6 February 2011

“Yellow”
Psalm 112:1-9 / Matthew 5:13-20
5th Sunday in Ordinary Time / Season of Epiphany
6 February 2011


Salt and light.
Two substances which you wouldn’t think would go together.
But they do.
And the result is … yellow light. Warm, pleasing, yellow light.
When you throw salt into fire … when you electrify sodium vapour … the result is yellow flames … yellow light.
Some of us are old enough to remember when street lights were all mercury vapour … we still have a couple of examples right here at Nativity … our two big parking lot lights. Mercury vapour lights became big in the 1940s because they were relatively cheap and gave off a lot of light.
But it’s not a realistic-looking light. It washes out true colors, and makes people look like ghosts.
So the sodium vapour streetlight was introduced in the mid-1970s. It’s hard to remember when our streets weren’t lit with their yellow/orange light … and even harder to remember that people, at first, didn’t like their yellow light, even though it made things look better, more realistic, safer night light for both drivers and pedestrians.
Sodium light … salt light … makes things look real.
I don’t think Jesus had streetlights or even, throwing salt into a fire, in mind, when he said these words in his Sermon on the Mount.
But I do think that he was trying to make a connection between salt and light – and a comment on what it is to be truly human … following God’s call, and his – Jesus’ – example – of living this life.
“You are the salt of the earth, “ Jesus said to those surrounding him, there on that mountain, our Gospel text picking up where we left off last week, in these familiar verses of what’s called the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew’s gospel.
“Salt of the earth” is a familiar phrase for us. When we use it, we are usually referring to people who bring out the true colors of human existence … good, solid, hard-working, trustworthy, faithful individuals who we usually want to emulate … copy … follow in their example.
The Rolling Stones’ song – written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards … illustrates this well:

Let's drink to the hard working people
Let's drink to the lowly of birth …

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier
Spare a thought for his back breaking work
Say a prayer for his wife and his children
Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

To be “salt of the earth” means, simply, to be real people … truly human … honest, hard-working, without guile, what you see is what you get. Masks off, no pretending … in other words … to be as the people Jesus called forth in the Beatitudes we heard and read last Sunday …

Blessed are the poor in spirit … the meek … those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.

These are the salt of the earth. “You are the salt of the earth.”
“But if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?”
Salt isn’t like other spices … those other flavor enhancers we keep on the kitchen shelf, some of which have expiration dates stamped on the bottom of their containers … they can lose their potency, their zip and zest … but salt isn’t like that. Sodium chloride stays sodium chloride, no matter how long it sits out, how “old” it gets in the container.
There’s only one way in which salt can lose its taste, its “saltiness” … and that is, to dilute it … to weaken its concentration … to so water it down as to make it have little to no taste in the vehicle … food, drink … which contains it.
If you wash it out … it’s not salt anymore, is it?
Sort of how those old mercury vapour lights do to people … they wash us out, and make us look less than human …
“You are the salt of the earth.” Jesus is calling those who follow him to be salty disciples … not washed out, not diluted … no, to full strength let their, our, light so shine before others that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.
Strongly salty disciples give off a pleasant light, a light which shows to others what being truly human is all about.
Our psalm today illustrates this well.
Granted, the translation before us this morning leaves something to be desired … the rather insipid “happy are they” should more properly be “blessed are those” … which should remind us of those Beatitudes, those blessings, we read and heard last week in worship.
Remember that “blessing” is far deeper than just the emotion of “happiness.” Sometimes “blessing” can make us feel anything but happy.
Certainly when Jesus says “blessed are the meek … the poor in spirit … the peacemakers” that’s the case.
And yet, Jesus calls them “blessed.” Because that is where Jesus is … right there … right here … as salt, as light, pouring forth into these dark places of life … bringing hope and healing, comfort and peace.
And here is where Jesus calls us, salty disciples, with the glow of warm, attractive light … where he calls us to be as well.
The Psalmist makes a similar move here, centuries earlier, in the words of this 112th Psalm.
What does “blessed” look like for “those” of whom the Psalmist writes here?
Perhaps, well, likely, not what we would call “happy” states of being, to be sure.
Being full of compassion. Being generous in lending and managing one’s affairs with justice. Giving freely to the poor … and above all, trusting in the Lord.
And yet … here is where those who follow the Lord are called to be … living as salty disciples, full of rich, warm light, pouring forth into the lives of those who need it most.
Being as “a city” … living, serving together … as community, communities of salt and light, pouring forth into the lives of those who need it most.
This is what it means to be real people … truly human … to hear and follow the call of the Lord to be salt and light to the world.
May your light so shine before others … bright, yellow, warming in its glow … the Son Shining through you … that others may see you as “real people” and want to follow you as you follow the Lord … seeing, copying your good works and giving glory to your Father, our Father in heaven.
Amen.