Title: As salt in the world, live in service to Christ!
Text: Mark 9:38-50
50 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.”
Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For eighteen hundred years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations of men drank from its flow. Then came another generation, a recent one, who said: "This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. We shall relieve it of its centuries-long labor."
They did; they laid modern iron pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a reverent rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble. The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy idleness disintegrated.
Resource, Sept./ Oct., 1992, p. 4.
We struggle as God’s children in this world as the temptations of life move contrary to the will of God.
As salt in the world, live in service to Christ!
Temptation is a terrible thing. If we’re trying to lose weight and eat healthier, that extra portion, the cake cookies or chips and junk food are right there calling us to partake and be filled. And if you have time … we do have fellowship with coffee and donuts following the service … for your convenience!
But it’s not the cookies, the donuts or the chips that do it. It’s that little voice inside each one of us that calls us to … “Go ahead, it will be alright! You can start that diet tomorrow!”
Temptation can be brought on by ourselves and we can give in to the voice of temptation inside of us … forgetting that other voice in our head that says: “I’m going to get my life together and watch my weight and try to be healthier.”
One voice saying yes and the other no. Or, is it the helpful Ladies Guild that makes all those goodies for October Fest? We remain bound in sin as we struggle and wrestle through life both as sinner and redeemed; both dead in sin and forgiven in Christ … whether thin or needing to lose a few pounds as I’m sure a few of us do.
But Jesus tells us in our lesson today:
42 “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.
To be involved as an agent of sin is very bad in the eyes of the Lord … but especially as it pertains to children. Children remain the most vulnerable people in our society and can be easily led astray by those will ill intent.
When you see children they are many time holding the hands of their parent, grandparent or guardian. We see them in the store, at the park or zoo or walking to school with one who has care of them.
Ill.
I remember when my children were young I had the joy on Wednesday’s, which was my day off, of picking them up from school. I would go and wait with the other parents who were waiting for the bell to ring at Our Lady of the Lakes elementary school – searching with my eyes to see them – and taking hold of them with my hands and walking to the car so we could go home and spend some time together. It was a wonderful time for me and a great memory.
Of course … when Amy was in 8th grade at Notre Dame Prep in Pontiac she took a less joyful view of dad waiting for her outside the school to walk her back to the car, “Dad, I know where you are! You don’t have to come find me!”
But, that’s for another sermon.
Here our hands, feet and eyes are used in a kind and loving way with our children. But, our leading hand, our directing feet and our searching eyes might also be used to lead astray those loving gifts of God that are given into our care.
So, Jesus gives some very harsh directives to the disciples.
If it is your hand that causes you to sin, cut it off, your foot, cut it off, your eye … gouge it out. Strong words to be sure, but Jesus is making the point that what waits in the fires of hell apart from Christ is far worse than a life as one … crippled, lame and blind.
Rest assured that it is not what we do that makes us right with God. But things we do can be used by God in the lives of others.
In our epistle reading for today James says:
19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Reader’s Digest had a listing of 60 uses for salt but I’m not going to mention them all … but here are a few:
Keeps wicker looking new, Makes your own brass and copper polish, Removes wine from carpet, Cleans grease stains from rugs, Removes watermarks from wood, Restores a sponge, Relieves stings, bites, and poison ivy, Keeps windows and windshields frost-free, Deodorizes your tennis shoes/sneakers, Cleans your fish tank and so on.
http://www.rd.com/home/over-60-ways-to-use-salt/
Jesus tells us:
50 Salt is good, and then asks, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, or loses its usefulness, how will you make it salty again? ”
Salt has many, many wonderful uses but if it loses its saltiness it has no longer any use, for flavoring and preserving food, and so much more.
Salt is good and being salt in the world, as Jesus directs, is a wonderful and useful thing for each one of us.
49 For everyone will be salted with fire. The trials of this life will be and are many. You know it and I know it. Do you always do what is good or at times do you cheat to get an advantage, fudge on your taxes for a better return or go against the teachings of Christ and the church as one politician (a practicing Roman Catholic) said when asked the question - when life begins. His answer, “That’s above my pay grade!” Christian integrity and ethics are part of who we are. Granted we all fall short daily, but we have been given the Spirit and God’s law, while not only showing us our sin, but also, by the Holy Sprit’s work in the redeemed of Christ … guides us … so that we love one another (1 John 4:7), love and respect our spouses (Eph. 5:33), and that children might honor and respect their parents. (Eph. 6:1-4)
As salt in the world, live in service to Christ and to others!
Ill.
During the Thirty Year's War in Europe (1618-1648), the King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, was slain while his troops were winning the Battle of Lutzen, in what is now Germany. Sweden was thrown into mourning, and government officials met to determine how to replace the king. Some suggested a republic; others thought the crown should go to Adolphus' cousin, the king of Poland.
The chancellor of Sweden arose and said, "Let there be no talk of a republic or of Polish kings, for we have in our midst the heir of the great Gustavus, his little daughter, who is 6 years of age." Some protested that they had never seen her. The chancellor said, "Wait a minute, and I will show you." He brought in Christina, daughter of the king, and placed her on the throne. One of the representatives who was especially suspicious of the move pressed forward and gazed intently into her face. Then turning to the assembly, he exclaimed, "Look at her nose, her eyes, her chin! I see in the countenance of this child the features of the great Gustavus. She is the child of our king!" From all quarters of the room rang the proclamation, "Christina, Queen of Sweden!"
Unknown.
Look at those around you. Look in a mirror. Your nose, your eyes, your chin have the mark of the one in whose image you have been created. You are the child of the King of Kings! You are God’s child and in him you reflect Christ who through the Spirit’s work called you to faith.
Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
Be who God has called you to be in Christ.
His child … with child like faith … loving God … and others, as we also love ourselves.
As salt in the world, live in service to Christ!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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