level rise, and the unequal distribution of resources. And we know that the place where the earth is hurting the most is also where people are hurting the most. Disproportionately, the marginalized and vulnerable in our communities are the most impacted by environmental degradation.
We have become farther and farther removed from the garden we were once told to cultivate and care for. As we separate ourselves from the natural world, we also lose one of our best connections to God. Our harmful practices and our complacency toward the earth has caused us to drift away from our original call, from God, and from others. In this passage, Jesus is inviting us back. He’s calling us into the messy, transformative, and difficult work of God’s kingdom.
Jesus reminds us that we are the salt of the earth. In the ancient world, salt had several important uses. Salt was used for preserving food, especially meat and fish, and was used as seasoning. By telling the disciples that they are the salt of the earth, he is reminding them to help preserve what is good and enrich the world around them.
I think this is a particularly good metaphor when we are talking about caring for the earth. As caretakers of the planet, we must work to preserve the natural world around us. There are so few places left that are untouched by human hands. It’s our job to protect these sacred spaces and to help return damaged places back to their original God-declared goodness.
We are the salt of the earth when we protect biodiversity by doing things like removing invasive species, planting native plants and pollinator gardens, and ensuring that eco-systems remain intact. We are the salt of the earth when we pull trash out of rivers and eliminate Styrofoam and other plastics that break down and harm sealife and riverways. We are the salt of the earth when we retrofit our buildings with LED lights and solar panels so that we can power our houses of worship with clean energy.
And preserving the earth is only part of the call. Salt has a distinctive flavor. When it’s in a dish, you know it’s there. Jesus challenges us to make ourselves known—to be loud in our actions, to bring people along with us, to educate and equip our friends, and family, and communities to be co-laborers with us and God. Through our actions, we can demonstrate God’s grace and love to a world in need.
I think it is no coincidence that the Bible both begins and ends with passages about Creation. At the end of the book of Revelation, we learn that the earth and everything in it is included in God’s plan of redemption. Creation does not pass away but is restored and renewed as part of the new heaven and the new earth of God’s kingdom. The blessings of the Garden created perfectly in Genesis 1-2 are restored in Revelation 21-22. What God has promised has come true. In this vision of the future kingdom, God is dwelling with us in a restored connection. The earth and its inhabitants, indeed the entire creation, are promised a future where they will thrive. And, in the New Creation, our relationship with God, with each other, and with Creation is restored.
We are invited to live into this hope and into the anticipation of our eventual reconciliation with all of creation. We are assured a prosperous future where the land flourishes, the waters are overflowing, the trees bring forth fruit and provide shade, and justice reigns for ALL of God’s people.
