Being Salty

Being Salty                                      The Dover Church

September 30, 2012                 Scripture: Mark 9: 38-50         

         I hope you were at least a little shocked by Jesus this morning, with  millstones being hung around necks and thrown into the sea, hands and feet being cut off, and eyes being torn out. It’s shocking and it’s meant to be. Jesus is using a rhetorical technique called hyperbole, which, in plain English, means overstatement for the purpose of making a point. So what’s the point?

If God loves us and there's nothing we can do about it, Jesus can’t possibly be suggesting that we mutilate ourselves. No. I think that he's holding up a mirror for us to see ourselves in, to see our very real lives, to see our daily spiritual challenges. Not all of you are forthcoming about your lives and spiritual struggles, but I have been watching, listening, taking notes, praying and thinking about the bits and pieces I have heard here and there in my three years as your pastor, and I am convinced that Jesus is talking hyperbolically and metaphorically about us, and putting it in the future tense as a way of offering us a way out of a mess we don't even think is a mess we're so caught up in it.

         Let me explain. We live in Dover, a great place to live. Many of us have great jobs and careers for which we are well compensated. We have great children. Dover is a great place for children, with great schools and

great recreational, athletic, and enrichment opportunities. We want our town to be even greater, to which end we have great volunteer opportunities to help out at the schools, in sports, with the scouts, with seniors, at our churches, in town government, all over greater Boston.

         All right, so everything is great. And yet, it's not uncommon for someone to tell me they feel weighed down by the constant rush, the multiple competing claims on our time and energy, the pressure of work driven by the cost of living here, competition, or just plain ego, the lack of quality family time which is what we thought we were coming here for in the first place, the lack of any substantive time to just sit down, take a deep breath and unwind, let alone have some plain old fun for fun’s sake. People don’t use Jesus’ words, but it sure sounds a lot like drowning to me, or at least fear of drowning. Hence Jesus’ millstones around the neck and thrown into the sea, but we're doing it to ourselves.

         All right, so everything is great. And yet, it's not uncommon for someone to talk to me about the burden of choices. If I choose to do this, I can’t do that. I want to grab everything and I feel like I don’t really have a firm grasp on anything. We’re like kids in a candy store with a hundred candies to choose from, but only a quarter in our pockets. We have a lot more than a quarter in our pockets, so we think that we can and should have it all. But just like every person who has ever lived, we really only do have a quarter's worth of the one thing that counts in the end: time. I am a theologian and not an economist, so I may have the terms backwards, but it seems to me that the hours in the day have not suffered from inflation over the years, but deflation. And like the federal deficit, that temporal deflation seems to be accelerating which makes us frantic, stressed out. Hence Jesus hands causing you to stumble, but we're doing it to ourselves.

         All right, so everything is great. And yet, it's not uncommon for someone to talk to me about life on the treadmill, of their kids living on a treadmill, of all of us on a treadmill to who knows where, running faster and faster, challenging one another like gym rats to go from level 4 to level 6 and then to 8 or 10 and then clamoring for a tougher treadmill because we’ve mastered the last one. And for what? Where’s it all going? To be king or queen of the treadmill? What’s the purpose? Sure I get an adrenaline rush from level 10 but where’s the happiness along the way? There was no way because I never went anywhere. I was running in place. Hence Jesus’ foot causing you to stumble, but we're doing it to ourselves.

         All right, so everything is great. And yet, it's not uncommon for someone to wonder to me if they should have been tested for ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, the condition which makes it impossible to focus on one thing. There’s just so much going on, so many things requiring our attention, so much we have to plan for or guard against, that if asked we often can't recount the specifics of a particular day because we rushed through it so quickly that we never really savored the details. Our eyes are always skipping ahead for something better, something more, something different. Hence Jesus’ eye causing you to stumble, but we're doing it to ourselves.

         In short, and now I will speak hyperbolically, while thinking that we have created a paradise for ourselves, many of us find ourselves in something of a burning hell. Maybe that sounds extreme. It is hyperbole but the life I have described is far from the Kingdom of God on earth.

         We live divided lives, splintered lives, unfocused lives, lives that lack unity or wholeness. The thing I love about fishing is that when I'm fishing, that’s all I am doing. I am completely focused on catching that fish. The thing I love about cutting firewood is that when I am cutting firewood, that's all I'm doing. It’s partly out of fear of injury, either from the chainsaw, the axe, or the logs crushing my feet or smashing into my legs, but I am totally focused on the details of the task. A lot of people really love the Dalai Lama and men and women like him. The thing I love about the Dalai Lama is that he is so obviously living a very centered life, where he is completely absorbed in and focused on love and reconciliation. I saw him once in a huge theatre and his vibe was emanating all the way back to the cheap seats where I was sitting. Being the Dalai Lama is all he was doing.

         Which brings us back to Jesus and us. Jesus is clearly telling us to live lives focused on and absorbed in the Kingdom of God. That’s why he uses the salt metaphor. In his culture, salt was the primary preservative. Salt was rubbed and soaked into meat thoroughly so that there would be no decomposition. Salt only works if it is thorough. Whatever is not salted rots and must be thrown away. Unlike refrigeration, salt takes time and effort to work as a preservative. You either rub the salt in, this way and that, inside and out, or you immerse the meat in salt and let it sit until it is completely permeated.

         So where’s the connection with us? We’re hardly herrings or hams? Jesus is saying that true life comes through being centered in, focused on, utterly absorbed by the Kingdom of God. The ironic thing is I never realized until I was in my 20s that in all my religious training no one ever taught me how to get centered in, focused on, utterly absorbed by the Kingdom of God. I went to church most Sundays, but that felt more like a back rub than a salting. I wasn’t able to notice any appreciable difference between myself and many of my friends and acquaintances who never darkened the door of a church. I wasn't seeing myself becoming more of a kingdom person living a kingdom life, let alone becoming more and more like Jesus or the Dalai Lama. And then I learned about the idea of practicing my faith, that there were things I could practice which would gradually transform me so that I would want to transform my life: coming to church weekly, praying and reading the Bible daily, being generous to people who weren’t family or friends, and living the grace, living as if God really loved me and there was nothing I could do about it. At first I didn’t want to do some of these things and I didn’t know how to do the others. But I really wanted to be that person living that life so I started and gradually, quite gradually at first and less gradually the more I practice over these last 20 years, I am getting salty with a Kingdom of God personality and life. I know what you're thinking. You're not getting the Dalai Lama vibe off of me. If this is what he's like after 20 years of Kingdom of God salting, he must've been something before. There's no need to go into that now. Yes, I must've been something, but I'm going to be something better, so help me God.

Ever since I came here, I have wanted to create a congregational culture of learning and practice, of people wanting God in Jesus Christ to salt them down into kingdom people living kingdom lives. Of course, ever since I came here the initial response to this idea has been: “Sounds cool. Don’t have time. Wish I could. Sunday's don't work for me. A million other things to do. Crazy busy.” Which brings us back yet again to the millstones, hands, feet and eyes. We have to want to be whole to start becoming whole. We have to want to get the weight off our neck to start letting go of it. We have to want one thing to stop wanting everything. We have to want to stand still to stop running in place. We have to want to focus on one thing clearly to stop seeing everything slightly out of focus. The only thing standing between us and being salted by God in Jesus Christ, between us and  peace, shalom, wholeness, between where we are now and becoming a kingdom person living a kingdom life is…us.